Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (March 15, 2022) for CSS, PMS

Table of Contents

6. New system at Torkham to channelise immigration process

• With the closure of Nadra facility at Torkham, federal government has initiated Individual Voluntary Arrangement System (Ivas) to check parallel immigration systems other than passports.
• Official sources told this scribe that Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was assigned the responsibility to operate Ivas, initially with installation of three booths. The number booths could be increase d owing to increase in the inflow of Afghans with passing of time, they added.
• They said that the new system would help in channelising the irregular and parallel immigration process while movement of the Afghans would be closely monitored

7. Rs8bn broadband projects launched

• The Universal Service Fund (USF), a subsidiary of the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), on March 14, 2022 launched seven projects worth over Rs8 billion to provide broadband services to unserved and under-served areas across the country, which will benefit over 2.5 million people.
• Addressing the 81st board of directors meeting of the USF, Minister for Information Technology Syed Amin-Ul-Haque said the USF is committed to connecting the people in remote areas with the digital world. He said projects started during the tenure of this government were being ensured to complete in stipulated time.
• The meeting noted that projects worth Rs3.57bn had been approved for Balochistan. The contract for the provision of 4G services in Qila Saifullah and Zhob has been awarded to Pak Telecom Mobile Ltd (Ufone) which will be completed in 18 months

8. India unsure of Russian arms amid US sanctions

• India is exploring ways to avoid a major disruption in its supply of Russian-made weaponry amid US sanctions following Moscow`s invasion of Ukraine, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s tightrope walk could become more difficult due to a continuing border standoff with China.
• Experts say up to 60pc of Indian defence equipment comes from Russia, and New Delhi finds itself in a bind at a time when it is facing a two-year-old standoff with China in eastern Ladakh over a territorial dispute, with tens of thousands of soldiers within shooting distance.
• Twenty Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers died in a clash in 2020

9. US expresses concern over China`s `support for Russia`

• Top advisers to Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met in Rome on March 14, 2022 to discuss China`s support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, even as the Kremlin denied reports that it had requested Chinese military equipment to use in the war.
• US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi spoke, with the Biden administration increasingly concerned that China is using the Ukraine war to advance Beijing`s long term interest in its competition with the United States.
• Sullivan was seeking clarity on Beijing`s posture and was warning the Chinese anew that assistance for Russia including helping it avert sanctions imposed by the US and Western allies would be costly for them

10. Ukraine talks to continue despite deadly strikes

• Russia and Ukraine conducted fresh talks on March 14, 2022 in an effort to end Moscow`s devastating war, despite deadly strikes on a Ukrainian television tower, the capital and a pro-Moscow separatist region.
• On the 19th day of the invasion, the fourth round of talks made no breakthrough other than a planned resumption on Tuesday, as Russian backed separatists said fragments from a shot-down Ukrainian Tochka-U missile ripped the centre of Donetsk, killing 23 people.
• Moscow called it a `war crime` and rebels published photos of bloody corpses strewn in the street, even as the Ukrainian army denied having fired a missile at Donetsk