Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

Pegasus spyware row: Fresh plea in SC seeks probe into 2017 deal with Israel

An advocate has filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking its cognisance of a report in the New York Times on the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus.
Coming close on the heels of the Budget Session of Parliament, the report has claimed India had bought the Pegasus snooping tool as part of a $2 billion defence deal with Israel in 2017, triggering a major controversy with the Opposition accusing the Narendra Modi-led government of indulging in illegal spying that amounted to "treason". The Opposition has decided to raise the issue in the upcoming session starting Monday.
According to a PTI report, the plea has been filed by advocate ML Sharma, one of the original petitioners in the case before the top court. The petition said the deal was not approved by Parliament and, therefore, needs to be cancelled and money be recovered.
In its report titled 'The Battle for the World's Most Powerful Cyberweapon', the NYT said the Israeli firm NSO Group had for nearly a decade been "selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising that it could do what no one else -- not a private company, not even a state intelligence service -- could do: consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone".
On October 27, last year, the top court had appointed a three-member panel of cyber experts to probe the alleged use of Pegasus for surveillance of certain people in India, saying the state cannot get a "free pass" every time the spectre of national security is raised and it cannot be the “bugbear” that the judiciary shies away from.

::INTERNATIONAL::

H-1B visa registration for fiscal year 2023 from March 1 to 18

The initial registrations for H-1B visas for the fiscal year 2023 will open on March 1 and will go on till March 23. In a press release, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said during this period, prospective petitioners and representatives will be able to complete and submit their registrations using the online H-1B registration system. H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa with many Indian takers for this visa programme. US companies can hire Indians through this visa programme. In a financial year, which starts in October in the US, 65,000 H-1B visas are issued while 20,000 visas are kept reserved for US Masters' degree holders.

After the registration, the immigration department will assign a confirmation number to track registrations. This number is not for applicants to track the status of the registrations.
Prospective H-1B cap-subject petitioners or their representatives are required to use a myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary electronically for the selection process and pay the associated $10 H-1B registration fee for each registration submitted on behalf of each beneficiary.
Prospective petitioners submitting their own registrations (U.S. employers and U.S. agents, collectively known as “registrants”) will use a “registrant” account. Registrants will be able to create new accounts beginning at noon Eastern on Feb. 21.
The department said if enough registrations are received by March 18, then it will randomly select registrations and send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts.

In December 2021, the US waived the in-person interview requirement for H-1B visa applicants given the pandemic situation.
In 2021, the number of H-1B visas dropped the most in a decade, according to analysts. US employers’ preliminary applications submitted for engineering and mathematics jobs under the H-1B visa program fell 12.6% in the fiscal year ending September 2021 compared to the previous year, a Bloomberg News analysis said. The drop was attributed to the slow visa processing during lockown and also to the rising popularity of Canada visas among Indians.

::ECONOMY::

Google to invest $1 bn in Airtel to boost India play

Google will invest as much as $1 billion in Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s second-biggest telecom services provider, as the Internet giant redoubles efforts to increase smartphone access and accelerate digital transformation in the world’s second-most populous nation.
Alphabet Inc., the parent of Google, will buy a 1.28% stake in Bharti Airtel for $700 million and invest $300 million over the next five years in commercial arrangements in the areas of affordable mobile devices, 5G network and cloud technologies. Google’s investment is aimed at developing the digital infrastructure in India, which will, in turn, generate demand for its products and services, including cloud computing, mobile devices, apps and digital advertisements.
Google’s latest move follows a $4.5 billion investment in RIL’s digital unit, Jio Platforms Ltd, in July 2020. Both the investments are routed through the Google for India Digitization Fund.
“Big tech investments in infrastructure have been steadily increasing, and seeing it happen in India is a sign of a more symbiotic relationship developing between the telecom and digital sectors,” said Vaibhav Kakkar, partner at Saraf & Partners. Bharti Airtel will sell shares to Google at ₹734 apiece, the firm said in an exchange filing on Friday. Airtel’s shares rose 1.23% to ₹715.9 on BSE.
Bharti Airtel chief executive Gopal Vittal said that the company has no plans to build smartphones with Google but will work to increase smartphone adoption.
Making smartphones more affordable will be done through targeted incentives, cash-backs and partnerships across device and e-commerce players.
“We are going to be competitive in the market, so wherever there is an incentive to be given, we have developed the software capability to target it into a device in order to be really smart and minimize the economic cost of that,” Vittal said.

::SPORTS::

Australian Open: Krejcikova and Siniakova fight back to win doubles crown

French Open champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova added the Australian Open's women's doubles title to their resume on Sunday, with a 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4 win over Anna Danilina and Beatriz Haddad Maia.
The number one seeds, who were beaten finalists at Melbourne Park last year, took time to hit their stride and were forced to come back from a set down to claim the title for the first time.
The unseeded duo overpowered the Olympic champions in a tiebreak to win the first set, but the scores were levelled up at the end of the second, as the Czech pair found their rhythm.
Krejcikova and Siniakova broke on Haddad Maia's serve five games into the deciding set to claim the advantage and Siniakova's forehand winner down the line on Danilina's serve two games later increased the gap.
Danilina's volley at the net earned a break back that put their opponents' celebrations on hold, but Krejcikova held her serve to close out the match.