Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 18 June 2022

::National::

Centre announces 10% reservation for Agniveers in CAPF, Assam Rifles recruitment

The Centre announced a 10% reservation for Agniveers, youngsters who will be recruited to the military for four years through the Agnipath scheme, in the recruitment of CAPFs and Assam Rifles once they complete their four-year contract.
The announcement comes amid the raging protest against the Agnipath scheme announced by the Centre on Tuesday. The Union home ministry has also decided to give three years of age relaxation beyond the prescribed upper age limit to Agniveers for recruitment in CAPFs and Assam Rifles, while the first batch of Agniveer will get a relaxation of 5 years beyond the prescribed upper age limit, the home ministry said.
The Centre earlier assured that the future of the Agniveers is not insecure though only 25% of the force will be retained after four years as the rest will get priority in other recruitments. Several BJP-ruled states including Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana have already announced that they will give priority to Agniveers in their state police recruitment.
Concerns have been raised over the future of the Agniveers as Centre's Agnipath offers employment only for four years. Nationwide protests broke out leading to massive violence, arson, damage to railway properties, and death of a protester in Telangana in police firing. With opposition parties vehemently criticising the short-term recruitment plan, the government came under pressure over the Agnipath scheme.
The government modified the Agnipath scheme and provided an age waiver of extra two years for the first batch of Agniveers which means instead of 21, youth between 17.5 and 23 years will be allowed to apply for the Agnipath scheme this year.

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::International::

Kyiv gets possible path to EU, Putin unaffected

The European Union’s executive arm recommended putting Ukraine on a path to membership, a symbolic boost for a country fending off a Russian onslaught that is killing civilians, flattening cities and threatening its very survival.
In another show of Western support, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrived in Kyiv to meet with President VolodymyrZelensky to offer continued aid and military training, adding that evidence points to Russia ”taking heavy casualties” in the invasion.
“We are with you to give you the strategic endurance that you will need,” Johnson said on his second visit to the country. Although he did not detail the aid, he said Britain would lead a program that could train up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers every 120 days in an unspecified location outside the country.
The latest embrace of Ukraine by its European allies also marks another setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched his war nearly four months ago, hoping to pull his ex-Soviet neighbour away from the West and back into Russia’s sphere of influence.
Putin also said on Friday he had no objections to Ukraine joining the European Union.
“We have nothing against it. It is not a military bloc. It’s the right of any country to join economic unions,” Putin said.
Russia has railed against Ukraine’s attempts to join the Nato military alliance for years, with the issue becoming a major stand-off between Moscow and the West.

::Economy::

India softens stance to hammer out a "no harm" trade deal at WTO meet

After nearly hitting a deadlock over fisheries subsidies, the 164 member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) forged a bouquet of deals in the wee hours in Geneva by significantly lowering their ambitions.
The four-day conference, which kicked off on Sunday, was scheduled to end on June 15. However, it was extended by two more days to push trade ministers to hammer out a deal to maintain a sense of purpose at a multilateral organisation that is fighting for its relevance.
The deal included patent waiver to fight the pandemic, limited only to production and exports of vaccines that India had earlier termed as “too late in the day as the pandemic has run its initial course”. India’s demand to allow it to export food grain from its public stockholding could also not be agreed upon. On fisheries, though millions of Indian fishermen will not face any cut in state subsidies, countries were able to agree to only a partial deal to cut down illegal unreported, unregulated (IUU) especially by China and countries of the European Union.
Commerce and Industry Minister PiyushGoyal said perhaps this was the first ministerial where India set the agenda. “We were on the front foot. We were telling other countries what need to be done.”
The outcome of the WTO is not only emblematic of the importance of a multilateral trading system but is also seen as an image makeover effort by India to be seen as a deal maker than a deal breaker.
BiswajitDhar, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University said countries have deliberately lowered their ambitions to at least get something on the table. “If you have high ambitions and fail, then it would have sent a signal that WTO can’t take decisions,” he added.

At Rs 3.39 trillion, direct tax collection sees a 45% surge: CBDT

Net direct tax collections for the current fiscal year surged 45 per cent to Rs 3.39 trillion between April 1 and June 16, compared to Rs 2.33 trillion in the same period a year ago, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said on Friday.
Advance tax collections for the first quarter of this fiscal stood at over Rs 1.01 trillion against Rs 75,783 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal. This is a rise of 33 per cent.
Of this, corporates paid Rs 78,842 crore and collections from individuals stood at Rs 22,175 crore. This amount is expected to increase as further information is received from banks, the direct tax body said.
Gross collection of direct taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for the fiscal stood at Rs 3.69 trillion compared to Rs 2.64 trillion in the corresponding period of the preceding year. This is a surge of 40 per cent.
This includes corporation tax at Rs 1.9 trillion and personal income tax, including security transaction tax at Rs 1.78 trillion.
Head-wise collection also comprises tax deducted at source, which stood at Rs 2.29 trillion. This compares to Rs 1.57 trillion for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, showing a growth of nearly 46 per cent. Other components such as self-assessment tax stood at Rs 21,849 crore.

::Science and tech::

Scientists discover 'super Jupiter' orbiting white dwarf

Space scientists have discovered a 'super Jupiter' orbiting a white dwarf, detected using direct observations of the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Gaia mission.
The discovery forms part of a treasure trove of data made available in Gaia's Data Release 3, which provides the most detailed survey of our galactic neighbourhood to date.
Observations made by the Gaia observatory, which orbits a point in space about 1.5 million km from Earth, will allow astronomers to create the most accurate and complete multi-dimensional map of the Milky Way and better understand our place in the Universe.
Martin Barstow, Professor of Astrophysics and Space Science at the University of Leicester and Director of Strategic Partnerships for Space Park Leicester, is part of the Gaia collaboration to have co-authored multiple papers using the new data.
Other highlights of Data Release 3 include a description of 'starquakes', stellar DNA and a new binary star catalogue of more than 800,000 binary systems. Before Gaia launched in 2013, only around 30,000 binaries were known in our galaxy.
"This Data Release 3 is a complete step change. All the data we have catalogued using spectra -- stellar distances, ages, composition, and more -- adds an extra dimension to what we know about the stars in our galaxy, and represents a huge leap forward."

::Sports::

After controversies, Indian cycling looks to get back on track

It has been far from an ideal preparation for the Indian cycling team that will compete in its first international meet in two years at the Asian Track Cycling Championships at the IG Sports Complex velodrome here beginning.
The lead-up has been rather stormy as a woman cyclist levelled allegations of sexual harassment against chief coach RK Sharma during their camp in Slovenia. The endurance team’s tour was cut short by a week and called back on June 8.
Sharma's contract was terminated based on a preliminary report of a probe panel constituted by the Sports Authority of India. VN Singh was given charge of the team just days before the competition. Following the incident, there were reports of other cyclists revealing a toxic team environment under Sharma.