Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 30 March 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

The Jal Shakti Ministry has approved Rs 465 crore as performance incentive grant to Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh under the JalJeevan Mission (JJM).
Northeastern states have implemented JJM with speed and scale despite hilly terrain and forested areas, the statement said.
It is for the first time that five northeast states have qualified for the performance incentive grant, it added.
"Seven states viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh qualified for performance incentive grant for 2020-21 under JalJeevan Mission (JJM), HarGharJal to provide assured tap water supply to every rural home by 2024," the statement said.
"For performance incentive grant, the criteria include physical and financial progress under JJM, functionality of piped water supply schemes and capacity to utilise the fund. Today, Union Minister, Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Sekhawat approved Rs 465 crore as performance incentive to these states," it added.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdowns and disruption, speedy implementation of JalJeevan Mission on the ground has set an example and during the financial year, more than 3.

Several Asian countries scrambled to find alternative sources for Covid-19 inoculations on Tuesday after export restrictions by manufacturer India left a World Health Organization-backed global vaccine sharing programme short of supplies.
South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines are among countries to be hit by shipment delays to vaccines they have been promised under the COVAX programme, which was created mainly to ensure supplies for poorer countries.
"Our planned increase in daily vaccinations will be affected," Carlito Galvez, Philippines' vaccination chief, told reporters.
India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, put a temporary hold on exports of AstraZeneca's vaccine being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), as officials focus on meeting rising domestic demand.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte loosened government restrictions on private sector imports of vaccines, pleading with companies to obtain supplies no matter the cost, as his country battles a resurgence of the pandemic.
In Vietnam, officials have similarly asked the private sector to step in after their COVAX supplies were slashed by 40% to 811,200 doses and shipments were pushed back by weeks.

Asian and European markets extended gains Tuesday following another record on Wall Street while the dollar hit a one-year high above 110 yen, fuelled by growing optimism about the global economic recovery.
However, investors remain torn between vaccine-fuelled optimism over the economic outlook and fears over a surge in inflation the recovery is expected to bring with it.
With a number of big data announcements coming this week, analysts said traders were largely biding their time awaiting the next catalyst to drive buying, though most tip the year-long rally across equities to continue this year despite recent stutters.
The major call is Friday's US government employment report, which will give the latest snapshot of the world's top economy as it slowly emerges from the crisis, while private jobs and unemployment claims are also due, along with readings on manufacturing activity.
Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Mumbai and Wellington all rose, though Sydney, Manila and Jakarta fell.
London, Paris and Frankfurt all rose in the morning.
The dollar broke 110 yen for the first time since March last year as optimism about the global economic outlook and rising US bond yields saw investors turn away from the safe-haven Japanese unit.

Scientists have reported the discovery of a rare, medium-sized black hole that may help answer one of the more tantalising questions in astronomy: how do their supermassive counterparts come into being?
There are two well-known sizes of black hole -- at one end, so-called stellar-class ones which are typically three to ten times the mass of our Sun -- and at the other, supermassive ones, found at the centre of most galaxies, including the Milky Way, which are millions to billions times heavier.
The newly detected 'goldilocks' black hole -- about 55,000 solar masses -- could be a missing link between these two extremes, scientists suggested Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Up to now, only a handful of intermediate-mass black holes -- between 100 and 100,000 solar masses -- have been detected, and none have been squarely in the middle of that range.

The Indian men's hockey team skipper Manpreet Singh on Tuesday returned to the side for the FIH Pro League games against Olympic champions Argentina next month.
Manpreet had opted out of the recent Europe tour due to personal reasons.
Experienced drag-flick specialist Rupinder Pal Singh as well as Varun Kumar, who had missed out the previous tour owing to rehab, are also back in the mix.
Hockey India announced a 22-member squad which will take on Argentina on April 11 and 12 in Buenos Aires.