Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 04 February 2022

::National::

Haryana private sector law put on hold

The Punjab & Haryana high court on Thursday put on hold the Haryana government’s law to reserve 75% private sector jobs, paying up to ₹30,000 a month, for local candidates in the state -- a decision that comes as a setback to the Manohar Lal Khattar government, and a relief to industry bodies that have opposed it.
The high court stayed the law as it failed to find merit in the state’s emphatic arguments on treating the legislation prime facie valid in the interests of the unemployed youth in the state.
“We have heard the learned solicitor general (SG) of India. We admit the petition and stay the Act,” directed a bench of justices Ajay Tewari and Pankaj Jain after hearing Tushar Mehta’s submissions on behalf of the Haryana government, during a hearing that lasted less than two minutes.
Mehta argued that like every other law passed by a competent legislature, The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2021, has to have the presumption of constitutionality attached to it.
“The legislation has to be considered prima facie valid and constitutional. Also, this is not a retrospective law and nobody who is employed is going to be affected. The legislation will have a prospective operation,” added the SG.
Mehta also adduced a chart to state that more than 38,000 unemployed youth and 900-odd establishments had registered themselves under the Act.
The bench, however, responded that it is staying the operation of the law for the time being, and admitted the clutch of petitions for a detailed hearing at a future date.
The Haryana law provides reservation for a “local candidate”, who has been defined under the Act as someone “domiciled in State of Haryana”. Under the law, every employer is required to employ 75% “local candidates” for posts where the gross monthly salary is not more than ₹30,000. The Act, which covers private companies, societies, trusts and partnership firms, came into force from January 15. The law was made applicable for 10 years.

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::International::

Biden says Islamic State leader Qurayshi killed in US raid in Syria

The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was killed during a US special forces counterterrorism operation in northwest Syria, President Joe Biden announced.
As the two-hour long US offensive began on Wednesday, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi detonated a bomb, killing himself and members of his family, including women and children, on the third floor of the building where he lived.
“Last night, operating on my orders, United States military forces successfully removed a major terrorist threat to the world – the global leader of ISIS, known as Haji Abdullah,” Biden said in televised remarks. “He took over as global leader of ISIS in 2019. Since then, ISIS has directed terrorist operations targeting Americans, our allies, our partners and countless civilians Middle East, Africa and South Asia.”
US officials and experts on ISIS believe that Wednesday’s operation is yet another step in significantly degrading the capabilities of the group, but warn that the terror group remains a threat.
The US president said that the ISIS terror leader had overseen the spread of ISIS affiliate terror groups around the world, after “savaging communities and murdering innocents”. He was responsible for the recent attack on a prison in northeast Syria holding ISIS fighters; and was the “driving force” behind the genocide of the Yazidi people in northwestern Iraq in 2014.
Biden said that he had directed the department of defence to take “every precaution possible” to minimise civilian casualties. And since they knew al-Qurayshi had chosen to surround himself with family, including children, the US made a choice to pursue special forces raid “at a much greater risk to our own people” than an air strike.
“We do know that as our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family and others in the building, he chose to blow himself up and blow up the third floor rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him.”

::Economy::

Centre set to exceed ₹11.08 lakh crore direct tax collections: CBDT chief

The Centre's direct tax collection is set to exceed the target of ₹11.08 lakh crores set for the financial year.
“We had collected ₹10.43 lakh crores so far in the financial year. The budget estimate for ₹11.08 lakh crores will not only be achieved but will also be exceeded,” JB Mohapatra, Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman told news agency ANI.
The tax body has been assigned a revised target of ₹12.50 lakh crores, Mohapatra added.
The statement comes days after Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her Budget speech announced
The finance minister also announced a 30 per cent tax on any income from the transfer of virtual digital assets, while making it clear that no deductions or exemptions will be allowed.

Vedanta ties up with Union Bank of India for syndicated facility

During 2020 amidst COVID pandemic, Vedanta Limited had tied up a syndicated facility of ₹10,000 crore with SBI as lead bank at a running cost of 10.5 per cent, says Vedanta
Metal and mining giant Vedanta Ltd today said it has tied up a facility of ₹8,000 crore with Union Bank of India to take over majority of the syndicated facility after discussions with lenders.
Vedanta Limited, in its normal course of business, conducts proactive liability management exercise to achieve optimal capital structure, it said, adding that in this direction, the company continues to explore all options to increase its debt maturity profile and reduce its interest cost.
"During 2020 amidst COVID pandemic, Vedanta Limited had tied up a syndicated facility of ₹10,000 crore with State Bank of India as lead bank at a running cost of 10.5 per cent (Syndicated Facility)," it said.
"After multiple discussions with potential lenders, we tied up a facility of ₹8,000 crore (replacement facility) with Union Bank to take over majority of the Syndicated Facility," Vedanta said in a BSE filing.
The replacement facility was availed on December 28 last year to take over the existing syndicated facility to reduce the overall interest cost of the company in the normal course of business and to align the debt with market benchmarks. Vedanta also said that it is not aware of any information of any unusual trading activity in the company’s equity shares due to this matter.

