Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 22 January 2022

::National::

Amit Shah to release district-level Good Governance Index for J&K

Union home minister Amit Shah will release the Good Governance Index for 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir today, a first of its kind for a Union territory. With 58 indicators, the framework will assess different aspects of development and district administration in sectors such as agriculture, commerce and industry, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, and public safety, among others.
The Index was prepared by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) in collaboration with the government of Jammu and Kashmir following the resolution adopted during a regional conference on replication of good governance practices held in July last year in Srinagar. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, and Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, will also address the event.
Ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions said in a statement that the DGGI for Jammu and Kashmir represents a major administrative reform in benchmarking good governance at the district level.
“The District Good Governance Index is a milestone and it is expected that it will provide a robust framework for evidence-based assessment of the performance of all the districts in Jammu & Kashmir,” it said.
The Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad will make a presentation on the formulation of the District Good Governance Index, followed by district presentations by selected 12 District Development Commissioners showcasing achievements of various sectors. A panel discussion will also be held for measuring and benchmarking performance and improvement of districts in future as well.

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::International::

Biden issues new warning to Russia over invading Ukraine

US President Joe Biden said that any Russian troop movements across Ukraine's border would constitute an invasion, saying that Moscow would “pay a heavy price” for such an action.
His stark warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin came in remarks from the White House and was another effort to clear up any confusion about the position of the US and its NATO allies after Biden was heavily criticized Wednesday for saying a “minor incursion” by Russia would elicit a lesser response.
“I’ve been absolutely clear with President Putin. He has no misunderstanding: Any, any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion,” Biden said. “Let there be no doubt at all if Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.”
His comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepares to meet Friday in Geneva with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a high-stakes bid to ease tensions that appears likely to fail.
But Biden also prompted consternation among allies after saying the response to a Russian invasion “depends on what it does.” “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera,” he said.
Biden said Thursday that “Russia has a long history of using measures other than overt military action to carry out aggression -- paramilitary tactics, so-called gray zone attacks and actions by Russian soldiers not wearing Russian uniforms.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among those expressing concern about Biden’s “minor incursion” remark.
“If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border and commit new acts of aggression against Ukraine, that will be met with a swift, severe, united response from the United States and our allies and partners,” Blinken told a news conference with his German counterpart.

::Economy::

Ind-Ra forecasts India's GDP growth to be 7.6% in FY2023

India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) expects gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 7.6 per cent in fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23), helped partly by continued government spending and a favourable global trade outlook, the ratings agency said.
“After two years, the Indian economy will show a meaningful expansion, as the real GDP in FY23 will be 9.1 per cent higher than the FY20 (pre-Covid level) GDP level. However, the size of the Indian economy in FY23 will be 10.2 per cent lower than the FY23 GDP trend value,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist with Ind-Ra.
“A continued weakness in private consumption and investment demand is estimated to contribute 43.4 per cent and 21.0 per cent, respectively, to this shortfall. However, if the impact of Omicron on Q4FY22 growth turns out to be greater than Ind-Ra’s estimate, then there could be some upside to the FY23 growth originating from the base effect,” Sinha said.
The economic recovery was encouraging, he said, and restrictions put in place by many states to contain the current wave of Covid-19 were not as severe as the second wave. Nonetheless, there are risks to the ongoing recovery, the ratings agency warned. It pointed to the latest FY22 GDP advance estimates, which show that private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) — the largest component of GDP (58.6 per cent) from the demand side and a proxy for consumption demand — is projected to grow only 6.9 per cent YoY in the current year, despite a low base and sales data of many consumer durables showing robust growth.
“The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) consumer confidence survey shows that consumer sentiments, which had collapsed May 2019 onwards, have yet not recovered to the pre-Covid levels. Wage growth both in the rural and urban areas is facing significant headwinds and has been declining since mid-2020.”
Also, inflation-adjusted wages are indicating erosion of households' purchasing power and rising expenditure costs have impacted consumption demand.
The ratings agency said it estimates investments, as measured by gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), to grow 8.7 per cent YoY in FY23. “Private investments have been down and out over the past several years and Ind-Ra believes the revival of private investment demand will be a slow and drawn-out process,” it said.
“Given that the economy is still in need of policy support, the government is unlikely to be in a hurry to move back to the path of fiscal consolidation. Ind-Ra, therefore, expects fiscal deficit to come in at 5.8-6 per cent of GDP in FY23.”

India no longer signs FTAs just to be part of a group: Piyush Goyal

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has said that India is no longer signing free trade agreements (FTAs) just to join a group. Speaking at an event organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday, Goyal said that India instead looks at reciprocal access, good market conditions, and fair play in trade in both goods and services.
"We are looking at robust FTAs with like-minded nations with values of democracy, transparency and mutual growth," the minister said.
He added that FTA is a two-way traffic and industry should inculcate a greater appetite for risk taking as these pacts cannot give one-sided access for Indian goods and services alone.
"Our focus is wherever we have comparative or competitive advantage, we should look at market access and wherever the advantage is with some other country, we don't have to force the Indian consumer to buy expensive," the minister said.
Goyal, who is also the textiles minister, said India is trying to get zero-duty exports to the UK for the textiles sector and also discussing the same with the European Union.
In December 2021, the commerce ministry had said that the negotiations between India and the UAE were at an advanced stage and the two partners were expected to wrap up a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement by January this year.
On October 12, Hindustan Times reported about the government’s aggressive timelines for trade agreements with at least three countries - the UAE, the UK and Australia - by 2022 as part of its ambitious target of $500 billion exports by FY23.
Under FTAs, two trading partners significantly reduce or eliminate import/customs duties on the maximum number of goods traded between them, besides easing norms to promote trade in services.

::Science and tech::

Nasa captures image of mid-level flare erupting

Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the Sun emitting a mid-level solar flare that peaked at 1.01 am EST (11.31am IST). Solar flares are powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation that could last from minutes to hours. Nasa classified the flare as an M5.5 class flare, an x-ray flare of moderate severity.
While harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, when intense, it can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. According to Nasa, the increased level of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation leads to ionization in the lower layers of the ionosphere on the sunlit side of Earth.
When a strong enough solar flare occurs, radio waves that interact with electrons in layers lose energy due to the more frequent collisions that occur in the higher density environment in the lower layers of the ionosphere. This could lead to degradation and complete absorption of HF radio signals, resulting in a radio blackout.
“Solar flares usually take place in active regions, which are areas on the Sun marked by the presence of strong magnetic fields; typically associated with sunspot groups. As these magnetic fields evolve, they can reach a point of instability and release energy in a variety of forms. These include electromagnetic radiation, which are observed as solar flares,” Space Weather Prediction Center of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says on its website.

::Sport::

Sam Kerr becomes Australia's all time leading goal scorer

With five goals in an 18-0 thrashing of Indonesia, Kerr, who has roots in India, went past Tim Cahill's tally.
Before taking the field for her first 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup match, Australian women’s football captain Sam Kerr sat with the passing thought of just how memorable it would be for her to break an impending landmark in India.
Kerr, who had never set foot in the country before, has deep-rooted Indian heritage. Her father Roger, a former Australian Rules Football player, was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta) to Anglo-Indian parents who moved to Perth in the late 1960s. The significance, therefore, of becoming Australia’s all-time leading goal scorer on Indian soil wasn’t lost on the 28-year-old.