Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 16 August 2022

::National::

'Pained beyond words': Leaders condemn killing of a Kashmiri Pandit in Shopian

A man belonging to the Kashmiri Pandit community was shot dead by terrorists in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, triggering a wave of condemnation across the Valley. The union territory's lieutenant governor, ManojSinha, said he is "pained beyond words on the despicable terror attack on civilians in Shopian."
"My thoughts are with the family of Sunil Kumar. Praying for a speedy recovery of the injured. The attack deserves the strongest condemnation from everyone. Terrorists responsible for the barbaric act will not be spared," his office tweeted.
Former chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah also condemned the killings and said the incident "have left a trail of death and suffering" and offered condolences to the victim's family.
Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP) head Mehbooba Mufti, meanwhile, slammed the central government for not doing enough to address the security concerns of Kashmiri Pandits living in the region.
The victim was shot at by terrorists in Shopipan district, while his brother, Pintu Kumar, sustained bullet injuries and is undergoing treatment at a local hospital.
Terrorists have stepped up attacks against civillians in the last couple of months across the Valley. A policeman was killed in Nowhatta on Sunday and a migrant labourer in Bandipora last week. Two grenade attacks took place in Budgam and Srinagar districts.

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::International::

China unveils new perks aimed at boosting slowing birth rate

China announced a slew of perks aimed at encouraging families to have more babies, as birth rates hit a record low and officials warned that the population will start to shrink by 2025.
The world's most populous country has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly ageing workforce, slowing economy and its weakest population growth in decades.
Although Beijing ended its draconian "one-child rule" in 2016 and last year allowed couples to have three children, birth rates have slipped over the past five years.
The policy guidelines issued by the National Health Commission Tuesday urge both the central and provincial governments to increase spending on reproductive health and improve childcare services nationwide.
They require local governments to "implement active fertility support measures", including offering subsidies, tax rebates, and better health insurance, as well as education, housing and employment support for young families.
All provinces must also ensure they provide enough nurseries for children aged two to three by the end of the year in a bid to reduce a severe shortage of childcare services.
Richer Chinese cities have been doling out tax and housing credits, educational benefits and even cash incentives to encourage women to have more children, and the latest guidelines seek to push all provinces to roll out such measures.
China's birth rate slipped to 7.52 births per 1,000 people last year -- the lowest since records began in 1949, when Communist China was founded, according to National Bureau of Statistics data.
Higher costs of living and a cultural shift as people grow used to smaller families have been cited as reasons behind the lower number of babies.
China's population will begin to shrink by 2025, health officials warned earlier this month.

::Economy::

Expecting to sustain loan growth of 15% in current fiscal: SBI chairman

State Bank of India (SBI) has said it expects to sustain credit growth of about 15 per cent in the current fiscal with rising demand from retail and corporate borrowers despite hardening of lending rate.
The country's largest lender reported a 14.93 per cent rise in advances to Rs 29,00,636 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2022 as compared to Rs 25,23,793 crore during the same period a year ago.
Of this, retail loan registered a growth rate of 18.58 per cent while corporate advances improved by 10.57 per cent year-on-year at the end of June quarter.
SBI chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara also said that the bank will soon come out with only YONO which is YONO 2.0 with many more advanced features and functionalities.
"The digital leadership journey of the bank is continuing. More than 96.6 per cent of the transactions are now routed through alternate channels. The registered users on YONO have already crossed 5.25 crore, a big milestone and which has created a significant value for the bank. Sixty-five per cent of the new savings accounts are opened through YONO," he said at an analyst call recently.
On maintaining 15 per cent credit growth, he said, "I am quite hopeful the reason behind is kind of a term loan and also the underutilisation of the working capital, which is all aggregating to almost Rs 5 lakh crore, and the pipeline is almost Rs 1.2 lakh crore. So, I'm quite hopeful that we should be in a position to sustain this in the subsequent quarters."
Corporate book should grow to the extent of about Rs 2.5-3 lakh crore during the year, he said, adding, even in SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) there are traction and pipeline is getting created.
With the latest rate hike by RBI, the repo rate (short term lending rate at which banks borrow from the central bank) increased to 5.40 per cent, an increase of 140 basis points since May this year.

