Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 19 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 19 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

PM to unveil statue of 11th century Vaishnavaite saint Ramanujacharya

Preparations are on full swing for the unveiling of “Statue of Equality,” the 216-ft statue of 11th century Vaishnavaite saint Sri Ramanujacharya on the 40-acre sprawling premises of Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamy ashram at Muchintal village on the outskirts of Hyderabad on February 5.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed in principle to unveil the statue as per the request of Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, who met him on September 20. The finer details of the Prime Minister’s visit are being worked out,” Jeeyar Education Trust official Suryanarayana Yellapragada told HT.
President Ramnath Kovind, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and several other dignitaries from across the globe were also invited for the inaugural function, which would be presided over by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. On Tuesday, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy met Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi and extended him an invite for the inaugural ceremony.
Telangana tourism minister V Srinivas Goud, who inspected the arrangements for the statue unveiling ceremony at the Chinna Jeeyar ashram on Sunday, confirmed that the prime minister would be unveiling the statue of Vaishnavaite saint Ramanujacharya.
According to Yellapragada, the Statue of Equality, is the second tallest in seated position depicting Saint Ramanujacharya and was built to commemorate the 1,000 years of his birth. The total cost of the project is around ₹1,000 crore.
“The 11th century saint, who fought against discrimination of people in the name of caste, colour and creed, propounded the theory of Vishishtadvaitha (qualified dualism), which says the God exists in all living beings,” he said.
The 216-ft panchaloha statue, made of five metals – gold, silver, copper, brass and tin – was erected in 2017 itself, but it took four years for the completion of works on the other constructions.

::INTERNATIONAL::

Russia moves more troops westward amid Ukraine tensions

Russia is a sending an unspecified number of troops from the country’s far east to Belarus for major war games, officials said Tuesday, a deployment that will further beef up Russian military assets near Ukraine amid Western fears of a planned invasion.
Amid the soaring tensions, the White House warned that Russia could attack its neighbor at “any point,” while the UK delivered a batch of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.
Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said the joint drills with Belarus would involve practicing a joint response to external threats.
Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine from various directions, including from its ally Belarus.
The US again stressed its concern Tuesday, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki describing the Russian forces' move into Belarus as part of as “extremely dangerous situation.”
“We’re now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine,” she said.
A series of talks last week between Russia, the US and NATO failed to quell the tensions over Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Friday in another attempt to defuse the crisis.
Russia already has started moving troops for the war games in Belarus. Fomin said it would take through Feb. 9 to fully deploy weapons and personnel for the Allied Resolve 2022 drills, which are expected to take place Feb. 10-20.
Fomin didn't say how many troops will be involved in the drills, but mentioned that Russia will deploy a dozen Su-35 fighter jets and several air defense units to Belarus. The deployment would bolster an estimated 100,000 Russian troops with tanks and other heavy weapons who are already amassed near Ukraine in what the West fears could be a prelude to an invasion.
Washington and its allies firmly rejected Moscow’s demands during Russia-US negotiations in Geneva and a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels last week.
Fomin said the drills in Belarus, which involve an unspecified number of troops from Russia's Eastern Military District, reflect the need to practice concentrating the country's entire military potential in the west.
"A situation may arise when forces and means of the regional group of forces will be insufficient to ensure reliable security of the union state, and we must be ready to strengthen it," Fomin said at a meeting with foreign military attaches. “We have reached an understanding with Belarus that it's necessary to engage the entire military potential for joint defense.”

::ECONOMY::

India's overall economic activity remains strong, says RBI article

India's overall economic activity remains strong, driven by an upbeat consumer confidence and uptick in bank credit, and expectations that Omicron may turn out to be a "flash flood rather than a wave" have further brightened the prospects, according to a RBI article.
“On the vaccination front, India has made rapid strides. On the Omicron variant, the recent data from the UK and South Africa suggest that such infections are 66 to 80 per cent less severe, with a lower need for hospitalisation,” the article on the state of economy published in the RBI Bulletin said on Monday
Amidst upbeat consumer and business confidence and an uptick in bank credit, aggregate demand conditions stay resilient while on the supply front, rabi sowing has exceeded last year's level and the normal acreage, it noted.
Noting that manufacturing and several categories of services remain in expansion, the article said, "overall economic activity in India remains strong, with upbeat consumer and business confidence and upticks in several incoming high frequency indicators".
The central bank said the views expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
There are indications that supply chain disruptions and shipping costs are slowly easing, although the waning of inflation may take longer. This provides a window of opportunity to focus all energies on accelerating and broadening the global recovery, the article said.
It also said that data for early January 2022 (up to January 12) indicate growth in digital payments, although the recent surge in infections "may pose a concern going forward". Nevertheless, the payment industry is expected to display resilience owing to availability of varied checkout options and rising digital.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

South Africa launches first 'Made in Africa' satellite

South Africa has launched its first satellite constellation developed entirely in the continent of Africa, a move hailed by the country's Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande as a milestone. Three locally produced nanosatellites, which made up the country's first Maritime Domain Awareness Satellite (MDASat) constellation, were launched from Cape Canaveral in the United States on Thursday as part of American aerospace company SpaceX's Transporter-3 mission.
Transporter-3, SpaceX's third dedicated rideshare mission, carried a total of 105 spacecraft for various organisations and governments, including CubeSats, microsats, PocketQubes and orbital transfer vehicles.
The launch of the first three satellites of the MDASat constellation comes three years after that of the most advanced South African nanosatellite to date, ZACube-2, as a technology demonstrator for the constellation.
"Since its launch in 2018, ZACube-2 has been providing cutting-edge very high frequency (VHF) data exchange communication systems to the country's maritime industry, as a contribution to Operation Phakisa," Nzimande said, adding that the DSI had invested 27 million rands over three years in the development of the MDASat constellation.
Operation Phakisa focuses on unlocking the economic potential of South Africa's oceans, which the department said could contribute up to R177 billion to the GDP by 2033 and between 8,00,000 and a million direct jobs.
The DSI is implementing this work through the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
Although South Africa has been involved, on a relatively small scale, in space activities since the dawn of the space age in 1957, the national space industry requires specialised skills.
The minister noted that the lack of space professionals and engineers had prompted the DSI and its National Research Foundation (NRF) to initiate a human capital development programme at CPUT under the French South African Institute of Technology (F'SATI) cube satellite (CubeSat) programme, with the introduction of a Master's in Electrical Engineering focusing on satellite systems.
"As part of this programme, students are taught engineering principles using CubeSats as training tools," Nzimande said.

::SPORTS::

9th National Ice Hockey Championship at Kaza

Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated the 9th National Ice Hockey Championship-2022 at the Ice Skating Rink, Kaza, in Lahaul-Spiti district on Sunday. Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said it was for the first time that the national-level ice hockey competition and development camp was being held in Himachal Pradesh.
He said ice hockey was one of the most popular winter sports in the world.
Thakur said the championship would also boost the tourism development in the region besides promoting ice hockey amongst the younger generation.
He said ice hockey was quite popular in Uttarakhand, Ladakh, Kashmir and other Himalayan states.
“Here also it would give a boost to tourism development in this remote hinterland,” said the chief minister, adding that teams from Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Ladakh, ITBP Ladakh, Chandigarh and Delhi were participating in this mega sports event.