Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 17 January 2021

::NATIONAL::

The apex court said the decision should be taken by the Delhi Police as the entry of farmers into the national Capital was a law and order problem Entry of farmers into Delhi is a law and order problem and any decision in this regard should be taken by the Delhi Police, said the Supreme Court.
The statement was made by a three-judge bench headed by CJI SA Bobde while hearing an application filed by Delhi Police to direct farmers not to disrupt the Republic Day celebrations in the Capital on January 26.
The matter will now be heard on January 20 when the bench dealing with petitions against the farmer protests will be available.
This bench, which last assembled on January 12, comprises CJI Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. On that day, the court had stayed the implementation of the three farm laws under challenge and formed a four-member expert committee to study the concerns raised by the farmer unions and submit its recommendations to the court in eight weeks.

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan said that Pakistan and Turkey are "two countries, one nation" as the Imran Khan government desperately seeks to salvage its relations with Ankara amid deteriorating relations with middle east and gulf countries.
According to Geo News, the Air Chief was addressing a meeting comprising board members of the Association of Justice Defenders and Strategic Studies Center (ASSAM) in Turkey on Friday.
The Air Chief said that Pakistan fully supports Turkey on Cyprus and other regional issues and also stands by Ankara in its war against terrorism.
Pakistan's declining relations with its two biggest sources of foreign remittances and foreign exchange-- Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-- is "bad news" for its already ailing economy, said scholar Salman Rafi Sheikh.
The Khan regime's tilt towards Turkey is reflected in his recent foreign policy choices, including its stated willingness to revive the dormant transnational rail service linking Istanbul, Tehran and Islamabad (ITI) in 2021.

China's economy grew at the slowest pace in more than four decades last year despite a rebound after the country's coronavirus outbreak, official data.
The 2.3 percent expansion is the lowest figure since the Chinese economy embarked on major reforms in the 1970s.
The National Bureau of Statistics warned of a "grave and complex environment both at home and abroad", with the pandemic having a "huge impact".

The central board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) wants banking system stress tests to include several parameters in addition to non-performing assets (NPAs), a person aware of the matter said.
The board has discussed doing away with the singular focus on NPAs in the bi-annual stress tests for RBI’s Financial Stability Report (FSR), the person cited above said on condition of anonymity, adding multiple indicators are needed to identify emerging stress in the system.
In its latest FSR released on 11 January, RBI said gross NPAs could rise to 13.5% under the baseline stress scenario by September 30, 2021, the highest in more than 22 years, up from 7.5% as of September 30, 2020. It is predicted to almost double to 14.8% under a severe stress scenario.
“The issue has been discussed at the meetings of the central board and board of financial supervision. Irrespective of the stress tests, which are being done for so many years, RBI couldn’t avert a crisis. It has been, therefore, discussed that RBI should not go by headline figures and should instead have multiple indicators to warn them about impending stress in the system.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought inputs from telcos and other industry experts on the sale and use of radio frequency spectrum over the next 10 years, including the 5G bands.
5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks.
5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.
5G, have indicated that this band may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
The high-band spectrum offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps(giga bits per second), while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps.

With no way out, tennis players in lockdown are figuring out ways to keep themselves fit within the confines of their Melbourne hotel rooms as they prepare for the Australian Open.
Angelique Kerber, who won the Australian Open in 2016, spent her birthday in quarantine. At times in the past, she's spent the day playing or preparing for matches in the later stages of the tournament.
This year, with the season-opening Grand Slam event not starting until Feb. 8 because of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, she had to settle for a message posted on social media by Australian Open organizers to mark the occasion.