• Railways has decided to suspend its NTPC and Level 1 tests after violent protests by job aspirants over the selection process of its recruitment exams.

• It has also formed a committee which will examine the grievances of those who have passed the exams under different railway recruitment boards (RRBs) and those who have failed.

• After listening to both the parties, the committee will submit a report to the railway ministry.

• On Jan 25 , the railways had issued a general notice, warning its job aspirants that those found involved in vandalism and unlawful activities while protesting will be barred from ever getting recruited in the railways.

• This came a day after protesters squatted on railway tracks in several places in Bihar.

• India's rank improved one place to 85 among 180 countries in a corruption perception index (CPI) of 2021, according to a new report by Transparency International which, however, raised concern over the country's democratic status.

• The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

• Among those with weak scores are some of the world's most populous countries such as China (45) and India (40), and other large economies such as Indonesia (38), Pakistan (28) and Bangladesh (26), the report by the anti-corruption watchdog said.

• India's rank improved by one place to 85 in 2021 from 86th in 2020, according to the index.

• Except Bhutan, all of India's neighbours are ranked below it.

• Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway topped the list with the highest score.

• Hours after senior Congress leader and former Union minister R P N Singh switched sides and joined the BJP, Congress candidate from Padrauna Manish Jaiswal too resigned from the party.

• Kushinagar Congress president Rajkumar Singh also quit the party.

• Both, Singh and Jaiswal are mulling over joining the BJP.

• R P N Singh earlier represented the Padrauna constituency in the state assembly and had defeated Swami Prasad Maurya from Kushinagar in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

• BJP's ally in Uttar Pradesh Apna Dal (Sonelal) has declared Haidar Ali Khan as its candidate from the Suar assembly constituency in Rampur district.

• Khan was earlier in the Congress and named its candidate from Suar on January 13.

• Similarly, Congress candidate from Bareilly Cantonment Supriya Aron too resigned from the party and joined the Samajwadi Party.

• Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has  approved 15 per cent reservation for women in non-gazetted police posts. Sinha announced the reservation coinciding with the National Girl Child Day, asserting that "this is just the beginning".

• A Delhi Court has ordered the framing of sedition among other charges against JNU scholar and activist Sharjeel Imam in a 2019 case, in which he allegedly delivered an inflammatory speech inciting violence at Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh and Jamia area in the national capital during the CAA-NRC protests in 2019.

• Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat framed the charges under sections 124A (sedition), 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), Section 13 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, and 505 of IPC, which deals with statements related to public order.

• According to the police, Imam made the alleged inflammatory speeches in Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi on December 13, 2019, and in Aligarh Muslim University, UP on January 16, 2020. He has been in judicial custody since January 28, 2020, and is presently lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi.

• Earlier, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dinesh Kumar of Saket court had granted bail to him in a 2019 violence case registered at Jamia Nagar Police Station related to the violence in Jamia on December 13-14, 2019.

• Though he was granted bail in the particular case, he was in judicial custody in connection with cases under various IPC sections for offences of rioting and unlawful assembly among others.

• India has paid USD 29.9 million in UN regular budget assessments for the year 2022.

• As of January 21, 2022, 24 Member States have paid their regular budget assessments in full.

• India is currently a non-permanent member of the 15-nation Security Council and its two-year term will end on December 31,

2022.

• Pakistan and Russia are in talks to finalise the plan for Russian President Vladimir Putin's first visit to the country this year.

• Prime Minister Imran Khan has already extended a formal invitation to President Putin.

• The two leaders are also expected to meet in Beijing next month on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

• The visit of the Russian president was being discussed by the two sides for the last two years but could not materialise because of a variety of reasons including the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The likely visit of President Putin will be the culmination of years of efforts by two sides to open a new chapter in their ties that were marred by the Cold War rivalry.

• Moscow also wants that there must be 'big ticket projects' or other initiatives that the Russian president would announce when he finally undertakes the trip to Pakistan.

• With the signing of the Pakistan Steam Gas Pipeline agreement, the prospects of Putin visiting Pakistan have brightened significantly.

• Pakistan is keen that President Putin inaugurates the groundbreaking of the multibillion-dollar gas pipeline project, which might kick off later this year.

• Pakistan wants Russian companies to lay the pipeline from Karachi in Sindh province to Kasur in Punjab province.

• The North-South Gas Pipeline, which has now been renamed as Pakistan Steam Gas Pipeline, is a flagship project that the two countries intend to undertake ever since they decided to bury their Cold War rivalry and enter into a new era of bilateral ties.

• The agreement was originally signed in 2015 but because of possible US sanctions on the Russian companies and other issues, the work on the 1,122km-long pipeline could not be started.

• However, the two sides finally crossed those obstacles and signed an amended agreement that would now give 74% stakes in the pipeline to Pakistan.

• The project will cost around USD 2.25 billion.

• Once complete, the pipeline will help address the shortage of gas in Punjab.

• The LNG that Pakistan now imports will be re-gasified through this proposed pipeline.

• In April last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Islamabad after a gap of almost nine years.

• During the visit, he conveyed a message to Pakistani leadership on behalf of President Putin that Moscow was willing to extend all possible help to Islamabad.

• The two countries are not just exploring options to deepen economic ties, but Russia is also keen to sell arms to Pakistan, something it avoided in the past because of India's opposition.

• The two countries have already been holding regular joint military exercises since 2016 in another sign of deepening ties between Moscow and Islamabad.

• Besides, the two countries also share the same view on key regional and international issues including Afghanistan.

• SBI Cards and Payment Services has reported 84 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 386 crore for December quarter 2021-22 on the back of healthy card spends, fall in bad loans and higher income from other sources.

• The pure-play credit card issuer promoted by the country's largest lender SBI had posted a net profit of Rs 210 crore in the year- ago same quarter.

• Total revenues of the company rose 24 per cent to Rs 3,140 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 2,540 crore in the same period of 2020-21.

• The increase in income was primarily due to higher income from fees and services during the quarter. On the other key metrics, the company witnessed 10 per cent growth in new accounts volume at 10,08,000 as against 9,18,000 in the year-ago quarter.

• Card-in-force grew 15 per cent to 1.32 crore and total spends surged 47 per cent to Rs 55,397 crore. Receivables rose 13 per cent to Rs 29,129 crore from Rs 25,749 crore in the year-ago period.

• Company's asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) fell to 2.40 per cent of gross credit as against 4.51 per cent as of third quarter of 2020-21. Net NPAs fell to 0.83 per cent from 1.60 per cent.

• However, there was an increase of 6 per cent to its finance cost during the quarter at Rs 277 crore, while total operating cost was higher by 28 per cent to Rs 1,719 crore.