Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 16 February 2022

::National::

India to supply locomotives, technology to Bangladesh railways

India is ready to supply locomotives and passenger carriages and transfer technology for railway signalling systems to Bangladesh as part of ongoing cooperation between the two sides to improve connectivity.
The matter figured when Bangladesh high commissioner Muhammad Imran met railways minister AshwiniVaishnaw on Tuesday and discussed various issues related to the railways sector, including development of infrastructure and improvement of capacity of Bangladesh Railways.
Imran also briefed the minister about the upgrade of the Dhaka-Chattogram railway link, especially the Akhaura-Laksam section, and sought India’s support in this regard, according to a statement from the Bangladesh high commission.
The Indian side expressed its readiness to “supply locomotives, diesel electric multiple unit (DEMU) train, mainline electric multiple unit (MEMU) train as well as passenger carriages and transfer of technology for railway signalling system to Bangladesh”, the statement said.
The Bangladeshi envoy also power minister Raj Kumar Singh and discussed various aspects of bilateral cooperation in the power and new and renewable energy sector.
The Maitree project is a 1,320-MW coal-fired power station being built at Rampal by the Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL), a 50-50 joint venture between India’s state-run National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). The construction of the plant began in 2017 and it is set to be commissioning this year. It will be one of the largest coal-fired power plants in Bangladesh.

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::International::

PM Trudeau declares national emergency

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declared a national emergency in response to the ongoing truckers’ protests against various Covid-19 related measures including vaccine mandates.
Trudeau made the announcement invoking the Emergency Act, which was enacted in 1988, and never used before in the country’s history as the agitation entered its 18th day.
“We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue,” he said in Ottawa. The emergency powers came into immediate effect and will last for 30 days.
Among the measures that will be applied will be stronger tools for law enforcement to disperse gatherings of protestors including at major border trade routes connecting Canada to the US.
In addition, the act will allow the government to go after crowdfunding platforms and payment processors that have been used by the Freedom Convoy 2022 to fund their protest, and compel financial institutions to freeze accounts of individuals or organisations linked to the agitation.
The plan, announced by US secretary of state Antony J Blinken, involves six lines of effort.
This includes first, increasing access to vaccines and addressing last mile delivery issues; two, strengthening the supply chain for vaccines and other critical supplies such as syringes, test kits and treatments; three, addressing information gaps that lead to low confidence in vaccines by tailoring messages for local audiences and pushing back against disinformation; four, providing more support to health care workers; five, making it easier to access treatments and therapeutics; and six, strengthening global health security for the next emergency by ensuring sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness and response.

::Economy::

Supreme Court asks Future Retail to move Delhi HC on NCLT proceedings

The Supreme Court has granted Future Retail the option to seek from the Delhi High Court permission to continue proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on its deal with the Reliance Industries group.
It also asked the high court to give orders uninfluenced by any observations of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice HimaKohli heard the case.
Meanwhile, the high court has listed the hearing of four cases in the legal battle between Future Group and e-commerce major Amazon on February 24. The court will hear Future Retail’s plea, along with four other cases.
The four are the Singapore International Arbitration Centre’s (SIAC’s) emergency award, which stalled Future Group’s deal with Reliance Retail, and the SIAC’s tribunal order, which upheld the emergency award.
The legal battle between Future Group and Amazon started in October 2020 after the former decided to sell its retail, logistics, and warehousing businesses to Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. The move by Amazon comes because in August 2019, the US e-commerce major acquired a 49 per cent stake in Future Coupons, the promoter entity of Future Retail, for about Rs 1,500 crore.
After the Future-Reliance deal, Amazon approached the SIAC in October 2020 and an emergency arbitration interim order was passed, upholding the position of Amazon. The order directed the Future Group entities not to proceed with the transactions with Reliance Retail.
In November 2020, Future Group challenged the SIAC’s interim order at the Delhi High Court and in February 2021, a single-judge Bench order upheld the SIAC’s interim order. Future Group then filed an appeal at the Delhi High Court before a Divisional Bench, challenging the single-judge Bench order. The Divisional Bench stayed the single-judge Bench’s order.
In February 2021, Amazon moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Divisional Bench order, and Future Group moved the NCLT Mumbai to seek approvals to go ahead with its deal with Reliance Retail.

Banning crypto is perhaps the most advisable choice open to India: RBI DG

Cryptocurrencies have specifically been developed to bypass the regulated financial system and it is akin to or even worse than Ponzi schemes, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said on Monday.
"Cryptocurrencies are not amenable to definition as a currency, asset or commodity; they have no underlying cash flows, they have no intrinsic value; that they are akin to Ponzi Schemes, and may even be worse," Sankar said while addressing an event organised by the Indian Banks Association.
A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from new investors. It has little or no legitimate earnings.
"We have seen that crypto-technology is underpinned by a philosophy to evade Government controls. Cryptocurrencies have specifically been developed to bypass the regulated financial system. These should be reason enough to treat them with caution," he said.
RBI Deputy Governor said there are strong reasons to keep cryptocurrencies away from the formal financial system.
"They undermine financial integrity, especially the KYC regime and AML/CFT regulations and at least potentially facilitate anti-social activities. More substantially, they can (and if allowed most likely will) wreck the currency system, the monetary authority, the banking system, and in general Government's ability to control the economy," he said.

::Science and tech::

ISRO Successfully Launches Earth Observation Satellite, EOS-04

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) successfully launched its earth observation satellite EOS-4 and two co-passenger technology demonstrator and scientific satellites at 5:59 am Monday from the first launch pad at the country’s only spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
“After a flight of about 17 minutes 34 seconds three satellites namely EOS-04, INSPIREsat-1 and INST-2TD were injected successfully into a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 529 km. The orbit achieved for the satellites is very close to the intended orbits,” the space agency said in a statement.
After separation, two solar arrays of EOS-04 deployed automatically and Isro Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru assumed control. The satellite will be manoeuvred to its final position and begin providing data in a few days.
This was the first mission of the space agency under the chairmanship of S Somanath, who took over as the chairperson Isro and secretary department of space in January. Keeping his remarks short, the chairperson thanked his teams and said that the satellite was a big asset for the country. S Somanath ended his less-than-a-minute long address with, “We will be back again with the next launch of PSLV very soon. Till then, goodbye.”
The 1,700kg EOS-04 is a radar imaging satellite capable of providing high-quality images under all weather conditions. It can be used to capture images for agriculture, forestry, flood mapping, soil moisture and hydrology. The satellite has a mission life of 10 years.
The spacecraft will also carry the INS-2DT technology demonstrator satellite, which has a thermal imaging camera and can help in the assessment of land and water surface temperatures apart from mapping vegetation.
The third InspireSat-1 satellite was developed by the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, University of Colorado, US, Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, and National Central University in Taiwan. This satellite will use two instruments to study ionosphere dynamics and the Sun’s coronal heating process.

::Sport::

Indian Railways to set up country's largest wrestling academy

The Indian Railways will soon set up the country's biggest and exclusive world-class academy for wrestlers in railways, with all the best sports facilities in Delhi's Kishanganj locality.
The ministry said the railway has already sanctioned an estimated cost of Rs 30.76 crore for its establishment on February 11.
In a written reply in the RajyaSabha, union railway minister AshwiniVaishnav announced that India's proposed biggest wrestling academy would be equipped with advanced training facilities that will provide ample opportunities to many aspiring wrestlers to become champions in future.