Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 16 October 2019


Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 16 October 2019


::NATIONAL::

Centre asks states to check hoarding of essential food items

  •  The Centre will advise all States to hold regular meetings with wholesalers, traders, importers, exporters of onions, pulses, edible oils and oilseeds at State and district levels especially during the festive season upto December this year.
  •  A decision in this regard was taken at the 18th meeting of the group constituted for monitoring cartelisation, hoarding, speculative trading with respect to essential food items such as Pulses, Onions, Tomatoes and oil seeds held under the Chairmanship of Consumer Affairs Secretary in New Delhi.
  •  The Committee of Police of NCR States will hold regular meetings under the Chairmanship of a Senior Delhi Police officer to keep watch on hoarding of stock by the traders near the State borders of Delhi and take suitable action against them. To augment availability of Pulses across the nation, appropriate policy interventions will be recommended at the appropriate time.
  •  Representatives from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Intelligence Bureau, Delhi Police, NAFED, DGFT, Ministry of External Affairs, Delhi Government attended the meeting.
  •  The representatives briefed the group about the prevailing scenario with respect to essential food items. Representatives of Agriculture informed that arrivals of Kharif onions have started and prices have since shown stable to declining trend. These are likely to increase in the coming days or weeks.

NGT asks northern states to report daily on stubble burning

  •  National Green Tribunal has asked Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab to depute a person each to report daily on air pollution due to stubble burning. The green tribunal observed that the worsening air quality is causing fatal diseases to people in Delhi-NCR.
  •  Taking note of a news report stating crop burning shoots up carbon dioxide levels in the air by 70 per cent, the NGT asked Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana governments to sensitise farmers on pollution caused by burning of crop residue. The NGT bench, headed by its chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also expressed concern that equipment are yet not made available to farmers.
  •  The Centre's counsel told the NGT bench that the Union government has disbursed 600 crore rupees which was being paid to farmers to purchase equipment, however, additional funds will have to borne by the states.
  •  The bench said, every year in October-November, problem of air pollution is acute in and around Delhi, threatening the health of infants and senior citizens.
  •  The NGT said, 25-30 per cent of air pollution in Delhi-NCR is caused by stubble burning in October and November every year.The tribunal directed the states to file an action-taken report by 15th of next month.

::ECONOMY::

Postal department to strive for 25cr savings accounts

  •  Union Minister of Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that the Department of Posts should strive for achieving the target of 25 crore savings accounts from the current 17 crore accounts in coming years.
  •  Speaking at an event of National Postal Week Celebrations in New Delhi, he said, it should also make efforts to link the same with the accounts of India Post Payments Bank for achieving the goal of financial inclusion. He urged the department to enhance considerably postal insurance accounts.
  •  Mr Prasad said that 3.05 crore insurance accounts in a population of 130 crore is unacceptable. He said, Postal Department should come forward to forge partnership with global companies and the administrative issues, if any, would be resolved amicably.
  •  The Minister asked the senior officials to work on a set of special stamps on Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) in the wake of successful informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping due to its historic significance.
  •  He also directed the department to organize a Special Letter Writing Competition on Bapu, as a tribute to 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, besides coming out with a set of stamps on unsung heroes of freedom movement and particularly of those imprisoned in Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  •  The Minister released a Mobile Banking App for Post Office Saving Bank customers, commemorative postage stamps on India Perfumes Agarwood and Orange Blossom and launched a Performance Dashboard of the Department of Posts.

