Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 April 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 13 April 2022

::NATIONAL::

India’s first bullet train to be operational in 2027: NHSRCL chairman

India’s first bullet train will be operational in 2027 and trials will begin in 2026, National High Speed Rail Corridor (NHSRCL) chairman and managing director Satish Agnihotri said on Tuesday adding that the country’s first bullet train station in Surat will be inaugurated by 2023.
“Though the trial between Surat and Bilimora will be conducted in 2026, we will commence bullet train operations in between these two stations from 2027,” he said adding, “Surat station is expected to be ready for operations by September, 2023.”
The distance between Surat-Bilimoraroute is 50km.
NHSRCL officials said that the civil work is being done at an escalated speed and four (Vapi, Bilimora, Surat, Bharuch) of the total 12 stations will be ready by December 2024.
Officials said that apart from the construction of these four stations, a viaduct of 237 km will also be constructed. A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long-elevated railway or road.
“Our priority is to complete and start the bullet train operations on this route. Maintenance and provision of updated technology is a commitment from Japan,” Japan Ambassador, Satoshi Suzuki told the media in Navsari while talking on India’s bullet train project.
“Our latest technology is the E5 Shinkansenhowever, we are providing an upgraded version of this technology keeping in mind India’s weather conditions and pollution. The coaches of the bullet train will be antiseismic,” he said.
Construction work of piles, pile caps, open foundations, well foundations, piers, pier caps is in progress at 125 km length, an NHSRCL official said.
In Surat depot, out of 128 foundations, 118 foundations have been completed and in Sabarmati depot- work was awarded on February 4, this year. The passenger terminal hub at Sabarmati integrating high speed rail, metro, bus rapid transit and two railway stations are expected to be completed by August this year.

::INTERNATIONAL::

Zelenskyy praises Biden for saying Russian actions look like genocide

Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskyy appealed to the world to respond to Russia’s use of a poisonous substance in Mariupol. “Given the repeated threats by Russian propagandists to use chemical weapons against the Mariupol defenders and given the repeated use by the Russian army, for example, of phosphorus munitions in Ukraine, the world must react now,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation Tuesday.
The mayor of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where corpses of civilians with bound hands and gunshot wounds to the head were found after Russian forces pulled out, says 403 bodies have been found so far and that he fears the toll will rise.
US President Joe Biden for the first time accused Russia of committing ‘genocide’ in its invasion of Ukraine, further escalating his condemnation of President Vladmir Putin as the war entered 49th day.
Moscow's nearly seven-week long incursion, the biggest attack on a European state since 1945, has seen more than 4.6 million people flee abroad, killed or injured thousands and led to Russia's near total isolation on the world stage.
Russia says it launched what it calls a "special military operation" on Feb. 24 to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext.
Russia says it now aims to capture more territory on behalf of separatists in two eastern provinces, known as the Donbas. It includes Mariupol port, which has been reduced to a wasteland under Russian siege.

::ECONOMY::

Homes in darkness, industries hit as Andhra faces severe power crunch

Homes in darkness, patients suffering in government hospitals and industries coming to a grinding halt in Andhra Pradesh show the severity of the power crisis gripping the state.
An incident in which a woman delivered a baby under a cellphone light at a government hospital in Narsipatnam and the visuals of patients having a harrowing time at many other state-run hospitals due to power outages amid the sweltering heat highlight the grim situation.
From domestic to agriculture and industry, every sector is suffering due to a huge gap between demand and supply.
With power deficit hovering around 40-50 Million Units (MU) per day, the power distribution companies (DISCOMs) have resorted to Emergency Load Relief (ELR). While officially the power cuts are for one hour for the domestic sector in villages and half an hour in cities and towns, people have been complaining of outages for several hours every day.
Industries functioning round-the-clock have been asked to slash their power demand by 50 per cent while others have been directed to declare a power holiday once a week, in addition to their normal weekly off. The power utilities also told the industries to have only one shift during daytime.
The power holiday would adversely impact 253 industries that are working round the clock and 1,696 non-continuous industries under the AP Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL) purview. The government, private companies and shopping malls have been advised to use only 50 per cent of air-conditioners and not to use power for publicity hoardings and signboards between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

::Science and tech::

The forecast on planet Neptune is chilly and getting colder

Frigid and far-flung Neptune, our solar system's outermost planet, is adding to its reputation as an enigmatic world, with astronomers puzzled by a surprising drop in its atmospheric temperatures during the past two decades.
Focusing upon Neptune's stratosphere - the atmosphere's relatively stable region above the turbulent weather layer - the researchers had expected to find rising temperatures in the part of the planet visible from Earth with the onset of its southern hemisphere summer, a season lasting four decades. Instead, they found temperatures declining significantly.
The study was based on more than 95 thermal-infrared images - every one ever taken - spanning 2003 to 2020 using ground-based telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, mostly the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. It is the most comprehensive assessment to date of Neptune's atmospheric temperatures.
"The atmosphere appears more complicated than we had naively assumed, which, unsurprisingly, seems to be a general lesson that nature teaches scientists again and again," said Michael Roman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leicester in England and lead author of the study published on Monday in the Planetary Science Journal.
Neptune is among the least explored of the solar system's eight planets, with its great distance making it difficult to study from Earth. NASA's Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have made a close-up visit, flying past Neptune in 1989.
"I think Neptune is very intriguing to many of us because we still know so little about it," Roman said.

::Sports::

Saina to skip trials for CWG, Asiad, Uber Cup

The former world No 1 and CWG and Asian Games medallistcriticised the scheduling of trials later this week with the Asian championships to be held later this month
Olympic bronze medal-winning shuttlerSainaNehwal will skip the selection trials for the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Uber Cup to be held here from April 15-20.
“Trials at this point make no sense. The Asian Games is still five months away. Two weeks after the Europe swing and a week-and-a-half before the Asian Championships (April 26-May 1 in Manila), I didn’t want to put my body through another set of matches. I can’t take that chance. It’s okay if other players are considered good enough and more deserving than I am. I have no problem,” former world No 1 Saina told ESPN.