Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (January 21, 2022) for CSS, PMS

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January 21, 2022: National / International Current Affairs

1. Govt revises up FY21 growth rate to 5.4pe, GDP to $347bn

• The size and growth rate of Pakistan`s economy increased significantly during 2020-21, making it the second-highest economic growth recorded in the last three years of the incumbent government.
• As a result of the rebasing exercise, the growth rate improved from the earlier estimate of 3.94pc to 5.4pc, while the size of the economy rose to $346.76 billion from the provisional estimate of $296 billion, according to the National Accounts Committee, which approved these figures on January 20, 2022.
• The 104th meeting of the NAC, chaired by Planning Secretary Abdul Aziz Ugaili, approved the revised figures of Pakistan`s gross domestic product (GDP).
• The size of the economy grew in dollar terms as the rupee strengthened against the green back the highest-ever increase in any year.

2. Bomb blast in Lahore market leaves three dead

• In what appears to be a re-emergence of terrorism in the provincial capital, a powerful blast ripped through the crowded Anarkali market, killing three people and injuring 33 others on January 20, 2022.
• Police and other law enforcement agencies initially declared it a gas cylinder explosion, but later investigations confirmed it was a bomb blast. The explosion left a deep crater on the road, damaged windowpanes of several buildings, vehicles and lef t 33 people injured, three of them critical. Three women were among the injured, police, Rescue 1122 personnel and doctors told the media.
• One person died on the spot while two others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. A couple of hours later, a newly emerged terrorist outfit, Baloch Nationalist Army, claimed responsibility for the blast through its social media account.

3. Soomro resigns as chairman of Privatisation Commission

• Minister for Privatisation Mohammadmian Soomro has resigned as chairman of the Privatisation Commission. He, however, will continue performing as minister for privatisation.
• The prime minister has accepted the resignation of Mr Soomro.
• According to a notification issued by the Establishment Division, the government has appointed Saleem Ahmad as new chairman of the Privatisation Commission with immediate effect and until further orders. He has assumed his new responsibility.Mr Ahmad is a globally recognised finance professional with a distinguished hedge fund, private equity, venture capital and investment banking career spanning over two decades. Before joining the Privatisation Commission, Mr Ahmad was managing director at JP Morgan`s multi-billion-dollar hedge fund business, Highbridge Capital, where he managed a global investment portfolio

4. Agriculture training centres being set up in four KP districts

• Agriculture training centres are being set up in four districts of the merged areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to provide training in cultivating alternative crops, which will open new avenues of income generation leading to the end of poppy-related businesses and crimes in the province.
• This was announced at a ground-breaking ceremony organised on January 20, 2022 by the KP Planning and Development Department in collaboration with the US Embassy`s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The four training centres will be constructed in Bajaur, Khyber, Mohmand and Torghar districts.
• At present there is a tendency among people living in these districts to cultivate poppy crop that causes detrimental socio-economic impact and the product is illicitly traded, especially in tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan, the UNDP said in a press release

5. ECP issues schedule, code of conduct for second phase of KP local body elections

• The Election Commission of Pakistan on January 20, 2022 announced the schedule and a code of conduct for the second phase of local government elections in 18 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
• The polling will be held on March 27.
• The ECP issues a notification under the relevant laws declaring that public notices will be issued by the relevant returning officers inviting nomination papers on Feb 4 to be followed by the filing of nomination papers from Feb 7 to Feb11.
• The notification also carried a code of conduct for the LG elections barring public officeholders, including prime minister and the country`s president, from visiting any constituency for the polls from unveiling any development scheme and from canvassing votes for any candidate or political party.

6. SBP reserves go down by $562m in a week

• Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) declined by more than half a billion dollars within a week mainly on account of international debt servicing, data released by the central bank showed on January 20, 2022.
• Reserves of the SBP dropped by $562 million to $17.03bn in the week ending on Jan 14. The central bank uses its foreign exchange reserves for the servicing of international debt, which has been increasing rapidly for the last three years.
• The SBP said the latest week-on-week drop of $562m in reserves is because of external debt and other payments

7. Revival of major powers rivalry, arms race on the cards, Pakistan tells UNGA

• Pakistan has urged the United Nations to brace itself for the revival of major-powers rivalry, new and old conflicts and a new arms race.
• Pakistan underlined these issues at the UN General Assembly`s (UNGA) first meeting of the new year where the assembly`s president Abdulla Shahid briefed delegates on his priorities for the resumed part of the 76th session.
• Mr Shahid urged the global community to recommit to vaccine equity to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic, calling for faster production and distribution of these medicines, and a removal of barriers to roll them out

8. West warns Russia against `any` Ukraine incursion

• The United States and its allies on January 20, 2022 warned Moscow of grave consequences if `any` of the tens of thousands of troops massed on the border were to cross the border into Ukraine.
• Following talks with Germany, France and Britain, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken underlined that Russia `cannot match` Western power`s resoluteness.
• In a show of that unity, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, speaking alongside Blinken, said the West would not shy away from taking action even if that included measures that `could have economic consequences for ourselves`.
• Separately in London, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Russia marching on Ukraine `on any scale whatever… would be a disaster not just for Ukraine but for Russia`

9. World powers insist Iran deal still possible, but `time running out`

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European allies insisted it was still possible to revive the Iran nuclear deal but said `time is running out`, after talks in Berlin on January 20, 2022.
• Blinken told reporters that negotiators working in Vienna to salvage the 2015 accord with Tehran had seen `modest progress in the last couple weeks` but were taking nothing for granted.
• `My own assessment, talking to all of our colleagues, is that returning to mutual compliance, it remains possible,` Blinken said.
• Speaking at a joint news conference, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said `urgent progress` was needed in talks aimed at rescuing the deal

10. Teenager becomes youngest woman to fly solo around the world

• A British-Belgian teenager became the youngest woman to fly solo around the world on Thursday and the first person to do so in a microlight plane after a five-month, five-continent odyssey in her Shark ultralight.
• Nineteen-year-old Zara Rutherford landed back at Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in Belgium after flying 51,000 km (32,000 miles) over 52 nations since her Aug 18 departure in the world`s fastest microlight aircraft. Cheers and applause went up as her plane came to a halt on the tarmac.
• `It`s just really crazy, I haven`t quite processed it, Rutherford, smiling broadly and cloaked in British and Belgian flags, told reporters

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