Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 11 January 2022

::National::

India expects ‘constructive dialogue’at 14th LAC talks

India is expecting “constructive dialogue” with China at the next round of military talks to address the standoff between armies of the two countries in eastern Ladakh, officials familiar with the matter said on Monday. Indian and Chinese military commanders will hold the 14th round of talks to defuse border tensions at the Chushul-Moldo meeting point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on January 12.
The talks come at a time when frontline soldiers are deployed eyeball to eyeball at friction points on LAC.
The Indian side is looking forward to constructive dialogue to resolve the remaining friction areas along LAC where the two armies have been locked in a standoff since May 2020, the officials said. The remaining friction areas include Hot Springs and Depsang.
The 13th round of military talks between India and China hit an impasse on October 10, with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) not agreeing to suggestions made by the Indian Army.
“The fact that both sides are engaged in talks is a positive sign. It may take time but the dialogue will lead to a mutually acceptable resolution,” said former director general of military operations Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd).
The Indian Army’s activities in the sector are in response to PLA actions and counter measures have been taken to stay ready for any contingency, as previously reported. Despite two rounds of disengagement at friction points on LAC last year, the two armies still have 50,000 to 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre. Tens of thousands of Indian and Chinese troops have dug in for the second successive winter in the Ladakh sector, with no immediate signs of an end to the standoff that resulted in the first fatalities along the LAC since 1975. Twenty Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops were killed in a brutal clash at Galwan Valley in June 2020.

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::International::

First round of US-Russia security talks ends amid war fears

Russia is insisting on legally-binding guarantees of a halt to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization enlargement and an end to the alliance’s military presence in eastern and central European nations that joined the bloc since 1997.
Diplomats from Russia and the US wrapped up their first round of high-stakes talks over the Kremlin’s sweeping security demands amid the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine that’s provoked the worst tensions since the Cold War.
Thw two sides scheduled separate briefings for later Monday after a full day of negotiations between US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in Geneva. Both sides had expressed caution about the outlook for the negotiations before they started.
Russia is insisting on legally-binding guarantees of a halt to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization enlargement and an end to the alliance’s military presence in eastern and central European nations that joined the bloc since 1997. The U.S. has dismissed that as unrealistic, offering instead to curtail missile deployments and exercises in the region.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, prompting warnings in Washington and Kyiv of the risk of an incursion into the ex-Soviet neighbor. The Kremlin denies it’s planning to attack, but says it’s responding to increased NATO activity on its borders and the threat of a Ukrainian offensive against Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbas region. Ukraine has rejected accusations of any planned invasion.
The talks in Geneva were the first of three sets of negotiations taking place this week. There will be Russian consultations with NATO in Brussels on Wednesday and discussions in Vienna under the framework of the 57-nation Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe a day later.
Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had played down the possibility of any immediate “breakthroughs.” Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin decided last month to make a major diplomatic push to resolve their differences.

::Economy::

India Inc's overseas direct investment dips over 8% to $2.05 bn in Dec 21

Outward foreign direct investment by Indian companies fell by over 8 per cent to USD 2.05 billion in December 2021 in the current fiscal, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed .
The domestic companies had invested USD 2.23 billion in their overseas joint ventures and fully-owned subsidiaries during December 2020 in the previous financial year.
Of the total investment made by the Indian companies overseas during the month, USD 1.22 billion was in the form of issuance of guarantees, USD 464.39 million was equity participation and USD 367.17 million investment was made through loans, as per the RBI data on Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) for December 2021.
The major investors who infused capital in their overseas ventures included ANI Technologies -- the promoter of mobility solutions provider Ola -- which invested USD 675 million in its wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore, and Dr Reddy's investment of USD 149.99 million in a joint-venture in the US.
State-owned oil explorer ONGC invested USD 74.15 million in five different ventures in various countries during the month, as per the data.

