Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 01 April 2021

::NATIONAL::

The committee appointed by the Supreme Court presented the report on agricultural laws

The Supreme Court-appointed committee on the three contentious central farm laws has submitted its report to the apex court in a sealed cover.
"The report has been submitted in the Supreme Court in a sealed cover envelope on March 19," agricultural economist Anil Ghanvat who is one of the members of the committee, told HT.
The content of the report has not been revealed so far. The court will hear the matter on April 5.
The three-member committee was appointed by the Supreme Court on January 12 for evaluation of the farm laws against which farmers from many states have been protesting.
The panel members held their first meeting on January 19 and decided to set up a web portal for farmers to help them share their opinion on the new farm laws. The members have spoken to 85 farmer organisations and other stakeholders to find the solution of the deadlock that has been continuing for more than four months.

Cruise service started between Surat and Diu

In a boost to the sea tourism in Gujarat, Union Minister MansukhMandaviya virtually flagged off cruise services from Essar bulk terminal at Hazira in Surat to Diu, a union territory on the Saurashtra coast, on Wednesday.
The development of cruise tourism, Mandaviya said, has been the prime focus of the NarendraModi government at the Centre.
“We are working in the direction to develop coastal connectivity of Mumbai with Surat and Saurashtra, via ferry services, RoPax services and cruise services, so that many people are benefitted.

Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam

::International::

World Health Organization and China release report on coronavirus genesis

China refuted the assertions of WHO Director General Dr. Tedros that it did not provide necessary access to the team of international experts and withheld data from them.
China’s comments came a day after the release of the long-awaited study into the origins of Covid-19. The report, written after four weeks of investigative work in the mainland city of Wuhan, drew widespread criticism from countries including the US, which called it incomplete and overly controlled by China.
Following the publication of the much awaited joint study report into the origins of COVID-19 by China and the WHO on Tuesday, WHO Director General TedrosAdhanomGhebreyesus said China had withheld data from the international investigators. WHO Director-General unexpectedly also critiqued the report, saying it had not sufficiently examined the controversial hypothesis that the virus could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology where researchers have been studying different coronaviruses, including ones with similarities to SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19. He also called for further studies to unravel the origin of the virus.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson also refuted a joint statement made by the United States and 13 other countries expressing "concerns" over the WHO report on the origins of COVID-19. A top Chinese medical expert Liang Wannian, who was co-leader of the joint study, told reporters that researchers from both sides had access to the same data throughout the investigation and that the assertions about lack of access were not accurate.

::Economy::

MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) inflation target band retained at 2% -6% for next 5 years

The government on Wednesday asked the Reserve Bank (RBI) to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for another five-year period ending March 2026.
To control the price rise, the Centre in 2016 gave a mandate to the RBI to keep the retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for a five-year period ending March 31, 2021. “The inflation target for the period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2026 under the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 has been kept at the same level as was for previous 5 years,” said Tarun Bajaj, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.
As a result of inflation targetting mandate, the RBI has been able to keep consumer price index averaging 3.9 per cent during October 2016-March 2020.

Government raised Rs 32,835 crore from disinvestment of CPSEs in 2020-21

The government has mopped up Rs 32,835 crore from CPSE share sale and buybacks, thus exceeding the disinvestment target set in the revised estimates (RE) for current fiscal.
The realisationis, however, lower than the record Rs 2.10 lakh crore originally budgeted. In the RE, the target was scaled down to Rs 32,000 crore as COVID-19 pandemic delayed planned big ticket disinvestments.
In a tweet, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management Secretary TuhinKantaPandey said the total DIPAM receipts in 2020-21 stand at Rs 71,857 crore, which include disinvestment receipts of Rs 32,835 crore and dividend receipts of Rs 39,022 crore.
"Total dividend receipts from CPSEs in FY 2020-21 have touched Rs 39,022 crore, which exceeds the revised estimate (RE) of Rs 34,717 crore, and is more than actual dividend receipts (Rs 35,543 crore) during the previous financial year," Pandey tweeted.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

New clue about how particles self-assemble can pave the way for understanding dynamics in living cells

Molecular chirality is encoded in the static structure of building units of particles. It is well known that it results in interactions that are stereoselective. However, in many systems, chirality can be associated with how the particles move.
Can particles which refuse to interact with each other form condensed phases like solids and liquids be brought together? How do particles form these structures without attraction when left on their own? Scientists have now found a clue to determine how self-assembled structures can be made using a strange class of particles that do not interact and have non-superimposable mirror images (chiral).
Whether such chiral activity can introduce stereoselective interactions between particles is still unknown to scientists. By investigating the role of chiral activity, a group of scientists have for the first time shown that objects can self-recognize even when their shape is not chiral. Further, they report spontaneous dimerization into two types of dimers- ‘movers’ and ‘spinners’.
Chiral active matter is ubiquitous in nature, and numerous biological systems possess some degree of chiral activity. The present study could thus pave the way towards understanding dynamics in living cells and their assemblies. However, in biological systems, precisely tuning chiral activity is very difficult and how precisely it affects the emergent dynamics is not clear.
Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research Bangalore, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, tuned the nature of the chiral activity of millimetre-sized rice-shaped grains with the help of 3D printing.

::Sports::

Woman weightlifter fails dope test, asked to return home from national camp

A woman weightlifter, who was part of the ongoing national camp at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for banned substance.
The weightlifter, a national record holder and who has participated in several international tournaments including the Commonwealth Championship where she won gold, was set to be a part of the Indian team for the Asian Championship to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from April 16 to 25.
"Yes, she has failed a dope test. The report came about 10-15 days back," a source in the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) confirmed the development to PTI.