::Science and tech::

Global Center of Excellence in Affordable and Clean Energy launched at IIT Dharwad

A virtual function was held to mark the launch of the Global Center of Excellence in Affordable and Clean Energy (GCoE-ACE) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad (IITDh), Karnataka on Friday, 28th January 2022 in the presence of, Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.
The center is supported by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) donation from HHSIF. The first phase of the CSR project with HHSIF is to establish equipment for the GCoE-ACE mainly as skill development, fabrication, and R&D equipment. The subsequent phases are envisaged to encourage innovation and to provide incubation support for the solutions to the grass-root problem statements in the affordable and clean-energy domain.
A welcome and brief introduction to the center was given by Prof. SRM Prasanna, Dean (R&D), IIT Dharwad. He mentioned that India is blessed with many renewable energy sources like solar, wind, biomass, and such affordable technologies for clean energy can be developed and optimized, which will precisely be the scope of this center.
Prof. K. VijayRaghavan mentioned that energy and energy solutions are a critical part of the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. He added that in the past two decades, there has been an enormous increase in the research on Solar, Wind, Nuclear, and other forms of energy and the results of such research are yet to come to the market more effectively.
IIT Dharwad will be one of the very few institutions in the country which is joining hands with industry partners such as Honeywell in training the young generation to address the complex problems of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. As the global temperature rises, there are big challenges ahead in high temperature and high humidity areas which make people dysfunctional. Secondly, energy availability for farming is another big challenge, further energy availability for the health sector, education sector with 24×7 accessible education for all are some of the important challenges that this GCoE needs to address. Finally, he added, the Government has launched a hydrogen mission and one of the objectives is to use the energy required for its generation from clean energy sources such as solar and wind energy hence calling it green hydrogen energy. The center’s research & development efforts may go in that direction too. With these points, the PSA to Govt. of India congratulated all the stakeholders IIT Dharwad, Honeywell, and SELCO Foundation for establishing one of its kind GCoE in Affordable and Clean Energy.
The grassroots level problem identification/implementation partner for the center will be SELCO Foundation. Dr. Harish Hande, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder, SELCO Foundation emphasized how the center is crucial as it opens up a support system for need-based impact-driven technology innovation for health and livelihoods that focus on low-income communities. He added that the bold step taken by the leadership of IIT Dharwad to open the doors of IIT to innovators and entrepreneurs from non-IIT backgrounds would be a game-changing precedent for other IITs as well.

::Sport::

48 percent increase in Khelo India scheme allocation in the budget

Sports minister Anurag Thakur thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the continuation of the Khelo India Scheme. The minister stated, "On behalf of the Ministry and all stakeholders, I express our deep gratitude to the Prime Minister for extending the tenure of the Khelo India Scheme for another five years as well as bringing it into national prominence by increasing its budgetary allocation by 48 per cent in Budget 2022 and including it in the PM's Awards Scheme."
The Khelo India scheme is the flagship Central Sector Scheme of the Sports ministry. It aims at infusing sports culture and achieving sporting excellence in the country thus allowing the populace to harness the power of sports through its cross-cutting influence.
"The Khelo India programme includes playfield development; community coaching development; promotion of community sports; establishment of a strong sports competition structure at both school and university level as also for rural/indigenous sports, sports for persons with disability and women sports; filling up of critical gaps in sports infrastructure, including creation of hubs of sports excellence in select universities; talent identification and development; support to sports academies; implementation of a national physical fitness drive for school children; and sports for peace and development.
"The basic objectives, vision and structure of the extant Khelo India Scheme have been retained. However, on the basis of the experience of this Ministry while implementing the extant Scheme as well as the evaluation/recommendations of the Third Party Evaluator, the components of the Scheme have been rearranged and rationalized by merging/subsuming some of the similar components with the larger ones, thus condensing the twelve existing components into following five components: Creation and Upgradation of Sports Infrastructure, Sports Competitions and Talent Development, Khelo India Centres and Sports Academies, Fit India Movement, Promotion of Inclusiveness through Sports," the ministry said in a statement.