Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 29 January 2022

::National::

First round of India-UK trade talks concludes

The first round of negotiations for an India-UK free trade agreement (FTA), formally launched on January 13, concluded after two weeks on Friday covering 26 areas such as trade in goods and services, investment, intellectual property, barriers to trade, small and medium enterprises, geographical indicators and digital.
“Both sides acknowledge the importance of ensuring this first round – held virtually over 2 weeks - could proceed despite the challenges presented by the Covid pandemic,” commerce ministry said in a statement.
The second round of negotiations is due to take place on March 7-18 March.
“Both teams maintain a shared ambition to conclude negotiations by the end of 2022,” it said, adding that the two parties are making efforts to secure a comprehensive agreement even as chief negotiators would continue to consider the benefits of an interim agreement.
India and the UK target doubling bilateral trade in goods and services to about $100 billion by 2030.

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::International::

Russia loses a million people in historic population fall

Russia's population declined by more than one million people in 2021, the statistics agency Rosstat reported Friday, a historic drop not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Ongoing demographic woes have been exacerbated by the pandemic with Rosstat figures showing more than 660,000 had died with coronavirus since health officials recorded the first case in the country.
The new figures continue a downward trend from the previous year when Russia's population fell by more than half a million.
The Covid-related fatalities figures published monthly by Rosstat are far higher than death figures released by a separate government website, which is dedicated to tracking the pandemic in the country.
Those government website figures only take into account fatalities where the virus was established as the primary cause of death after an autopsy and shows just 329,443 total fatalities.
The discrepancy has fed into criticism that the Russian government has been downplaying the severity of the pandemic in one of the worst-hit countries by cases in the world.
The pandemic death toll exacerbates the demographic crisis, linked to low birth rates and a short life expectancy, that Russia has faced for the past 30 years.
Birth rates have been falling because the generation now becoming parents were born in the 1990s, when the birth rate plunged due to economic uncertainties after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The number of births per woman stands at around 1.5, well short of the minimum of 2.1 necessary to renew the population.

::Economy::

Google to invest $1 bn in Airtel to boost India play

Google will invest as much as $1 billion in Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s second-biggest telecom services provider, as the Internet giant redoubles efforts to increase smartphone access and accelerate digital transformation in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Alphabet Inc., the parent of Google, will buy a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel for $700 million and invest $300 million over the next five years in commercial arrangements in the areas of affordable mobile devices, 5G network and cloud technologies. Google’s investment is aimed at developing the digital infrastructure in India, which will, in turn, generate demand for its products and services, including cloud computing, mobile devices, apps and digital advertisements.
Google’s latest move follows a $4.5 billion investment in RIL’s digital unit, Jio Platforms Ltd, in July 2020. Both the investments are routed through the Google for India Digitization Fund.
“Big tech investments in infrastructure have been steadily increasing, and seeing it happen in India is a sign of a more symbiotic relationship developing between the telecom and digital sectors,” said Vaibhav Kakkar, partner at Saraf & Partners. Bharti Airtel will sell shares to Google at ₹734 apiece, the firm said in an exchange filing on Friday. Airtel’s shares rose 1.23% to ₹715.9 on BSE.
Bharti Airtel chief executive Gopal Vittal said that the company has no plans to build smartphones with Google but will work to increase smartphone adoption.
Making smartphones more affordable will be done through targeted incentives, cash-backs and partnerships across device and e-commerce players.
“We are going to be competitive in the market, so wherever there is an incentive to be given, we have developed the software capability to target it into a device in order to be really smart and minimize the economic cost of that,” Vittal said.

