Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 30 January 2022

::National::

Assam likely to use Meghalaya formula to resolve border disputes with other states

The Assam government is likely to use the same give and take formula of land swapping, that it agreed upon with Meghalaya, to resolve similar border disputes with three other neighbouring states.
Earlier this month, chief ministers of Assam and Meghalaya met Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi and apprised him of the recommendations of regional committees of the two states which suggested division of 6 of the 12 disputed border areas between them with the help of a give-and-take formula of swapping land.
The CMs also urged the Centre to take necessary action so that the recommendations get implemented.
As per the recommendations, of the total 36.79 sq km disputed land in six areas-Gizang, Tarabari, Boklapara, Khanapara-Pilingkata and Ratacherra-- Assam would get 18.51 sq km while Meghalaya would get 18.28 sq km. The recommendations, which sought to end the five-decade old border row between the two neighbours, were approved earlier by cabinets of both states.
“We would like to start talks on the border issue with Arunachal Pradesh. With Mizoram, we will form a committee after discussion with them. If both state governments agree, we should be able to resolve the issues based on spirit of accommodation,” Sarma said in Guwahati on January 23.
A day after his meeting with Sarma, Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio said in Kohima that his government is in favour of settling its six-decades-old border dispute with Assam outside the court.
“We had gone to Guwahati and had fruitful discussions on the border issue with Sarma. Both governments are in favour of an out-of-court settlement, and maybe our teams will meet Shah in the first part of February to discuss and formulate how to go about it,” Rio said.
Nagaland and Assam share about 500 km boundary and disputes along the border between the two states were stated to have been going on as early as 1963 after Nagaland attained statehood.

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::International::

Russian minister Lavrov suggests Moscow will wait longer before Ukraine response

Russia wants an explanation of European security obligations from western nations before making its next proposals on the Ukraine crisis, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Moscow is asking Nato members and countries in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to clarify how they intend to fulfill OSCE obligations not to strengthen security at the expense of the security of others, Lavrov said on Russian state television.
Their answers to the Foreign Ministry’s official request will be “key to determining our future proposals, which we will report to Russian President Vladimir Putin,” Lavrov said.
The U.S. has warned repeatedly in recent weeks that Russia may be preparing to invade Ukraine after massing more than 100,000 troops near their border. The Kremlin denies this, while also demanding binding security guarantees from Washington and its Nato allies that Ukraine will never be allowed to join the military alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a “lengthy” phone call Friday that the proposals failed to answer Russia’s main concerns, though Moscow would study them further before deciding on its next step, according to a Kremlin statement. He said the U.S. and Nato had “ignored a key question” on ensuring indivisible European security.

::Economy::

PF rules change for Air India employees as it becomes private

Around 7,453 employees of Air India will receive an extra 2% employer's contributions in the provident fund accounts at 12% of their wages as the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has onboarded Air India for the social security coverage. Air India had applied for voluntarily covered u/s 1(4) of the EPF and MP Act 1952 which has been allowed through a gazette notification dated January 13 with the effect from December 1, 2021.
Earlier, the employees were covered under the PF Act of 1925, like all government organisations, where the contributions to the provident fund were at 10% by the employer and 10% by the employee. Under the EPF Act which is now covering Air India, a guaranteed minimum pension of ₹1,000 will be available to employees and to family and dependents in case of death of an employee. An assured insurance benefit in case of death of a member will be available in the range of minimum ₹2.50 Lakh and a maximum ₹7 Lakh. No premium is charged to the EPFO covered employees for this benefit.
"Since 1952-53, Air India and Indian Airlines were the two separate companies that were covered under PF Act 1925. In 2007, both the companies merged into one company- Air India Ltd. Under the PF Act 1925, the benefit of Provident Fund was available but there was no statutory pension scheme or insurance Scheme. The employees used to participate in self-contributory annuity-based pension scheme. Based on the scheme parameters, the accumulations used to be paid to the employees. There was no minimum pension guarantee and no extra benefit in case of death of a member," a statement of the ministry of labour and employment said.
Air India has officially been handed over to the Tata Group after all formalities of the divestment process was completed on January 27.
Earlier, it was clarified that the current employees of Air India will be retained for a year and there will be no layoffs. In the second year, if old employees are sacked then that will be considered as paid VRS.

The widening scope and relevance of Google’s Digitization Fund for India

Google’s announcement of a $1 billion investment in Airtel is the latest expansion for the tech giant’s Google for India Digitization Fund. There will be two parts to this investment, with the larger focus on the upcoming 5G rollout that’ll impact us all, as well as for cloud ecosystem for businesses. With this investment, Google becomes an outlier having also invested in Reliance Jio – no other company has made investments in the two telecom giants, and arch-rivals, In India.
The focus for this partnership and investment is two pronged – consumers, that’s you and us, as well as push 5G and cloud ecosystems which will be important for small and medium businesses. The talk of devices stands out. By that, we assume affordable Android smartphones. Perhaps on the lines of the JioPhone Next, the ultra-affordable Android phone that Google and Reliance Jio developed together.
“As a part of our first commercial agreement under this deal, we will work to scale Airtel’s extensive offerings that cover a range of devices to consumers via innovative affordability programs,” says Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President of Google India in an official statement. Google has been working on what it calls an India-focused Android experience, the idea being to get new users connected to the internet and in their local languages.
Airtel is already using Google’s Evolved Packet Core & Software Defined Network framework – this is to provide converged voice and data services on mobile networks. In fact, this is 5G ready, with the commercial 5G rollout expected sometime later this year. Airtel has often said their existing networks are ready for 5G, they just need to flip a switch once the spectrum is allotted, and approvals are in place. Now, Airtel will have access to Google’s advanced network solutions as well.
An example of an app developed in India which has since seen global availability, is Google Pay. It was earlier known as Google Tez, and at this time, is the second largest digital payments platform for unified payments interface (UPI) transactions. PhonePe leads the numbers.
In June last year, Google made the biggest move on the consumer side of things for the Digitization Fund for India initiative, till then. They began working with Reliance Jio to make an affordable Android phone. This, a year after announcing the ₹33,737 crore (around $4.5 billion) investment in Jio Platforms Ltd. – this was the first investment for the Digitization Fund for India.

::Sport::

Australian Open: Krejcikova and Siniakova fight back to win doubles crown

French Open champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova added the Australian Open's women's doubles title to their resume on Sunday, with a 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4 win over Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia.
The number one seeds, who were beaten finalists at Melbourne Park last year, took time to hit their stride and were forced to come back from a set down to claim the title for the first time.
The unseeded duo overpowered the Olympic champions in a tiebreak to win the first set, but the scores were levelled up at the end of the second, as the Czech pair found their rhythm.
Krejcikova and Siniakova broke on Haddad Maia's serve five games into the deciding set to claim the advantage and Siniakova's forehand winner down the line on Danilina's serve two games later increased the gap.
Danilina's volley at the net earned a break back that put their opponents' celebrations on hold, but Krejcikova held her serve to close out the match.