Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 25 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

KCR writes to Modi against IAS rule change

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday expressed his strong protest against the proposed amendments to the All India Services (Cadre) Rules, 1954, by the central government, seeking to acquire overriding powers to transfer IAS and IPS officers through central deputation and doing away with the requirement of taking the approval of the state governments.
The department of personnel and training (DoPT) wrote to the states on January 12 that the central government proposes to amend Rule 6 (deputation of cadre officers) of the Indian Administrative Service (Cadre) Rules 1954.
So far, 10 opposition party chief ministers have opposed the proposed amendment to the rules, even though the central government has said the change was proposed to meet shortage of officials in central department and ministries.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Telangana chief minister said the proposed amendments were totally against the federal structure of the Indian Constitution, both in letter and spirit. “They will also seriously erode the all-India service character of IAS, IPS and IFS. We, therefore, strongly oppose the proposed amendments,” he said.
He said the central government assuming the power to take officers on deputation without concurrence of the officers or state government concerned was a dangerous move which is against the constitutional framework and spirit of cooperative federalism.
“If the proposed amendments are affected by the Centre, the state governments would be reduced to be insignificant entities,” he said.
Stating that the proposal is clearly a move to exercise indirect control by the Central government on officers working in the States, the chief minister said it amounted to interfering in the functioning of the State governments, targeted harassment of officers and their demoralisation, besides impacting accountability of officers to the State governments.

::INTERNATIONAL::

US lawsuits accuse Google of tracking data without users' permission

A group of top US justice officials accused Google in lawsuits Monday of tracking and profiting from users' location data, despite leading consumers to think they could protect their privacy on the tech giant's services.
Google builds detailed profiles and sells highly targeted advertising with data collected from its billions of users – with the location being a key piece of information, argued the suits that seek to block the alleged practices.
"Google falsely led consumers to believe that changing their account and device settings would allow customers to protect their privacy," said Karl Racine, the attorney general in the nation's capital Washington.
These suits are the latest legal threats against Google and other US Big Tech giants, which have long faced probes and court cases but a lack of new national laws that would regulate their businesses.
Attorneys general -- states' top law enforcers and legal advisors -- from Indiana, Washington, and Texas were to file suits making the same allegations against the tech colossus.
Google said the officials' claims were inaccurate and based on outdated assertions about its settings.
"We have always built privacy features into our products and provided robust controls for location data," Google said in a statement. "We will vigorously defend ourselves and set the record straight."
Racine argued that from 2014 to at least 2019, Google claimed that users could turn off their "Location History" setting and "the places you go are no longer stored."
Racine's office cited the example of repeatedly prompting users to provide location in certain apps and claiming products would not function properly without it, when in fact location was not needed for the app.
"Even a limited amount of location data, aggregated over time, can expose a person's identity and routines," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement.

::ECONOMY::

India no longer signs FTAs just to be part of a group: Piyush Goyal

Union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal has said that India is no longer signing free trade agreements (FTAs) just to join a group. Speaking at an event organised by the Merchants' Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Friday, Goyal said that India instead looks at reciprocal access, good market conditions, and fair play in trade in both goods and services.
"We are looking at robust FTAs with like-minded nations with values of democracy, transparency and mutual growth," the minister said.
He added that FTA is a two-way traffic and industry should inculcate a greater appetite for risk taking as these pacts cannot give one-sided access for Indian goods and services alone.
"Our focus is wherever we have comparative or competitive advantage, we should look at market access and wherever the advantage is with some other country, we don't have to force the Indian consumer to buy expensive," the minister said.
Goyal, who is also the textiles minister, said India is trying to get zero-duty exports to the UK for the textiles sector and also discussing the same with the European Union.
On October 12, Hindustan Times reported about the government’s aggressive timelines for trade agreements with at least three countries - the UAE, the UK and Australia - by 2022 as part of its ambitious target of $500 billion exports by FY23.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

Karnataka becomes first state in India to launch AVGC Center of Excellence

The State government launched AVGC Centre of Excellence, termed as the pioneering technology digital media hub, funded by the Department of Electronics, IT, BT on Thursday. Karnataka is the first State in the country to launch its own Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) policy way back in 2012. The State has also become the country's first to set up such a Centre of Excellence (CoE) which is also believed to be the biggest in Asia. Minister of Science and Technology Dr C.N. Ashwath Narayan inaugurated centre which will showcase the Animation, VFX, Gaming and Comics industry's competence and infrastructure in the State.
Speaking on the occasion, Ashwath Narayan said, "This CoE brings digital excellence to creative industries. India now commands around 10% of the global AVGC market and has the potential to reach 20-25% by 2027. Karnataka has been driving the AVGC sector in the country. Our government is proud of this CoE and the centre will take us to greater prominence in the sector." The centre also has a finishing school which offers unique courses based on emerging technology such as virtual reality, digital compression, photogrammetry, gamification of education, real-time virtual production, and other emerging technologies, the minister said.
"The State will come out with the new AVGC policy within one year and required land will be provided within a year to set up dedicated 'Digital Media Entertainment Area," he said. The minister said more small CoEs will be set up across the State particularly on campuses of universities and collaborations will be made with more number of fine arts institutions. At present only 35% of students are getting quality education in our system and to fill this shortfall the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) aspires to make 'storytelling' the basis of education. Blended learning will also be supportive of this. By relying on AVGC, learning can be made more attractive to achieve the target of providing quality education to all the students, he said.

::SPORTS::

India's first Para-Badminton Academy started in Lucknow

Badminton was the talking point of the Tokyo Paralympics with Pramod Bhagat and Krishna Nagar bagging the gold medals, aside from Suhas Yathiraj, Manoj Sarkar also medalling with a silver and a bronze respectively from the multi-sporting extravaganza.
Given such a brilliant showing, Dronacharya awardee and Head National Coach of the Indian para-badminton team, Gaurav Khanna has decided to launch the country's first Para-Badminton Academy in Lucknow, in association with the Ageas Federal Life Insurance.
With state-of-the-art facilities and a high-performance centre, the Para-Badminton Academy will act as the hotspot to train Indian para-badminton talents for the upcoming 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Keeping his eye out for the later Paralympics as well, Gaurav Khanna also announced the Ageas Federal 'Quest for Fearless Shuttlers' that will be on the lookout for young shuttlers to train for the 2028 and 2032 Paralympic Games.