Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 23 February 2021

::NATIONAL::

PM Modi launches several oil and gas projects in poll-bound Assam

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched several oil and gas projects, inaugurated an engineering college and laid the foundation stone of another in Assam on Monday.
“Despite immense potential, previous governments treated the North Bank of Brahmaputra (in Assam) in a step-motherly manner. Connectivity, hospitals, educational institutions or industry was not a concern of these earlier governments,” said Modi in a public meeting at Silapathar.
“Such bias was removed with the coming of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) government led by Sarbananda Sonowal. Work on the Bogibeel bridge on Brahmaputra was sped up and broad-gauge railway lines reached this area after our government came to power.
The PM dedicated the INDMAX unit at Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) Bongaigaon refinery to the nation. INDMAX is an indigenously developed technology by IOC to produce a high yield of LPG and high-octane gasoline from various petroleum fractions.

Lt Gen B S Raju to be New Director General of Military Operations of Army

Lt Gen B S Raju, the General-Officer-Commanding of the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, will be the new Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) of the Indian Army, official sources said on Saturday. Lt Gen D P Pandey, currently serving as the Director General of the Territorial Army, will succeed Lt Gen Raju at the crucial corps in Srinagar that carries out the Army's counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir, they said.
Lt Gen Raju, who has extensive experience in counter-terror operations, will succeed Lt Gen Paramjit Singh who has been appointed as Deputy Chief of the Army Staff (strategy). The new post of Deputy Chief of the Army staff (strategy) was created in December as part of mega reforms in the Army headquarters.
Lt Gen Raju is expected to take charge as the new DGMO in late March or early April.

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::International::

Rishi Sunak plans more Covid aid for UK as unemployment climbs

The UK’s finance minister Rishi Sunak is set to spend billions of pounds in extra support for the economy over the next four months, as pandemic curbs pushed unemployment to its highest level in almost five years.
The chancellor of the exchequer will set out the details in his March 3 budget after Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined a timeline for reopening the UK economy that keeps some businesses closed until at least June 21.
“At the budget next week I will set out the next stage of our Plan for Jobs, and the support we’ll provide through the remainder of the pandemic and our recovery,” Sunak said in an e-mailed statement. “I know how incredibly tough the past year has been for everyone.”
The budget deficit is already setting peacetime records after the chancellor committed to spending 300 billion pounds ($422 billion) to help the health service and businesses cope with the crisis, a sum that’s set to increase next week.
Johnson detailed his four-step plan gradually to lift restrictions that have damaged the economy and kept most children away from school since the start of the year. While schools will reopen in two weeks, people will be asked to work from home where possible until at least June 21.
A snap poll of 3,900 adults in England by YouGov found the largest proportion -- 46% -- think the government has got the balance right on lifting the lockdown, whereas 26% think ministers are moving too fast and 16% too slowly.

::Economy::

Musk loses $15.2 billion in a day after issuing warning regarding Bitcoin surge

Elon Musk is no longer the world’s richest person after Tesla Inc. shares slid 8.6% on Monday, wiping $15.2 billion from his net worth.
Tesla’s biggest decline since September was fueled in part by Musk’s comments over the weekend that the prices of Bitcoin and smaller rival Ether “do seem high.” His message -- via his favored medium of Twitter -- came two weeks after Tesla announced it added $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to its balance sheet.
Musk also tweeted earlier Monday that the company’s Model Y Standard Range SUV would still be available “off the menu,” backing up reports from electric vehicle news site Electrek that the model had been removed from its online configurator.
Musk drops to second on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s 500 richest people with a net worth of $183.4 billion -- down from a peak of $210 billion in January.
Bezos occupied the top spot on the ranking for three straight years prior to January, when Musk eclipsed the e-commerce titan thanks to a 794% rally in Tesla shares.
The market selloff on Monday hit many of the world’s ultra-rich. Zhong Shanshan, Asia’s wealthiest person, was the second-biggest decliner on the Bloomberg index, dropping by $5.1 billion as his bottled-water company fell 4.5%. Colin Huang of Pinduoduo Inc., Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Mukesh Ambani and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Pony Ma all lost more than $2.5 billion each.

Reliance Jio plans $950 million data centre in Uttar Pradesh

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, India’s largest wireless operator, plans to build a data centre in Uttar Pradesh at an investment of around $950 million, two people aware of the development said.
“This is an important focus area for Reliance Jio,” said one of the two people cited above, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
A top minister in the state government confirmed the development. “For the data centre, a 20-acre plot had been allotted to the company, and the project is to cost approximately ₹7,000 crore,” Sidharth Nath Singh, who heads the ministries of investment and export, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and textile in the UP government, said in a statement in response to a Mint query.
“The centre will consist of six interconnected data centre buildings offering 30,000 racks capacity and 200MW of power.
It is expected to generate thousands of job opportunities in IT (information technology) sector,” Singh said in the statement.
According to the government, India has around 375MW installed power capacity for data centres, which may triple by 2025. Also, there is a $4.9 billion investment opportunity by 2025 to set up data centre infrastructure.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

DRDO launches 2 successful VL-SRSAM developed for Indian Navy

India conducted maiden flight test of Vertically Launched Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) from a defence facility off Odisha coast.
Defence sources said two rounds of the indigenously developed missile were tested from a static vertical launcher positioned at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at about 1.30 pm and 4.45 pm. The missiles were fired against simulated targets.
"The missile was test fired for demonstration of its vertical launch capability as part of maiden trial. The two weapon systems intercepted the simulated targets with pinpoint accuracy on both occasions. The missiles were tested for minimum and maximum range," the sources said.
The flight path and vehicle performance parameters were monitored using flight data, captured by various Range instruments such as radar, electro-optical telemetry system deployed by ITR.
Designed and developed by DRDO for Indian Navy, the VL-SRSAM is capable of neutralising various aerial threats at close ranges including sea skimming targets.

The VL-SRSAM with weapon control system (WCS) was deployed during the trials.

DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy said the trials have proved the effectiveness of the weapon system. "A few more trials will be conducted before deployment on Indian Naval ships. Once deployed, the VL-SRSAM system will prove to be a force multiplier for the Navy," he said.
The next generation all-weather air defence missile system can provide point and area defence against various aerial targets like jets, fighter aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles. The canister-based state of art weapon system can identify, track, engage and destroy the target with high kill probability. It has a strike range of about 40 km.

::SPORTS::

In race against time to qualify for the Olympics

In a couple of days G Sathiyan, along with the Indian table tennis team, will be on board a flight to Doha for the much-awaited Olympic qualifiers. Both World and Asian qualifiers are scheduled one after the other, from March 14, with the players confined to a bio-bubble for six-weeks, including for two Pro tour events preceding the qualifiers.
Sathiyan will not rest easy till he has played the qualifiers—not just because the tournament will be his last chance to book a place for Tokyo, but also because of a fear that the event itself may be cancelled.
In the last week, there’s been a spate of cancellations and postponements of Olympic qualification events across various disciplines. Indian boxers, for example, will not have another opportunity to qualify for Tokyo with the world qualifiers in Paris now cancelled.