Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 22 April 2022

::National::

Indian doctor performs UAE's first paediatric bone marrow transplant

An Indian doctor in Abu Dhabi has performed the first paediatric stem cell bone marrow transplant in the UAE, the hospital where it was performed has announced.
The highly advanced allogeneic procedure was successfully carried out on a five-year-old girl from Uganda with sickle cell disease by Dr. ZainulAabideen, Head of the Department of Paediatric Hematology and Oncology at Burjeel Medical City.
According to a statement released here, the procedure, conducted at the 400-bed multi-specialty hospital's Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, is the very first paediatric treatment of its kind to be performed in the country.
The patient's 10-year-old sister donated her bone marrow for the transplant at Burjeel Medical City, a flagship hospital of VPS Healthcare.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic disorder, which results in an abnormality in the hemoglobin found in red blood cells, causing them to become sickle-shaped and leading to several complications including anaemia, swelling in the hands and feet, frequent pain, acute chest syndrome, and sometimes stroke.
"As this was a life-threatening condition, the only curative option was bone marrow transplantation. Before this procedure, the patient suffered a lot. The entire care team here at the hospital and the child's parents are delighted that the transplant will relieve this pain from her life,” said Dr. Aabideen.
The patient has responded well to the treatment and will be discharged in a few days after a five-week stay at the hospital, which has advanced capabilities in adult and paediatric oncology as well as long-term and palliative care.
Earlier, pediatric patients in the UAE who had to undergo allogeneic stem cell bone marrow transplants travelled to the US, the UK, India, and other European countries. Burjeel Medical City plans to expand its bone marrow transplant capabilities across the region to continue to change the lives of adults and children suffering from chronic and life-altering conditions.

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::International::

UK's Johnson says under-fire Sunak to remain finance minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave his backing to his under-fire finance minister Rishi Sunak, saying he will remain in his job as the country's second most powerful politician after the next cabinet reshuffle expected later this year.
Sunak, once seen as a strong candidate to succeed Johnson, has faced a salvo of criticism for not giving enough cost-of-living support to households, his wealthy wife's non-domiciled tax status and a fine he received, along with Johnson, for breaking lockdown rules.
Asked on a trip to India whether Sunak will still be the finance minister in the autumn, Johnson said: "The answer to that is yes".
Johnson declined to answer questions about whether other ministers will keep their jobs.
"You're not going to get any more out of me," he said. "Let's talk about what we're doing and let's not talk about who's going to do it."
Sunak has also been criticised for holding a U.S. "green card" - an immigration status intended for permanent U.S. residents - after he became finance minister in 2020.
Johnson told reporters in India that he would do everything to help people in Britain facing what the government's budget forecasters have said is likely to be the biggest fall in inflation-adjusted incomes since at least the 1950s.
But Johnson said critics who have blamed rising energy bills on the government's plans to promote renewable energy were mistaken.

::Economy::

Bank of India plans to raise up to Rs 2,500 cr equity capital in FY23

Public sector lender Bank of India plans to raise fresh equity capital of up to Rs 2,500 crore in the current financial year (FY23) for business growth.
Its board is slated to meet on April 25, 2022 to consider a capital raising proposal by way of a further issue of equity shares, BOI informed BSE.
It could look at options including qualified institutional placement (QIP), follow-on public offer and preferential issue of shares.
The bank's capital adequacy ratio stood at 16.66 per cent in December 2021, up from 12.51 per cent in December 2020.
For nine months (April-December 2021), net profit rose to Rs 2,798.4 crore from Rs 1,910.1 crore in the same period in the last financial year (FY21).
In September 2021, it had raised Rs 1,800 crore in capital through tier II bonds. In August 2021 it tapped institutional investors to raise Rs 2,550 crore in equity capital. Prior to it in March 2021, the government of India infused Rs 3,000 crore as capital through zero coupon bonds (ZCB).
The Reserve Bank of India had flagged concern at the recapitalisation of public sector banks through zero-coupon bonds (ZCBs). The discounting, to be done by fair-value method, could halve the bonds' value to about Rs 1,500 crore.

Fino Payments Bank receives RBI nod to offer partner bank's FD, RD services

Fino Payments Bank on Wednesday said it has received the RBI approval for commencing referral services of fixed deposit (FD) and recurring deposit (RD) on behalf of a partner bank.
In its letter dated April 19, the RBI stated that Fino Bank can carry out referral services of term deposit products in the form of FD and RD as a Business Correspondent of Suryoday Small Finance Bank (SSFB).
The association is the second between Fino Bank and SSFB and the first one as listed entities, the payment bank said in a statement.
Earlier, Fino partnered with SSFB to offer a sweep account facility to its customers to address the Rs 1 lakh end of the day deposit limit, which was later revised to Rs 2 lakh.
The FD and RD referral services will be offered to Fino Bank's over 3.9 million customers who are aspirational and need access to these products to ensure their financial needs are met, the statement said.
The service is expected to go live in the second quarter of FY23.

::Science and tech::

Astronomers discover the ‘most distant galaxy ever’

An international team of astronomers has discovered the most distant astronomical object of all time: a galaxy. Shining only about 300 million years after the Big Bang, it may contain the oldest stars in the universe or a supermassive black hole.
The findings of the study were published in 'The Astrophysical Journal'.
The team proposes two ideas: HD1 may be forming stars at an astounding rate and is possibly even home to Population III stars, the universe's very first stars -- which, until now, have never been observed. Alternatively, HD1 may contain a supermassive black hole about 100 million times the mass of our Sun.
"Answering questions about the nature of a source so far away can be challenging," says Fabio Pascucci, lead author of the MNRAS study, co-author in the discovery paper on ApJ, and an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics.
"It's like guessing the nationality of a ship from the flag it flies, while being far away ashore, with the vessel in the middle of a gale and dense fog. One can maybe see some colours and shapes of the flag, but not in their entirety. It's ultimately a long game of analysis and exclusion of implausible scenarios."
At first, the researchers assumed HD1 was a standard starburst galaxy, a galaxy that is creating stars at a high rate. But after calculating how many stars HD1 was producing, they obtained "an incredible rate -- HD1 would be forming more than 100 stars every single year. This is at least 10 times higher than what we expect for these galaxies." That's when the team began suspecting that HD1 might not be forming normal, everyday stars.

::Sports::

Serena Williams, Lewis Hamilton join Broughton's bid to buy Chelsea

Former tennis world number one Serena Williams and seven-times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton have joined Martin Broughton's bid to buy Premier League club Chelsea, a source close to the bid told Reuters.
Former Liverpool chairman Broughton's consortium includes World Athletics President Sebastian Coe and wealthy investors from around the world, who the group says all want to maintain Chelsea's top status.
Private equity veterans Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who own sport teams including the National Basketball Association's Philadelphia 76ers, are also backing Broughton's bid.
Williams and Hamilton have pledged an estimated 10 million pounds ($13.06 million) each to the bid, Sky Sports reported.