Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 28 February 2022

::National::

Development charges must be used for nearby infra: SC

Directing the Haryana government to place on record the latest statistics on EDC collected from builders and the amount spent to develop various districts in the state, the top court underlined that it would be a legitimate expectation of residents and developers of an area to see development commensurate with the charges paid by them.
The money collected by a state government from real estate developers as external development charges (EDC) should be spent in improving the infrastructure of the same area instead of “pampering” another city or district, the Supreme Court has said.
EDC are collected from the developers by a state government for carrying out work on a host of civic amenities that include roads, electrical works, water supply, sewerage, drains, waste management and any other work to be executed in the periphery of an area for the benefit of the residents there. The builder in turn passes on the EDC to home buyers on a per square foot basis.
“Prima facie, we are of the view that there has to be a match between the collection of EDC and the expenditure in that area, keeping reasonable surplus in mind for carrying out future development,” stated a bench of justices Sanjay KishanKaul and MM Sundresh in its order released on Sunday.
It added: “We would like to emphasise that even though they may be required to maintain a surplus for development, there cannot be gross mismatch in the collection and the development expenditure whether positively or negatively.”
The court noted that where more has been spent, the state government should recover it from the developers. “Where less (amount) has been spent, there will have to be some hands-off policy till the amount is (left) pending,” said the court, asking the Haryana government “to put forth a way forward” and file an affidavit within four weeks.
In Gurugram, the bench underscored, the authorities spent ₹7155.8 crore more than what they collected as EDC from the district. Similarly, several hundred crores were over-spent in Faridabad. However, the court pointed out, there were some other districts such as Karnal, Yamunanagar, Pinjore and Hansi where more than two-thirds of EDC collected remained unspent.

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::International::

US urges its citizens to consider leaving Russia immediately

US citizens should consider leaving Russia immediately on commercial flights, the State Department said on Sunday, citing an increasing number of airlines canceling flights and countries closing their airspace to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
"US citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available," said a security alert dated Feb. 27 on the web site of US embassy in Moscow.
It has asked US citizens to have "a contingency plan that does not rely on US government assistance."
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two, has unleashed a barrage of Western reprisals, with U.S. and European governments imposing sanctions on Russian banks and financial institutions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the attack a "special operation" through which he aims to demilitarise Moscow's southern neighbor.
The State Department has kept its travel advisory for Russia at "Level 4: Do Not Travel". On Feb. 20, the U.S. embassy in Moscow had advised Americans in the country to have an evacuation plan, citing the threat of attacks in Moscow and along the Russian border with Ukraine.

::Economy::

Govt. cancels ₹19,000-cr tender for connecting villages with broadband

State-owned Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd has cancelled a ₹19,000-crore tender that was floated for connecting villages across 16 states with an optical fibre-based high-speed broadband network, following the lack of participation of eligible bidders.
The project was approved in June last year to roll out an optical fibre network under BharatNet in 16 states in a public-private partnership model with a total expense of ₹29,430 crore.
The Centre had approved a viability gap fund of ₹19,041 crore for the project that aimed to connect 3.61 lakh villages across 16 states.
The project was divided into nine packages, and tenders for each of the packages were floated separately.
For each of the nine tenders, BBNL on February 8 said the tender of the corresponding package "with all its corrigenda is hereby cancelled on account of non-participation by any bidder".
An e-mail query sent to BBNL elicited no response.
However, an official source told PTI that there was participation from some firms; bids were evaluated; but the participants failed to qualify.
The government opted for a public-private partnership after state-owned firms faced several issues in expediting the projects and missed several deadlines.
The BharatNet project was approved in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network with an aim to connect all 2.5 lakh panchayats with the optical fibre network by 2013.

Open to releases from petroleum reserves: Centre

Given the volatility in global oil prices due to escalating hostilities, India, the world’ third largest oil importer, on Saturday said it is committed to “supporting initiatives for releases from strategic petroleum reserves”.
This stand is keeping in mind the measures being explored for mitigating market volatility and calming the rise in crude oil prices.
Crude oil prices have been on the rise of late and the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has further fuelled concerns of supply disruption leading to further spike in prices.
In a statement, the petroleum ministry said: “India is also committed to supporting initiatives for releases from Strategic Petroleum Reserves, for mitigating market volatility and calming the rise in crude oil prices.” High crude prices are worrying for India as it is dependent on imports to meet 85% of oil demand and 55% of natural gas requirements.

::Science and tech::

4.4 million galaxies revealed by scientists in new study

The map revealed an astonishingly detailed radio image of more than 4.4 million objects and a very dynamic picture of our Universe, which has been made public for the first time.
It is not an unknown fact that our universe has millions of galaxies, of which, we live in one: the Milky Way galaxy. But is it possible to find out how many galaxies are there? In a piece of surprising news, a Durham University astronomer collaborating with a team of international scientists has mapped more than a quarter of the northern sky using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), a pan-European radio telescope.
The study titled, 'The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS)' was published in 'Astronomy & Astrophysics'.
The map revealed an astonishingly detailed radio image of more than 4.4 million objects and a very dynamic picture of our Universe, which has been made public for the first time.
The vast majority of these objects is billions of light-years away and is either galaxies that harbour massive black holes or are rapidly growing new stars. Rarer objects that have been discovered include colliding groups of distant galaxies and flaring stars within the Milky Way.
To produce the map, scientists deployed state-of-the-art data processing algorithms on high-performance computers all over Europe to process 3,500 hours of observations that occupy 8 petabytes of disk space - the equivalent to roughly 20,000 laptops.

::Sport::

Ravi Dahiya makes golden return at Yasar Dogu wrestling meet

Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Ravi Dahiya made a rousing return to the mat with gold in the YasarDogu Ranking Series in Istanbul on Sunday. Dahiya defeated Uzbekistan’s GulomjonAbdullaev 11-10 in a thrilling 61kg final.
In a see-saw attacking contest, Dahiya was trailing 8-10 and drew level with his last move to come on top as Abdullaev lost his challenge. It was a revenge for the Indian who had lost to the Uzbek wrestler in Poland last year.
Dahiya, who won the Olympics silver in 57kg, was competing in a higher weight division but proved too strong for his opponents before he met his equal in Abdullaev, who beat UlukbekZholdoshbekov of Krygyzstan 7-0 in the semi-finals.