Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 25 April 2022

::National::

PM Modi to inaugurate India's flagship foreign policy conference

Being strategic partners, India and France are expected to move ahead on Atmanirbhar Bharat project of PM Modi by manufacturing air independent propulsion submarines and high thrust aircraft engines in India apart from mapping the Indian Ocean bed.
Prime Minister NarendraModi is expected to travel to Europe from May 2 to May 6 to have bilateral meetings with re-elected French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz apart from addressing the key India-Nordic summit in Copenhagen.
With Macron getting re-elected as French President for the second tern with a resounding vote, PM Modi is expected to drop by in Paris to meet and greet the leader of one of India’s closest bilateral partners.
India and France have very close political and defense relationships with both sides willing to assist each other in areas of critical and emerging technologies apart from having similar views on the Indo-Pacific.
PM Modi and President Macron also have personal relations with each other and the latter understands the Indian position on the Ukraine war over Russia.
With Russia continuing its Ukraine campaign relentlessly, the war in Europe will be on top of the agenda of PM Modi’s visit with Nordic countries and Germany also thinking twice about their stance on Moscow. Germany in particular has been a huge trade partner to both Russia and China but the Ukraine war and the new Chancellor has made Bonn think about its national security.
While PM Modi will push for closer bilateral relations with Nordic countries with a repaired relationship with host Denmark, investment, clean technologies and trade will be high on the agenda. Unlike in the past, the Nordic countries also want to have close ties with India.
While the exact date and time of PM Modi’s meetings are work in progress, the Indian leader will try to rekindle the bilateral relationship with German Chancellor Scholz.
Under the Angela Merkel regime, Germany had forged very close trade ties with China by selling high end automobiles to Beijing and still has a huge oil and gas relationship with Russia. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a game changer with Germany deciding to increase its defence expenditure and buy fighter jets from the US for its air defence.

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::International::

Putin eyes grabbing maximum Ukraine land after losing interest in talks: Report

Russian president Vladimir Putin has lost interest in diplomatic efforts to end the Ukraine war and seems to now be set on seizing as much territory as possible, news website Financial Times reported.
After Russia suffered setbacks last month, Putin was reportedly seeking a peace deal with Ukraine but now has told his people involved in bid to end the war that he sees no prospect for a settlement.
“Putin sincerely believes in the nonsense he hears on [Russian] television and he wants to win big,” a person briefed on the talks Putin had with his officials, told the website. The talks stalled after Ukrainian president VolodymyrZelensky accused Russia of committing war crimes against civilians in Bucha and Mariupol.
The Russian president was furious after Ukraine sank the Moskva, the flagship of Moscow's Black Sea fleet, and said the peace efforts were at a dead end.
"As a result of a fire on April 13, the Moskva missile cruiser was seriously damaged due to the detonation of ammunition," the defence ministry had said in a statement. However, Pentagon claimed that the Russian warship had sunk in the Black Sea after being hit by two missiles from Ukraine.
The fighting between the two forces has entered the third month. The United Nations commission on refugees has estimated nearly five million people have fled Ukraine since Moscow's all out invasion on the eastern European country on February 24.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and defence secretary held talks with the Ukrainian president in Kyiv last Sunday. Zelensky is said to have asked the United States for more powerful weapons to resist the Russian offensive in the south and east, Reuters reported.

::Economy::

Centre issues advisory against broadcasting offensive, misleading content

In view of the Jahangirpuri violence and the Ukraine war related coverage, the Centre on Saturday issued a strong advisory warning news organisations to refrain from publishing and transmitting any offensive, misleading or critical content which is violative of the relevant regulatory Act.
Drawing attention to reporting on Russia-Ukraine conflict, certain incidents in North-West Delhi and of certain news debates, the advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said: "It has been found that in the recent past several satellite TV channels have carried out coverage of events and incidents in a manner which appears to be unauthentic, misleading, sensational and using socially unacceptable language and remarks, offending good taste and decency, and obscene and defamatory and having communal overtones, all of which appear to be violative of the Programme Code and infringement of the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 20 of The Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995."
In connection with the reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war, the government said it has been observed that channels have been making false claims and frequently misquoting international agencies/actors; used "scandalous headlines/taglines" that are completely unrelated to the news item; and many of the journalists and news anchors of these channels made fabricated and hyperbolic statements intending to incite the audiences.

