Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 19 February 2022

::National::

India showcases organic food and millets at Dubai Expo 2020

India is showcasing itself as investment destination in the food and agriculture sector, launching a Food, Agriculture and Livelihood fortnight at the India pavilion of Expo2020, Dubai on Friday with an aim to attract high-end cultivation technologies and push Indian millets and organic farm products in global markets.
The Indian contingent at the event included the agriculture ministry’s additional secretary AbhilakshLikhi, joint secretary Shubha Thakur and several representatives from the food, hospitality and farm companies.
At the event, the country will focus on promoting millets, with India playing a key role in bringing a UN resolution to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets. The country is also aiming to open up Indian organic food products to global markets as well as farm technologies based on drones, artificial intelligence and big data, an official said.
The recent Union Budget 2022-23 also proposed special schemes to promote millets or coarse cereals — key ingredients in the breakfast cereals, biscuits and healthy-snacks segments. Millets are a rich source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre.
An official statement said the Food, Agriculture and Livelihood fortnight, being held from February 17– March 2, will have sessions under key themes of millets, food processing, horticulture, dairy, fisheries and organic farming.
“Indian farmers produce food that not only sustains India but also provides food security to the world. Millets are an important area for us, and we would like to utilise this global platform to learn about the health and nutritional aspects of millets and bring back the glory of millets,” the statement quoted joint secretary Shubha Thakur as saying.

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::International::

India flags concerns over Canada bill banning swastika

India has flagged to Ottawa the Indo-Canadian community’s concerns over a bill before Canada’s Parliament to ban the sale and display of hateful symbols, including the swastika for its association with Nazism.
A private members bill, tabled by National Democratic Party MP Peter Julian last week, which has the support of party leader Jagmeet Singh, has infuriated the Indo-Canadian over “demonization” of a sacred symbol of the community.
The bill seeks to “prevent the display or sale of symbols or emblems such as the Nazi swastika and the Ku Klux Klan’s insignia, flags such as the standards of Germany between the years 1933 to 1945 and those of the Confederate States of America between the years 1861 to 1865 and uniforms, including the German and Confederate States of America military dress of those periods, as well as the hoods and robes of the Ku Klux Klan”.
“Swastikas and confederate flags have no place in Canada. We have a responsibility to make our communities safe for everyone — it’s time to ban hate symbols in Canada,” Singh said earlier this month, promoting a petition in this regard.
India’s Consul General ApoorvaSrivastava said India has “formally flagged this issue to Government of Canada and shared with them the petitions received from Canadian groups in this regard”. He was responding to Toronto-based rights advocate Ragini Sharma, according to whom, those who revere the swastika -- including Hindus, Buddhists and Jains -- found “deeply hurtful” the remarks by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alluding to “the inherent violence of the swastika”.
While empathising with the trauma suffered by Jews during the Holocaust, the campaign is against “the incorrect linking of The Nazi HakenKreuz or hooked cross to the Swastika. We need Canadians to be educated about the differences and to understand that the Swastika has nothing to do with Nazi hate symbol”.
She pointed out that if it became law, it could cause problems for individuals and even for organisations like the Canadian Buddhist Association, which prominently features rows of the symbol at the entrance to its temple in Toronto.

::Economy::

Mysterious Himalayan 'yogi' had been flagged in NSE co-location scam probe

During the course of investigation into the issue of co-location facilities at NSE, SEBI came across certain documentary evidences, which demonstrated that the erstwhile MD and CEO of NSE, ChitraRamkrishna, had shared certain internal confidential information of the exchange.
These include information on organisational structure, dividend scenario, financial results, human resource policy and related issues, response to regulator etc., shared with an unknown person by addressing her correspondence to the email id -- rigyajursama@outlook.com (referred as 'unknown person'/ rigyajursama@outlook.com) during the period 2014 to 2016.
NSE in its letter dated July 6, 2018 had drawn reference to the forensic investigation report of E&Y wherein E&Y upon examination of the matter concluded that the said person was Anand Subramanian. NSE has also concurred with the same.

India-UAE CEPA will lead to glorious, shared future: EAM Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed between India and the UAE on Friday marked a milestone in the bilateral ties, which will lead to a glorious, shared future and enhanced investments.
The path-breaking trade agreement was signed during a virtual summit between Prime Minister NarendraModi and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan on Friday. The agreement was signed and exchanged by Commerce and Industry Minister PiyushGoyal and UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri in New Delhi.
In an exclusive statement to UAE's official Emirates News Agency WAM, Jaishankar said the signing of the UAE-India CEPA "is a milestone event in our bilateral relations".
"It will open new opportunities in both trade in goods and services, and will lead to enhanced investments," he said.
"A vision document (signed during the virtual summit) will provide contours for future growth of our bilateral relationship for a glorious, shared future. Overall, the two (CEPA and the vision document) will deepen our strategic partnership," Jaishankar said.
The UAE is India's third largest trading partner and accounts for approximately 40 per cent of its trade with the Arab world, the WAM report said.
In September last year, India and the UAE formally launched negotiations for the trade agreement.
The pact covers areas including goods, services, rules of origin, customs procedures, government procurement, intellectual property rights, and e-commerce.
Under such agreements, two trading partners reduce or eliminate customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them. Besides, they also liberalise norms to enhance trade in services and boost investments.

::Science and tech::

As Nasa Perseverance completes a year on Mars, a look at milestones achieved

Nasa’s Perseverance rover has completed a full Earth year on Mars after its successful landing on February 19, 2021. During this period on the Red Planet, the rover has completed many firsts from its ambitious to-do list: collected the first rock cores from another planet; served as a base station for Ingenuity helicopter; extracted oxygen from thin Martian air; and set driving records.
The rover, weighing roughly a ton, touched down in Mars’s Jezero crater last year after travelling almost 300 million miles over seven months. The landing was only the beginning of the first leg of an ambitious mission under which Nasa aims to learn whether life ever existed on Mars. Nasa scientists have identified Jezero Crater as an ancient lakebed, formed billions of years ago. The rover has been sent to collect rocks from the crater and return the samples to Earth on future missions.
The Perseverance rover has so far collected six rock core samples from Mars and two more samples will be collected in the coming weeks. Scientists expect that these rocks could provide a key chronology for the formation of Jezero Crater and the age of the lake that once resided there.
Apart from serving as an indispensable base station for Ingenuity, the first helicopter on Mars, the rover also tested the first prototype oxygen generator on the Red Planet, called MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment).
The Perseverance recently broke a record for the most distance driven by a rover on Mars in a single day by travelling almost 320 meters on February 14. It performed the entire drive using the self-driving software that allows the rover to find its own path around rocks and other obstacles.

::Sport::

Antonio Conte names club to win Champions League title this season

Tottenham boss Antonio Conte will face a stiff test when the north London club travels to Manchester City this weekend. The former Chelsea and Inter Milan manager has slumped to three defeats on the trot and a daunting Premier League game against the Manchester giants makes life difficult for him.
Tottenham are currently seven points behind fourth-placed Manchester United with three games in hand but they face an uphill task to halt Manchester City's march towards their fourth title in five years. Pep Guardiola's men on Tuesday were ruthless in their 5-0 win over Sporting in the Champions League. City were dominant from start to finish in the Portuguese capital to all but seal their spot in the quarter-finals.