Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 April 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 11 April 2022

::NATIONAL::

Yechury re-elected CPI(M) general secy for third term

SitaramYechury was re-elected as general secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist) as the four-day 23rd party congress in Kannur concluded.
West Bengal leader Ramachandra Dome was elected to the Politburo, becoming the first Dalit face in the party’s highest body.
Yechury’s reappointment came at a time the party is facing a stiff challenge at the national level, with its strength reducing considerably in some of its erstwhile forts like West Bengal and Tripura.
“Enough challenges are ahead for the party. Our leaders never retire but since there is an age cap, they will be active in other forums of the party,” the CPI(M) leader said.
Yechury was referring to the party’s decision to fix 75 as the age limit for members of the central committee and Politburo. Besides Dome, Left Democratic Front state convener A Vijayaraghavan and All India KisanSabha president Ashok Dhawale were also inducted into the Politburo following the retirement of leaders S RamachandranPillai, Biman Bose and HananMollah.
The new central committee, meanwhile, now has 15 women representatives and 17 new members. Among those elected to the committee were Kerala finance minister K N Balagopal and industry minister P Rajee. State women commission chief P Sathidevi and former MP C S Sujatawere also inducted.
Yechury joined the Students Federation of India, the party’s student body, in 1974, and was later elected as the outfit’s national president. Arrested during the Emergency, he served twice as president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union. He was elevated to the central committee in 1985 and Politburo in 1992, and succeeded Prakash Karat as general secretary in 2015.

::INTERNATIONAL::

US to supply Ukraine with 'the weapons it needs' against Russia

The United States is committed to providing Ukraine with “the weapons it needs” to defend itself against Russia, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Sunday as Ukraine seeks more military aid from the West.
Sullivan said the Biden administration will send more weapons to Ukraine to prevent Russia from seizing more territory and targeting civilians, attacks that Washington has labeled war crimes.
“We’re going to get Ukraine the weapons it needs to beat back the Russians to stop them from taking more cities and towns where they commit these crimes,” Sullivan said on ABC News’ “This Week”.
Moscow has rejected accusations of war crimes by Ukraine and Western countries.
Speaking later on NBC News’ “Meet the Press", Sullivan said the United States was “working around the clock to deliver our own weapons . . . and organizing and coordinating the delivery of weapons from many other countries.”
“Weapons are arriving every day,” Sullivan said, “including today.”
Weapons shipments have included defensive anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles, as well as ammunition and body armor. But U.S. and European leaders are being pressed by Ukraine President VolodymyrZelenskiy to provide heavier arms and equipment to engage Russia in the eastern region of the country, where Russia is expected to intensify its military efforts.
Ukrainian officials said more than 50 people were killed in a missile strike on a train station in city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, where thousands of people had gathered to evacuate.

::ECONOMY::

No plan to privatise railways, need to accept latest tech: AshwiniVaishnaw

Union Railways Minister AshwiniVaishnaw on Saturday reiterated that the Centre has no policy to privatise the national transporter and emphasised the need for the sector to accept the latest technology to meet the aspirations of the passengers, especially in terms of safety and comfort.
The technology should be indigenous like the contribution of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) to Vande Bharat Express, and take the sector forward, he said, while virtually inaugurating the 20th all India conference of the Bharatiya Railway MazdoorSangh (BRMS) at Rail mandapam, Perambur, from Delhi.
Vande Bharat Express was designed and manufactured by ICF at Perambur under the Centre's Make in India initiative.
"The opposition parties are repeatedly alleging a move to privatise the railways. I wish to clearly state that the railways is a big complex organisation...there's no policy to privatise the railways. No such plans, whatsoever," the minister said. What is uppermost in the mind (of administrator) is strive to do what is better for the railways and take it forward, he said.

::Science and tech::

Astronomers find Jupiter's identical twin

Astronomers have discovered a planet that is nearly identical to Jupiter, circling a star 17,000 light-years away from the Earth. In terms of mass, the exoplanet, dubbed K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb, is nearly the same as Jupiter. While K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb has a mass of 1.1 times that of Jupiter, the star that it orbits has a mass of about 60 per cent of the Sun.
The near-identical twin is also around the same distance from its star as Jupiter is from the Sun. K2-2016-BLG-0005Lb is 420 million miles away from its star, while Jupiter is 462 million miles away.
The planet and its star are located in the constellation Sagittarius. An international team of astrophysicists discovered the exoplanet using data from NASA's Kepler satellite telescope collected in 2016. In the Milky Way galaxy, the telescope has discovered over 2,700 verified planets so far, but this system is twice as far away as any ever discovered by Kepler.
The astrophysicists used Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and a technique known as gravitational microlensing to discover the system. The study has been submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and is available as a preprint on ArXiv.org.

::Sports::

Sublime Dutch beat India to book final showdown against Germany

Just like coach Erik Wonink would have wanted, an energetic Indian team came out firing immediately after the pushback. Olympian Sharmila Devi dissected the Dutch defence, passing the ball to SangitaKumari, who attempted a goal in the very first minute. Skipper SalimaTete provided India another chance in the next minute, pushing the ball to Mumtaz Khan, whose attempt was blocked by a very busy Netherlands goalkeeper Sophia terKuile.
Barely tested earlier in the competition, the Dutch were on the backfoot at the start with India pressing hard and high. India earned three penalty corners in the next few minutes, completely stunning the three-time champions. “We were very surprised by the Indian attack at the start,” said Dutch Noor Omrani, the eventual Player of the Match.
All it took was a moment of sheer brilliance in the 12th minute to turn the tables as the Netherlands scored an 18-pass goal—possibly the goal of the tournament—to completely swing the momentum. On a counterattack, the ball got 17 Dutch stick touches before Tessa Beetsma sounded the board to put Netherlands 1-0 ahead in the FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup semi-final in Potchefstroom.