Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 July 2022

SSC CGL Current Affairs

Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 18 July 2022

::NATIONAL::

Nepal, India should settle issues diplomatically, says ex-PM Prachanda

India and Nepal should address differences on issues such as the border and the 1950 treaty of peace and friendship diplomatically to achieve the full potential of bilateral cooperation, according to Nepal’s former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, or Prachanda.
The head of the Communist Party of Nepal was on a three-day visit to India from July 15 at the invitation of BJP president JP Nadda. “There are some issues left by history that need to be addressed in good faith.” “The matters related to the 1950 Treaty, boundary and EPG report need to be resolved through diplomatic efforts and dialogue...”
During a visit to the BJP headquarters on Sunday, Dahal discussed bilateral issues such as poverty alleviation and the purchase of hydropower from Nepal with Nadda and Union external affairs minister S Jaishankar.
Vijay Chauthaiwale, the head of the BJP’s foreign cell, said: “Prachanda said that though the BJP and his party follow different ideologies, the common goal of both is upliftment of the poor...”

::INTERNATIONAL::

Iran 'capable of building nuclear bomb,' says supreme leader: Report

Tehran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has yet to decide whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera's Arabic service.
"In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one," Kamal Kharrazi said.
In 2018, former US President Donald Trump ditched Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, under which Iran curbed its uranium enrichment work, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
About a year into Trump's "maximum pressure" policy on Iran, Tehran started violating the pact's nuclear restrictions.
Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons, saying it is refining uranium only for civilian energy uses, and has said its breaches of the international deal are reversible if the United States lifts sanctions and rejoins the agreement.
Indirect talks between Iran and President Joe Biden's administration, which aim to bring both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the nuclear pact, have stalled since March.
Kharrazi said Tehran would never negotiate over its missile programme and regional policy, as demanded by the West and its allies in the Middle East.

::ECONOMY::

Front-loading monetary policy action can anchor inflation expectations: RBI

By front-loading rate hikes, the RBI can cement the credibility of its monetary policy intent and action when it fights supply-side driven inflation on one hand and also contains the negative impact on growth, as per an article.
The paper has been authored by three RBI analysts, including Deputy Governor Michael Debabrata Patra who is a member of the rating setting panel Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and also heads the key monetary policy department at the central bank.
The article has been published in the monthly RBI bulletin for July but does not officially represent the views of the monetary authority.
Underlining that the current inflation pain is global and supply-side driven and can better tackled by fiscal measures and not monetary policy actions like rate hikes, the article notes that the ongoing supply shocks are larger and unrelenting, carrying the risk of "unanchoring inflation expectations".
Therefore, coordinated monetary and fiscal policy responses are needed to tackle this because "given the limited policy space, frontloading of monetary policy actions can keep inflation expectations firmly anchored thus maintaining the credibility of the central bank, re-align inflation with the target and reduce the medium-term growth sacrifice," says the article penned by Patra, Joice John and Deepak Kumar.
Using crude prices as an exemplar of supply shocks, simulations from the RBI's quarterly projection model show that when the shock is transitory, inflation returns to equilibrium without the need for any monetary policy action.
"Lack of credibility can reduce the monetary policy response even and therefore by frontloading monetary policy actions,credibility is demonstrated by showing commitment to the inflation target.

::Science and tech::

Loss of male sex chromosome leads to earlier death for men: Study

New research shows the loss of the male sex chromosome as many men age causes the heart muscle to scar and can lead to deadly heart failure. The finding may help explain why men die, on average, several years younger than women.
UVA researcher Kenneth Walsh, PhD, says the new discovery suggests that men who suffer Y chromosome loss estimated to include 40% of 70-year-olds may particularly benefit from an existing drug that targets dangerous tissue scarring. The drug, he suspects, may help counteract the harmful effects of chromosome loss effects that may manifest not just in the heart but in other parts of the body as well.
"Particularly past age 60, men die more rapidly than women. It's as if they biologically age more quickly," said Walsh, the director of UVA's Hematovascular Biology Center. "There are more than 160 million males in the United States alone. The years of life lost due to the survival disadvantage of maleness is staggering. This new research provides clues as to why men have shorter lifespans than women."
While women have two X chromosomes, men have an X and a Y. But many men begin to lose their Y chromosome in a fraction of their cells as they age. This appears to be particularly true for smokers. The loss occurs predominantly in cells that undergo rapid turnover, such as blood cells. (Loss of the Y chromosome does not occur in male reproductive cells, so it is not inherited by the children of men who exhibit Y chromosome loss.) Scientists previously observed that men who suffer Y chromosome loss are more likely to die at a younger age and suffer age-associated maladies such as Alzheimer's disease. Walsh's new research, however, is believed to be the first hard evidence that chromosome loss directly causes harmful effects on men's health.
The scientists also looked at the effects of Y chromosome loss in human men. They conducted three analyses of data compiled from the UK Biobank, a massive biomedical database, and found that Y chromosome loss was associated with cardiovascular disease and heart failure. As chromosome loss increased, the scientists found, so did the risk of death.

::Sports::

Man United agree $58M fee for Ajax defender Martinez

The center back flew into England this weekend to finalize the move which will see him rejoin manager Erik ten Hag, who moved to United from Ajax.
• “Manchester United is delighted to announce the club has reached agreement with Ajax for the transfer of Argentine international defender Lisandro Martínez, subject to medical, to player terms being finalized, and to UK visa requirements,” United said in a statement.
• Ajax said the transfer fee will be 57.37 million euros ($57.9 million) with a potential further 10 million euros for the Dutch club in conditional add-ons.