Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 30 December 2021

::National::

PM Modi to lay AIIMS foundation, launchother projects in Haldwani

Prime Minister NarendraModi will on Thursday lay the foundation stone of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and launch several other projects worth over ₹17,500 crore in Haldwani in poll-bound Uttarakhand.
This will be the second AIIMS in the hill state after the one in Rishikesh which was established back in 2012.
“DevbhoomiUttarakhand will move towards touching new heights of progress tomorrow. In Haldwani, I will have the opportunity to lay foundation stones and inaugurate 23 projects worth over ₹17,500 crore. These include infrastructure projects related to health, roads and irrigation,” PM Modi tweeted on Wednesday.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said he was grateful to PM Modi for accepting his request for opening an AIIMS for people of the Kumaon region, for whom going all the way to AIIMS, Rishikesh, for treatment is difficult.
These 23 projects include laying the foundation stone of AIIMS Rishikesh satellite centre in Udham Singh Nagar district and Jagjivan Ram Government Medical College at Pithoragarh.
“These two hospitals are being built at a cost of about ₹500 crores and ₹450 crore respectively. The improved medical infrastructure will not only help the people of Kumaon and Terai regions but also the bordering areas of Uttar Pradesh,” the PMO statement read.
Thursday's inauguration events come months ahead of the high stakes assembly elections in Uttarakhand. The ruling BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), which won the elections last time in 2017, is aiming for a second consecutive win.

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::International::

OCCRP: Former Afghan President Ghani listed among 'most corrupt' people of 2021

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been named as one of the most corrupt officials of the year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a nonprofit investigative news reporting platform for independent media outlets around the world.
The list was topped by Belarusian President AleksandrLukashenko. Others included in the list were - Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Turkish President RecipTayyipErdogan, and disgraced Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, reported OCCRP.
OCCRP said Ghani deserved an award because he "deserted his people leaving them to misery and death."
Drew Sullivan, a co-founder of OCCRP who served as a judge on the panel, said that Ashraf Ghani deserves such an award due to his corruption and incompetence.
"Ghani certainly deserves an award, too. He was breath-taking in both his corruption and his gross incompetence. He deserted his people, leaving them to misery and death so he could live among the corrupt former state officials in the moral cesspool that is the UAE," said Sullivan.
"It was a banner year for corruption, but Lukashenko stood out from the crowd," said Sullivan.
Lukashenko, 67, has clung to power in Minsk since 1993, rigging elections, torturing critics, and arresting and beating protesters, all with the aid and approval of the Kremlin, reported OCCRP.

::Economy::

Atal Innovation Mission releases compendium of innovations on agri, tech

NitiAayog'sAtal Innovation Mission on Wednesday released a compendium on the innovations on technology.
The 'Innovations for You' features 70 start-ups supported by Atal Incubation Centres (AICs) of AIM and 'The Ingenious Tinkerers' features 41 innovations from Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) of India.
The digi-books were unveiled virtually in the presence of Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog; Ramesh Chand, Member Agriculture, NITI Aayog; Abhishek Singh, CEO, MyGov, and ChintanVaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog.
"More than ever before, it's today that we need more tinkerers and innovators, who can understand the problems and give a solution that is suited for the Indian society," NITI Aayog's Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said while praising both the tinkerers and entrepreneurs.
Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, ChintanVaishnav, congratulated the entrepreneurs and the young tinkerers featured in both the books, and said: "I hope the stories and ideas behind every innovation inspire millions of other start-ups, innovators, and young tinkerers across the country to create new, promising, and sustainable solutions with socio-economic impact not just for our country but the world."
Meanwhile, the 'Innovations For You' in its second edition, focuses on the start-ups and innovations in the field of Agriculture and Allied services.
The book is a compilation of 70 Ag-Tech start-ups, incubated at Atal Incubation Centres spread across the country. These start-ups are leveraging frontier technologies such as AI, IoT, ICT and others to provide socially relevant solutions to problems of modern farming. The first edition of this book was focused on innovations in Health Care, which was launched in October, this year.

