Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 23 December 2021

::National::

PM Modi to launch projects worth over ₹2,000 crore in Varanasi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh again on Thursday to launch multiple development initiatives and schemes worth ₹2,095 crore. The Prime Minister has visited his Lok Sabha constituency multiple times in recent days, ahead of the assembly elections in the state.
His last visit to Varanasi was on December 13, when PM Modi inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project.
The Election Commission is expected to announce the schedule of UP assembly election in the first week of January. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, is aiming to come back to power in the state for a second term and has deployed senior leaders to campaign in the state.
• Among the initiatives to be launched by PM Modi today is laying of the foundation stone for "Banas Dairy Sankul" at the Uttar Pradesh State Industrial Development Authority food park, in Karkhiyaon area.
The Prime Minister will also digitally transfer a bonus of about ₹35 crore to the bank accounts of more than 1.7 lakh milk producers associated with the Banas Dairy.
PM will lay the foundation stone for a biogas-based electricity generation plant for a Milk Producers' Cooperative Union plant in Varanasi Ramnagar. It will be a key step towards making the plant energy self-sufficient, the PMO said.
A logo developed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and dedicated to the Conformity Assessment Scheme of milk products will also be launched on the occasion.
Further, the Prime Minister will virtually distribute the rural residential rights record, "Gharauni", under the Swamitva scheme of the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj to over 20 lakh residents of Uttar Pradesh.

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::International::

Spain to mandate outdoor face masks to stem Omicron spread

Spain will reintroduce mandatory face masks outdoors and deploy troops to speed up booster shots in a bid to stem a rise in omicron cases.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the measures in an extraordinary meeting with the heads of regional governments. The cabinet will meet on Thursday to approve the measures via a decree.
The government has set deadlines to increase the coverage of booster shots across different age groups. It plans to hire more health care workers, improve their working conditions and bring back retired personnel in an effort to beef up hospital staff.
The latest wave of the virus poses a difficult challenge for Sanchez. Record infections have raised pressure on him to call for bolder measures, which in turn could dampen an already feeble recovery in the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy.
Catalonia has already announced it will impose a curfew, shut night clubs, limit gatherings and restaurant occupancy to arrest a surge in cases in the region where Barcelona is located.
Lockdowns, travel bans and curfews pushed the Spanish economy to its worst contraction on record in 2020, the deepest in the euro zone.
The rapid spread of omicron across Europe has already hit activity in the fourth quarter by keeping foreign visitors away from a country that is highly reliant on tourism, according to the Bank of Spain.
Authorities from Holland to Portugal and Sweden have ordered tighter movement restrictions to avert a collapse of their public healthcare systems.
In Spain, infections hit a new daily record on Tuesday and hospitalizations have steadily climbed to 7,634 patients. Still, intensive care unit occupation rate has been lower than in previous waves with more than 90% of the population above 12 years old fully inoculated.

::Economy::

Rates on hold but RBI MPC gets battle ready for economy as Omicron looms

Monetary policy committee (MPC) members feared rising inflation but felt that the momentum of growth recovery was not sufficient to merit policy tightening, show the minutes of the meeting released.
The six-member MPC, which announced its outcome on December 8, voted unanimously to keep the policy repo rate unchanged. However, external member Jayanth R Varma continued to vote against keeping the stance accommodative. The repo and the reverse repo rates remained unchanged at 4.00 per cent and 3.35 per cent, respectively, after the December 8 policy.
Governor Shaktikanta Das worried about the Indian economy facing “several headwinds emanating from global factors” — some old ones were getting prolonged while new ones were emerging.
“While the Indian economy is on its way to achieve the projected growth of 9.5 per cent in 2021-22, there are still significant areas of concern,” the RBI governor said.
Tax cut on fuel augurs well for the economy and should bring down inflation but revision in mobile tariff should put pressure on core inflation, Das said.
The inflation is expected to remain at 5 per cent in the second half, but the MPC must remain vigilant to “incipient cost-push pressures to inflation as well as to the uncertainty imparted by Omicron,” the RBI governor said.
Varma said the reverse repo rate must rise from 3.35 per cent.
“Raising effective money market rates quickly towards 4 per cent would demonstrate the MPC’s commitment to the inflation target, help anchor expectations, reduce risk premia, enhance macroeconomic stability, and allow lower long-term interest rates to be sustained for longer thereby aiding the economic recovery,” Varma said.

