Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 25 July 2022

::National::

PM Narendra Modi asks BJP-ruled states to boost business environment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a marathon meeting with chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, and asked them to ensure saturation-level coverage of welfare schemes and boost the business environment in the country.
The meeting, which lasted for over four hours, was attended by chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 states. BJP president J P Nadda was also present.
During the meeting, Modi emphasised on better implementation of some key schemes and initiatives of the government such as GatiShakti, Har Ghar Jal, Svamitva, DBT implementation and others, the BJP said in a statement.
"Prime Minister Modi stressed on the need to ensure saturation-level coverage of all key schemes and said that BJP-ruled states should take a lead towards this," the it read.
Emphasising on the need to ensure ease of doing business, Modi spoke about several initiatives taken by his government.
Modi also asked the chief ministers to ensure that their states accord due importance to sports and ensure availability of the best facilities to encourage participation and engagement of youngsters in large numbers.
Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and Vinay Sahsrabuddhe, who heads the party's good governance cell, were also present in the meeting.
The chief ministers and the deputy chief ministers of 18 states where the BJP is in power on its own or in alliance with other parties held deliberations on achieving a 100 per cent target of all centrally sponsored welfare schemes and flagship programmes, sources said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma are among those who attended the meeting.

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::International::

US President Biden improves 'significantly,' throat still sore from Covid

President Joe Biden continues to “improve significantly” despite a lingering sore throat from his coronavirus infection, according to an update Sunday from his doctor.
“The president is responding to therapy as expected,” wrote Dr. Kevin O'Connor in his latest note. Biden has been taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug that helps reduce the chance of severe illness.
O'Connor wrote that Biden still has a sore throat, though other symptoms, including a cough, runny nose and body aches, “have diminished considerably." Biden tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday morning. O'Connor said Saturday that the president likely became infected with a highly contagious variant, known as BA.5, that is spreading throughout the country, and Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said Sunday,

“It is the BA.5 variant.” "Thank goodness our vaccines and therapeutics work well against it, which is why I think the president's doing well," Jha told CBS' “Face the Nation." Jha also gave a positive update on the president's health.

“I checked in with his team late last night. He was feeling well. He had a good day yesterday,” Jha said.
That variant is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year. It is believed responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the country. He has been isolating in the White House residence since then.
“Obviously if he has persistent symptoms, obviously if any of them interfere with his ability to carry out his duties, we will disclose that early and often with the American people. But I suspect that this is going to be a course of COVID that we've seen in many Americans who have ben fully vaccinated, double boosted, getting treated with those tools in hand,” Jha said.

"The president's been doing well and we're going to expect that he's going to continue to do so.'' Biden's press secretary has said 17 people, including members of the president's senior staff and at least one member of Congress, were determined to have been in close contact with Biden when he might have been contagious. None has tested positive so far, Jha said on “Fox News Sunday.”

::Economy::

Volkswagen's billionaire clan plotted CEO ouster when he was on US trip

Volkswagen AG’s dramatic move to oust its combative chief executive officer was set in motion a week ago, when his backing from the billionaire Porsche and Piech family began to crumble.
Unwavering support from the reclusive clan that majority-owns VW had helped Herbert Diess survive frequent clashes with powerful worker representatives. But as key project failures combined with worker discontent, the family concluded he had to go.
The decisive day was July 20, according to people familiar with the deliberations. The top committee of VW’s supervisory board, comprising family representatives, officials from the German state of Lower Saxony officials and labor leaders, determined Diess’s time was up. He learned this around lunchtime the next day, still jet-lagged from a visit to the automaker’s SUV factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
In the end, Diess’s undoing is a brutal reflection of the challenges facing leaders of industrial behemoths trying to modernize for the digital age. VW’s unions wield significant influence even by German standards, where worker representatives account for half the seats on supervisory boards. Their leaders and the state are resistant to drastic and expedient change that will compromise jobs.
“The departure of CEO Herbert Diess should not be a surprise given how marginalized he had become in recent months,” Philippe Houchois, a Jefferies analyst, wrote in a report. “The timing is unfortunate and another illustration of dysfunction at VW.”
Spokespeople for VW declined to comment on the events leading up to Diess’s dismissal.

US growth is looking sickly as fed keeps hiking rates: Eco week

The world’s largest economy remained in a precarious position in the second quarter, a government report is projected to show, adding to mounting recessionary angst just as the Federal Reserve leans in harder against inflation.
US gross domestic product -- the sum of goods and services produced -- is forecast to have risen an annualized 0.5% during the April-June period, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Following the 1.6% rate of decline in the prior quarter, the economy’s first-half performance would be the worst of the pandemic recovery.
While inventories probably weighed heavily on the second-quarter results, the demand picture also darkened as consumer spending, business investment and housing may have all taken a step back.
The advance GDP estimate will be released on Thursday, a day after Fed policy makers -- led by Chair Jerome Powell -- are expected to pull the trigger on another 75 basis-point increase in their benchmark interest rate as they try to arrest persistent inflation.
Their challenge in tightening policy is to avoid overdoing it and nudging the economy into a downturn. A number of economists, in addition to the Atlanta Fed’s GDP Now estimate, forecast a second quarterly decline in GDP that would fit the technical definition of a recession.
he GDP figures highlight a busy week on the US economic calendar that includes figures on June personal spending, income, and a key inflation metric. Second-quarter employment costs, July consumer confidence and June durable goods orders are also slated for release.
Elsewhere, the International Monetary Fund presents updated forecasts on Tuesday that are set to see the global economic growth outlook cut “substantially.” Meanwhile, more evidence of surging price pressures in the euro region, and a possible meeting of China’s Politburo, will also draw investor attention. Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Hungary are among the central banks predicted to hike rates.

::Sports::

IOC threatens to suspend IOA if it fails to conduct elections amid concerns

Concerned at the state of affairs of the Indian Olympic Association, the International Olympic Committee has threatened to suspend the governing body if it fails to conduct its election within the coming weeks.
"The IOC and the OCA have been following, with great concern, the latest developments affecting the Indian Olympic Association," IOC said in its letter to all the members of the IOA executive council.
"Should the IOA fail to fulfil its obligations and be unable to organise its quadrennial elections properly within the coming weeks, the IOC will, unfortunately, have no other option but to consider appropriate protective measures vis--vis the IOA, including a suspension, until the IOA can operate as normal and hold its elections in accordance with the Olympic Charter and the IOA Constitution.