IMF downgrades global growth forecast

  •  In the gloomy global economic picture painted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India retains its rank as the world's fastest-growing major economy, tying with China, with a projected growth rate of 6.1 per cent for the current fiscal year, despite an almost one per cent cut in the forecast.
  •  However, the IMF's World Economic Outlook (WEO) released on Tuesday projected India's economy to pick up and grow by 7 per cent in the 2020 fiscal year.The WEO cut India's growth rate by 0.9 per cent from the 7 per cent made in July and by 1.2 percent from the 7.3 per cent in April.
  •  In contrast to the dark view of the economy within India, when viewed globally, the nation's picture seems brighter despite the cuts.The world economy is projected to grow only 3 per cent this year and 3.4 per cent next year amid a "synchronised slowdown", according to the WEO.
  •  Explaining the cut in growth projection for India, the WEO said: "India's economy decelerated further in the second quarter, held back by sector-specific weaknesses in the automobile sector and real estate as well as lingering uncertainty about the health of non-bank financial companies."
  •  India's future "growth will be supported by the lagged effects of monetary policy easing, a reduction in corporate income tax rates, recent measures to address corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty, and government programs to support rural consumption", it added.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India denies having trade dispute with the U.S

  •  Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal today said that India does not have any bilateral trade dispute with United States and there is a huge trade potential between the two countries.
  •  Addressing a ministerial dialogue at India Energy Forum in New Delhi, he said that there are differences with the US which are very normal in any bilateral relation. He said, little uncertainty in any relation is also good for having healthy bilateral relations.
  •  Participating in the dialogue Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that India is preparing for a low-carbon energy future with an aim to set up 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. Power Minister R K Singh expressed confidence that investment will definitely come here because demand will continue to grow in India.
  •  Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi said his ministry is taking all necessary measures to attract the investment in coal sector and government is addressing the policy related issues. India Energy Forum is an annual gathering offering insight into the energy future where various delegates from across the world are participating.

Britain & Spain join other forces in suspending military exports to turkey

  •  Britain and Spain have joined other major powers in suspending military exports to Turkey following its incursion into northeastern Syria. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, no further export licences will be granted to Turkey for items which might be used in military operations in Syria.
  •  Spain, a major arms exporter to Turkey, similarly announced a halt to sales of military material. Spain's Socialist government asked Turkey to put an end to this military operation. Sweden also announced it has halted exports of military equipment.
  •  Meanwhile, Russia has said it is patrolling in areas along the line of contact between Syrian and Turkish forces. Russia's defence ministry said, the patrolling are taking place after Syrian government troops took control of the city of Manbij.
  •  A spokesman for the US-led coalition confirmed its forces had pulled out of the area. Syrian forces moved into the area as part of a deal that has seen regime troops deploy in several Kurdish-controlled areas in north to protect the region from an assault by Turkish forces.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Scientists develop new liquid-cell technology that gives 3D view of bacteriophages

  •  Scientists have developed a new liquid-cell technology that allows them to see living biological materials and systems in three dimensions (3D) for the first time under an electron microscope.
  •  "With this technology that we developed in collaboration with Protochips, scientists could analyse host-pathogen interactions, see a virus being introduced into a cell and watch molecular mechanisms take place in real-time," said Deb Kelly, a professor at Pennsylvania State University in the US.
  •  "The work represents the world's first nanoscale CAT scan in a liquid environment," Kelly said.The field of liquid-cell electron microscopy has grown rapidly in recent years, but until now it has been limited to 2D, the researchers said.
  •  In tomography, slices of a sample are imaged as the sample is tilted. Then, the images are stacked into 3D using computer software, they said.
  •  "We use a copper grid that is coated with a carbon layer and cover that with a silicon nitride chip," said William Dearnaley, the technical director in Kelly's Center for Structural Oncology.
  •  "There is a window in the chip and we pipette the liquid sample in between the two layers," Dearnaley said.

::SPORTS::

ICC changes super over rules in cricket

  •  The International Cricket Council (ICC) has changed the super over rule for all its major events following the uproar over the outcome of the men's World Cup final this year when England were declared winners against New Zealand on boundary count. As per new rule, in case of a super over tie there will be a repeated super over until one team has more runs than the other.
  •  In July this year, England won their first-ever World Cup title. In the final, winner was not decided after the 50-over and super over action, both of which were tied.
  •  In the end, England were announced as the winner as they had hit more boundaries, 26, as compared to New Zealand's 17 boundaries in the match.

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