‘Air India will regain its lost place in domestic, int’l skies’

Air India’s successful disinvestment process was completed this week, with the Tata Group formally taking over the airline on Thursday. In light of this landmark development, Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia spoke to Neha LM Tripathi about the move, and what it means for India’s aviation sector. Edited excerpts:
First of all, the commitment, directive and the strong decision-making capability of the Prime Minister is what gave us the confidence to go ahead with this process. Having said that, an arm of the ministry of finance, which is DIPAM (Department of Investment and Public Asset Management) and my ministry worked in very close concert with each other to ensure the success of this transaction.
What we have also learned through this transaction is the importance of the iterative process that we have followed as we went about concluding it successfully. And so initially, we talked about 76% sale of Air India, which then went up to a golden share possibility to the 100% stake route. We looked at the full debt being taken over by the owners, then a proportion of debt, and then finally, to a formula on an enterprise value (EV) basis -- with 15% to be given in cash and 85% to be debt takeover.
So the first lesson that you learn is that this process has to be iterative, it has to be consultative, as you go along, and keep refining the process. And I think that the outlook of the government is something that has really helped in terms of making this transaction happen. So we’ve put that notion across that we are a flexible government, and we are a government that wants to see the best outcome possible.
The positivity of this transaction and the positive spin-offs are for each stakeholder in this ecosystem. The government had close to ₹83,000 crore in losses (from Air India) over the last 14 years. There was the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines with an equity infusion of ₹54,000 crores over the last 14 years; and government guarantee of another ₹53,000 crores. This is about an additional ₹107,000 crores. And then look at a debt burden of close to ₹60,000 crore to ₹65,000 crore. So about ₹2.5 lakh crore of taxpayers’ money was directed towards keeping this enterprise afloat, and also losses of close to ₹20 crore a day, which is ₹7,500 crore per year for the last three-and-a-half years or so. Hence, first of all, there will be better utilisation of taxpayers’ money and government resources towards productive purposes across sectors, be it in social welfare or infrastructure.

::Science and tech::

US scientists regrow frog's lost leg, want to test new technique on humans

A group of American researchers has successfully regrown the missing legs of a frog, using a combination of five drugs, the Daily Mail reported. They now want to test the technique in mammals.
The experiment was carried out on the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) that had limbs missing due to an injury, the Daily Mail report said.
The injured part was enclosed in a silicone cap filed with protein gel filled with the five-drug cocktail, which contained brain derived neurotrophic factor, 1,4-dihydrophenonthrolin-4-one-3carboxylicacid, resolvin D5, a growth hormone and retinoic acid.
Each drug had a different purpose, including reducing inflammation and helping in growth of nerve fibres, blood vessels and muscles.
The ‘bio domes’ were sealed with the solution for just 24 hours, and set in motion the process of regeneration which took 18 months, the Daily Mail reported quoting the researchers.
The adult frog, unable to regenerate limbs naturally, had 'almost fully functional' limbs restored, including boneless toes, which they used to help swim, said the team of researchers which included scientists from Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and Harvard University's Wyss Institute in Boston.

::Sport::

Women's Asia Cup hockey: India beat China 2-0 to win consolation bronze

Last edition champions India defeated China 2-0 to win a consolation bronze medal at the women's Asia Cup hockey tournament here.
The Indians left behind the disappointment of their semifinal defeat to Korea and controlled the proceedings in the first two quarters, scoring two goals in the process, to go into half time with a 2-0 lead against China.
They, however, failed to score any more goals in the second half.
The Indians started brightly and earned a couple of penalty corners and from one such situation, Sharmila Devi gave her side the lead in the 13th minute, scoring from a rebound after Gurjit Kaur's initial flick was saved by the Chinese defence.
India continued in the same vein in the second quarter and had the better share of chances.
The Indians kept up the pressure on the Chinese defence with relentless raids and secured another penalty corner in the 19th minute which was converted by Gurjit with a superb drag-flick to make the scoreline 2-0.
The Indians kept up the pressure on the Chinese defence at the start of the fourth and final quarter but failed to create any clear cut chances.
China earned a penalty corner 10 minutes before time but the Indians defended in numbers to thwart any danger to their citadel.