Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 10 January 2022

::National::

Biomedical waste a concern amid soaring Covid-19 cases

Concerns over the mixing of contaminated waste and general municipal waste, as well as the lack of safety equipment among sanitation workers continue to remain a key concern among unions and organizations working with informal waste pickers.
With the number of Covid-19 patients in Delhi under home isolation increasing sharply over the past couple of weeks, the city’s municipal corporations have restructured their biomedical waste collection programmes to meet hygiene and safety standards required to keep residents andcivic workers safe. However, concerns over the mixing of contaminated waste and general municipal waste, as well as the lack of safety equipment among sanitation workers continue to remain a key concern among unions and organisations working with informal waste pickers.
According to the health bulletin issued by the Delhi government on Sunday, more than 35,000 Covid-19 patients in Delhi were isolating at home.
A senior official from the South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (SDMC) sanitation department said that the under the third wave action plan, the civic body has deployed one vehicle for each of the 104 wards under the corporation to collect biomedical waste from homes with Covid-19 patients.
“Duty charts for each ward have been released and a nodal officer has been deployed at the zonal level to coordinate the collection of biomedical waste. The collection is taking place according to the lists provided by the district surveillance officers,” he added.
ChhailBihariGoswami, leader of the House, North Delhi Municipal Corporation said the civic body is deploying auto-tippers to collect contaminated waste at the zonal level.
“The deputy health officer will share the details and addresses of Covid-19 patients with the sanitation inspector every day,” he said.
Guidelines issued by the central anti-pollution body mandate that biomedical waste generated during the treatment of Covid-19 patients be treated and disposed of in accordance with the Biomedical Waste Management Rules (2016).

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::International::

Myanmar's SuuKyi to hear junta court's verdicts in delayed cases

A Myanmar junta court on Monday is expected to deliver verdicts on ousted leader Aung San SuuKyi in several delayed cases, the latest in a slew of judgements which could see her jailed for decades.
The Nobel laureate has been detained since February 1 when her government was forced out in an early morning coup, ending Myanmar's short-lived experiment with democracy.
The generals' power grab triggered widespread dissent, which security forces sought to quell with mass detentions and bloody crackdowns in which more than 1,400 civilians have been killed, according to a local monitoring group.
SuuKyi, 76, is facing a catalogue of accusations, and on Monday is set to hear the verdicts for allegedly importing and possessing walkies-talkies illegally, and for breaking coronavirus rules.
The walkie-talkie charges stem from when soldiers raided her house on the day of the coup, allegedly discovering the contraband equipment.
But under cross-examination in court hearings, members of the raiding party admitted they had not possessed a warrant for the raid, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
It will add to penalties the court gave her in December when she was jailed for four years for incitement and breaching Covid-19 rules while campaigning.
Junta chief Min AungHlaing cut the sentence to two years and said she could serve her term under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw.

::Economy::

Direct overseas listing of Indian startups not expected in Budget FY23

The government is examining the industry’s request to allow direct overseas listing of Indian startups, but a resolution may not be a part of the FY23 Union Budget.
The industry department is examining the matter to understand exactly what the startups want, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary Anurag Jain said on Sunday.
“I don’t think it can be resolved that quickly (by February 1),” Jain told reporters.
“To my mind there is nothing that stops them from doing this. Why do they want to go outside and list, what are the factors that are not there, we are engaged with the discussion with the industry leaders. I know there is a proposal which was under consideration…I do understand there can be certain categories for which the ecosystem in a different country could be much better to attract capital, otherwise we have the makings of one of the best (startups) ecosystems,” Jain said.
Last year, top startups and venture capital firms had written to the Prime Minister to allow direct overseas listing of Indian companies.

Crypto bloodbath: Bitcoin ETF goes from boom to bust after record US debut

The crypto massacre has reworked a well-known Bitcoin ETF that launched essentially the most profitable debut ever into one of many greatest losers for an issuer of their first two months of buying and selling.
With a 30% drop, the ProSharesBitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund, ticker BITO, is now one of many 10 worst performers when taking a look at returns two months after a public itemizing, Bloomberg Intelligence knowledge analyzed by AthanasiosPsarofagis present.
Thank the broader retreat in digital currencies because the Federal Reserve readies to withdraw pandemic stimulus. Bitcoin, the biggest digital asset by market worth, misplaced greater than 34% within the two months after BITO’s debut on October 19, and is down considerably from a November peak of above $68,000 per coin. Since the beginning of the 12 months, Bitcoin is roughly 10% decrease.
“Timing can be tough sometimes with ETFs,” Psarofagis stated. “You aren’t hearing much about the performance flop of BITO since it went live.”
When it made its first exhibiting, BITO noticed turnover of just about $1 billion, which solidified it as the perfect debut behind solely a fund that had pre-seed investments, Bloomberg knowledge confirmed on the time.
The announcement from WisdomTree said that the fund will not invest in bitcoin directly, which is in line with the position taken by many traditional financial institutions in the US.
In terms of the reason why WisdomTree made the choice to invest in bitcoin futures, the firm said that the asset is attractive because of “the potential for significant absolute returns.”

::Science and tech::

Researchers find new method to evaluate donor kidney quality

Researchers have found a way to evaluate the quality of kidneys before transplantation that could help increase the number of usable donor kidneys.
The study has been published in the 'Optics Express Journal'.
"Today, the lack of methods for precisely measuring donor kidney injury and predicting transplant outcome leads to high discard rates and recipient complications in clinical practice," said research team leader Mingxing Sui from Changhai Hospital of Shanghai in China.
"We want to solve this problem by developing a new system that can noninvasively provide an objective measure of donor kidney quality," Sui added.
Sui and colleagues from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology in China reported the first use of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for simultaneous, ultrasensitive detection of two important kidney injury biomarkers. They also described how they made SERS spectroscopy more practical for clinical use.
"This highly sensitive SERS-based multiplexing technique can rapidly capture subtle changes in the biomarker expression levels associated with donor kidney injury. This paves the way for objectively assessing the quality of donor kidneys in clinical practice," Sui said.
Recently, researchers have identified secretory leukocyte peptidase inhibitor (SLPI) and interleukin 18 (IL-18) as biomarkers present in a person's blood and urine that can be used to objectively evaluate kidney injury. Although various analysis methods have been explored to detect these biomarkers, they have all come up short due to limited sensitivity, lack of multiplexing, complicated sample preparation, or high cost.

::Sport::

Bharath Subramaniyam becomes India's 73rd chess GM

Fourteen-year old BharathSubramaniyam on Sunday became India's 73rd chess Grandmaster, securing the third and final GM norm at an event in Italy.
The Chennai-based player scored 6.5 points from nine rounds along with four others to finish seventh overall in the event held at Cattolica.
He obtained his third GM norm here and also touched the requisite 2,500 (Elo) mark.
Fellow Indian player M R LalithBabu emerged winner in the tournament with seven points, winning the title on the basis of a better tie-break score after he tied with three others including top-seed Anton Korobov (Ukraine).
Bharath finished with six wins and one draw while losing two games - against Korobov and LalithBabu.