Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 28 January 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 28 January 2022

::NATIONAL::

India-Central Asia cooperation key to regional stability: PM Modi

India and the Central Asian states decided at their first summit on Thursday to create a joint working group for cooperation on Afghanistan and an institutionalised framework for collaboration in areas ranging from connectivity to security.
The virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – which lasted about 90 minutes – reflected the growing engagement with Central Asia, which India perceives as part of its extended neighbourhood.
Modi said in his televised opening remarks that cooperation between India and Central Asia has gained in importance in the aftermath of recent developments in Afghanistan.
“We are all concerned with the developments in Afghanistan,” he said, speaking in Hindi. “In this context, our mutual cooperation has become more important for regional security and stability.”
According to the Delhi Declaration issued after the summit, the six countries agreed to continue close consultations on the situation in Afghanistan and to set up a joint working group on Afghanistan comprising senior officials.
Modi also listed the summit’s three main objectives – to make it clear that mutual cooperation between India and Central Asia is essential for regional security and prosperity, to create an effective structure for cooperation, and to create an ambitious roadmap for future collaboration.
“On behalf of India, I would like to clarify that Central Asia is central to India’s vision of an integrated and stable extended neighbourhood,” he said.
The virtual summit was organised as the leaders of the Central Asian states were unable to attend India’s Republic Day celebrations on January 26 because of a surge in Covid-19 infections. The five presidents – Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan and Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan – were invited to be chief guests at the event, though no formal announcement was made by any of the countries.

::INTERNATIONAL::

China supplies mounted howitzers to Pak to maintain arms parity with India

In a move that ensures that Pakistan continues to remain locked up in confrontation with India, Islamabad has received first batch of Chinese manufactured vehicle mounted howitzers to counter the Indian K-9 Vajra howitzers. Beijing is also supplying NORINCO AR-1 300 mm multi barrel rocket launchers to Rawalpindi so that the Pakistan Army has a reply to Indian rocket launchers. The total contract worth is around USD 512 million.
The supply of conventional weapon systems, fighter aircraft, destroyers and even the inclination to give DF-17 hypersonic missile to counter India’s latest acquisition, the S-400 air defence system, are all part of Beijing long strategy to keep Rawalpindi GHQ in a state of permanent confrontation with India. This strategy has paid dividends to Beijing regime in the past as forces India to remain alert on its western border with a power that boxes much above its weight category due to heavy lift from China, be it in international fora or in military or nuclear parity. The role played by Beijing in developing Pakistan into a nuclear state along with the covert supply of delivery systems since 1990s is all well documented.
According to reports, Pakistan in 2019 signed a contract with Chinese arms major NORINCO to supply 236 SH-15 155 mm vehicle mounted howitzers apart from AR-1 heavy rocket launchers. In addition to artillery, the contract also includes supply and technology transfer for various ammunition including extended range artillery shells and guided artillery shells with the range of 53 kilometers. Clearly, this supply is to boost the firepower of Pakistan army all along the western border, specially to heat up the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in case the existing ceasefire breaks down or to send a message on Kashmir.
The reported supply of DF-17 mobile, solid fueled medium range ballistic missile by China to Pakistan is to pump up Rawalpindi’s ballistic missile system as the hypersonic missile is difficult to track by most existing radars and equally difficult to engage by existing surface to air missile systems including S-400 system. Mounted on a hypersonic glide vehicle, the DF-17 is said to have a combination of maneuverability and high speed that poses significant challenges to conventional missile defence.

