Daily Current affairs - September 20th, 2017 for all competitive exams
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
will flag off the country's third Mahamana Express from his Lok Sabha
constituency of Varanasi on September 22.
- On its maiden journey, the train will run from
Vadodara in Gujarat to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh after the PM launches it
using a remote control.
- The Modi government had unveiled the first rake of
the Mahamana Express as part of Railways' Model Rake Project in 2016.
- The Mahamana Express with plush interiors -- built
under the Make in India initiative -- currently runs on two routes of
Varanasi-New Delhi and Bhopal-Khajuraho.
India seeks probe into North
Korea nuclear ties
India sought a probe into
North Korea’s nuclear proliferation linkages, and demanded that those
responsible for it should be held accountable, in a veiled reference to
Pakistan.
- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s remarks
came after North Korea had fired another mid-range ballistic missile over
Japan on Friday. It follows North Korea’s sixth and most powerful nuclear
test on September 3 which was in direct defiance of the United Nations
sanctions and other international pressure.
Centre rethinks joining Hague
child custody pact
Even as the U.S. prepares to
push India to join the “Hague Convention” that deals with international child
custody cases, during consular talks next week, the government held a series of
hearings from activists demanding that it does not give in to what they called
“First World pressure” on the issue.
- While the government announced in November 2016 that
it would not sign the convention, officials have conceded that there has
been a rethink, and an “inter-ministerial process” is under way to discuss
the repercussions of the convention.
- Passed in 1980, the Hague Convention on
International Child Abduction, which came into force in 1983, rules that
in any child custody case, the court of the country where the child is a
“habitual resident” will adjudicate who will get custody.
- Currently, there is no specific Indian legislation
addressing issues related to abduction of children from and into India.
However, Law Commission of India had submitted the 218th Report titled
“Need to accede to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of
International Child Abduction 1980” on 30th March, 2009.
Rajnath reviews steps for
cybersecurity
Home Minister Rajnath Singh
reviewed the preparedness of agencies to check financial cybercrimes.
- In view of the growing number of financial frauds
using cards and e-wallets, Mr. Singh asked agencies to strengthen
surveillance and legal frameworks to check the menace.
- The issue came up at a high-level meeting at which
the strategies being adopted to check financial cybercrimes were discussed
in detail.
NGT paves way for Chardham highway project
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has paved the way for the NH-34 stretch
of the PMO’s ambitious Chardham highway widening project, that will connect
Uttarakhand’s holy sites, as it disposed of a plea that alleged that the
project was violating provisions of Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone.
- In an undertaking, the Uttarakhand state government
and the Border Roads Organisation assured the green court that the project
would be carried out with due compliance of laws in force.
Rijiju now says Chakmas can’t
be given citizenship
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju
said the government would honour the 2015 Supreme Court order on granting
citizenship to Chakma-Hajong-Buddhists and Hindu refugees from undivided
Pakistan, he made an about-turn saying the “apex court’s order was not
implementable”.
- The two communities came to India in the 1960s from
the Chittagong Hill area (in present day Bangladesh) fearing religious
persecution.
- Mr. Rijiju said that granting Indian citizenship to
the two communities would disturb the “social and demographic structure”
of the tribal State and the court order was not easy to implement.
Maharashtra approves 50 per cent cost sharing for
Sagarmala project
The Maharashtra government today approved the implementation of the
Centre’s ambitious Sagarmala project, with a 50% cost sharing by the state.
- The Sagarmala project seeks to develop a string
of ports around India’s coast. The objective of this
initiative is to promote “Port-led development” along India’s
7500 km long coastline.
- It aims to develop access to new
development regions with intermodal solutions and promotion of the optimum
modal split, enhanced connectivity with main economic centres and beyond
through expansion of rail, inland water, coastal and road services.
- The Union Ministry of Shipping has been appointed as
the nodal ministry for this initiative.
Gorakhpur, Koraput and Thane to launch Zero Hunger
Programme
Three districts – Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Koraput in Odisha and Thane
in Maharashtra – will initiate India’s ambitious ‘Zero Hunger’ programme through interventions in
farm sector on October 16 (World Food Day).
- Though many more districts will eventually be
covered under this dedicated farm-based programme in sync with
India’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger by 2030, these three would act as a model of an integrated approach
to deal with hunger and malnutrition by adopting suitable
agricultural\horticultural practices.