RBI expresses doubts over govt meeting fiscal deficit targets

The Reserve Bank on Wednesday expressed doubts about the government's ability to contain fiscal deficit at the budgeted 6.8 per cent this fiscal year after it moved the second supplementary demand of grants worth Rs 3.73 lakh crore which came in spite of a massive 83 per cent jump in net tax revenue so far this year to Rs 10.53 lakh crore.
The government has budgeted for total expenditure of Rs 34.83 lakh crore or 6.8 per cent of GDP.
While the net tax revenue rose from Rs 5,75,697 crore in October 2020 to Rs 10,53,135 crore till October 2021, a growth of 82.93 per cent annualized, total expenditure rose only by 9.95 per cent, led by infra spending to Rs 18,26,725 crore from Rs 16,61,454 crore during the same period, the RBI said in the financial stability report.
While overall tax revenue front was boosted by a 55.79 per cent jump in gross tax collection to Rs 13,64,101crore till October, up from Rs 8,75,591 crore in October 2020. Of the total, direct tax revenue soared 70.73 per cent to Rs 6,59,066crore from Rs 3,86,025 crore and indirect tax revenue rose 45.01 per cent from Rs 4,45,673 crore to Rs 6,46,283 crore.
Total expenditure grew 9.9 per cent, the noteworthy feature being expansion of capital outlay by 28.3 per cent, led by roads and highways, notes the report.
But with the second supplementary demand of grants worth Rs 3.73 lakh crore, presented in December, the budgeted fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent of GDP may come under strain, warns the report.
While fiscal deficit stood at 42.61 of the budgeted target, at Rs 5,47,026 crore down Rs 9,53,154 crore in October 2020, revenue deficit was 59.40 per cent at 3,13,478 crore in October 2021 from Rs 7,72,196 crore on-year and the primary deficit was only 76.23 per cent at Rs 1,47,289 crore from Rs 6,19,698 crore during the same period.

::Science and tech::

China launches new camera satellite with 5m resolution

China on Sunday launched a new satellite with a camera that can take pictures of the ground with a resolution of five meters, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The satellite, called "Ziyuan-1 02E" or "five-meter optical satellite 02," was launched at 11:11 a.m. Beijing Time by a Long March-4C rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province.
Ziyuan-1 02E weighs about 2.5 kilograms and is equipped with infrared, near-infrared and hyperspectral cameras. The cameras can take full-color panchromatic images of the Earth.
The satellite will work with the five-meter optical satellite 01 and shorten the revisit time of Chinese territory from three days to two days.
Pictures taken by the satellite duo will help engineers survey China's geological environment and search for minerals. People working in other areas like transportation, agriculture and disaster mitigation will also receive help from the pictures.
Launched along with the Ziyuan-1 02E was a small satellite used for teaching by Beijing 101 Middle School. The satellite is also part of a China-Africa cooperation project called "Xiwang" (Hope) to popularize science among teenagers.

::Sport::

Nitesh Kumar wins double gold in 4th Para-Badminton National Championship

World No. 7 Nitesh Kumar doubled his gold tally at the 4th Para-Badminton National Championship, which concluded in Bhubaneswar, Odisha yesterday. Haryana’s Nitesh along with his partner Tarun defeated World No. 1 Paralympic Games gold medallistPramodBhagat and ManojSarkar in straight sets 21-19, 21-11 in the Men’s doubles finals to win the gold.
Earlier, Nitesh also won the gold medal in the Men’s singles category. World No 1 SL3 Para-Badminton player ParulParmar from Gujarat also secured gold while MandeepKaur from Uttarakhand won Silver and Mansi won bronze.
In Women Wheelchair 1 category, Alphia James from Kerala secured gold, while silver went to NeerjaGoyal from Uttarakhand. Nirmala Mehta from Uttarakhand and RanjeetaMaurya from Uttar Pradesh secured bronze. In Women Wheelchair 2 category, Ammu Mohan from Karnataka secured gold while silver went to Shabana from Punjab and PremaBiswas and SumanRawat had to settle for bronze.