::ECONOMY::

India's economy has some bright spots, a number of dark stains: Raghuram Rajan

The Indian economy has “some bright spots and a number of very dark stains” and the government should target its spending "carefully" so that there are no huge deficits, noted economist and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said.
Generally, a K-shaped recovery will reflect a situation where technology and large capital firms recover at a far faster rate than small businesses and industries that have been significantly impacted by the pandemic.
"My greater worry about the economy is the scarring to the middle class, the small and medium sector, and our children's minds, all of which will come into play after an initial rebound due to pent up demand. One symptom of all this is weak consumption growth, especially for mass consumption goods," Rajan told PTI in an e-mail interview.
Rajan, currently a Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, noted that as always, the economy has some bright spots and a number of very dark stains.
On the other hand, "dark stains" are the extent of unemployment and low buying power, especially amongst the lower middle-class, the financial stress small and medium-sized firms are experiencing, "including the very tepid credit growth, and the tragic state of our schooling".
Rajan opined that Omicron is a setback, both medically and in terms of economic activity but cautioned the government on the possibility of a K-shaped economic recovery.
"We need to do more to prevent a K shaped recovery, as well as a possible lowering of our medium term growth potential," he said.
Ahead of the Union Budget, Rajan said that budgets are supposed to be documents containing a vision and he would love to see a five- or ten-year vision for India as well as a plan for the kinds of institutions and frameworks the government intends to set up.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

Astronomers find ‘spooky’ object in the Milky Way unlike anything seen before

Australian researchers have discovered a strange spinning object in the Milky Way they say is unlike anything astronomers have ever seen.
The object, first spotted by a university student working on his undergraduate thesis, releases a huge burst of radio energy three times every hour.
The pulse comes "every 18.18 minutes, like clockwork," said astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker, who led the investigation after the student's discovery, using a telescope in the Western Australian outback known as the Murchison Widefield Array.
While there are other objects in the universe that switch on and off -- such as pulsars -- Hurley-Walker said 18.18 minutes is a frequency that has never been observed before.
Finding this object was "kind of spooky for an astronomer," she said, "because there's nothing known in the sky that does that."
The research team is now working to understand what they have found.
"If you do all of the mathematics, you find that they shouldn't have enough power to produce these kind of radio waves every 20 minutes," Hurley-Walker said.
"It just shouldn't be possible."
The object may be something researchers have theorised could exist but have never seen called an "ultra-long period magnetar".
It could also be a white dwarf, a remnant of a collapsed star.
"But that's quite unusual as well. We only know of one white dwarf pulsar, and nothing as great as this," Hurley-Walker said.
On the question of whether the powerful, consistent radio signal from space could have been sent by some other life form, Hurley-Walker conceded: "I was concerned that it was aliens."
But the research team was able to observe the signal across a wide range of frequencies.
"That means it must be a natural process, this is not an artificial signal," Hurley-Walker said.
The next step for the researchers is to look for more of these strange objects across the universe.

::SPORTS::

Manu Bhaker, Abhishek Verma among eight from Tokyo omitted

A new-look Indian shooting team will compete in the season’s first ISSF World Cup in Cairo from February 26. Only five of the 13 rifle and pistol shooters from the Tokyo Olympics have made the squad announced by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
The 24-member squad was selected on the basis of performance in the national shooting championships. With the national trials scheduled this month cancelled because of Covid-19, the selection committee accounted for the qualification scores along with the final ranking points of the national championships. A preparatory camp will be held at the Karni Singh shooting range in New Delhi from February 9.
Pistol shooters Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma, rifle shooters Apurvi Chandela, Elavaneil Valarivan and Anjum Moudgil were among the big names from Tokyo who were not included. The five Olympics shooters who have kept their places are: Saurabh Chaudhary (10m air pistol), Divyansh Singh Panwar (10m air rifle), Rahi Sarnobat (25m sports pistol), Aishwarya Pratap Tomar and veteran Sanjeev Rajput (both 50m rifle 3 positions).
“The selection trials had to be cancelled but the coaches recommended that we should send a team to Cairo because the World Championships will also be held at the same venue and it was important to start the season,” said rifle coach Deepali Deshpande, who will travel with the team.
Some of the medallists from the 2021 ISSF Junior World Championships in Peru have been included. “We have to see how they perform in a top international event. It will help us to assess as we prepare the team for Asian Games and World Championships,” said Deshpande.