Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 February 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 08 February 2022

::NATIONAL::

Kerala guv signs ordinance clipping Lokayukta powers

Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Monday signed the ordinance to amend the Kerala Lokayukta Act, 1999 aimed at curtailing powers of the anti-corruption body, a move which drew protests from the opposition.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who returned to the state on Saturday after week-long visit to the United Arab Emirates, called on the governor on Sunday and held one-hour discussion on the ordinance.
Earlier, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) urged the governor not to sign the ordinance, which, they said, would turn the Lokayukta redundant.
Now with the governor giving his assent “a competent body will have power either to accept or reject the verdict of Lokayukta after giving an opportunity to hear parties concerned,” according to the ordinance.
One of the strongest anti-corruption bodies of the country, under Section 14 of the Kerala Lokayuka Act, a public servant is required to vacate office immediately if indicted by Lokayukta. But the new amendment takes away Section 14 and now Lokayukta has only recommendatory authority, not mandatory jurisdiction. Now its verdict can be accepted or rejected by a competent authority constituted by the executive.
Interestingly, the Kerala Lokayuka Act was enacted by the CPI(M) government led by E K Nayanar in 1999, who always favoured a strong body to check corruption and included all posts under its ambit. When reporters asked about this, party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said last week that “political situation in the country is now different from Nayanar era.”
Rajendran also took a dig at the governor, saying “he might have been convinced about urgency behind ordinance”.
The Congress deplored the decision of the governor, saying “both the BJP and CPI(M) have arrived at an understanding to help each other to weaken Congress.”

::INTERNATIONAL::

Google changing logo of Chrome browser after 8 years

Tech giant Google is changing the logo of its popular internet browser Chrome. The subtle change is coming after eight years, and according to Google Chrome designer Elvin Hu, will give the product a “modern experience”.
In long Twitter thread, Hu said the changes have been made based on the different operating systems Chrome appears on. “On ChromeOS, they use brighter colors without gradients to match the looks of the rest of system icons. On macOS, they look 3D. For Beta and Dev, we applied colorful ribbons to them,” he said.
“Fun fact: we also found that placing certain shades of green and red next to each other created an unpleasant color vibration, so we introduced a very subtle gradient to the main icon to mitigate that, making the icon more accessible,” he added in subsequent tweet.
Due to these changes, the blue circle in the middle seems to be bigger. The colours in the logo also look more vibrant.
The designer then explained why the change is so subtle.
“You might ask, “why bother with sth. so subtle?” We tailor Chrome’s experience to each OS, with features like Native Window Occlusion on Windows, day-one M1 support on macOS, Widgets on iOS/Android, and Material You on Android. We want our brand to convey the same level of care,” said Hu.
From 2008 until now, the Chrome logo has been getting gradually simpler. What started out as a shiny, three-dimensional emblem has been squashed down into a 2D symbol?

::ECONOMY::

Government of India carried out switch operation of Rs 1,19,701 crore

India announced a debt-auction milestone tilted toward long-tenor papers, triggering a rare rally in bonds on expectations New Delhi will need to borrow less and avoid frequent repayments.
The unexpected bond switch involving Rs 1.2 lakh crore of debt helped benchmark yields soften nine basis points. Ten-year papers Monday yielded 6.68 per cent versus 6.77 per cent Friday.
When yields drop, prices rise.
Yields in other liquid government bonds maturing between 2026 and 2031 dropped up to 10 basis points, show Bloomberg data compiled by ETIG. Overnight Indexed Swap (OIS) rates fell three-four basis points in the derivatives market.
“The move is aimed at managing long duration bond supply,” said Ashhish Vaidya, managing director and head of markets, DBS Bank India. “This coupled with an expectation that the government will borrow less, perhaps near last year’s gross borrowing level, triggered a short-term rally in the gsec market.”
Additionally, expectations that the government would exempt overseas bond investors from the purview of long-term capital gain taxes aided the rally.
Similarly, the tri-party repo dealing system (TREPS), a money market platform where banks and mutual funds transact, reported a weighted average rate (WAR) at 3.17 percent Monday, which is 26 basis points lower than WAR on Friday at 3.43 percent, show data from Clearing Corporation of India.
India is set to be included in the global bond indices of JPMorgan and Barclays-Bloomberg this calendar year. A select number of sovereign papers are expected to be traded on the Euro Clear platform that can’t calculate capital gains taxes. This is considered a key barrier to India’s entry to the indices.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

Omicron: Indian scientists develop self-disinfecting, biodegradable face masks

A team of Indian scientists have developed a self-disinfecting antiviral mask to fight the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, the ministry of science and technology said on Friday. The antiviral mask coated with copper-based nanoparticles exhibits high performance against coronavirus as well as several other viral and bacterial infections, according to the ministry. The mask is biodegradable, highly breathable and washable.
Mask-wearing has been one of the important and effective health measures to contain the virus as the mode of transmission is via respiratory particles that are mainly airborne. But the ministry noted that controlling the virus transmission by wearing conventional masks has been difficult, particularly in densely populated places like hospitals, airports, stations, and shopping malls where the virus load is very high. It said that expensive masks in the Indian market “neither exhibit antiviral nor antibacterial properties.”
“The present-day face masks only retain the viruses by filtering and do not kill them and hence, are prone to transmission if the masks are not properly worn or disposed,” the ministry added.
Researchers at International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), developed the face mask in collaboration with a Bengaluru based company, Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) and Resil Chemicals, under Nano-Mission project sponsored by the department of science and technology.
“Simple multi-layer cloth masks present a pragmatic solution for use by the public in reducing Covid-19 transmission in the community and wearing these self-disinfecting cloth masks is definitely one of them,” it added.

::SPORTS::

Olympians Nethra and Vishnu set sail to promote yoga abroad

Indian sailor and Olympian Nethra Kumanan not only taught Surya Namaskar and yoga to fellow sailors in Spain, during a recent challenge, but also inspired fellow Indian sailor, Olympian Vishnu Saravanan to take up the challenge in Malta, where he’s training at present. Saravanan, infact, went a step further and involved the local children as well. And that’s when the ongoing nationwide challenge — which celebrates 75 years of Indian independence — went international! The two athletes have since been practising and praising this Indian way to stay healthy while continuing to remain in two different countries. Excerpts from their interviews:
“I saw Nethra do it and decided to take up the challenge, too,” he says, adding: “The children followed my lead, and I told them why we do it. In the end, we were feeling very refreshed after doing the postures... Yoga is easy, everyone can do it but as athletes, we often neglect these small things and focus on the hard stuff.”