Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 22 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 22 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

Supreme Court asks Centre on plan to create Indian Environment Services

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre whether it was planning a dedicated Indian Environment Service in the national bureaucratic set-up, as recommended by a committee headed by former Cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian in 2014.
Issuing notice on a petition filed by a lawyer Samar Vijay Singh, a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh said: “A prayer has been made in the petition for creation of an independent Indian Environment Service at the all-India level. The prayer arises from the recommendation of TSR Subramanian Committee. Prima facie it is doubtful if a mandamus (judicial command) can be issued but an enquiry can be made whether the government proposes to act as per the recommendation of the committee.”
The petition was argued by senior advocate K Sultan Singh, who pointed out that matters of environment require some level of sensitivity and domain knowledge. “It has been noticed that while commissioning projects at the field level, matters of environment have not been adequate attention,” Singh said.
The bench was initially not inclined to entertain the petition. “Should we now take over the governance?” it said when the petitioner opened arguments.But the top court passed the order issuing notices after brief consultation on going through the report and its recommendations.
The high-level committee was constituted in August 2014under the chairmanship of Subramanian by the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEF & CC) to review environmental laws in the country, and to bring them in line with the current requirements. The report, submitted on November 18, 2014, recorded the fact that India had a strong environmental policy and legislative framework but weak implementation has resulted in environmental governance being criticised by conservation experts and the judiciary.
The report said, “Current approval systems and monitoring mechanism function in a quasiamateurish manner, leading to sub-optimal management of environmental issues. It is now proposed that a new Indian Environment Service be created, as an All India Service, which will act as an expert group to man positions in this field in the public and quasi-governmental sectors over the next decades.”

::INTERNATIONAL::

Global unemployment to reach 207 million in 2022: ILO report

Global unemployment is expected to remain above pre-Covid-19 levels until at least 2023 and is estimated at 207 million this year, almost 21 million more than in 2019, according to a report from the International Labour Organisation that gives assessments on how labour market recovery has unfolded worldwide.
The Geneva-based United Nations agency has downgraded its forecast for labour market recovery in 2022, projecting a deficit in hours worked globally equivalent to 52 million full-time jobs, relative to the fourth quarter of 2019. The previous full-year estimate in May 2021 projected a deficit of 26 million full-time equivalent jobs.
While this latest projection is an improvement on the situation in 2021, it remains almost two per cent below the number of global hours worked pre-pandemic, according to the ILO World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2022 report.
The report warns of slow and uncertain recovery as the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on global labour markets.
Global unemployment is expected to remain above pre-Covid-19 levels until at least 2023. The 2022 level is estimated at 207 million, compared to 186 million in 2019, the report said.
It also cautions that the overall impact on employment is significantly greater than represented in these figures because many people have left the labour force.
The downgrade in the 2022 forecast reflects, to some extent, the impact that recent variants of Covid-19, such as Delta and Omicron, are having on the world of work, as well as significant uncertainty regarding the future course of the pandemic, it said.
The report notes that effects are being felt in labour markets in all regions of the world, although a great divergence in recovery patterns can be observed.
The European and the North American regions are showing the most encouraging signs of recovery, while South-East Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean have the most negative outlook, it said.
The disproportionate impact of the crisis on women’s employment is expected to last in the coming years, it said, asserting that the closing of education and training institutions will have “cascading long-term implications” for young people, particularly those without internet access.

::ECONOMY::

Reliance Retail Q3 revenue rises 53% to ₹50,654 crore

Reliance Retail reported a 23.81 per cent increase in its consolidated pre-tax profit at ₹3,822 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021.
The retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had posted a pre-tax profit or EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of ₹2,312 crore in the October-December period a year ago.
Its revenue from operations stood at ₹50,654 crore, up 53.41 per cent from ₹33,018 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.
Its gross revenue, which includes the value of sales and services, jumped 52.5 per cent to ₹57,714 crore as against ₹37,845 crore.
"Reliance Retail delivered a landmark quarter posting all time high Revenue and EBITDA as operating environment returned to normalcy," RIL said in a post-earnings statement.
RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh D Ambani said, "Retail business activity has normalized with strong growth in key consumption baskets on the back of festive season and as lockdowns eased across the country. Our digital services business has delivered broad based, sustainable, and profitable growth through improved customer engagement and subscriber mix."
"Consumer Electronics and Apparel & Footwear doubled their business on the back of strong festive sales while Grocery sustained its consistent and strong double-digit growth momentum," the company added.
During the October-December quarter, Reliance Retail continued to add more stores and invest in network and infrastructure expansion.
In Q3 FY22, Reliance Retail added 837 stores, taking the total count to 14,412 stores and 2.3 million sq ft of warehousing space to bolster its service capabilities.
Its business continued to strengthen its digital and new commerce capabilities.
Merchant partnerships and digital commerce orders scaled new highs, with merchant partners growing 4X y-o-y and digital commerce orders growing 2X.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

Nasa captures image of mid-level flare erupting

Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the Sun emitting a mid-level solar flare that peaked at 1.01 am EST (11.31am IST). Solar flares are powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation that could last from minutes to hours. Nasa classified the flare as an M5.5 class flare, an x-ray flare of moderate severity.
While harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, when intense, it can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. According to Nasa, the increased level of X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation leads to ionization in the lower layers of the ionosphere on the sunlit side of Earth.
When a strong enough solar flare occurs, radio waves that interact with electrons in layers lose energy due to the more frequent collisions that occur in the higher density environment in the lower layers of the ionosphere. This could lead to degradation and complete absorption of HF radio signals, resulting in a radio blackout.
“Solar flares usually take place in active regions, which are areas on the Sun marked by the presence of strong magnetic fields; typically associated with sunspot groups. As these magnetic fields evolve, they can reach a point of instability and release energy in a variety of forms. These include electromagnetic radiation, which are observed as solar flares,” Space Weather Prediction Center of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says on its website.

::SPORTS::

Sam Kerr becomes Australia's all time leading goal scorer

With five goals in an 18-0 thrashing of Indonesia, Kerr, who has roots in India, went past Tim Cahill's tally.
Before taking the field for her first 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup match, Australian women’s football captain Sam Kerr sat with the passing thought of just how memorable it would be for her to break an impending landmark in India.
Kerr, who had never set foot in the country before, has deep-rooted Indian heritage. Her father Roger, a former Australian Rules Football player, was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta) to Anglo-Indian parents who moved to Perth in the late 1960s. The significance, therefore, of becoming Australia’s all-time leading goal scorer on Indian soil wasn’t lost on the 28-year-old.