Citigroup revises India GDP forecast down by 80 bps to 9% for FY22

Sluggish growth momentum in the December quarter and emerging risk from the third Covid-19 wave may shave 80 basis points (bps) off India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 9 per cent for FY22, Citigroup said in its latest estimate.
“While the economic impact of the Omicron wave in the fourth quarter could be lower than previous waves, the activity momentum in the third quarter was much lower than our expectation. This has led us to revise downwards our FY22E real GDP forecast by 80 bps to 9 per cent year-on-year (YoY), largely due to weaker third quarter activity. Consequently, we have also revised FY23E real GDP forecast to 8.3 per cent YoY (versus 8.7 per cent earlier),” Citigroup India Chief Economist SamiranChakraborty said in a research note on Monday.
Government’s statistics office last week projected 9.2 per cent GDP growth for FY22, well below 9.5 per cent forecast by the International Monetary Fund as well as the Reserve Bank of India, even as the size of the Indian economy is expected to surpass the pre-pandemic level after recovering from a historic contraction in the preceding year.
India Ratings last week estimated that GDP growth in the March quarter would now stand at 5.7 per cent, 40 bps lower than the agency’s earlier estimate of 6.1 per cent. For the entire FY22, the rating agency expects GDP growth to be 9.3 per cent, 10 basis points lower than its earlier estimate.
Chakraborty said although daily Covid cases were crossing 150,000 already, there were reasons to be hopeful of a less-disruptive Covid wave. “These include lower hospitalisation rates (currently seen in cities like Mumbai and experience from South Africa), shorter Covid wave cycle period (40 days of trough-to-peak of daily cases in SA, compared to 90-100 days in previous waves), higher vaccination coverage (70 per cent second dose for adults in India), and weakening link between Covid and activity,” he said.

::Science and tech::

Skyscraper-sized asteroid set to zoom past Earth

A skyscraper-sized asteroid is set to shoot past the Earth at a 3,480,000-mile distance on January 11. The asteroid, named Asteroid 2013 YD48 by Nasa, is bigger than big ben. Nasa has categorised the asteroid as a “potentially hazardous object” due to its size and relative proximity to the Earth while shooting past.
While it will miss Earth by a long distance, Nasacategorises any asteroid or comet as a Near-Earth Object (NEO) if it comes closer than 1.3au astronomical units, little over the distance between the Earth and the Sun. One au is the equivalent of 93 million miles. Such a large asteroid could a devastating if it crashes into Earth, but 2013 YD48 won’t be close enough to cause any worry.
The most recent asteroid to hit the planet was eight years ago in Russia which exploded in the atmosphere.
Nasa recently launched a mission to deliberately smash a spacecraft into an asteroid as a test run to stop a giant space rock from wiping out life on Earth. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) blasted off at 10:21pm Pacific Time on November 24, 2021, aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The goal of the mission is to throw Dimorphos, a "moonlet" around 525 feet wide that circles a much larger asteroid called Didymos, off its course. The spacecraft is expected to hit the asteroid in the fall of 2022, when the binary asteroid system is 11 million kilometres from Earth, almost the nearest point the pair ever get.
"What we're trying to learn is how to deflect a threat," NASA's top scientist Thomas Zuburchen said ahead of the launch.

::Sport::

Patrick Tshutshani appointed Analytical Coach of Indian women's hockey team

South Africa's Patrick Tshutshani will take over the duties of Analytical Coach for the Indian Women's Hockey Team. Tshutshani in his previous roles was the Director/ Head Coach of Field Hockey Canada Junior Women's Team.
With an aim to build on their historic Tokyo Olympics 2020 campaign, Hockey India on Monday announced the appointment of new Women's Team Analytical Coach and Scientific Advisors for both senior men and women's teams.
South Africa's Patrick Tshutshani will take over the duties of Analytical Coach for the Indian Women's Hockey Team. Tshutshani in his previous roles was the Director/ Head Coach of Field Hockey Canada Junior Women's Team.
He had coached the Field Hockey Canada Junior Women's Hockey Team that clinched the 2021 Women's Pan America Junior Championship title. He was also the Assistant Coach of Field Hockey Canada Women's National Team.