India and UK set Diwali deadline for concluding free trade pact

India and the UK put aside their differences over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and set an ambitious target of concluding a “comprehensive and balanced” free trade agreement (FTA) by Diwali this year to double bilateral trade by 2030. Prime Minister NarendraModi and his visiting British counterpart Boris Johnson announced measures to enhance defence, security and trade partnerships.
Johnson said India shared the UK’s “anxiety about autocracies and autocratic coercions around the world”, while acknowledging India’s longstanding friendship with Russia. In the joint statement after their bilateral meeting, both sides “unequivocally condemned civilian deaths and reiterated the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the conflict”.
Both leaders also called for an early resolution of all pending market access issues between the two nations in a “balanced manner” and noted that the FTA would unlock the full potential of the trade and commercial relationship, boosting jobs, investment, and exports.
“As the next round of talks begins here next week, we are telling our negotiators to get it done by Diwali in October. This could double our trade and investment by the end of the decade,” Johnson, who was on a two-day visit to India, said in a joint press conference.
“...we now have to reach a free trade agreement, a deal where you can lift those tariffs –you can…on our machinery and apples – actually you’ve already done it on apples and we, in turn, can lift the tariffs on your rice and textiles,” he said.

::Science and tech::

NASA releases data on India's space debt

The world is literally a greener place than it was 20 years ago, and data from NASA satellites has revealed a counterintuitive source for much of this new foliage: China and India. A new study shows that the two emerging countries with the world’s biggest populations are leading the increase in greening on land. The effect stems mainly from ambitious tree planting programs in China and intensive agriculture in both countries.
The greening phenomenon was first detected using satellite data in the mid-1990s by RangaMyneni of Boston University and colleagues, but they did not know whether human activity was one of its chief, direct causes. This new insight was made possible by a nearly 20-year-long data record from a NASA instrument orbiting the Earth on two satellites. It’s called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, and its high-resolution data provides very accurate information, helping researchers work out details of what’s happening with Earth’s vegetation, down to the level of 500 meters, or about 1,600 feet, on the ground.
Taken all together, the greening of the planet over the last two decades represents an increase in leaf area on plants and trees equivalent to the area covered by all the Amazon rainforests. There are now more than two million square miles of extra green leaf area per year, compared to the early 2000s – a 5% increase.
“China and India account for one-third of the greening, but contain only 9% of the planet’s land area covered in vegetation – a surprising finding, considering the general notion of land degradation in populous countries from overexploitation,” said Chi Chen of the Department of Earth and Environment at Boston University, in Massachusetts, and lead author of the study.
An advantage of the MODIS satellite sensor is the intensive coverage it provides, both in space and time: MODIS has captured as many as four shots of every place on Earth, every day for the last 20 years.
“This long-term data lets us dig deeper,” said Rama Nemani, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, in California’s Silicon Valley, and a co-author of the new work. “When the greening of the Earth was first observed, we thought it was due to a warmer, wetter climate and fertilization from the added carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, leading to more leaf growth in northern forests, for instance. Now, with the MODIS data that lets us understand the phenomenon at really small scales, we see that humans are also contributing.”

::Sports::

Teenager Carlos Alcaraz mirrors Rafael Nadal with Barcelona crown

Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz captured the fourth title of his young career by beating eighth seed Pablo CarrenoBusta 6-3 6-2 in the Barcelona Open final on 24-04-2022, hours after winning a gruelling semi-final that was postponed due to rain.
The 18-year-old will enter the top 10 of the world rankings on Monday at the same age, on the same date and after a triumph in the same tournament as compatriot and 21-times major winner RafaNadal did in 2005.
The U.S. Open quarter-finalist joins countrymen including Nadal, coach Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya in lifting the trophy in the ATP 500 claycourt tournament.
"It means a lot. I've watched this tournament since I was a kid. I always wished to play in this tournament and of course be able to win this tournament," Alcaraz said. "I'm really happy to be part of the (historic) Spanish list."