Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 27 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 27 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

Centre considering Nagaland’s demand to remove AFSPA: CM Rio

The Centre is considering Nagaland’s demand of removal of AFSPA from the state, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said on Wednesday, expressing hope for a “positive decision”.
Addressing the Republic Day function at the Civil Secretariat here, Rio said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to probe the killing of 14 civilians by security forces in Mon has made good progress. “We are taking every measure to lessen the pain of the family members, who lost their near and dear ones, as well as of all those who suffered injuries,” he said.
Following the Mon killings, the state cabinet decided to take up with the Centre the immediate repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958, while a resolution was passed in the assembly on December 20 in this regard, Rio said.
The state government has taken up with the Centre the matter of removal of AFSPA from Nagaland, he said.
“The central government is considering the matter and we are hopeful of a positive decision soon,” Rio said. Maintaining that negotiations between the Naga Political Groups and the Centre over the political issue have been going on in a cordial atmosphere to find a solution, the chief minister said all MLAs have come together and formed an opposition-less government to convey to the negotiating parties that the state expects an honorable, inclusive and acceptable solution.
The chief minister urged the people to continue adhering to COVID-appropriate behaviour as he took the booster dose of vaccine just after the function.
Rio said Nagaland, which is nearing six decades as a state, has been capably marching shoulder to shoulder with all the other states of the Union and contributing in strengthening the nation.
Despite the call for non-participation in the Republic Day celebrations by the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation and the Naga Students’ Federation over the Mon killings, the celebrations went off peacefully, an official said.

::INTERNATIONAL::

Omicron survives over 21 hours on skin, more than 8 days on plastic: Study

A study conducted by the researchers from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan has now claimed that the Omiron variant of coronavirus can remain alive on skin and plastic more than the earlier variants of the virus like Alpha, Beta, Delta and Gamma. The study is yet to be peer-reviewed and has been posted recently on BioRxiv. According to the findings, Omicron can remain alive on the skin for over 21 hours and more than eight days on any plastic surface. This might be the reason why Omicron is spreading faster compared to other strains, the study said.
For the study, the researchers compared the survival time of the other variants and concluded that the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants could remain alive on plastic surfaces for 56 hours, 191.3 hours, 156.6 hours, 59.3 hours, and 114 hours, respectively.
Omicron, on the other hand, can survive on a plastic surface for 193.5 hours, more than 8 days.
On skin samples, the average virus survival times were 8.6 hours for the original version, 19.6 hours for Alpha, 19.1 hours for Beta, 11 hours for Gamma, 16.8 hours for Delta and 21.1 hours for Omicron, the study claimed.
The findings also include the effectiveness of ethanol on all variants. Although Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants showed a slight increase in ethanol resistance in response to increased environmental stability, all VOCs on the skin surface were completely inactivated by 15-second exposure to 35 per cent ethanol, it said, asserting that santisiting hands frequently is highly recommended.
Omicron is the latest variant of SARS-CoV-2, which was first identified in South Africa on November 24, 2021. Since then, the variant has been spreading at an unprecedented spread replacing Delta, and led to a fresh surge of the pandemic across the world.

::ECONOMY::

Retail inflation rises to 5.59% in December 2021

Retail inflation rose to 5.59 per cent in December, a six-month high, mainly due to an uptick in food prices, government data showed on Wednesday, January 12. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was 4.91 per cent in November 2021 and 4.59 per cent in December 2020. As per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), food inflation rose to 4.05 per cent in December this fiscal compared to 1.87 per cent in the preceding month.
The Reserve Bank, which mainly factors in the retail inflation while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy, expects the inflation print to be somewhat higher over the rest of the year as base effects turn adverse. According to the RBI, it is expected that headline inflation will peak in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal and soften thereafter.
Meanwhile, India's industrial production rose 1.4 per cent in November 2021, according to official data released on Wednesday.
As per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the manufacturing sector's output grew 0.9 per cent in November last year.
In November 2021, the mining output climbed five per cent, and power generation increased 2.1 per cent. The IIP had contracted by 1.6 per cent in November 2020.
During April-November this fiscal, the IIP grew 17.4 per cent against a 15.3 per cent contraction in the same period last year.
Industrial production has been hit due to the coronavirus pandemic since March 2020, when it had contracted 18.7 per cent.
It shrank 57.3 per cent in April 2020 due to a decline in economic activities in the wake of the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

CSIR-CDRI scientists develop OM, the RT-PCR kit for Omicron

The CSIR – Central Drug Research Institute’s scientists have developed an indigenous RT-PCR kit called ‘Om’ for testing the omicron variant. The kit, a first by any government institution for the omicron variant, will also make India self-reliant in RT-PCR diagnostics.
The team comprises Dr. Atul Goel, Dr. Ashish Arora, and Dr. Niti Kumar at CSIR-CDRI. The indigenous RT-PCR kit ‘INDICoV-OmTM’ is one of the very few specific kits for detecting Omicron in the entire world.
Om enables quick and cost-effective detection of omicron variant over genome sequencing for a large population. It was made within two months and will cost around Rs 150. Further, it will give the test results in around two hours. According to the scientists, it can also be aligned for the detection of other emerging variants of Covid infection and other respiratory infections.
Once the kit gets approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), it will be launched by mid-February. The kit has been referred to the ICMR-National Institute of Virology (NIV) and is yet to be validated.
The diagnostic kit will specifically detect the omicron variant which will help in the proper diagnosis and treatment of the patient. Most RT-PCR-based diagnostic kits do not confirm by which covid variant the infection is caused. Currently, the detection of omicron variant depends on tests like the S-gene dropout or by NGS (Nextgen sequencing) of the whole viral genome.
The S-gene drop-out method is not specific and does not pinpoint the type of variant while the NGS (Nextgen sequencing) method too, has certain limitations such as expense, turnaround, and the number of centers that can provide such service.
Offline classes have resumed for students from standard 1 to 12 in Maharashtra on Monday following appropriate covid protocols. The decision was taken after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) assessment.
Meanwhile, the Haryana government was planning to open schools at 33% capacity on different days, however, no decision has been taken yet. Schools are to remain closed for physical classes till January 26 in the State.

::SPORTS::

Delhi HC to hear plea on delayed IOA elections

A division bench of the Delhi High Court will hear the case related to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) elections on Thursday, two weeks after objections were raised to its president Narinder Batra making unilateral appointments including that of chefs de mission and deputy chefs de mission for this year’s Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
The elections to IOA's executive committee were originally scheduled for December 19, but following a plea by sports lawyer and activist Rahul Mehra on November 30, a bench of Justices Manmohan and Najmi Waziri granted stay in an interim order.
Mehra had urged IOA to amend its constitution as per the National Sports Code (NSC), 2011.
"It is going to be a big day (in the court). We hope the honourable court sets a date of elections soon so that we may resume our operations properly. We are ready to comply with everything the court has to say,” IOA treasurer Anandeshwar Pandey said.
“The recommendations (given to IOA) will be tabled in court tomorrow. I will be able to discuss the nitty-gritty only after the court proceedings,” IOA general-secretary Mehta said.