Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 21 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

Telanganagovt employees get 30% pay hike, retirement age increased by 3 years

The pay hike is effective retrospectively from the last financial year and the arrears of the last 12 months would be paid to the employees only at the time of their retirement.
Over nine lakh employees of the Telangana government will get a hike of 30% in their salaries with effect from April 1. The government has also decided to increase their retirement age from 58 years to 61 years, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the state assembly.
The decision was taken based on the recommendations made by the 11th pay revision commission headed by retired IAS officer C R Biswal in May 2018. The earlier pay revision for the employees was done in 2014 soon after the formation of Telangana, when the government had given 43% pay hike for the employees.
Acknowledging that there was a delay in the implementation of pay revision due to the coronavirus pandemic that crippled the state’s economy completely, KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, said his government had now decided to implement the pay revision to the best possible extent, as the financial position of the state was gradually limping back to normal.
“In all, the salary hike would benefit 9,17,797 employees of all categories,” he said.
The pay hike is effective retrospectively from the last financial year. The chief minister said his government would pay arrears of the salary hike for the last 12 months to the employees, despite the fact that the state’s financial position was precarious due to drastic fall in revenues on account of Covid-19 pandemic.

Last date to link Aadhaar card and PAN on March 31

The last date to link your Permanent Account Number to your Aadhaar card is set for March 31 and a failure to do so could result in the PAN card becoming inoperative from April 1. Additionally, the central government will also impose a penalty of ₹10,000 on people who fail to link the documents as per Section 272B of the income tax act.
The central government extended the deadline to link both the documents several times because of the coronavirus pandemic. Unless the deadline is extended again, all Aadhaar cards need to be linked to PAN by the end of this month.
In order to link the documents manually, visit a service centre for your PAN card and fill the ‘Annexure-I’ form. Attach the form with a copy of the PAN and Aadhaar cards. For linking the documents manually, a prescribed fee is charged, unlike the online linking which is free.

Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam

::International::

Pakistan to start importing CanSino Covid-19 vaccine for commercial sale

"We expect the first 10,000 doses to come on March 25, and 100,000 next month and 200,000 the month after," Hassan Abbas, an official of AJ Pharma, said.
Pakistan will begin receiving shipments of China's CanSino Biologics Covid-19 vaccine this week for commercial sale, an official at the company's local partner told Reuters.
"We expect the first 10,000 doses to come on March 25, and 100,000 next month and 200,000 the month after," Hassan Abbas, an official of AJ Pharma, said.
Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow commercial imports of Covid-19 vaccines, has already received a batch of the Russian Sputnik vaccine for commercial sale.

::Economy::

Finance Ministry asks Sebi to address issues that led to NSE outage

The trading at NSE resumed from 03:30 pm and trading hours were extended from 03:30 pm to 05:00 pm for the day in all the three stock exchanges -- NSE, BSE and MSEI -- to enable investors to square off their existing positions.
The finance ministry has asked markets regulator Sebi to take necessary measures to address issues that led to the outage at National Stock Exchange recently.
In a written reply to the LokSabha on Monday, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said that on February 24, 2021, the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) took a decision to halt trading from 11:40 am due to technical issues.
However, the system of interoperability among clearing corporations, which allows market participants to consolidate their clearing and settlement functions at a single clearing corporation, irrespective of the stock exchange on which the trade is executed, continued to remain functional.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) had made a net investment of ₹2,332 crore on February 24, 2021.
NSE is one of the largest derivatives exchanges in the world and accounts for the leading market share (by total turnover) in India - 93.2 per cent in equity cash trading and 99.9 per cent in equity derivatives trading during 2019-20.

Rupee gains 15 paise to end at 72.37 against US dollar

The rupee appreciated 15 paise to close at 72.37 against the US dollar on Monday, driven by foreign fund inflows and easing crude oil prices.
However, subdued sentiment in the domestic equity markets and a moderately strong dollar overseas weighed on the rupee, forex dealers said.
At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 72.47 against the greenback and gained further to touch an intra-day high of 72.34.
It finally ended at 72.37 against the American currency, registering a rise of 15 paise over its previous close.
In the previous session, the rupee had settled at 72.52 against the American currency.
"Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have bought close to a net USD 2.5 billion worth of Indian equities so far this month. FPIs bought a net USD 179.40 million as of March 18, 2021. For the month of March, FPIs were net buyers of a total of USD 2.454 billion," according to Reliance Securities.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Friday as they bought shares worth ₹1,418.43 crore, as per exchange data.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

Space and Sea Explorer dives to deepest point on Earth

Space and sea explorer Richard Garriott is the first person in the world to have explored the North Pole, the South Pole, flown to the International Space Station and descended to the deepest point on Earth - the Mariana Trench.
Space and sea explorer Richard Garriott is the first person in the world to have explored the North Pole, the South Pole, flown to the International Space Station and descended to the deepest point on Earth - the Mariana Trench.
"It is literally the deepest place on Earth," Garriott, a video game developer, told Reuters on Thursday. "It is almost 11,000 meters of sea water deep - that is deeper than Mount Everest is high above sea level, by a couple thousand meters at least."
Garriott got back from the dive less than a week ago and said it took about four hours to descend 7 miles (11 km) to the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean. The trip, which was in a small vessel designed to withstand the enormous pressure at those depths, was to collect geological, water and sea creature samples for research.

::Sports::

Kohli one ton away from equaling Tendulkar's feat, breaking Ponting's record

India captain ViratKohli will be on the verge of equallingSachin Tendulkar's huge ODI feat and surpassing Ricky Ponting's massive record when he steps out to bat in the first ODI against England at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.
It has also been 1 year and 222 days since Kohli scored a century in the 50-overs format. His last ODI hundred was against Australia at Ranchi on March 8th, 2019.
Currently, Kohli and Ponting are both tied at the top position in the list of captains with the most centuries in international cricket (41).
With a ton in the first ODI, Kohli will also equal Ponting's tally of most centuries as captain (22) in the ODIs.