Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 04 October 2016

:: National ::

Militants planned to mount a Uri-style attack at the Baramulla Army camp but BSF constable Nitin Kumar (24) put paid to their designs, when he came out of his bunker, all alone, to challenge them.
A senior Border Security Force (BSF) official said on Monday that Kumar was killed when the terrorists hurled grenades at the bunkers outside the Army camp and shrapnel hit him.
The BSF is co-deployed with the 46 RR Battalion of the Army and mans some of the bunkers there as part of its road opening duty.
Attackers, three-four, fled from the spot through the narrow alleys of the congested old town after their bid to carry out a Uri-style attack was foiled in effective fire.
A compass, one Global Positioning System (GPS) device and a wire cutter were found near the encounter site.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a two-day visit to Leh, said he had spoken to National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and BSF DG K.K. Sharma.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is all set to amend the Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules making it mandatory for all voluntary organisations to have dedicated accounts only in banks with core banking facilities for their real-time access.
This would allow the security agencies to access the accounts on real-time basis.
The Home Ministry is also making rules to ensure that no NGO is allowed to get foreign funds under the prior permission category more than once.
The move comes in the backdrop of Amnesty International India getting foreign funds under the prior permission category at least thrice.The new Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules are expected to be notified soon.
There are around 33,000 NGOs registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. However, at least 6,000 of them do not have their FCRA accounts in banks with core banking facilities.
Many have their FCRA accounts in cooperative banks or State governments-owned apex banks.

YoshinoriOhsumi of Japan won the Nobel Medicine Prize for his pioneering work on autophagy — a process whereby cells “eat themselves” — which when disrupted can cause Parkinson’s and diabetes.
A fundamental process in cell physiology, autophagy is essential for the orderly recycling of damaged cell parts and understanding it better has major implications for health and disease, including cancer.
Researchers first observed during the 1960s that the cell could destroy its own contents by wrapping them up in membranes and transporting them to a recycling compartment called the lysosome.
A discovery that earned Belgian scientist Christian de Duve a Nobel Medicine Prize in 1974.
It was de Duve who coined the term “autophagy”, which comes from the Greek meaning self-eating.
Mr. Ohsumi’s findings opened the path to understanding the importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as how the body adapts to starvation or responds to infection.

The EU said it has struck a tentative deal with Afghanistan to take back migrants ahead of a conference in Brussels aimed at securing international financial aid for the war-ravaged nation.
However, European Union (EU) officials have denied that aid pledges would depend on the Kabul government accepting the return of tens of thousands of Afghans from an overstretched Europe.
EU member states endorsed the plan to pave the way for signing the deal in the run-up to the Brussels aid conference.
Like other parties to international treaties, the EU is legally obliged to admit people fleeing war and persecution.

Days after it asked Islamabad to take “effective” steps to stop the activities of terrorist groups on its territory, Russia “welcomed” the surgical strike by India, saying every country had a right to defend itself.
Russia’s Ambassador to New Delhi Alexander M. Kadakin said his country had always been with India in fighting cross-border terrorism.
“Greatest human rights violations take place when terrorists attack military installations and attack peaceful civilians in India. We welcome the surgical strike. Every country has right to defend itself,” the Russian Govt.said.
He assured India that it did not need to worry about the Russia-Pakistan joint military exercise, saying it did not take place in the “Pakistan-occupied Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir”.
Last week, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said Russia stood for a “decisive struggle” against terrorism in all its manifestations.

To boost trade among the BRICS nations, India, for the first time, will organise a trade fair for the bloc that also includes Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.
Intra-BRICS trade in 2014 was just $297 billion — less than five per cent of the $6.5 trillion worth trade that the five countries had with the world that year.
Goods imports from the world into the BRICS countries were $3.03 trillion in 2014, while global goods exports of BRICS countries were $3.47 trillion that year.
The first BRICS Trade Fair & Exhibition will be held from October 12-14 in the national capital, ahead of the BRICS political summit in Goa. This initiative was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.
The focus of the Fair is ‘Building BRICS – Innovation for Collaboration’. The Fair is meant to give an impetus to intra-BRICS economic engagement. It will showcase about 20 key sectors.
Besides established companies, start-ups and innovators from BRICS will showcase their offerings to help technology solution providers share knowledge in dealing with challenges in healthcare, education, energy efficiency, waste management etc.
Leaders from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand have been invited for meetings at the Fair.

The country's manufacturing growth has lost momentum with the Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a measure of manufacturing performance, falling to 52.1 in September from 52.6 in August.
This development comes just ahead of the RBI's monetary policy review on October 4 and amid India Inc. clamouring for an interest rate cut even as the central bank has had concerns over rising inflation.
An index reading above 50 indicates an expansion, while a reading below 50 shows an overall decrease or contraction.
Output is still rising at a decent clip and the sector looks likely to have delivered a stronger contribution to GDP growth in Q2 2016-17, with the quarterly reading for the PMI’s Output Index up from 51.4 during April-June to 53.6.
Although inflation rates edged higher, these remain weak by historical standards and indicate that one may still see the RBI loosening monetary policy in 2016.