Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 04 February 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 04 February 2022

::NATIONAL::

Legal experts question validity of Haryana reservation law

Several legal experts have raised questions over the validity of the Haryana reservation law for the private sector -- that 75% of all jobs paying up to ₹30,000 a month be given only to “local candidates” -- since it prima facie exercises a power exclusively within the domain of Parliament under Article 16(3), breaches the 50% ceiling on reservation, and also interferes with the constitutional right of citizens to conduct business or trade.
While Article 16(3) allows Parliament to make any law with residence qualifications necessary for government jobs, introducing domicile-based preferential treatment, there is no such provision in the Constitution empowering states to pass laws on domicile-based reservation.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court has in a body of judgments berated such endeavours by state governments.
In Uttar Pradesh vs Pradip Tandon (1974), the top court held that “no reservation can be made on the basis of place of birth as that would offend Article 15”, which prohibits the state from discriminating against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.
In Dr Pradeep Jain vs Union of India, 1984, the top court dealt specifically with the issue of domicile-based reservation, underscoring that to regard an individual from one state as an outsider in another state “would be to deny him his constitutional rights and to derecognise the essential unity and integrity of the country...”
Adopting the same principle in educational matters, the Supreme Court, in Govind A Mane vs State of Maharashtra (2000), quashed the state government’s decision to distribute seats district-wise for admission to BEd courses. It held that such allocation based on residence would be violative of Article 14 (equality) of the Constitution when it fails to put forth any material to show the nexus between such distribution and the object sought to be achieved.
Another set of exceptions to the domicile-based reservation is also envisaged under the Constitution. Article 371 lays down “special provisions” for 11 states, including six states of the Northeast, providing for a wide range of specific safeguards that are deemed important for these states. Other clauses in Article 371 talk about reserving seats in the Hills area in the Manipur assembly and Sikkim assembly; protection of customs and practices of local inhabitants of Nagaland and Mizoram.
Some states have however circumvented the prohibition under Article 16(2) by providing for institutional reservations in technical and medical education by reserving a certain number of seats for candidates of the same university or clearing the qualifying examination from the school system of the same state.

::INTERNATIONAL::

Putin hails Russia’s ‘stabilising role’ before meeting with Xi

President Vladimir Putin said Russia and China play an “important stabilising role” in international politics ahead of a meeting this week with Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Putin, who is heading to the Chinese capital to attend the Winter Olympics, said discussion of “relevant international topics” will be a key part of the visit, seemingly a reference to current tensions over Ukraine. He made the comments in a signed article published by China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
“Foreign policy coordination between Russia and China is based on close and coinciding approaches to solving global and regional issues,” Putin wrote. “Our countries play an important stabilizing role in today’s challenging international environment, promoting greater democracy in the system of international relations to make it more equitable and inclusive.”
Putin’s call for stronger ties with China comes as tension mounts over Ukraine, with U.S. intelligence warning that Russia is preparing for an invasion. The Feb. 4 summit ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be the first in-person meeting between Putin and Xi in more than two years, as the two countries deepen their political, military, and economic ties to counter the West on the global stage.
“Sadly, attempts by a number of countries to politicize sports for their selfish interests have recently intensified,” Putin wrote in the Xinhua article. “This is fundamentally wrong and contrary to the very spirit and principles of the Olympic Charter.”

::ECONOMY::

HPCL launches non-fuel retail store 'HappyShop'

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. unveiled its branded store “Happy Shop” In Mumbai , marking its foray into non-fuel retailing.
Located at the company-owned retail outlet at the upmarket Nepean Sea Road near Malabar Hills, this is the company’s latest offering at its “Club HP” retail outlet.
The store will provide home utility products including food, toiletries, healthcare products, bakery products, groceries, medicines and more. The core objective is to provide a range of good quality daily use products to customers at their convenience.
Apart from physical sales from the shop, order and self-pickup, order and home delivery options will also be available to the customers. They will be able to browse the merchandise on HPCL’s HP-Pay App (available on Play store/App Store).
“Customers can check out product details and availability and have goods delivered to their doorsteps. The services will be available 24X7,” HPCL said.
Corporation has plans to come up with more such Club HP “Happy Shops” in Mumbai and other major cities of the country, at its Retail Outlets.
HPCL also launched poWer 100, Ultra-Premium grade Petrol with an Octane rating of 100 to cater to the growing number of high-end cars and bikes. poWer100 provides improved knocking characteristics for high-end engines. Its superior combustion properties reduce emissions making it more eco-friendly.

