Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 24 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

Goa Chief Minister PramodSawant told the state Legislative Assembly that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 will be implemented in the state only after taking the concerned institutions into confidence.
Opposition leaders including Congress MLA AleixoReginaldo Lourenco, Goa Forward Party MLA VijaiSardesai, Independent MLA RohanKhaunte, MGP MLA SudinDhavalikar and Congress MLA LuizinhoFaleiro expressed concerns over the implementation of the NEP.
The question was raised on the floor of the House by NCP MLA Churchill Alemao.
Responding to the concerns, Chief Minister PramodSawant said the NEP will be implemented after taking all institutions into confidence.
"We have already started a survey about infrastructure in various schools," he said.
During the Question Hour, Lourenco expressed fear that the NEP will usurp the rights of institutions run by minority communities and said the state government should clarify on the issue.

A Brookings Institution report last June said American and Indian strategists are worried about China's growing naval presence as well as its use of "debt-trap diplomacy."
With China's growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean region, the Joe Biden administration in the US sees India as its most important partner to counter Beijing's ambitions.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called India an "increasingly important partner among today's rapidly shifting international dynamic", saying the bilateral relationship is a "stronghold of a free and open Indo-Pacific region", reported The Standard.
Recently, Austin met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh over the weekend on his first foreign trip in the role as the two sides concluded talks on defense cooperation. Austin also visited Japan and South Korea last week, Washington's closest military allies in Asia.
"It's important that the secretary of defence has made a trip to India on his first trip to Asia, along with Japan and South Korea," DhruvaJaishankar, Executive Director at think tank Observer Research Foundation America, said on an American news channel.

Acute hunger is set to soar in over 20 countries in the coming months without urgent and scaled-up assistance, warn the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) in a new report issued today.
Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria top the list and face catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with families in pockets of South Sudan and Yemen already in the grip of - or at risk of starvation and death according to the **Hunger Hotspots report. **
Although the majority of the affected countries are in Africa, acute hunger is due to rise steeply in most world regions - from Afghanistan in Asia, Syria and Lebanon in the Middle East, to Haiti in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Already, over 34 million people are grappling with emergency levels of acute hunger (IPC4) - - meaning they are one step away from starvation - across the world.
"The magnitude of suffering is alarming. It is incumbent upon all of us to act now and to act fast to save lives, safeguard livelihoods and prevent the worst situation". said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.

Cryptocurrency firm Blockchain.com said on Wednesday it had raised $300 million in its latest funding round at a valuation of $5.2 billion.
The round was led by DST Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capital, the London-based company said
Blockchain.com offers digital wallets for storage of cryptocurrencies as well as retail trading and other services for larger investors.
Bitcoin soared to a record just shy of $62,000 this month as mainstream firms and investors increasingly embrace cryptocurrencies, leading to ballooning valuations of related companies.
Blockchain.com said last month it raised about $120 million, with investments from Alphabet Inc's venture capital unit.

The amendment to Finance Bill 2021 clarifies that offshore e-commerce platforms don't have to pay 2% equalisation levy if they have permanent establishment or they pay any income tax here.
In a bid to provide a level-playing field, the government has decided not to levy 2% digital service tax if goods and services are sold through Indian arm of foreign e-commerce players.
The amendment to Finance Bill 2021 clarifies that offshore e-commerce platforms don't have to pay 2% equalisation levy if they have permanent establishment or they pay any income tax here.
However, foreign companies who are not paying any tax will have to pay.
The digital tax introduced in April 2020, applies only to non-resident companies with annual revenues in excess of ₹2 crore, and covers online sales of goods and services to Indians.
"Through the government amendment... I intend to clarify that this equalisation levy is not applicable on consideration for goods which are owned by Indian residents," Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had said why replying to a debate Finance Bill 2021 in LokSabha.

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday his company will land Starships on the Red Planet before 2030. Musk’s comment was a reply to a tweet on his timeline, which included an article on how Europe feared the progress of Space X. “SpaceX will be landing Starships on Mars well before 2030. The really hard threshold is making Mars Base Alpha self-sustaining,” Musk tweeted.
In December last year, Musk said his company is “highly confident” that it will land humans on Mars by 2026, terming it as an achievable goal “about six years from now.”
“If we get lucky, maybe four years. We want to send an uncrewed vehicle there in two years,” Musk said while speaking on an award show webcast from Berlin, Germany.
Musk’s ambitious goal of landing humans on Mars before 2030 is in tandem with one of the first plans that he outlined for the landing on the Red Planet in 2016. “If things go super well, it might be kind of in the 10-year timeframe,” Musk had then said.

The 56-year-old Usha won multiple medals in the Asian Games in 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x400m besides finishing fourth in 400m hurdles in 1984 Olympics.
Sprint legend PT Usha has been given charge of the junior selection committee while hurdling great Gurbachan Singh Randhawa will head the senior panel in the latest appointments announced by the Athletics Federation of India.
The 56-year-old Usha won multiple medals in the Asian Games in 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x400m besides finishing fourth in 400m hurdles in 1984 Olympics.
Other members of the junior committee are Soma Biswas, AnandMenzes, Satbir Singh, SandeepSarkaria, Sunita Rani, Rama Chandran, Joseph Abraham, HarwantKaur, M D Valsama and Kamal Ali Khan.