Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 25 January 2021

::NATIONAL::

30 distinguished and meritorious service medals awarded to Officers and Officials of CBI on the occasion of Republic Day, 2021

30 Officers & officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation have been awarded the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service and Police Medal for Meritorious Service by the President of India on the occasion of Republic Day, 2021.
President's Police Medals for Distinguished Service have been awarded to 06 officers/officials while Police Medals have been awarded for Meritorious Service to 24 other officers & officials as mentioned below:-

PRESIDENT’S POLICE MEDAL FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE:

Ms.Sampat Meena, Joint Director, CBI, Lucknow; Shri Vineet Vinayak, Joint Director(Chandigarh), CBI, New Delhi; Shri Saraladas Mishra, ASP, CBI, EO-III, New Delhi; Vivek Dhir, DSP, CBI, ACB, Jammu; Surender Kumar Rohilla, DSP, CBI, ACU-V, New Delhi & Basant Singh Bisht, Head Constable, CBI (HQ), New Delhi.

POLICE MEDAL FOR MERITORIOUS SERVICE:

Abhay Singh, DIG, CBI, EO-III, New Delhi; Manish Viresh Surti, SP, CBI, AC-IV, Bhopal; Shri Prasanna Kumar Panigrahi, SP, CBI, ACB, Dehradun; Shri Prahlad Kishore Jha, ASP, CBI, ACB, Dhanbad; Richhpal Singh, ASP, CBI, ACB, Jaipur; Shri Letkholam Hangshing, ASP, CBI, ACB, Imphal; Ismail Babalal Pendhari, DSP, CBI, SU, Mumbai; Shri Rama Raman Tripathi, DSP, CBI, AC-II, New Delhi; Devraj Vakkada, DSP, CBI, ACB, Cochin; Rajender Singh Gosain, Inspector, CBI, ACB, Mumbai; Naresh Kumar, Sub Inspector, CBI, AC-V, New Delhi; Shri Srigopal Sharma, ASI, CBI(HQ), New Delhi; Samshar Singh Dalal, ASI, CBI, AC-II, New Delhi; Shri K.K.Sasi, Head Constable, CBI, BS&FB, Bangalore; Shiv Dutt Sharma, Head Constable, CBI Academy, Ghaziabad; Shri A.Damodharan, Head Constable, CBI, ACB, Madurai; Shri Tapan Kumar Barua, Head Constable, CBI (HQ), New Delhi; Shri Prasad Thankappan, Head Constable, CBI, ACB, Cochin; Ramesh Chand, Head Constable, CBI, SU, New Delhi; Naran Meramanbhai Bhochiya, Head Constable, CBI, ACB, Gandhinagar; Shri Anand Rajaram Pandhare, Constable, CBI, SU, Mumbai; Avinash Kumar, Constable, CBI (HQ), New Delhi; Prasad G, Constable, CBI, IPCU, New Delhi & Smt. Ranjini Subramanian, Office Superintendent, CBI, ACB, Chennai.

President Ram Nath Kovind virtually graces the 11th National Voters’ Day celebrations

President Ram Nath Kovind, virtually graced and addressed the 11th National Voters’ Day Celebrations, being organised by the Election Commission of India, today (January 25, 2021).
During the event, President conferred the National Awards for the year 2020-21 and also launched the Election Commission of India’s Web Radio: ‘Hello Voters’ – an online digital radio service.
Speaking on the occasion, the President said that on the National Voters’ Day, he would like to remind that we should always respect the valuable right to vote. The right to vote is not a simple right; people around the world have struggled a lot for this. Since independence, our Constitution has given equal voting rights to all citizens without any discrimination on the basis of merit, religion, race, caste. For this, we are indebted to the makers of our Constitution.
The President said that the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, Babasaheb Dr. BhimraoAmbedkar, considered the right to vote as paramount. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all of us, especially our youth, who get the right to vote for the first time, to exercise their franchise with the utmost sincerity and inspire others too to do so.

Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam

::International::

50 lakh doses of COVID 19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India arrive in Dhaka

The first instalment of 50 lakh doses of the COVID 19 vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII) arrived in Dhaka on 25-01-2021.
This is part of the agreement for the purchase of 30 million doses of the vaccine for which Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited (BPL) had signed a tripartite agreement with the SII on December 13 last year.
The remaining doses of the vaccine will arrive in Bangladesh over the next few months, as per the agreement.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the vaccination programme in Dhaka from Wednesday. A nurse of the Kurmitola general hospital in Dhaka will receive the first vaccine shot.
Government of Bangladesh has made preparations to start the vaccination process from the first week of February.

::Economy::

Government may tweak customs duties on host of goods in Budget 2021

The government may tweak customs duties in the Budget next week on several goods, including furniture raw materials, copper scrap, certain chemicals, telecom equipment and rubber products, to promote domestic manufacturing and exports, sources said.
They said that while import duties could be tweaked on over 20 products such as cut and polished diamonds, rubber goods, leather garments, telecom equipment and carpet, the customs duties could be removed on select raw materials (like wood in rough, swan wood and hard board) used for furniture manufacturing and copper concentrate.
"Expensive raw materials impact India's price competitiveness in the international market. The country's exports of furniture is very low (about one per cent), while countries like China and Vietnam are major players in the sector," they added.

Fin.Min. releases weekly installment of ₹6,000 cr to meet GST shortfall

The finance ministry released the 13th instalment of ₹6,000 crore to the states to meet GST compensation shortfall, taking the total amount of fund released to ₹78,000 crore.
Till now, 70 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the states and union territories (UTs) with legislative assembly.
The Centre had set up a special borrowing window in October 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of ₹1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of the implementation of the GST.
The finance ministry in a statement said it has released the 13th weekly instalment of ₹6,000 crore to the states to meet the GST compensation shortfall. Out of this, an amount of ₹5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of ₹483.40 crore has been released to the 3 UTs with legislative assembly (Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry).

::Science and tech::

SpaceX creates new world record; launches 143 satellites on single rocket

A veteran rocket from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company launched 143 spacecraft into space on Sunday, a new record for the most spaceships deployed on a single mission, according to the company.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 10 a.m. EST from the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It flew south along the eastern coast of Florida on its way to space, the company said.
The reusable rocket ferried 133 commercial and government spacecraft and 10 Starlink satellites to space - part of the company’s SmallSat Rideshare Program, which provides access to space for small satellite operators seeking a reliable, affordable ride to orbit, according to the company.
SpaceX delayed the launch one day because of unfavorable weather. On Jan. 22 Musk, also chief executive of Tesla Inc., wrote on Twitter: “Launching many small satellites for a wide range of customers tomorrow. Excited about offering low-cost access to orbit for small companies!”
SpaceX has previously launched to orbit more than 800 satellites of the several thousand needed to offer broadband internet globally, a $10 billion investment it estimates could generate $30 billion annually to help fund Musk’s interplanetary rocket program, called Starship.

::SPORTS::

Russia confirms it won't appeal Olympic team restrictions

The Russian anti-doping agency confirmed Monday that it will not file an appeal to further loosen restrictions on its teams at the Olympics and other major sports events.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport last month ruled that Russia's name, flag and anthem would be barred from the next two Olympics after backing the World Anti-Doping Agency's finding that doping data was manipulated.
However, CAS halved the duration of the sanctions from four years to two, removed vetting requirements for Russian athletes and allowed them to keep wearing national colors.