Current Affairs - April 22, 2020 Current Affairs

Indian-American Sudarsanam Babu has been appointed to the United States' National Science Board. His appointment was made by US President Donald Trump as announced by the White House on April 20, 2020.

Goa becomes first zero COVID-19 state in the country.

The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare of Government of India has taken several measures to facilitate the farmers and farming activities at field level during the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic.Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme, over 8.89 crore farmer families have been benefitted. A total amount of Rs.17,793 crore has been released so far.

Central Government constitutes 6 Inter-Ministerial Teams to make assessment of situation and augment State efforts to fight and contain spread of COVID-19 effectively.

Civil Services Day is observed on 21 April in India. The day celebrates the civil servants in order to rededicate themselves to the cause of citizens. On this day, the civil servants renew their commitments to public service and excellence in work.

Secretary's day or Administrative Professionals Day is observed on 21 April in India. The day aims to celebrate the administrative professionals who work as the glue in keeping a business together. The Secretary's week is observed on the last full week in April of each year.

Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched the COVID India Seva on 21 April. The interactive platform aims to establish a direct channel of communication with millions of Indians amid the pandemic. The initiative is aimed at enabling transparent e-governance delivery in real-time and answering citizen queries swiftly, at scale, especially in crisis situations like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Private sector lender City Union Bank reappointed N Kamakodi as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bank. The appointment was approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 20 April. Kamakodi's reappointment is for a further period of three years with effect. The reappointment will be effective from 1 May 2020.

Chandigarh city uses Vehicle tracking applications and GPS (Global Positioning System) enabled smartwatches for waste collection drivers in its fight against COVID-19 pandemic. The city has allocated 15 vehicles with a team of drivers and helpers equipped with Personal protective equipment (PPE) kits were deputed for collection and transportation of waste from Quarantines households. Quarantined households were divided into four zones supervised by one supervisor each.

Rajasthan govt. partners with healthcare startup MedCords for consultation and medicine delivery through Aayu & Sehat Sathi apps.

Kapil Dev Tripathi was appointed as the Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind on 20 April. His appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His appointment is on a contract basis. He has been appointed for a term co-terminus with the tenure of the President of India.

Fitch Solutions cuts India's economic growth forecast for 2020-21 to 1.8% from 4.6% earlier.

Central government departments asked to include "transgender" as a separate category of gender for recruitment in civil services and other posts. Narendra Modi is Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

The Economic Advisory Council of the Fifteenth Finance Commission (XIV-FC) has been scheduled to meet on 23-24 April 2020. The online meeting will be presided by Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission Shri N.K. Singh. The meeting will be attended by all the Members, Senior Officials of the Finance Commission and the 5 Members of the Council including Dr.Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Dr.Sajjid Z Chinoy, Dr.Prachi Mishra, Mr.Neelkanth Mishra and Dr. Omkar Goswami on 23 April 2020.

Border Roads Organisation (BRO) constructed the Daporijo bridge over the Subansiri river. Despite nationwide lockdown, BRO constructed it, keeping in mind utmost precautions against COVID-19 and to connect the strategic Line of Communication in Arunachal Pradesh. The bridge was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Arunachal Shri Pema Khandu over video conferencing and open for traffic movement from 20 April.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development (MHRD) Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' held a detailed review of the National online education platform SWAYAM and the 32 DTH Television Education Channels SWAYAM PRABHA in New Delhi on 20 April. During the lockdown, there occurred a tremendous increase in demand and the usage of SWAYAM Courses and SWAYAM PRABHA videos. SWAYAM was launched in 2017 by MHRD, GoI. Currently, there are 1902 courses available in SWAYAM. It has been offered to 1.56 crore students. Over 26 lakh students are taking 574 courses on offer.

World Creativity and Innovation Day is observed on 21 April. The day aims to encourage people to generate new ideas to make the world a better place to live in. The day aims to inspire people to live a more creative life.

Pune Municipal Corporation under Smart Cities Mission (SCM) has launched a mobile application named "Saiyam". The app aims to effectively track home-quarantines citizens and ensure they are actually staying in the home.

Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank (NDB) through video-conference in New Delhi on 20 April. Headquarters of NDB is in Shanghai, China.

RBI announces extension of Ways & Means Advances limit from Rs 1.2 lakh crore to Rs 2 lakh crore for the remaining part of first half of the financial year 2020-21 (April 2020 to September 2020).