Current Affairs 2024 – Daily, Weekly, Monthly And Yearly PDF
Day of the Year
National Finance Brokers Day
- National Finance Brokers Day can trace its roots back just a few years to 2015, when the day was founded in Australia by Dino Pacella and established in partnership with leading professionals in the industry. The purpose of the event was to educate consumers on the advantages of making their financial decisions with the assistance of a broker to help them along in the market.
- Each year, National Finance Brokers Day is celebrated with a conference that takes place in Sydney, Australia at a location called Luna Park.
Latest Updates
SC forms a task force to ensure safety of doctors
The Supreme Court on Tuesday constituted a National Task Force to work out the modalities of safety measures for medical professionals. The NTF will recommend security measures on hospital premises; infrastructure development, including separate restrooms; technological interventions to limit access to critical hospital areas; CCTV cameras; provision of night transport; counselling services; crisis workshops; quarterly safety audits; and enhanced police presence in hospitals.
A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, explaining why the court had taken suo motu cognisance of the rape and murder of a junior doctor at the State-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, said the case laid bare the systemic failure in providing safety to medical professionals.
News Capsule
After backlash, Union govt. cancels lateral recruitment
- Following a request from the Centre, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Tuesday cancelled the process of lateral recruitment of officials to middle and senior levels in the Union government.
- Two days ago, the commission invited applications for the recruitment of “specialists”, including from private sector, to 45 posts of Joint Secretary, Director and Deputy Secretary, but this has been withdrawn as the government moved to cancel the recruitments, citing absence of reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
- Union MoS (Personnel) Jitendra Singh wrote to UPSC Chairperson Priti Sudan on Tuesday to withdraw the process.
India, Malaysia upgrade strategic partnership, discuss entry to BRICS
- India and Malaysia decided to upgrade ties to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” on Tuesday, during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as part of a visit aimed at moving beyond several years of tensions.
- The two leaders announced the decision to upgrade the 2010 Strategic Partnership, which had been made an “Enhanced Strategic Partnership” in 2015, along with a number of agreements and MoUs signed in their presence. India would also work with Malaysia on its request to join the BRICS grouping — one that Mr. Ibrahim has been pushing for, officials said.
- “Malaysia is an important partner of India in ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific region,” Mr. Modi said after the meeting.
On the ethanol blending programme
The roadmap for achieving ethanol blending targets, prepared by the Niti Aayog, had laid down that the capacity of sugarcane-based distilleries would need to increase from 426 crore litres in 2021 to 760 crore litres in 2026, while grain-based distilleries’ capacity should increase from 258 to 740 crore litres.
Ethanol will not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it will also prevent an estimated foreign exchange outgo of some $4 billion per year, as per Maruti Suzuki company estimates, and bolster the rural economy by promoting the cultivation of various crops through an assured market.
Meanwhile, the developing ethanol economy has impacted States differently. While the fuel ethanol pricing is the same across India, States determine the pricing of Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) that goes into making liquor for consumption and other uses.
Meghalaya polio case is vaccine-derived: official
- The longer it is allowed to survive, the more genetic changes it undergoes. In very rare instances, the vaccine-virus can genetically change into a form that can paralyse. This is what is known as a circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), according to the WHO.
- Since 2000, more than 10 billion doses of OPV have been administered to nearly three billion children worldwide. During that time, 24 cVDPV outbreaks have occurred in 21 countries, resulting in fewer than 760 VDPV cases.
- “Circulating VDPVs in the past have been rapidly stopped with two or three rounds of high-quality immunisation campaigns. The solution is the same for all polio outbreaks: immunise every child several times with the oral vaccine to stop polio transmission, regardless of the origin of the virus,’’ the global organisation notes.