Current Affairs - April 5, 2020 Current Affairs

Indian NGO ARMMAN wins USD 1.5 million Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.

The Department of Telecommunications has issued Standard Operating Procedure for the use of COVID-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS). The CAQS is an application used to track COVID-19 patients who have violated quarantine.The application was developed by DoT and C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics). The app collects phone data of the quarantine violator and alerts a local agency.

International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance is observed on April 4 each year to raise awareness about landmines and progress toward their eradication.

The Government of India has constituted a Science and Technology Empowered Committee to make speedy decisions on research and development of COVID-19.The Committee is to be chaired by Niti Aayog member Vinod Paul and K Vijay Raghavan. Mr Raghavan is the principal scientific advisor to GoI. The committee will coordinate with scientists, science agencies , regulatory bodies and industries.

On April 4, 2020, the associations of civil servants formed an initiative called CARUNA. CARUNA is Civil Services Associations Reach to Support Natural Disasters.CARUNA is a collaborative platform. It includes IAS and IPS officers. The platform is to be represented by NGO, industry leaders, IT professionals along with the civil servants. The initiative is being launched to support government efforts to fight Corona Virus.

Union Health Ministry has placed an order of about ten crore hydroxychloroquine tablets from various pharmaceutical companies for health care workers. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has suggested the use of hydroxychloroquine tablets only for health care workers and caregivers involved in the treatment and direct contact with the suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients.

The Minister of electronics and IT & HRD Shri Sanjay Dhotre launched "Hack the Crisis- India". It is an online hackathon that aims to work on solutions for COVID-19.

Odisha government, in collaboration with the UNICEF, launched an online cultural competition among children to keep them engaged at home during the lockdown period. Children can participate in competitions of painting, writing of slogans, short stories and poems, and poster making, winning entries will get certificates.

Bharat Biotech along with virologists of University of Wisconsin and Madison have begun development and testing of a new vaccine called CoroFlu for COVID-19. The vaccine is to be developed with the M2SR vaccine as the main component. The M2SR vaccine is used against flu. The M2SR is a self-limiting version of the influenza virus. It induces immune response against flu.

The World Bank has funded 1 billion USD to India to fight against COVID-19. With the COVID-19 cases increasing further, India seeks 6 billion USD from ADB and AIIB.The Indian Economy is to take a major hit with the 21-day lock down.

Hockey India donated an additional Rs 75 lakhs towards the PM-CARES Fund to take its total contribution to Rs 1 crore to tackle worsening COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

The National Health Authority has partnered with Uber India to provide dedicated transport services to the health care workers that are involved in treating COVID-19 patients.UBER is to facilitate 150 free cars in the major cities such as Kanpur, New Delhi, Patna, Prayagraj, Ghazidabad, Noida and Lucknow. The facility is being launched under the name "UberMEdic Service".

IOC sets June 29, 2021 as new deadline for qualification period of Tokyo Olympics.

ADB forecasts Indian economy's growth to slow to 4.0% in 2020-21 before improving to 6.2% in 2021-22.

PM Modi addressed India to switch off their lights at 9 PM for nine minutes on 5 April and light lamps or candle . This is being done to show the united strength of the country against the virus.

Researchers of biomedical sciences of New York Institute of Technology say that the countries such as Netherlands, Italy and United States are more severely affected than countries with BCG policies. The Bacilus Calmette-Guerin vaccine that had been administered in India to protect the children against Tuberculosis, according to the study might be a game changer.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has provided guidelines for the health insurance providers to implement Arogya Sanjeevani Insurance Policy. The "Arogya Sanjeevani Insurance Policy" guidelines was basically launched to cover the hospitalisation expenses of the COVID-19 patients.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has identified 20 Covid-19 hotspots in the country. Though there are no community transmission in the country, ministry is take these hotspots strictly. Also, 22 potential hotspots have been identified.

The Government of India has launched three incentive schemes to boost electronics manufacturing in the country. The scheme will provide incentives of 4% to 6% when a company shows increased sales on electronic products.

The Indian Air Force recently delivered 6.2 million tonnes of essential medicines to Maldives under Operation Sanjeevani. The Indian Air Force airlifted the medicines in Hercules C-130J. The medicines included lopinavir and ritonavir, influenza vaccines. Apart from medicines, the IAF also delivered nebulisers, catheters, urine bags and feeding tubes.