Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 July 2018

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 27 July 2018

::NATIONAL::

Centre calls up police organisations to collaborate with IIT’s & IIM’s

  • The Union Home Minister ShriRajnath Singh has called upon the Police organisations to collaborate with reputed institutes such as the IITs and IIMs for innovative solutions in technology and management.
  • The Union Home Minister said adoption of technology will spur indigenous manufacturing and cut imports.
  • He also said that the Police Forces are saddled dealing with complex crimes and criminals armed with automatic weaponry andhence we should focus on monitoring and analysis of crimes and develop such methodologies and techniques that crime can be nipped in the bud.
  • In his address, Director General, BPR&D, Dr. AP Maheshwari said technology has vastly improved policing and it is being used to provide Citizen Centric Services, implement the Safe Cities & Smart Cities projects and Social Media Analytics.

Anti-trafficking bill passed by LokSabha

  • The LokSabha on Thursday passed the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018.
  • The Bill lays down a stringent punishment of 10 years to life imprisonment for aggravated forms of trafficking, which include buying or selling of persons for the purpose of bonded labour, bearing a child, as well as those where chemical substances are administered, and a survivor acquires life-threatening illnesses such as AIDS.
  • The Bill proposes establishing a National Anti-Trafficking Bureau (NATB) for coordinating and monitoring of trafficking cases.
  • It also provides for a Relief and Rehabilitation Committee and Rehabilitation Fund with an initial allocation of Rs. 10 crore.

::ECONOMY::

Guidelines for closure of CPSE’s revised

  • Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has revised the guidelines on time bound closure of sick and loss making Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs)and disposal of their assets on 14th June, 2018.
  • The new guidelines prescribesthe entire process of closure of a CPSE and disposal of the assets is to be completed within a period of 13 months from the zero date i.e. date of issue of minutes conveying the approval for closure of sick and loss making CPSE by the Government.
  • In the new guidelines, priority has been given for use of land of CPSEs under closure for affordable housing. The land identified for affordable housing shall undergo the process of disposal as per the guidelines of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
  • It also provides for payment of VRS or VSS at 2007 notional pay scale to employees of CPSEs under closure irrespective of the existing pay scales of the company.

Vodafone-idea merger gets DoT approval

  • The Department of Telecommunications on Thursday gave its final approval to the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, official sources said.
  • However, the approval comes with the condition that the merged entity will have to abide by the decisions of telecom tribunal TDSAT and other courts.
  • Vodafone Idea Ltd., which will have 430 million subscribers giving it a 35% market share, will vie with BhartiAirtel Ltd. (about 377 million users) and Reliance Jio for market leadership. The next process is to notify the Registrar of Companies and get the company registered.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

Imran Khan wins pak prime ministerial elections

  • Pakistan’s cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan declared victory on Thursday for his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), in the country’s general election held on Wednesday. Mr Khan promised a “new” Pakistan following a vote that was however, marred by allegations of fraud and militant violence.
  • Mr. Khan’s message of a “new” Pakistan resonated with young voters in a country where 64% of its 200 million people are below the age of 30, according to a UN report.
  • Former Prime Minister Nawaz Shari’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is projected to win 57 seats, while the Pakistan People’s Party, led by Bilawal Bhutto, could get 35 seats. The remainder in the 342-seat Lower House includes reserved seats for women and minorities.
  • The election, in which Pakistanis voted for the National Assembly, and the four provincial assemblies, marked only the second time in Pakistan’s 71-year history that a civilian government has handed power to another.

U.S- EU trade war eases

  • U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday agreed on a plan to defuse the festering trade dispute between the two major economies.
  • The pair who met for more than two hours of talks at the White House also said they would work to “resolve” the existing duties on steel and aluminium imposed by Washington, which had angered key allies, including the European Union.
  • The leaders agreed to “launch a new phase” in the relationship and “to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods.
  • The U.S. and the EU account for about $1 trillion in transatlantic trade, and tensions spiked leading up to Wednesday’s high-stakes talks.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

New “Innovate India Platform” launched

  • MyGov today launched the “#InnovateIndia Platform”, a collaboration between the Atal Innovation Mission and MyGov, a citizen centric platform of the Government of India. The #InnovateIndia portal will serve as the common point for all the innovation happening across the nation.
  • Launching the platform, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission said that the #InnovateIndiaMyGov-AIM portal creates the much-needed innovations platform for registering both grassroots and deep-tech innovators at a national level. Those searching for a critical innovation can leverage the portal advantageously for the benefit of the economy as well as national social needs.
  • The current government initiative to capture and support innovation from ground up, is aimed at creating a structured ecosystem to encourage, enhance and develop India’s innovative character.
  • With the launch of the platform Indians will be able to upload and rate their/organizations innovation on the platform.

Breakthrough in new alzheimer’s drug research

  • The long quest for a medication that works to treat Alzheimer’s reached a potentially promising milestone on Wednesday. For the first time in a large clinical trial, a drug was able to both reduce the plaques in the brains of patients and slow the progression of dementia.
  • Aside from a couple of medications that can slow memory decline for a few months, there is no effective treatment for Alzheimer’s, which affects about 44 million people worldwide, including 5.5 million Americans. It is estimated that those numbers will triple by 2050.
  • The trial involved 856 patients from the U.S., Europe and Japan with early symptoms of cognitive decline. They were diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or mild Alzheimer’s dementia, and all had significant accumulations of the amyloid protein that clumps into plaques in people with the disease.
  • In the data presented on Wednesday, the highest of the five doses of the new drug an injection every two weeks of 10 mg per kg of a patient’s weight reduced amyloid levels and slowed cognitive decline when compared with patients who received placebo.

::SPORTS::

NADA claims more tests done in 2017 than previous year

  • The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has claimed that it has done more tests in 2017 in comparison to the previous year.
  • Facing criticism for gathering less number of samples, NADA in a statement on Thursday said, “The anti-doping testing figures released by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for the year 2017 indicates a seven per cent increase in the number of tests carried out by NADA India as compared to the previous year.”
  • It said, “During 2017, 210 blood samples were tested as against 132 in 2016. This marks a 69% increase in the blood samples collected by NADA.” NADA also claimed that “the percentage of out-of-competition tests conducted by NADA for urine samples stood at 49 during 2017, which is higher than the 46% for all NADOs globally.

India loses to Ireland in hockey worldcup league match

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