Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 05 April 2022

::National::

Nodal agency on cybercrime on Panel’s radar

The panel, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, met the officials from the ministries of electronics and information technology, and home affairs.
The parliamentary committee on information and technology on Monday questioned central government officials regarding setting up of a nodal agency to address concerns regarding the surge in cybercrimes, people familiar with the matter said.
“The process to set up the agency began nearly nine years ago,” said a person familiar with the matter. “The panel wanted to be apprised of what the Centre was doing to expedite the process.”
The panel, led by Congress MP ShashiTharoor, met the officials from the ministries of electronics and information technology, and home affairs.
Both the ministries apprised the panel of the several government departments and organisations that are already working to address cybercrime, said the person.

Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam

::International::

Zelensky to address UN Security Council amid global outrage over mass killings

Ukraine’s president VolodymyrZelensky is set to address the UN Security Council on Tuesday amid global outrage over what has been called a "massacre" in the Bucha town of the capital city of Kyiv. Bodies strewn across streets - as the Russian troops retreated - have put violence in the war-hit country under fresh spotlight as Russia has been accused of fresh war crimes. US president Joe Biden has yet again called Russia's Vladimir Putin "a war criminal" as Washington slaps fresh punitive measures on Moscow.
As the world reacts with horror to the images, the Kremlin has called the photos "fake". "The world has already seen many war crimes. At different times. On different continents. But it is time to do everything so that the war crimes of the Russian military become the last manifestation of such evil on earth," the Ukraine president said in his daily nightly address.
The Ukrainian president on Monday visited the Bucha town as horrific images kept flooding social media. "These are war crimes and it will be recognized by the world as genocide. We know that thousands of people have been killed and tortured with extremities cut off, women raped, children killed,"," he was quoted as saying by news agency AFP during his rare trip outside the capital city.
"The UK presidency of the Council will ensure the truth is heard about Russia's war crimes. We will expose Putin's war for what it really is," Britain's UN mission said on its official Twitter account.
Joe Biden, who earlier said that Russia's Vladimir Putin can't remain in power ( a comment that later prompted a clarification from White House), on Monday underlined: "You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. Well, the truth of the matter is we saw what happened in Bucha. This warrants him ... he is a war criminal. ... We have to continue to provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to continue the fight. And we have to gather all the detail, so this can be an actual, have a war crimes trial. This guy is brutal. And what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous," he was quoted as saying by news agency AP.

::Economy::

RBI’s growth-inflation balance to get tougher

The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India will begin its meeting to deliberate on the course of interest rates and other aspects of monetary policy in the Indian economy for the following two months. The result of these deliberations will be announced on April 8.
The global economic landscape has undergone a major disruption since the previous meeting, which ended on February, because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It has pushed up prices of important commodities, including crude oil, and made them volatile.
The inflationary shock and uncertainty because of the Ukraine war is likely to generate headwinds for global growth as well. As a major energy importer, the Indian economy will not be isolated from these effects. All this will make the Reserve Bank’s challenge of balancing inflation with growth even more difficult. Here are three charts which explain this in detail.
While predicting 7.8% GDP growth for 2022-23 in February, the MPC observed it was lower than desired levels. “MPC judges that the ongoing domestic recovery is still incomplete and needs continued policy support.
It is in this context that the MPC has decided to keep the policy repo rate unchanged at 4% and to continue with an accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive and sustain growth on a durable basis and continue to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the economy, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target going forward.” The repo, or repurchase rate is the rate at which RBI lends to banks.
Latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data supports the argument about a deceleration in the growth momentum. Manufacturing PMI came at 54 in March 2022. While this is higher than the critical threshold of 50 (it signifies expansion over last month’s economic activity), the latest value is lower than the February value of 54.9. “Business conditions in India improved in March, but the latest results showed slower expansions in factory orders and production as well as a renewed decline in new export orders,” S&P Global, the agency which conducts the PMI survey in India, said in a statement. “Inflation concerns meanwhile dampened business confidence, which fell to its lowest level in two years,” it added.

8 years ago, an RBI notification had triggered possible HDFC twins merger talks

Talks of a merger between HDFC Bank and parent HDFC Ltd had gained steam nearly eight years ago, when the Reserve Bank of India allowed banks to issue long-term bonds to fund infrastructure and affordable housing.
At that time, key executives at both entities denied any such proposal. And today, the merger has been officially announced by the two players.
Back in July 2014, RBI had issued a notification saying banks do not have to maintain Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) for funds raised through the route, and also exempted them from meeting priority-sector lending targets on such funds.
Analysts and banking industry watchers had then opined that the regulatory move makes sense for the merger of the largest pure-play home financier with what was then the second largest private sector lender, to create what was reckoned as the second biggest financial sector entity in the country after SBI.
At that time, key executives at both the entities had acknowledged that a merger made sense but denied any such proposal. Without going into exact details, they had also sought clarity to make such a merger more beneficial.
"There are some regulatory issues which need to be resolved to make the merger more beneficial. Partly, it has been resolved with the issuance of the circular on infra bonds, but there are a few more issues in which we are in discussion with the regulators," AdityaPuri, the then chief executive and managing director of HDFC Bank, had said in December 2014.

::Science and tech::

First private astronaut mission to space station readies for launch

The International Space Station (ISS) is set to become busier than usual this week when its crew welcomes aboard four new colleagues from Houston-based startup Axiom Space, the first all-private astronaut team ever flown to the orbiting outpost.
The launch is being hailed by the company, NASA and other industry players as a turning point in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures collectively referred to by insiders as the low-Earth orbit economy, or "LEO economy" for short.
Weather permitting, Axiom's four-man team will lift off on Friday at the earliest from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket furnished and flown by Elon Musk's commercial space launch venture SpaceX.
The launch was initially scheduled for Wednesday. An Axiom spokesperson said on Monday the delay would give SpaceX more time to complete pre-launch processing work. If all goes smoothly, the quartet led by retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria would arrive at the space station about 28 hours later as their SpaceX-supplied Crew Dragon capsule docks at ISS some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

::Sports::

Sports Ministry to spend ₹190 crore to prepare athletes for CWG, Asian Games

The sports ministry has earmarked ₹190 crore for preparing Indian athletes for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. The Annual Calendar of Training & Competitions (ACTCs) was finalised for 33 disciplines on Monday and Rs. 259 crore set aside as assistance to the National Sports Federations (NSFs).
Union sports ministerAnurag Thakur said funds will not be a constraint for preparing the athletes and the ministry will provide all support.
Assistance to NSFs for organising national championships was raised to Rs.51 lakh for high priority, priority and traditional sports. For general category sports, it has been raised to ₹30 lakh from ₹22 lakh (earlier uniform for all categories).
To encourage NSFs to host more international events in India, assistance has been raised to Rs. 1 crore from Rs.30 lakh. “To attract qualified support personnel, remuneration has been raised substantially. Remuneration of sports doctors and doctors has been increased to up to Rs. 2 lakh per month from Rs.1 lakh per month and that of head physiotherapists and physiotherapists to up to Rs. 2 lakh per month and up to Rs. 1.5 lakh per month respectively, from Rs. 80,000 per month,” the statement said.