Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 07 February 2022

::National::

Ramanuja’s preaching of equality inspired Indian constitution: PM Modi

The concept of equality of people, irrespective of their caste and creed, preached by 11th century Vaishnavaite saint Sri Ramanujacharya was the inspiration for the Indian Constitution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
Addressing the gathering after unveiling the 216-feet tall Statue of Equality-- the statue of Sri Ramanujacharya-- at Muchintal, the ashram of Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, PM Modi said Ramanujacharya strived tirelessly for the upliftment of people regardless of nationality, gender, race, caste or creed.
“The Vishistadwaita concept of Ramanujacharya was aimed at driving away the blind faith. He preached that Bhakti (reverence towards the Almighty) does not discriminate people on the basis of caste and community. He had fought for entry of Dalits into the temples. He propagated that for a human being, character is important and not caste,” Modi said.
Stating that Ramanucharya’s call for equality among human beings was the inspiration for the Indian Constitution, the Prime Minister reminded that even B R Ambedkar praised the principles of the Vaishnavaite saint. “His preaching inspired spiritual leaders, not just in the South, but in the entire country, like Annamacharya, Sant Kabir and Sant Ramanand etc,” he recalled.
The Prime Minister recalled how former home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a great role in the unity of the country by securing merger of several provinces like Hyderabad with India. “We have established Patel’s statue in Gujarat and are calling it as Statue of Unity. Similarly, this Statue of Equality of saint Ramanujacharya would inspire us to promote equality,” he said.
He showered praises on Telangana stating that it was fast developing as a great tourist destination. He reminded that Ramappa temple in Warangal got heritage status from UNESCO, while Pochampalli village on Hyderabad’s outskirts got the recognition as the best tourism village. The Telugu film industry, too, was getting the nation-wide acclaim, he said.

Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam

::International::

Tibetan groups in Canada protest China’s human rights violation

As the Beijing Olympics have commenced, Tibetan groups in Canada are staging protests to highlight occupation of the plateau by China and condemning the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “complicity in sports washing” human rights violations there.
Multiple protests have already been held by a coalition of Tibetan groups in Toronto, which demonstrated in front of the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) offices in the city, as well as the official broadcaster of the Beijing Winter Olympics, CBC.
The protests are being organised jointly by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Toronto (RTYC Toronto), East Turkistan Association of Canada, Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario, Tibetan Women Association of Ontario, Dhokham Chushi Gangdruk Canada and Students For A Free Tibet Canada.
RTYC Toronto is a branch of the organisation headquartered in Dharamshala in India and its president Sunny Sonam said the protests have drawn over 200 participants despite the severe winter weather afflicting Canada’s largest city.
In a joint statement, the groups joining the protest called upon athletes participating in the Games to “show their support and solidarity” by “returning the blood-soaked” medals they win at the Games as these were made from “minerals extracted by exploiting the rich natural resources of the Tibetan plateau”.

::Economy::

SBI reports 62% jump in quarterly profit, provisions drop

State Bank of India, the country's largest lender by assets, reported a 62.3% rise in third-quarter profit on, the Mumbai-based lender said in a regulatory filing, helped by lower provisions.
Net profit rose to 84.32 billion rupees ($1.13 billion) for the three months ended Dec. 31, from 51.96 billion rupees a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations for a profit of 80.94 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Most Indian banks have reported stronger profits for the December quarter on improved lending in the final months of the year as coronavirus restrictions were lifted.
SBI said its domestic loans grew 6.47% year-on-year in the quarter, led by strong growth in retail loans.
Total provisions and contingencies for bad loans fell 33% on year to 69.74 billion rupees.
The bank's gross bad loan ratio, a measure of asset quality, fell to 4.5% from 4.90% a quarter earlier.
Net interest income rose 6.5% on year, while its net interest margin, a key indicator of a bank's profitability, was 3.4%, up 6 basis points from a year ago.

::Science and tech::

IISc, Bengaluru commissions Param Praveg, a supercomputer with supercomputing capability of 3.3 petaflops

Param Pravega, a supercomputer that is touted to be one of the most powerful in the country, has been installed at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), the premiere academic establishment.
According to IISc, Param Pravega has a total supercomputing capacity of 3.3 petaflops (1 petaflop equals a quadrillion or 1,015 operations per second).
“It has been designed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). A majority of the components used to build this system have been manufactured and assembled within the country, along with an indigenous software stack developed by C-DAC in line with the Make in India initiative,” the statement stated.
India has come a long way in developing its own systems after the US denied the sale of a supercomputer to India in the mid-1980s which was likely to be used for predicting weather. This led to the government of India setting up C-CDAC in 1988 with its first mission to deliver computer power exceeding 1,000 mflops (1 GigaFlops). In July 1991, with a mission effort of more than 300-man years, PARAM800 was delivered.
“NSM is steered jointly by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and implemented by C-DAC and IISc. The Mission has supported the deployment of 10 supercomputer systems so far at IISc, IITs, IISER Pune, JNCASR, NABI-Mohali and C-DAC, with a cumulative computing power of 17 petaflops. About 3100,000 computational jobs have successfully been carried out by around 2,600 researchers across the country to date,” IISc said.
The premiere institute had already established a supercomputing facility several years ago and in 2015, installed SahasraT which at the time was the fastest in the country.

::Sport::

Fans draw parallels between Dhoni, Bana's sixes as India win U19 WC title

Dinesh Bana's six of James Sales in the 48th over of the innings handed India a record-extending fifth U19 World Cup title, as the side defeated England by 4 wickets. Bana smashed the full-toss delivery over long-on as India chased down the 190-run target in a closely-fought game in Antigua.
Following the win, fans on Twitter noticed certain similarities between the India U19 side's win and the senior team's World Cup victory over ten years ago, when MS Dhoni's men toppled Sri Lanka in the final to lift the 2011 title.
MS Dhoni, the captain and wicketkeeper-batter in the team then, had struck a six off Nuwan Kulasekara over long-on to secure a second World Cup title for India. Incidentally, Bana, who hit the winning six on Sunday, is also a wicketkeeper-batter.