Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 26 March 2021

::NATIONAL::

India cannot become the “international capital of illegal migrants”, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Friday while opposing a plea seeking release and protection of over 150 Rohingyas sent to a holding centre in Jammu as part of a process to identify undocumented immigrants for deportation to Myanmar.
In an affidavit, the Centre called Rohingyas “absolutely illegal migrants” who posed “serious threats to the national security” as a Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde-led bench reserved its order on the plea.
The Jammu & Kashmir administration began the process of identifying undocumented immigrants on March 6. Over 150 of them were sent to the holding centre under the Foreigners Act. Officials insisted due process of law was followed and added the immigrants sent to the centre did not have valid travel documents.
It cited a 1991 Supreme Court judgment that said although Constitution’s Article 21 (the right to life and liberty) extended to foreign nationals, the fundamental right to reside and settle in India under Article 19(1)(e) was applicable only to citizens.

AshaBhosle has been conferred the Maharashtra Bhushan Award, the highest honour by the state government presented annually on Thursday, March 25. The Ministry of Culture announced that the legendary playback singer will be bestowed with the honour for the year 2020.
Bhosle is the second member of her family to win this honour, after LataMangeshkar was awarded the Maharashtra Bhushan in 1997. She was also the second awardee after writer P. L. Deshpande.
According to a report in Loksatta meeting of the Maharashtra Bhushan Award Selection Committee was held on Thursday under the chairmanship of CM Uddhav Thackeray. Deputy Chief Minister AjitPawar, Cultural Affairs Minister AmitVilasraoDeshmukh, Minister of State RajendraPatil-Yadravkar, and other top officials were also present in the meeting.
After the meeting, CM Uddhav Thackeray took to Twitter to congratulate the singer. In Marathi, he announced the award and sent his greetings to the singer who is also fondly called ‘Ashatai.’

China announced retaliatory sanctions on senior British politicians including the former leader of the ruling Conservative Party for “maliciously spreading lies and disinformation” about its Xinjiang region.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced it is targeting nine individuals and four entities in the U.K. in a statement on Friday morning.
The nine sanctioned individuals are former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, the party’s policy adviser Neil O’Brien, chair of Parliament’s foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat, David Alton, Tim Loughton, NusratGhani, Helena Kennedy, Geoffrey Nice and Joanne Nicola Smith Finley.
The individuals and their relatives are banned from entering China or trading with Chinese citizens and institutions. Any assets they have in the Asian nation will also be frozen, the statement said. The four entities hit are the China Research Group of U.K. lawmakers, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, the Uyghur Tribunal and Essex Court Chambers.

India has launched its 2nd Tranche of auction for commercial coal mining offering 67 mines for sale of coal today. This is the highest number of mines on offer in a particular tranche of auction after commencement of the auction regime since 2014.
Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi launched the auction process in a programme held in New Delhi. The coal mines on offer are a mix of mines with small and large reserves, coking and non-coking mines and fully and partially explored mines spread across six states.
These states are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Joshi said, the government is making coal the driver of economic activities in the country and there are huge opportunities that the Indian coal sector is offering.
He invited investors to come and be a part of vastly untapped coal reserves in the country. The Minister said, Commercial coal mining will bring in new investments, create huge employment opportunities and boost socio-economic development in coal-bearing states.

Paris, London and Tokyo advanced and US futures also were higher. Investors appeared to be shrugging off a resurgence of coronavirus cases in many areas and focusing on signs economies are on the mend.
Hopes that economies will regain ground lost since last year's first outbreaks of coronavirus thanks to Covid-19 vaccinations and huge amounts of government have helped support stocks.
“Although very much in the price, investors did take solace as the positive outlook for vaccines amid President Joe Biden’s plan for an ‘economic rejuvenation,' which underpinned risk overnight," Stephen Innes of Axi said in a commentary.
Germany's DAX rose 0.9% to 14,7521.53 and the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.7% to 5,990.86. Britain's FTSE 100 jumped 0.7% to 6,722.31. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials both gained 0.3%.

The ISRO is embarking on a mission of a different kind by taking the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) to a much higher, futuristic research orbit.
The Bengaluru-headquarteted space agency is striking a partnership with the IIST -- something similar to the JPL- Caltech model in the United States.
JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) is federally funded by US space agency NASA and managed by Caltech (California Institute of Technology).
To coordinate joint research activities between ISRO centres and IIST, akin to the Caltech-JPL model, a dedicated framework has now been put into place, with CBPO (Capacity Building Programme Office) located at ISRO headquarters here as a focal point.
An Advanced Space Research Group has been created to identify application-oriented research projects of importance to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) centres and matching with the interests of IIST faculty.

India won gold in the women's 25m Pistol Team event on Thursday at the ISSF World Cup. India beat Poland in the final to win the country's 10th gold medal at the World Cup. India continued its good showing in the ongoing ISSF World Cup being held in Delhi as the hosts lead the chart with 10 gold, six silver and five bronze medals.
The Indian women's team of RahiSarnobat, ChinkiYadav and Manu Bhaker beat Poland's Joanna IwonaWawrzonowska, JulitaBorek and AgnieszkaKorejwo 17:7 in the gold medal match.
All the three Indian shooters in the women's 25m pistol team event had swept the individual event in the same category as ChinkiYadav won gold, RahiSarnobat bagged silver and Manu Bhaker finished with silver.