Bank of India expects 10-12% growth in advances in current fiscal

State-owned Bank of India expects advances to grow by 10-12 per cent in the current fiscal year with corporate loans yet to pick-up, top official said in an analysts call.
The bank's year-to-date (YTD) loan growth stood at about 5 per cent mainly driven by Retail sector advances, Agricultural and MSME loans (RAM).
"Advances growth guidance will be in the range of 10 to 12 per cent for the full year. So far up to June, we had YTD growth of about 5 per cent, but that is mostly on the back of good RAM growth. Corporate is yet to pick up. We believe that from this quarter onwards, there could be some movement in the corporate book," A K Das, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (MD&CEO), told analysts in post Q1FY23 earnings conference call.
The bank's gross advances (global and domestic) stood at Rs 4,77,746crore at end-June 2022.
In the first quarter ended in June of the current fiscal year, the lender registered a decline of 22 per cent in net profit at Rs 561 crore as against Rs 720 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Exuding confidence that it won't be difficult to achieve the loan growth target for 2022-23, Das said the bank expects Net Interest Margin (NIM) of 2.90 per cent domestically and global NIM of 2.75 per cent.
In Q1FY23, bank's domestic and global NIMs stood at 2.88 per cent and 2.55 per cent, respectively.
Das said a lot of repricing in loan book is happening in both sides and it would be good if the bank could maintain the guidances on its NIMs. In terms of asset quality, the bank said it has set a target of Rs 2,500 crorereduction in bad loans every quarter.
Of this, Rs 1,700 crore will come from upgradation and cash recoveries and the rest will be through various OTS (One Time Settlement) programmes which the lender has lined-up already, M Karthikeyan, Executive Director, said.

::Science and tech::

Space mission shows Earth's water may be from asteroids: Study

Water may have been brought to Earth by asteroids from the outer edges of the solar system, scientists said after analysing rare samples collected on a six-year Japanese space mission.
In a quest to shed light on the origins of life and the formation of the universe, researchers are scrutinising material brought back to earth in 2020 from the asteroid Ryugu.
The 5.4 grams (0.2 ounces) of rocks and dust were gathered by a Japanese space probe, called Hayabusa-2, that landed on the celestial body and fired an "impactor" into its surface.
Studies on the material are beginning to be published, and in June, one group of researchers said they had found organic material which showed that some of the building blocks of life on Earth, amino acids, may have been formed in space.
In a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists said the Ryugu samples could give clues to the mystery of how oceans appeared on Earth billions of years ago.
"Volatile and organic-rich C-type asteroids may have been one of the main sources of Earth's water," said the study by scientists from Japan and other countries, published Monday.
"The delivery of volatiles (that is, organics and water) to the Earth is still a subject of notable debate," it said.
But the organic materials found "in Ryugu particles, identified in this study, probably represent one important source of volatiles".
The scientists hypothesised that such material probably has an "outer Solar System origin", but said it was "unlikely to be the only source of volatiles delivered to the early Earth".

::Sports::

Wolves agree club-record fee for Portugal midfielder MatheusNunes: Reports

Wolverhampton Wanderers have agreed a deal to sign Sporting Lisbon midfielder MatheusNunes for a club-record fee of around 38 million pounds ($45.75 million), British media reported on Tuesday. According to the reports, Wolves could pay Sporting a further 4.2 million pounds in add-ons for the 23-year-old.
The transfer fee would surpass the 35 million pounds Wolves paid for forward Fabio Silva in 2020. Nunes made 50 appearances for Sporting in all competitions last season as they finished second in Portugal's PrimeiraLiga. He made his senior debut for Portugal in 2021 and has earned eight caps, scoring one goal.