Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 15 February 2021

::NATIONAL::

The Prime Minister handed over the Arjun Main Battle Tank (MK-1A) to the Army at Chennai on Sunday. It is an indigenously designed tank which has been developed and manufactured by CVRDE, DRDO along with 15 academic institutions. Several medium and small industries have also participated in the process of building the main battle tank. The development of this tank is being seen as a step towards achieving self-reliance in India's defence production abilities.
PM Modi also took a moment to remember Pulwama martyrs. He also said that India has taken major steps to become self-reliant in defense sector. He quoted great Tamil poet Subramanian Bharathiyar stressing the need to be self-reliant.
"I am proud to present Arjun Main Battle Tank (MK-1A). Tamil Nadu is already one of the largest automobile manufacturing states of the nation. I can now see the region becoming the largest tank manufacturing state of the nation," he said.
"They Made in Tamil Nadu tank shows India's ethos of courage. The armed forces have time and again shown that they are ready to protect the nation. They have also shown that India is committed to peace.

Chennai Metro’s phase-I extension from Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 14, Sunday. The Prime Minister is expected to arrive in the city around 10.30 am on Sunday and will leave for Kerala’s Kochi in the afternoon. Prime Minister is expected to inaugurate a few projects during his “non-political” visit to the state.
This 9-kilometre extension project will come as a crucial link between north Chennai, Central Railway Station and Chennai’s airport.
Ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit, the extension line was inspected by Secretary to the Government of India, Minister of Housing and Urban affairs Durga Shankar Mishra on Saturday.
PM Modi will also inaugurate the fourth Railway line between Chennai Beach and Attipattu. According to ministry, the 22.1 km section, laid at a cost of Rs 293.40 crore, traverses through Chennai and Thiruvallur districts and will ease out traffic from Chennai Port.

In the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment is expected to face intense resistance from some European lawmakers, while international unionists, who say the pact will do nothing to stop human rights abuses or protect labour rights in China, have vowed to ramp up pressure over the deal.
Though Beijing has touted its investment pact with the European Union (EU) as a strategic breakthrough, concerns have arisen about the deal, which may not get the final approval of some European lawmakers owing to the labour rights issues in China.
The deal is expected to face intense resistance from some European lawmakers, while international unionists, who say the pact will do nothing to stop human rights abuses or protect labour rights in China, have vowed to ramp up pressure over the deal.
Over the past few years, China has faced mounting criticism, including from the EU and the United States over the alleged use of Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups in forced labour camps, mainly in the Xinjiang region.

The Ministry of Finance has released the 15th weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the States to meet the GST compensation shortfall.
Out of this, an amount of over Rs 5,516 crore has been released to 23 States and an amount of nearly Rs 483 crore to Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry. The Finance Ministry in a statement said, the remaining 5 States, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation.
It said, till now, 81 percent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the States and UTs with the Legislative Assembly. Out of this, an amount of over Rs 82,132 crore has been released to the States and an amount of nearly Rs 7,867 crore to the 3 UTs.

IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory Authority of India) in a Circular dated 9th February, 2021, has advised all Insurance companies for issuance of Digital Insurance Policies via DigiLocker.
The Circular states, "in order to promote the adoption of Digilocker in the insurance sector, the Authority advises all insurers to enable their IT systems to interact with Digilocker facility to enable policyholders to use digilocker for preserving all their policy documents."
The circular also mentions that the insurers should inform their retail policyholders about Digilocker and how to use it. Insurers are also advised to enable the process by which the policyholders can place their policies in the digilocker. Digilocker team in NeGD (National e-Governance Division) under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will provide necessary technical guidance and logistic support to facilitate adoption of Digilocker.
Digilocker is an initiative under the Digital India program by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Government of India where citizens can get authentic documents/ certificate in digital format from original issuers of these certificates. It aims at eliminating or minimising the use of physical documents and will enhance effectiveness of service delivery, making these hassle free and friendly for the citizens.

In a step that would establish its superiority in air combat over China and Pakistan, India would start testing the Astra Mark 2 beyond visual range air to air missile, which would be capable of taking down enemy aircraft from a range of 160 kilometres.
The extended range Astra Mark 2 would give India an edge over its adversaries and would add more lethality to its fighter jets in aerial combat, like the one which happened a day after the Balakot airstrikes on February 26, 2019.
"The trial for the Astra Mark would be starting in the second half of this year and we are hoping to see the missile fully developed by 2022," government officials told ANI.
The next-generation missile is expected to be operational by the next year-end, former Central Air Commander Air Marshal SBP Sinha (Retd) said.
The all-weather day and night capable Astra, which currently has a strike range of around 100-km, will eventually replace the expensive Russian, French and Israeli BVRAAMs that are currently imported to arm IAF fighters.
The Indian Air Force and Indian navy have already given orders for 288 Astra Mark-1 Missiles which are already "proven" on the Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKI fighters.

Olympian Manish Rawat (Uttarakhand) won the inaugural men’s 35k race at the eighth National Open Race Walking Championships on the Morabadi Road in Ranchi.
He beat Tamil Nadu’s Ganapati Krishnan by comfortable nine-minute margin but was outside the qualifying standard for next year’s World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Approaching his 30th birthday, Manish Rawat kept Ganapati Krishnan’s company for a good part of the first 15km but started pulling away gradually. However, the pace of the race did not inspire confidence that the qualifying standard of 2:35:00 would be breached today. The younger walkers, Vikash (Delhi) and Rhythu Binduji (Kerala) did not push the experienced walkers.