Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 10 April 2022

::National::

Manipur Congress opposes move to make Hindi a compulsory subject in Northeast

Close on the heels of Assam’s opposition party’s objection to the move to make Hindi a compulsory subject up to Class 10 in north-eastern states, the Congress party in Manipur on Sunday strongly opposed the move and sought support and cooperation from all sections for the cause.
Making Hindi compulsory will be a big issue for the indigenous population and their cultural, traditional and religious practices which have existed since time immemorial,” said K Meghachandra, Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (I) president while addressing the media in Imphal.
At the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in New Delhi on Thursday, Union home minister Amit Shah said that Hindi would be made compulsory up to Class 10 in the eight north-eastern states. He described Hindi as “the language of India”.
According to reports, Shah said that 20,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight states of the northeast, adding that nine tribal communities of the northeast have converted their dialects’ scripts to Devanagari.
Calling the move unfortunate, newly-appointed Manipur Congress chief Meghachandra alleged, “The move is nothing but a way to destroy our inherited culture, tradition and religion.”

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::International::

Imran Khan's attempt at show of strength after exit: '...US-backed regime'

Imran Khan may have failed the big numbers test in parliament on Saturday but he is not yet ready to relent, it seems, with a large number of supporters out on streets after his exit. His four-year run ended with the opposition voting in favour of the no-confidence motion that Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf tried (PTI) to delay, according to the critics. He is the first prime minister in the country's history to have lost a trust vote.
Islamabad, Karachi, Peshawar, Malakand, Multan Khanewal, Khyber, Jhang and Quetta saw huge demonstrations by the PTI on Sunday and slogans were shouted against the opposition, according to reports, as Khan continues to pitch his ouster as a part of "foreign conspiracy". He had been speaking of his rivals' plan to spend billions amid the apparent attempts to evade the trust vote.
In a late-night tweet on Sunday, the cricketer-politician said: "Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support & emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail. Shows Pakistanis at home & abroad have emphatically rejected this."
Khan, whose exit became imminent with the economic crisis mounting in the country, has been trying to put up a power show by calling crowds to back him. He has addressed the nation several times on the current political crisis in the last few weeks. A few weeks back, he even led a show of strength in Islamabad.
Shehbaz Sharif, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's brother, is the opposition's pick for replacing Khan. On Monday, at a key parliament session, he is set to be elected.
While the military has ruled the country of 22 million for half of the period in its 75-year history, the army has been silent over the current crisis that befell on Khan and the subsequent leadership change.

::Economy::

FM to meet PSBs' heads on Apr 23 to nudge them for credit expansion

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman is scheduled to meet heads of public sector banks (PSBs) on April 23 to review performance of the lenders and progress made by them on various schemes launched by the government for revival of the economy battered by the pandemic.
This is the first full review meeting after presentation of Budget 2022-23. Banks would be urged to sanction loans for productive sectors to accelerate revival of the economy, sources said.
According to sources, there would be a comprehensive review of various segments and progress in government schemes including Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).
In the Budget, ECLGS was extended by a year till March 2023. Further, the guarantee cover for the scheme was expanded by Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 5 lakh crore. The coverage, scope and extent of benefits under ECLGS 3.0 pertaining to hospitality, travel, tourism and civil aviation sectors were expanded.
Also, the credit limit for eligible borrowers was increased to 50 per cent of their fund-based credit outstanding from 40 per cent earlier. The enhanced limit is subject to a maximum of Rs 200 crore per borrower.
Since its launch in May 2020, loans worth Rs 3.19 lakh crore have been sanction till March 25, 2022. About 95 per cent of the guarantees issued are for loans sanctioned to micro, small and medium enterprises.

Inflation expectation, consumer confidence rise, says RBI survey

The household inflation expectation and consumer confidence rose in March, according to surveys conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Households’ median inflation perception for the current period remained unchanged at 9.7 per cent in the latest survey round, while the expectations for both three months and one-year ahead rose by 10 basis points each to 10.7 per cent and 10.8 per cent, respectively, compared to January 2022 round.
“For a majority of population and age groups, uncertainty in inflation expectations increased for both three-month and one-year horizons, as compared to the previous survey round,” the RBI said.
Three months ahead of expectations for overall prices and inflation were generally aligned to those for food and non-food products, while one-year ahead expectations were more aligned to those for non-food products and services.
Consumer confidence for the current period continued on its recovery path. “The current situation index (CSI) improved further in March 2022 on the back of improved sentiments on general economic situation, employment and household income,” the RBI said.

::Science and tech::

Amazon ties up with three firms to launch its satellite internet

Though satellite internet has existed for years, the competition is about to rapidly intensify, with companies planning to launch thousands of their own systems into low Earth orbit.
The latest move in the industry came on April 5 from Amazon, which took a major step towards getting its $10 billion Kuiper constellation off the ground by sealing deals with three rocket companies.
The U.S. online retail giant wants to strengthen its lucrative diversification into IT services, and “provide low-latency broadband to a wide range of customers,” including those “working in locations without a reliable internet connection.”
“Satellite solutions are an indispensable complement to fiber,” said Stephane Israel, chief executive of Arianespace, one of the Amazon rocket providers.
“There are situations in which fiber is much too expensive compared to satellite connections, especially to reach the last inhabitant of a remote area,” he explained.
In addition to the satellites themselves, Amazon plans “small, affordable client terminals” along the lines of Echo smart-homes and Kindle e-readers, and promises to “provide service at a price that is affordable and accessible to customers,” with no further pricing details immediately.
Costs for users start under 60 euros ($70) per month, excluding terminal and antenna, and increase according to the bandwidth.
But because these services use satellites at geostationary orbit - more than 35,000 kilometers from Earth’s surface - their speed cannot match that of fiber, prohibiting use for high-speed tasks like gaming.
Amazon’s future satellites, like those already launched by Starlink, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, will operate in low Earth orbit (LEO), only 600 km high.
“The advantage of LEO is that you reduce the latency, [and] by reducing the latency you maximize the uses,” said Israel.

::Sports::

Hammer thrower Sarita Romit Singh gunning for podium at CWG and Asian Games

From long jump to triple jump and then hammer throwing, SaritaRomit Singh has tried her best to make a mark in athletics with varying degrees of success. While her jumps career was limited to junior nationals where she could not win a medal, Sarita forayed into hammer throw in 2008. Then 19, it was, many believed, too late for her to try a new sport, but Sarita was undaunted. Within a few months, she won a silver medal at the All-India Inter-University for Hindu College.
That medal fuelled her ambition and after getting a job in Western Railway in 2011, her love for hammer throw grew. “It was only after winning a silver medal that I started dreaming of winning a medal for India at the international level and when I got the job in railways, I decided to win an international medal for sure in my career,” said Sarita, 32.
Hailing from Sambhal district in Uttar Pradesh, Sarita secured a fifth-place finish at the 2018 Asian Games. She breached the qualifying mark for this year's Commonwealth Games and Asian Games at the Federation Cup in Kozhikode recently, throwing the iron ball to a distance of 64.16 metres.