Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 26 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 26 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

Devendra Jhajharia honoured with Padma Bhushan, Neeraj Chopra gets Padma Shri

Star para athlete Devendra Jhajharia was on Tuesday named for the prestigious Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in the country while Olympic gold winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was among the eight sportspersons named for Padma Shri award.
Forty-year old Jhajharia has two gold medals in the javelin competition of Paralympic Games, 2004 Athens and more recently in Rio 2016.
He won a silver in the F46 event at the Tokyo Paralympics last year.
Chopra, the 24-year-old javelin thrower, made history in the Tokyo Olympics by becoming the first Indian to win a gold in a track and field event in Games' history.
He also became only the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold after shooter Abhinav Bindra.
The other Padma Shri awardees include 20-year-old para shooter Avani Lekhara, para badminton player Pramod Bhagat and para javelin thrower Sumit Antil.
Also getting the honour was 93-year-old Kalaripayattu (indigenous martial art form) legend Sankaranarayana Menon Chundayil, former international martial arts champion Faisal Ali Dar, 67-year-old former Indian football team captain Brahmanand Sankhwalkar and 29-year-old women's hockey player Vandana Kataria.
The Padma Awards are conferred by the President of India at a ceremonial function in Rashtrapati Bhawan around March-April every year.

::INTERNATIONAL::

China’s claims in SCS inconsistent with int’l law: US

The US on Monday reiterated its rejection of China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea as “inconsistent with international law” and called on Beijing to cease its “unlawful and coercive activities” in the region.
Two US state department officials reiterated their opposition to Beijing’s actions in the maritime space at an interaction to highlight a recent official report disproving the legal basis of China’s claims in South China Sea. It is the 150th report in the Limits of Seas series prepared by the department, and is a follow-up of an earlier 2014 report that had examined and rejected China’s claims in the South China Sea.
The disputed waterway is one of many areas of tension between the United States and China, which claims a large swathe of the waters and has built military bases on artificial islands there.
The South China Sea, crossed by vital shipping lanes and also containing gas fields and rich fishing grounds, is also claimed by Taiwan, while Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines claim parts of it.
Jung Pak, the deputy assistant secretary of state for multilateral affairs in the bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that China’s claims gravely undermine the rule of law in the ocean.
Claiming that in recent years, China had “stepped up its coercive activities in the South China Sea by increasing its deployment of maritime militias…to harass and intimidate other claimant states”, she said, “These actions represent a systemic and calculated effort to interfere with the rights and freedoms, including the navigational rights and freedoms, that all countries enjoy under international law.”
Arvis said that the new report provided a deeper analytical basis to uphold the existing US position on the issue, and provides further basis to allies and partners to push back on Chinese claims. “We definitely are not accepting a fait accompli,” she said.

::ECONOMY::

ED arrests head of Karvy for money laundering

The Enforcement Directorate authorities on Sunday arrested Comandur Parthasarathy, chairman and managing director of Hyderabad-based Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) in an alleged money laundering and funds diversion running into several hundreds of crores of rupees.
An official in the Hyderabad central crime station familiar with the development said the ED sleuths had brought Parthasarathy to Hyderabad and produced him in the special court for ED cases which remanded him to judicial custody, for questioning.
In September, the ED authorities conducted search operations at six locations connected to the KSBL for alleged money laundering. An official release from the ED said it had frozen shares of the Karvy Group.
The HDFC Bank alleging that KSBL had illegally pledged the securities of its clients and taken a loan of ₹329 crore and diverted the same.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

ISRO successfully test-fires Vikas Engine at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully fired the high thrust Vikas engine that would power India's first rocket to ferry humans. According to ISRO, the Vikas engine for the Gaganyaan human space mission underwent the qualification test for a duration of 25 seconds at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu.
The Indian space agency said that two engines have already undergone tests under nominal operating conditions for a total duration of 480 seconds. The test carried out on Thursday was to verify the robustness of the engine by operating beyond its nominal operating conditions (fuel-oxidiser ratio and chamber pressure).
The performance of the engine met the test objectives and the engine parameters were closely matching with the predictions during the entire duration of the test.
Further, three more tests are planned for a cumulative duration of 75 seconds under varying operating conditions. Subsequently, another high thrust Vikas engine will undergo a long-duration test for 240 seconds to complete the Vikas engine qualification for Gaganyaan Programme, ISRO said.

::SPORTS::

Ladakh team won the 9th Women's National Ice Hockey Championship 2022

The Ladakh women’s team has won the ninth national women’s ice hockey championship organised by the Ice Hockey Association of India in Himachal Pradesh, an official spokesman said on Friday. The championship was held in Kaza area of Himachal Pradesh from January 15-21. Six teams from Delhi, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Telangana and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police participated in the championship, he said.
A total of 20 players represented the union territory in the championship.
Ladakh Lieutenant Governor R K Mathur and Ladakh Secretary, Youth Services and Sports Department, Ravinder Kumar congratulated the team for bringing laurels to the union territory.