Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 February 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 15 February 2022

::NATIONAL::

Kerala High court lifts stay on land survey for K-Rail

The high court allowed the contention of the government that the survey was held only for assessing the social impact of the project and hence it should be allowed to conduct as per the Kerala Survey and Boundaries Act.
Providing relief to the state government, the Kerala high court on Monday lifted the stay on land survey for the high-speed rail corridor project, K Rail.
It allowed the contention of the government that the survey was held only for assessing the social impact of the project and hence it should be allowed to conduct as per the Kerala Survey and Boundaries Act. A division bench of chief justice Mani S Kumar and justiceShaji P Chaly while nullifying the single bench order on a plea filed by the government said it was not heard properly.
A single bench of the court had stayed the survey on January 20 forcing the government to move the division bench. During the hearing, the Union railway ministry had filed an affidavit that the ongoing land acquisition proceedings can be stopped as the financial viability of the project was questionable and it cannot agree with the present alignment of K Rail.
The government had said that the ambitious high-speed rail project will be a game-changer and will change the face of the state but the Opposition Congress and BJP protested it saying it will turn into another Nandigram (farmers’ uprising against the small car project in 2007 that led to violence and later fall of the left government in West Bengal) for the state and the party.
The proposed rail will bring down the travel time between Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram, covering 529.45 km, to only four hours from existing 12 hours and it will be completed by 2025, said an official from Kerala Rail Development Corporation Ltd, the nodal agency for the proposed project.
However, many experts, including “Metro Man” E Sreedharan said that the high-speed trains are not feasible to run on wetlands and its alignment is also flawed.

::INTERNATIONAL::

‘Afghanistan will be forced to reconsider policy towards US’, warns Taliban

US President Joe Biden last week seized $7 billion in assets belonging to the previous Afghan government, aiming to split the funds between compensation for victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and desperately needed aid for post-war Afghanistan.
Afghanistan will be forced to reconsider its policy towards the United States unless Washington reverses a decision to freeze part of the country's assets as compensation for victims of the 9/11 attacks, the Taliban.
US President Joe Biden last week seized $7 billion in assets belonging to the previous Afghan government, aiming to split the funds between compensation for victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and desperately needed aid for post-war Afghanistan.
The move drew an angry response from the country's new Taliban leaders, which branded the seizure a "theft" and a sign of US "moral decay."
"The 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with Afghanistan," said Monday's statement, signed by deputy spokesman InamullahSamangani.
"Any misappropriation of the property of the Afghan people under the pretext of this incident is a clear violation of the agreement reached with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the statement added, using the Taliban's name for the country.
The money, which a US official said largely stems from foreign assistance sent to help the now-defunct Western-backed Afghan government, had been stuck in the New York Federal Reserve since last year's Taliban victory.

::ECONOMY::

A first in 3 decades, retail inflation in US higher than India for 4 months

Emerging markets such as India have always run higher inflation rates than developed economies such as the US and countries of Western Europe.
But for the first time in the past 30 years, the US reported a higher consumer price inflation (CPI) rate than India in five consecutive months.
The US reported a CPI rate of 7.5 per cent in January 2022 against 6.01 per cent in India and analysts expect the trend to continue for at least a few months more (see the adjoining charts).
Before this, inflation in the US was higher than in India on only four occasions -- November 1999, December 1999, May 2004, and June 2017. In the past 30 years, inflation in India has been higher than in the US by, on average, 4.75 per cent.
“A low CPI in India largely indicates a lack of consumer demand, making it tough for firms to raise prices despite rising input costs. In the US, on the other hand, consumer spending has been exceptionally strong in the post-Covid period, allowing firms to raise prices,” said DhananjaySinha, managing director and chief strategist, JM Finance Institutional Equity.
Private final consumption expenditure -- the biggest component of GDP in both the countries -- has grown at a faster pace in the US than in India for the last five consecutive quarters now. As a result, consumer demand or personal consumption in the US has recovered from the pandemic shock and was nearly 11 per cent higher during the September 2021 quarter (on an annual basis) than the pre-Covid level in the March 2020 quarter.
In contrast, consumer demand in India at current prices, when converted into dollars, is still nearly 1 per cent lower than its pre-pandemic level. Overall consumer demand in the US jumped to $15,965 billion during four quarters ended September 2021 from $14,439 billion in March 2020. Consumer spending in India was estimated to be $1,721 billion in the September 2021 quarter (on an annual basis) against $1,732 billion during the four quarters ended March 2020.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

NASA's new space telescope sees 1st starlight, takes selfie

Nasa’s new space telescope has captured its first starlight and even taken a selfie of its giant, gold mirror.
All 18 segments of the primary mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope seem to be working properly one and half months into the mission, officials said Friday.
The telescope's first target was a bright star 258 light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
“That was just a real wow moment,” said Marshall Perrin of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Over the next few months, the hexagonal mirror segments — each the size of a coffee table — will be aligned and focused as one, allowing science observations to begin by the end of June.
The $10 billion infrared observatory — considered the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope — will seek light from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe nearly 14 billion years ago. It will also examine the atmospheres of alien worlds for any possible signs of life.

::SPORTS::

'Perfect start' for Casper Ruud with title victory at Argentina Open

Norway's Casper Ruud said he made the "perfect start" to the 2022 season after winning his seventh ATP tour title at the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.
Ruud bounced back from a shaky start to defeat local favourite Diego Schwartzman 5-7 6-2 6-3 and win the tournament for the second time after his triumph in 2020.
Schwartzman had ended a 13-year wait for an Argentine champion with his 2021 title but he could not repeat those heroics against Ruud.
"It means a lot," Ruud said. "I think this is the perfect start and it will give me confidence for the rest of the season and also for the next weeks when I am here in South America."