Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 26 August 2022

::National::

J&K Congress leader says Azad worked to weaken party at BJP’s behest

Congress leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir on Friday accused Ghulam Nabi Azad of working to weaken the party internally at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Whatever he [Azad] does now, the [BJP-led] central government will be assisting it. We were saying from time to time that he [Azad] had got a project from the BJP to destroy the Congress internally,” said Mir, a former chief of Congress’s Jammu & Kashmir (J&) unit in response to Azad’s resignation from the party.
Mir claimed Azad, who wrote a scathing resignation letter criticising Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for promoting a “coterie”, was contemplating his exit for over a year now. He dismissed Azad’s comments about a lack of internal democracy in Congress as optics. Mir suggested Azad was scared of central government agencies. “The ultimate goal was to escape them...”
Mir said Azad somehow developed a rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to destroy Congress and save himself. He referred to Modi’s emotional farewell speech when Azad retired from Rajya Sabha and said it was not without a purpose.
Mir blamed Azad for factionalism in J&K Congress for 30 years. “While holding key positions at the national level, he used to run his J&K agenda via a chunk of people.”
Mir said Azad’s resignation will be an acid test for the J&K Congress chief Vikar Rasool. “It is to be seen whether he follows Azad or the party ideology.” Mir said Azad got everything from Congress. He added Azad most probably will form his own party to support the BJP.

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::International::

Chinese missile tracker ship prospecting Indian Ocean bed south of Sri Lanka

After leaving Hambantota Port on August 22, the Chinese satellite and ballistic missile tracking ship Yuan Wang 5 is currently mapping ocean bed 400 nautical miles (741 kilometers) south-southeast of Dondra Head, the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka.
According to available information, the military ship is expected to head towards its home port Jiangyin near Shanghai as per details provided at Hambantota. However, it is not clear whether the ship will make another port call while on the way back to China.
Although classified as a Chinese Research Vessel, the ballistic missile tracker ship became a bone of contention with Sri Lankan authorities allowing the ship to berth at Hambantota on August 16 after initially deferring the port call on August 11. The Hambantota port is on a 99 year lease with the Chinese after Sri Lanka under the Beijing friendly Rajapaksa regime did a debt-equity swap with the Xi Jinping regime in 2017.
According to China watchers, the berthing of Yuan Wang 5 at Hambantota was a political statement of assertion by the Xi Jinping regime on the weak RanilWickremesinghe government after India quietly conveyed its concerns about the military ship.
Since 2020, as many as 53 such ships have been monitored operating in the Indian Ocean Region with as many as 3-5 so-called research vessels operating in the area at any given time. While China on the face of it is trying to help the Indian Ocean littorals exploit resources in their respective EEZ, the whole purpose is to monitor Indian missile activity in Bay of Bengal as well as mapping of ocean beds, which is critical to anti -submarine operations.

::Economy::

India poised to become next global SaaS capital, says EY-CII study

The Indian software-as-a-services (SaaS) market is expected to grow multi-fold by 2025, accounting for almost 7 to 10 per cent of the global market from 2 to 4 per cent currently, said a report.
According to a study by EY and CII titled “India: The next global SaaS capital”, India is poised to become the next SaaS capital over the next few years, mainly driven by small and medium businesses with a focus on large enterprises.
The report also stated that according to industry estimates, the market is expected to reach $20-25 billion by 2025 from $4-7 billion in 2020.
“Macro-economic environment notwithstanding, the funding activity in the first two quarters of this year surpassed the funding activity in 2021 – which was a breakout year with over $4.3 bn in funding for SaaS start-ups”, said Nitin Bhatt, Technology Sector Leader at EY.
Almost 50% of SaaS providers interviewed in the study stated that driving higher awareness for SaaS products continues to be a prerequisite for customer acquisition, EY said in a statement.
“As entrepreneurs double down on scaling their ventures, they would do well to sharpen the focus on account centricity, customer success and partner with educational institutions and the government to build a SaaS talent pipeline and continue investing in product functionality and innovation”, added Bhatt.
Compared to only 1 SaaS unicorn in 2018, India now has a total of 18, taking the third spot among the largest SaaS ecosystems in the world. The study also highlights that India more than doubled the number of its SaaS companies in 2021 in contrast to 2019. Further, funding has increased from $2.6 billion to $6 billion in the span of these two years, stated EY.

Income tax dept collects Rs 28 cr in taxes from new ITR-U filing

The Income-tax department has collected around Rs 28 crore in taxes after about 1 lakh returns were filed by taxpayers under the newly introduced return filing form called ITR-U, that was notified this year as part of the Budget 2022-23.
CBDT Chairman Nitin Gupta said the scheme was brought by the Union government for the benefit of taxpayers so that they can comply with their tax responsibilities without getting into hassles of the law.
The abbreviation ITR-U stands for 'income tax return-updated' and is available to taxpayers for filing updated returns for 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years or assessment years 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Taxpayers filing this form, which can be filed within 2 years of the end of the relevant assessment year, will have to give reasons for updating the income -- return previously not filed or income not reported correctly or wrong heads of income chosen or reduction of carried forward loss.
The CBDT boss said such schemes could also be utilised by those categories of taxpayers who have income from online games, lotteries and betting etc.
"This is a provision for them to come forward and pay taxes rather than face the consequences of penalty or any other legal action under the income tax law," the CBDT chairman said.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) frames policy for the income-tax department.
The Budget presented by the Union government this year in February permitted taxpayers to update their ITRs within two years of filing, subject to payment of taxes, a move aimed at helping correct any discrepancy or omissions. A taxpayer would be permitted to file only one updated return per assessment year.
The CBDT chief said the department is looking at all such businesses including online betting and gaming and cited the example of raids conducted by the taxman against a Mumbai-based group engaged in online cricket betting and gaming in February.

::Sports::

Satwik-Chirag assure India's first men's doubles medal at BWF World C'ships

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and ChiragShetty on Friday scripted history by becoming the first Indian pair to win a medal in men's doubles competition at the World Championships after upsetting world number 2 TakuroHoki and Yugo Kobayashi of Japan in the quarterfinals in Tokyo.
The world number 7 Indian combination, which had claimed the Commonwealth Games gold medal earlier this month, outwitted the local favourites and defending champions 24-22 15-21 21-14 in an hour and 15 minutes to claim its maiden medal at the prestigious tournament.
It was India's second World Championships medal in the doubles event with JwalaGutta and AshwiniPonnappa claiming a bronze way back in 2011 in the women's doubles.
Having assured themselves of at least a bronze, Satwik and Chirag will now face the sixth seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and SohWooiYik in the semifinals.