::SCIENCE AND TECH::

Global Center of Excellence in Affordable and Clean Energy launched at IIT Dharwad

A virtual function was held to mark the launch of the Global Center of Excellence in Affordable and Clean Energy (GCoE-ACE) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Dharwad (IITDh), Karnataka on Friday, 28th January 2022 in the presence of, Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.
The center is supported by the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) donation from HHSIF. The first phase of the CSR project with HHSIF is to establish equipment for the GCoE-ACE mainly as skill development, fabrication, and R&D equipment. The subsequent phases are envisaged to encourage innovation and to provide incubation support for the solutions to the grass-root problem statements in the affordable and clean-energy domain.
A welcome and brief introduction to the center was given by Prof. SRM Prasanna, Dean (R&D), IIT Dharwad. He mentioned that India is blessed with many renewable energy sources like solar, wind, biomass, and such affordable technologies for clean energy can be developed and optimized, which will precisely be the scope of this center.
Prof. K. VijayRaghavan mentioned that energy and energy solutions are a critical part of the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. He added that in the past two decades, there has been an enormous increase in the research on Solar, Wind, Nuclear, and other forms of energy and the results of such research are yet to come to the market more effectively.
IIT Dharwad will be one of the very few institutions in the country which is joining hands with industry partners such as Honeywell in training the young generation to address the complex problems of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. As the global temperature rises, there are big challenges ahead in high temperature and high humidity areas which make people dysfunctional. Secondly, energy availability for farming is another big challenge, further energy availability for the health sector, education sector with 24×7 accessible education for all are some of the important challenges that this GCoE needs to address. Finally, he added, the Government has launched a hydrogen mission and one of the objectives is to use the energy required for its generation from clean energy sources such as solar and wind energy hence calling it green hydrogen energy. The center’s research & development efforts may go in that direction too. With these points, the PSA to Govt. of India congratulated all the stakeholders IIT Dharwad, Honeywell, and SELCO Foundation for establishing one of its kind GCoE in Affordable and Clean Energy.
The grassroots level problem identification/implementation partner for the center will be SELCO Foundation. Dr. Harish Hande, Chief Executive Officer, and Founder, SELCO Foundation emphasized how the center is crucial as it opens up a support system for need-based impact-driven technology innovation for health and livelihoods that focus on low-income communities. He added that the bold step taken by the leadership of IIT Dharwad to open the doors of IIT to innovators and entrepreneurs from non-IIT backgrounds would be a game-changing precedent for other IITs as well.

::SPORTS::

48 percent increase in Khelo India scheme allocation in the budget

Sports minister Anurag Thakur thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the continuation of the Khelo India Scheme. The minister stated, "On behalf of the Ministry and all stakeholders, I express our deep gratitude to the Prime Minister for extending the tenure of the Khelo India Scheme for another five years as well as bringing it into national prominence by increasing its budgetary allocation by 48 per cent in Budget 2022 and including it in the PM's Awards Scheme."
The Khelo India scheme is the flagship Central Sector Scheme of the Sports ministry. It aims at infusing sports culture and achieving sporting excellence in the country thus allowing the populace to harness the power of sports through its cross-cutting influence.
"The Khelo India programme includes playfield development; community coaching development; promotion of community sports; establishment of a strong sports competition structure at both school and university level as also for rural/indigenous sports, sports for persons with disability and women sports; filling up of critical gaps in sports infrastructure, including creation of hubs of sports excellence in select universities; talent identification and development; support to sports academies; implementation of a national physical fitness drive for school children; and sports for peace and development.
"The basic objectives, vision and structure of the extant Khelo India Scheme have been retained. However, on the basis of the experience of this Ministry while implementing the extant Scheme as well as the evaluation/recommendations of the Third Party Evaluator, the components of the Scheme have been rearranged and rationalized by merging/subsuming some of the similar components with the larger ones, thus condensing the twelve existing components into following five components: Creation and Upgradation of Sports Infrastructure, Sports Competitions and Talent Development, Khelo India Centres and Sports Academies, Fit India Movement, Promotion of Inclusiveness through Sports," the ministry said in a statement.