Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 17 March 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

Twenty-two of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India, with Delhi being ranked the most polluted capital city globally. The report, prepared by Swiss organisationIQAir, however, shows that Delhi’s air quality improved by approximately 15% from 2019 to 2020.
It said that despite the improvement, Delhi ranked as the tenth most polluted city and the top polluted capital city in the world.
“India continues to feature prominently at the top of the most polluted cities ranking, with 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities globally,” the report said. Besides Delhi, the 21 other Indian cities among the 30 most polluted cities in the world are Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, BisrakhJalalpur, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Agra and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, Bhiwari in Rajasthan, Faridabad, Jind, Hisar, Fatehabad, Bandhwari, Gurugram, Yamuna Nagar, Rohtak and Dharuhera in Haryana, and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
As per the report, the top most polluted city is Xinjiang in China followed by nine Indian cities. Ghaziabad is the second most polluted city in the world followed by Bulandshahar, BisrakhJalalpur, Noida, Noida, Greater Noida, Kanpur, Lucknow and Bhiwari.
The global cities ranking report is based on PM2.5 data from 106 countries, which is measured by ground-based monitoring stations, most of which is operated by government agencies.

The COVID-19 crisis offers an unexpected opportunity for countries across the world to decouple their economies from fossil fuels and accelerate the shift to renewable energy sources, says the World Energy Transitions Outlook report, brought out by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
Previewed at the virtual Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue (BETD 2021), which began on Tuesday, the report proposes energy transition solutions for the narrow pathway available to contain the rise of temperature to 1.5°C and halt global warming.
Highlighting the need for countries to change direction with careful recalibrating of stimulus packages and recovery measures, Director General of IRENA Francesco La Camera said, “The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the cost of tying economies to the fate of fuels prone to price shocks.

The M&A market is frothy and private equity firms are keen to put their vast funds to work. Many takeover targets are attracting several suitors. Hence, share prices have often traded above the level of the last offer, anticipating something higher will come along.
When hedge funds are pushing private equity firms around, it’s hard to see things ending well. Merger arbitrageurs in the UK have been betting that deal-hungry buyout firms have infinite funds to pay sky-high prices for assets. But the arbs’ aggressiveness in driving up the shares of buyout targets may be a sign of something more troubling than optimism.
The M&A market is frothy and private equity firms are keen to put their vast funds to work. Many takeover targets are attracting several suitors. Hence, share prices have often traded above the level of the last offer, anticipating something higher will come along.
That's happened even when the company has accepted what's on the table. The greedy gamble hasn’t always paid off.

Billions of years ago, Mars was home to lakes and oceans -- but where all the water went to transform the planet into the desolate rock we know today has been something of a mystery.
Most of it was thought to have been lost to space, but a new study funded by NASA proposes that it didn't go anywhere but is trapped within minerals in the crust.
"We're saying that the crust forms what we call hydrated minerals, so minerals that actually have water in their crystal structure," Eva Scheller, lead author of the new paper in Science, told AFP.
In fact, Scheller's model suggests anywhere between 30 - 99 percent of the initial water remains trapped inside these minerals.
Early Mars was thought to have enough water to cover the whole planet in roughly 100 to 1,500 meters (330 to 4,4920 feet) of ocean.

In Cricket, England defeated India by eight wickets in the third T20 match in Ahmedabad yesterday to take 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Chasing a target of 157 runs set by India, England comfortably made 158 for two in 18.2 overs. For the visitors, Jos Buttler was the highest scorer with an unbeaten 83.
Earlier, riding on skipper ViratKohli's valiant knock of 77 runs, India had scored 156 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. For England, Mark Wood took three wickets.