- The Programme will be initiated by the the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in association with the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the M S Swaminathan Research
Foundation and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council
(BIRAC).
U.S. resumes processing of
H-1B visas
The U.S. has resumed fast
processing of H-1B work visas in all categories subject to Congress-mandated
limit, five months after it was suspended temporarily.
Premium processing of H-1B
visa was suspended in April to handle the huge rush of new petitions.
- The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) resumed premium processing on Monday for all H-1B visa petitions
subject to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 cap
- The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US
companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require
theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it
to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.
Trump vows to ‘destroy’ North
Korea
U.S. President Donald Trump
vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea unless Pyongyang backs down from its
nuclear challenge, mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a “rocket man” on
a suicide mission.
- It was Mr. Trump’s most direct threat to attack
North Korea for belligerent acts that have included launching ballistic
missiles over Japan and conducting underground nuclear tests.
Suu Kyi promises to resettle
‘verified’ Rohingya refugees
Myanmar’s de facto leader
Aung San Suu Kyi pledged to hold rights violators to account over the Rohingya
crisis but refused to blame the country’s army, as the UN Secretary-General
demanded an end to the military campaign and a better deal for the Muslim
minority.
- In an address timed to pre-empt censure at the UN
General Assembly in New York — delivered entirely in English and aimed
squarely at an international audience — Ms. Suu Kyi called for patience
and understanding of the crisis which has driven some 4,21,000 Rohingya
out of Myanmar.
Mexico plans a Mayan theme
park
Mexican President Enrique
Pena Nieto announced plans for an $840 million Mayan theme park on the
Caribbean coast to rival the major theme parks in the United States.
- The park, dubbed Amikoo — or “friend” in the Mayan
language — will have rides and characters based on Mayan mythology and be
built in two phases in the so-called Riviera Maya, a stretch of pristine
beaches on Mexico’s southeastern coast.
August was second hottest on
record: NASA
According to an analysis of
global temperatures by scientists at NASA, August 2017 was the second warmest
August in 137 years of modern record-keeping.
- The measured value is “consistent with the trend in
global average surface temperatures that has been observed during the past
few decades.
- Last month was 0.85 degrees Celsius warmer than the
mean August temperature from 1951-1980. It was surpassed by August 2016,
which was still affected by the 2015-2016 El Nino and was 0.99 degrees
Celsius warmer than normal.
Fast spinning star confirms Indian Nobel Laureate’s
theory
Over 70 years after Indian astrophysicist and Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan
Chandrasekhar predicted that rapidly rotating stars would emit polarised
light, scientists in Australia have observed the phenomenon for the first time.
- Researchers from the University of New South Wales
(UNSW) in Australia and University College London in the UK used a highly
sensitive piece of equipment to detect the polarised light from Regulus,
one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
- The equipment provided unprecedented insights into
the star, which is in the constellation Leo, allowing the scientists to
determine its rate of spinning and the orientation in space of the star’s
spin axis.
TRAI cuts mobile termination
charges 57%; eyes waiver by ’20
The Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India slashed mobile termination charges (MTC) by 57% to 6 paise
per minute with effect from October 1, in a move that is likely to lead to a
reduction in call rates.
- The regulator added that these charges would be
completely done away with January 1, 2020 onwards.
- The average outgo per outgoing voice minute declined
from 50 paise/minute in January-March 2015 to 31 paise/minute in
January-March 2017, after the MTC was cut to 14 paise/minute from 20
paise/minute March 1, 2015, onwards.
Banks can classify priority loans as standard debt: RBI
The Reserve Bank of India has assured banks that they can classify priority loans extended to defaulting
companies in the bankruptcy process as standard debt in a move aimed at
ensuring that entities which can be revived are able to raise resources.
- This will come as a relief to those companies that
are struggling to recast loans within the strict deadline imposed by the
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
- The central bank has however said this
classification will be allowed only if repayments are made every month
rather than later in the form of bullet payments or after a few months.
Noida stadium banned by BCCI
The Shaheed Vijay Singh
Pathik Sports Complex has been stripped of its status to hold Board-conducted
matches.
- Located in Greater Noida, the stadium had hosted the
last edition of the Duleep Trophy under floodlights apart from a few Ranji
Trophy fixtures.
- The stadium had also been adopted by Afghanistan as its home ground and the team had played a one-day series against Ireland early this year. In 2016, Afghanistan had played a four-day game against Namibia too at the venue.
