Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 11 December 2021

::National::

LokSabha passed two bills to increase the tenure of directors of CBI and ED from the present 2 years to a maximum of 5 years

LokSabha has passed the Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021 for consideration and passage. Once enacted, the amendment law will replace the ordinances promulgated last month.
These Bills intend to provide enabling power to the government to extend tenure of the Chiefs of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) up to five years. While the CVC Amendment Bill is related with the ED Chief, the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act prescribes norm for the CBI Director. Earlier, both these officers used to be given a term of two years.
The fixed tenure granted to the head of the investigative agencies would help in speedy disposal of cases and bring down pendency, Minister of Personnel Jitendra Singh said in his reply to a debate on Bills.
Thus, “the investigation of such crimes requires the two investigating agencies to have robust processes and senior personnel in position for sufficiently long tenures. As such, enhancing the capacity and the resources for continuing oversight by the senior officers, especially the heads of the two agencies, is fundamental to the proposed re-strengthening. It is strongly felt that the assured long tenures of the heads of the ED and the CBI on similar lines would be highly desirable,” it said.
Further it mentioned in the statement of objects and reasons that considering that ordinarily, longer tenures are an established practice in major countries, two years tenure ought to be a minimum and that is what is contemplated in the statutory provisions. However, in India’s case owing to several factors, including the issues of seniority and hierarchy, two years tenure has in fact become the upper limit with individuals being appointed close to their date of superannuation.

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::International::

Indian American Raghavan promoted to key White House post under Biden rule

US President Joe Biden on Friday elevated Indian American GautamRaghavan to a new position making him head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. Biden announced Raghavan’s promotion to the key White House post after UN Secretary-General AntónioGuterres announced his intent to appoint Cathy Russell as the next executive director of UNICEF. Russell is currently the head of WH PPO.
Under Cathy’s leadership, the White House Office of Presidential Personnel (PPO) has broken records in both speed and diversity of hiring, working relentlessly to ensure that our federal government reflects America and delivers for the American people, Biden said.
“I am also pleased that GautamRaghavan, who has worked in tandem with Cathy from Day One, will become PPO’s new director -- a seamless transition that will enable us to continue building a federal workforce that is efficient, effective, dependable and diverse,” Biden said in a statement.
A first-generation immigrant, Raghavan was born in India, raised in Seattle and graduated from Stanford University. He is the editor of "West Wingers: Stories from the Dream Chasers, Change Makers, and Hope Creators Inside the Obama White House." He lives with his husband and their daughter in Washington, DC.
Raghavan served as chief of staff to US Representative PramilaJayapal (WA-07), the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and advised organisations focused on advancing civil rights and social justice, serving as an advisor to the Biden Foundation and as vice president of Policy for the Gill Foundation,” the White House said.
“During the Obama-Biden Administration, Raghavan served in the White House Office of Public Engagement as liaison to the LGBTQ community as well as the Asian American & Pacific Islander community, as acting White House liaison for the US Department of Defence, and as Outreach Lead for the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Working Group,” it said.

::Economy::

RBI grants scheduled bank status to Paytm Payments Bank

Paytm Payments Bank on said it has been given the scheduled bank status by the Reserve Bank of India.
The bank has been included in the Second Schedule to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and the approval will help it to bring more financial services and products.
With the scheduled bank status, the bank can explore new business opportunities, including participation in government and other large corporations issued request for proposals, primary auctions, fixed-rate and variable rate repos, and reverse repos.
Besides, it can participate in Marginal Standing Facility and will be eligible to partner in government-run financial inclusion schemes, according to a statement.
The bank supports 33.3 crorePaytm Wallets and enables consumers to make payments at over 87,000 online merchants and 2.11 crore in-store merchants.
"Over 15.5 crorePaytm UPI handles have been created and are used to make and receive payments with Paytm Payments Bank being the largest beneficiary bank and one of the top remitter banks for UPI transactions in the country.
"In the last fiscal year, the bank has also become the largest issuer and acquirer of FASTags in the country," the statement said.

US consumer inflation up by 6.8% in past year, highest in 40 years

The Labor Department also reported Friday that prices rose 0.8% from October to November — a substantial increase, though slightly less than 0.9% increase from September to October.
Inflation has been inflicting a heavy burden on consumers, especially lower-income households and particularly for everyday necessities. It has also negated the higher wages many workers have received, complicated the Federal Reserve’s plans to reduce its aid for the economy and coincided with flagging public support for President Joe Biden, who has been taking steps to try to ease inflation pressures.
Fueling the inflation has been a mix of factors resulting from the swift rebound from the pandemic recession: A flood of government stimulus, ultra-low rates engineered by the Fed and supply shortages at factories in the U.S and abroad. Manufacturers have been slowed by heavier-than-expected customer demand, COVID-related shutdowns and overwhelmed ports and freight yards.
The result has been price spikes for goods ranging from food and used vehicles to electronics, household furnishings and rental cars. The average price of a used vehicle rocketed nearly 28% from November 2020 to last month — to a record $29,011, according to data compiled by Edmunds.com.

::Science and tech::

Elon Musk shares photo of Mars Starship, says will ‘soon make these real’

Space-X founder Elon Musk has shared a photo of Starship, the massive, next-generation rocket his company is developing to launch cargo and people on missions to the moon and Mars, after he announced they have begun building a launchpad in Florida.
"We will soon make these real," Musk tweeted on Saturday, a day after announcing SpaceX has started construction on an orbital launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
According to a CNBC report on Friday, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) confirmed SpaceX is “within the rights of their lease agreement to make launch infrastructure improvements within the boundaries of the pad”. The American space agency has said it is not providing funds for the Starship launchpad.
The orbital tests for the new spacecraft is a major part of Elon Musk and SpaceX’s plans for the future of space travel and the company's ultimate goal is to launch an uncrewed mission to Mars in 2024 and human spaceflight to the Red Planet in 2026.
According to reports, the Starship design is meant to be used for both suborbital flights on Earth and for deep-space missions. They also say Starship will be a next-generation fully reusable rocket capable of carrying up to 100 people to Mars.
The SpaceX prototype of its Starship SN11, which is being designed for an eventual trip to Mars, crashed during a test landing attempt in March.
In August, SpaceX said in filings with the Federal Communications Commission it intends to use its Starship rocket as the primary vehicle to deliver spacecraft into orbit.
Elon Musk has spoken about his dream of building cities on Mars and said settling humans on other planets could preserve civilisation if Earth were to experience a cataclysm. "History is going to bifurcate along two directions. One path is we stay on Earth forever, and then there will be some eventual extinction event," Musk said in 2016.

::Sport::

Magnus Carlsen stays king of chess after winning his fifth world title

Magnus Carlsen remained the planet’s best chess player when he beat challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi for the fourth time in their world championship contest in Dubai on Friday. Carlsen got his fifth world title in the classical format when Russian challenger Nepomniachtchi resigned after 49 moves. Carlsen, who won 7.5-3.5, will get 60% of the 2 million euro prize money.
“It’s hard to feel that great joy when the situation was so comfortable to begin with, but I’m happy with a very good performance overall,” said Carlsen soon after leaving the sound-proof playing arena.