Current Affairs - April 17, 2020 Current Affairs

The Government of India has made an action plan for strengthening of surveillance networks to monitor the spread of COVID-19 in India. The information was passed by the Union Health Ministry. An action plan has been prepared by the GOI to strengthen surveillance with the help of the World Health Organization's (WHO) national polio surveillance network team. India has received 5 lakh testing kits, including rapid antibody test kits, from two Chinese firms for better monitoring and surveillance.

District administrations and Gram Panchayats across the country are proactively taking various measures to check the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India remains in close coordination with State Governments, District authorities and Gram Panchayats to ensure that lockdown conditions are not violated and norms of social distancing are followed.

On April 16, 2020, the Indian Army chief Lt General Manoj Mukund Naravane issued directives to all the military cantonments, headquarters, establishments to strictly ensure no movement of forces till April 19, 2020. This is being done to fight COVID-19 during extended lock down.

State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) is to deliberate on model bid documents for the development and operation of underground mines. CIL has decided to augment its dry-fuel output to coal through mine operators. About 80% of India's domestic coal production comes from CIL. CIL recorded a high coal output of 84.36 million tonnes during March 2020.

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar addressed the "National Conference on Kharif crops 2020" through a video conference. All States were directed to achieve the Kharif target as doubling of farmers' income should be taken up in mission mode. Major Kharif crops are rice, maize, cotton, jowar, bajra etc. Major Rabi crops are wheat, gram, peas, barley etc.

The US State Department said in a report on April 15, 2020 that China may have secretly set off low-level underground nuclear test explosions despite claiming to observe an international pact banning such blasts.

The Union Home Ministry has issued an advisory stating that the Zoom videoconferencing app is "not safe" for private persons and entities.

Industries operating in rural areas (i.e. outside the limits of municipal corporations and municipalities) allowed to resume production from April 20.

The Government of India decided to divide all districts across the country into hotspots, non-hotspots and green zones. The announcement was made by Lav Agarwal, joint secretary of the Health Ministry.As of 15 April, the Ministry has identified 170 hotspot districts, 207 non-hotspot districts reporting cases and 359 green zone districts not reporting any cases across the country.

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the virtual session of the 2nd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting on 15 April. The meeting was held under the Saudi Arabian Presidency. The Ministers discussed the global economic outlook amid the evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis.As per the direction, Saudi prepared the G20 Action Plan in Response to COVID-19.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) stated that it has already issued over 10.2 lakh refunds totalling to around Rs.4,250 crore as of 14 April 2020. The move is in pursuance to the Government of India's decision to issue pending income tax refunds up to Rs.5 lakh in order to help taxpayers in a COVID-19 pandemic situation, on 8 April.

73rd foundation day of Himachal Pradesh celebrated on April 15.

RMS Titanic sank, which was carrying around 2000 passengers and crew, sank at 2.20 am on April 15, 1912. The British ocean liner had hit an iceberg about two and half hours before it sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, developed mobile application SAHYO, an Integrated Geospatial Platform out of available geospatial datasets, standards-based services, and analytic tools. The mobile application and the website prepared and managed by the Survey of India (SoI).The SAHYO aims to help decision making during the COVID-19 pandemic.It will provide the necessary geospatial information support to citizens and agencies dealing with the challenges related to socio-economic distress, health, and livelihood challenges.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its report on the Asia-Pacific region stated that Asia's economic growth in 2020 will grind to a halt for the first time in 60 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Government of India has announced Spitting in public act a punishable offence under the strict Disaster Management Act in its revised guidelines for lockdown issued to contain COVID-19. The announcement was made by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in its revised guidelines.The guidelines also mandated the wearing of face masks in public places.

North Korea launched multiple short-range anti-ship cruise missiles into the sea. Also, Sukhoi jets fired air-to-surface missiles as part of its ongoing military exercises. The information was passed by South Korea's military.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) proposed to release its full $1 trillion lending capacity to support countries that battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The IMF described the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis like no other crisis ever. The announcement was made by the IMF head Kristalina Georgieva.The IMF Board has already approved debt relief for 25 of its poorest members due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has announced a training program on COVID-19 from 17 April 2020 for healthcare professionals from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.The training program is carried out by the Central government's Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) program.Also, India proposed setting up of a common electronic platform for all SAARC nations to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. All the SAARC countries will share expertise and best practices to jointly combat the spread of coronavirus.The ITEC Programme was established as per the decision of the Union Cabinet of India on 15 September 1964.

The Central Government's mobile app, Aarogya Setu, has become the world's fastest app to reach 50 million downloads in just 13 days. The information was passed by the NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on 15 April. The app was developed for tracking COVID-19 patients.