Metro Brands debuts on a weak footing, lists 13% below its issue price

RakeshJhunjhunwala-backed Metro Brands has made a weak market debut, with its shares listed at Rs 436, a 13 per cent below its issue price of Rs 500 per share on the BSE. On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the stock has opened at Rs 437 per share.
At 10:01 am, Metro Brands traded at Rs 445.50, 11 per cent lower versus the issue price on the BSE. The stock had hit a high of Rs 449 and a low of Rs 426 in intra-day trade so far on the BSE and NSE. A combined 3.7 million equity shares changed hands at the counter on both the exchanges.
The initial public offer (IPO) of branded footwear retailer Metro Brands was subscribed 3.6 times. The institutional investor portion was subscribed 8.5 times, the wealthy investor portion by 3.02 times, and retail investors by 1.13 times. The company plans to utilise the funds raised through the fresh issue for opening new stores under its Metro, Mochi, Walkway and Crocs brands.
Metro Brands is one of the largest Indian footwear speciality retailers. It has evolved in a one-stop shop for all footwear needs by retailing wide range of branded products for the entire family and for every occasion including casual and formal events.
The company retails footwear under its own brands Metro, Mochi, Walkway, Da Vinchi and J. Fontini, and certain third-party brands such as Crocs, Skechers, Clarks, Florsheim, and Fitflop. The company also offers accessories such as belts, bags, socks, masks, and wallets. And has retail foot care and shoe-care products at its stores through a joint venture, MV Shoe Care.
As of September 30, 2021, the company operated 598 stores across 136 cities, spread across 30 states and union territories in India. The company targets the economy, mid and premium segments in the footwear market.
Metro Brands recorded the highest Realization per Unit compared to the two leading players in India from Fiscal 2019 to Fiscal 2021 and in Fiscal 2020 it recorded the highest operating margins among the key players in India. Additionally, in Fiscal 2021, Metro Brands recorded the highest net profit margin of 8.1 per cent among footwear players having majorly retail business model for reaching customers.

::Science and tech::

Flawlessly preserved dinosaur embryo preparing to hatch, found in China

The fossil was discovered in Ganzhou, southern China and belonged to a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur, which the researchers dubbed "Baby Yingliang."
"It is one of the best dinosaur embryos ever found in history," University of Birmingham researcher FionWaisum Ma, who co-authored a paper in the journal iScience, told AFP.
Ma and colleagues found Baby Yingliang's head lay below its body, with the feet on either side and back curled -- a posture that was previously unseen in dinosaurs, but similar to modern birds.
In birds, the behavior is controlled by the central nervous system and called "tucking." Chicks preparing to hatch tuck their head under their right wing in order to stabilize the head while they crack the shell with their beak.
Embryos that fail to tuck have a higher chance of death from an unsuccessful hatching.
"This indicates that such behavior in modern birds first evolved and originated among their dinosaur ancestors," said Ma.
An alternative to tucking might have been something closer to what is seen in modern crocodiles, which instead assume a sitting posture with the head bending upon the chest up to hatching.
Oviraptorosaurs, which means "egg thief lizards," were feathered dinosaurs that lived in what is now Asia and North America during the Late Cretaceous period.
They had variable beak shapes and diets, and ranged in size from modern turkeys at the lower end to massive Gigantoraptors, that were eight meters (26 feet) long.
Baby Yingliang measures around 27 centimeters (10.6 inches) long from head to tail, and lies inside a 17 centimeter-long egg at the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum.
It would have grown two to three meters long if it had lived to be an adult, and would have likely fed on plants.
The specimen was one of several egg fossils that were forgotten in storage for decades.
The research team suspected they might contain unborn dinosaurs, and scraped off part of Baby Yingliang's egg shell to uncover the embryo hidden within.

::Sport::

Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham reach League Cup semi-finals

A much-changed Chelsea side featuring three teenaged debutants beat Brentford 2-0 on Wednesday to reach the League Cup semi-finals where they will face London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
An own goal 10 minutes from time by Pontus Jansson broke the deadlock at Brentford before a Jorginho penalty sealed victory for Thomas Tuchel's COVID-hit side.
In a thriller at Anfield, a weakened Liverpool side came back from the brink to beat Leicester City on penalties after a 3-3 draw, setting up a semi-final against Arsenal.
Jamie Vardy's early double gave Leicester a 2-0 lead and James Maddison's rocket shot made it 3-1 after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had pulled a goal back.