Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 25 September 2021

::National::

SC sets aside Madras HC order on 10% EWS quota

The Supreme Court said that the Union government does not need its approval to implement the 10% quota for students from economically weaker sections (EWS) in the All India Quota (AIQ) seats for post-graduate and undergraduate medical and dental courses, as indicated in a Madras High Court order.
Separately, since the government’s July 29 decision introducing the 10% EWS quota along with 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in AIQ seats from the current academic session is already under challenge in the top court, it directed the Centre to file its response by October 6.
The Court order was passed in two separate proceedings. In one, the Union government was before the court challenging an August 18 order by the Madras High Court which stopped it from proceeding with the 10% EWS reservation without prior approval from the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench which is looking into the legal validity of the 103rd amendment passed by Parliament that provides reservations for those belonging to EWS.
In the other, the top court was considered four writ petitions questioning the constitutional validity of the July 29 order. One of the four also raised an interim prayer seeking a stay on the implementation of the order for this academic session.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) KM Nataraj appearing for the Union government submitted that the Madras High Court order was wrong and should be set aside. On the second set of petitions challenging the July 29 notification, he sought time to file a reply.
The HC in its August 18 decision held that no contempt was made out against Centre in the light of the July 29 notification issued by it.
While noting that the 10% EWS was introduced under the 103rd Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019, which is being examined by a Constitution Bench of five judges of the Supreme Court, the HC order said, “The additional reservation provided for economically weaker sections in the notification of July 29, 2021 cannot be permitted, except with the approval of the Supreme Court in such regard.”

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::International::

China calls on G20 members to help ease the liquidity pressure in Afghanistan

At the G20 virtual foreign ministers' meeting on Afghanistan today, China reiterated its support for the interim Taliban government in Kabul.
Chinese state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi attended the meet virtually and said that Economic sanctions against Afghanistan must end and unilateral restrictions on the country should be lifted as soon as possible. Sanctions should not be used as leverage to exert political pressure on Afghanistan, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Wang Yi’s speech at the virtual meet.
China calls on G20 members to actively adopt concrete measures to help ease the liquidity pressure in Afghanistan, the statement said citing Wang Yi. Afghanistan’s peaceful reconstruction and medium and long-term development cannot do without financial support from the international community, the top Chinese diplomat said. Wang Yi called on the Group of 20 (G20) to speed up their efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
China announced earlier this month that it had decided to urgently provide 200-million-yuan ($30.96 million) worth of grains, winter supplies, vaccines and other medicines to Afghanistan, including an initial 3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, Wang Yi noted. The international community should also help Afghanistan speed up its economic reconstruction and fundamentally reduce the number of refugees and migrants, the statement said.

::Economy::

India, UAE to hold first round of negotiations for CEPA

The first round of Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) negotiations between India and UAE will be held on Thursday. A new strategic economic agreement is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods to 100 billion dollar within five years.
Commerce and Industry Minister PiyushGoyal and Minister of State for Foreign Trade of United Arab Emirates DrThani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, on Wednesday, formally launched India-UAE CEPA negotiations.
Both Ministers emphasized that CEPA will create new jobs, raise living standards, and provide wider social and economic opportunities in both nations. Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi and a high-level UAE delegation is in New Delhi to hold talks aimed at improving bilateral economic relations, including expanding the existing trade and investment relationship. Both sides will aim to conclude negotiations by December this year and sign a formal agreement in March 2022 after the completion of internal legal procedures and ratification. India and the UAE are among each other’s largest trading partners.
The UAE is currently India’s third-largest trading partner with bilateral trade in 2019 and 2020 valued at 59 billion dollar. The UAE is also India’s second-largest export destination after the US, with exports valued at approximately 29 billion dollars in 2019-2020. The UAE is also the eighth-largest investor in India. India's major exports to the UAE include petroleum products, gems and jewellery, minerals, food items such as cereals, sugar, fruits and vegetables, tea, textiles and chemicals.

China central bank declares all crypto transactions illegal

China’s central bank on Friday said all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies are illegal, sounding the death knell for the digital trade in China after a crackdown on the volatile currencies.
The global values of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin have massively fluctuated over the past year partly due to Chinese regulations, which have sought to prevent speculation and money laundering.
“Virtual currency-related business activities are illegal financial activities,” the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in an online statement on Friday, adding that offenders would be “investigated for criminal liability in accordance with the law”.
The notice bans all related financial activities involving cryptocurrencies, such as trading crypto, selling tokens, transactions involving virtual currency derivatives and “illegal fundraising”.
In response to the latest move, bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, dropped over 6% to $42,2167, having earlier been down about 1%.
“There’s a degree of panic in the air,” said Joseph Edwards, head of research at cryptocurrency broker Enigma Securities in London. “Crypto continues to exist in a grey area of legality across the board in China.”

::Science and tech::

Study probes how ejections from Sun’s corona influence space weather predictions crucial for monitoring satellites

A recent study has shown how conditions and events in the solar atmosphere like coronal mass ejections influence the accuracy of space weather prediction, which is crucial for the health of our satellites.
This understanding will aid the interpretation of data from the upcoming Aditya-L1, India's first solar mission.
Space weather refers to the conditions in the solar wind and near-Earth space, which can adversely affect the performance of space-borne and ground-based technological systems. The space weather near the Earth is mainly due to Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), which are frequent explosive expulsions of huge magnetized plasma from the Sun into its surroundings, which can blow past the Earth. Example of space weather events is the geomagnetic storm, a perturbation in the Earth’s magnetic field, which can last for few hours to few days. Understanding of how events in the solar atmosphere influence space weather is necessary for monitoring and maintaining our satellites.
In the present work, astronomers led by Dr. Wageesh Mishra of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. Of India showed that plasma properties and Earth arrival times of CMEs from the Sun can vary substantially with longitudinal locations in the interplanetary space. This research is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy journal and is co-authored by Kunjal Dave from C.U. Shah University, Gujarat, Prof. NanditaSrivastava from Physical Research Laboratory, Udaipur, and Prof. Luca Teriaca from the Max Planck Institute of for the Solar System Research, Germany.

::Sports::

Bhavani Devi: Queen of Swords

Bhavani Devi heralded a new chapter in the Indian sports history when she became the first Indian ever to qualify for fencing competition in Olympics.
She reached another milestone through her historic win at the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first Indian to win a match in fencing in an Olympic event.
Although she was knocked out of the medal race in her second match only, her memorable performance at the world’s biggest sporting event was enough to make every Indian proud.
Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Bhavani’s journey to become a fencer is quite interesting. In 2003, while enrolling for school sports, Bhavani got late and had not much choice while choosing a sport since seats for all other sports had been filled.