Current Affairs - May 27, 2020 Current Affairs

25th May of Every year is observed as World Thyroid Day all over the world, established in 2008 as a part of the campaign led by European Thyroid Association and the American Thyroid Association followed by Latin American Thyroid Society and Asia Oceania Thyroid Association to commemorate the patients with Thyroid diseases and doctors and physicians who treats them.

CSIR-IIIM, Jammu a constituent laboratory of CSIR signed MoU with Reliance Industries Limited to develop and scale-up a new Reverse Transcriptase-Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification based COVID-19 diagnostic kit. The partnership comes as testing is a vital component in COIVD-19 mitigation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have teamed up to fight the battle against Covid-19 and have signed an agreement to work together to promote health through sport and physical activity. The collaboration is to work with host countries to ensure Health of athletes, supporters and workers at the games. The two institutions will also work to ensure that the games leave a healthy legacy in host countries through enhanced awareness of the value of sport.

The amphibious transport dock ship, USS Portland (LPD-27) of the United States Navy successfully destroyed an unmanned aerial vehicle with a solid-state laser "Laser Weapon System Demonstrator " from Pacific. The exact location of testing has not been specified by the US Navy. It was the first system-level implementation of a high-energy class solid-state laser to disable an aerial drone aircraft.

Indian Navy made "NavRakshak" PPE kit made with innovative breathable fabric material, to provide comfort to healthcare workers working against COVID-19 pandemic wearing multi-layered coverall PPE treating patients in the hot and humid condition for more than 12 hours."novel protector" has two factors, optimal protectiveness and optimal breathability. This uses advanced quality non woven fabric of specific Grams per Square Meter with stitching technique.

Former World Top 25 and US tennis star Jamie Hampton announced her retirement from professional tennis at the age of 30 due to the injuries she suffered during the last six years. The Alabama player reached heights in her career in 2013 by reaching a world rank of 24.

REC Foundation, the CSR arm of REC Limited, has tied up with TajSATS, a joint venture of IHCL and SATS Ltd, to distribute specially-made nutritious meal packets for medical staff in Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi. Under this tie-up, every day, 300 food packets are being delivered to the frontline healthcare warriors of New Delhi. REC Limited, formerly Rural Electrification Corporation Limited, was established in 1969. The NBFC is focusing on Power Sector Financing and Development across India. It provides financial assistance across the power sector value chain.

Fintech startup Zaggle informed that it has partnered with payments technology major Visa to launch innovative payment solutions for Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs) and startups so as to enhance productivity, efficiency, automate processes, reduce costs & focus on easy and fast credit with a unique card which will have forex, prepaid & credit.

Mizoram sports minister Robert Romawia Royte informed that the state cabinet has cleared the proposal of the Sports and Youth Service department to grant sports an industry status to boost the sports sector, generate employment, increase value of sports & to attract private companies to invest in sports which will benefit in terms of subsidy, loans and concessions. It becomes the 1st state to do so.

In accordance with the World Steel Association (worldsteel) monthly crude steel report for April 2020, India's crude steel output declined by 65.2% to 3.137 million tonnes (MT) during April, 2020 in comparison to the 9.021 MT of crude steel production in April 2019. The key reason behind this decrease is the nationwide lockdown imposed on March 25, 2020 to contain the COVID-19 spread.

Uttarakhand became the 1st state to release a report highlighting its conservation efforts to save over 1,100 rare plants from extinction. The project aims at Germplasm conservation so that species remain conserved with the forest department & also to promote conservation of plant species among the general public so as to end plant blindness. The report is one of the largest repositories of conserved plants & is carried out by the research wing of the state forest department.

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the Chamba Tunnel in Uttarakhand under Chardham Pariyojana through video conference mode on 26 May 2020. The tunnel was constructed by the Border Roads Organisation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana has announced its plan to enhance fish production to 220 lakh metric tons by 2024-25 from 137.58 lakh MT in 2018-19 at an average annual growth rate of about 9%. The announcement was made by the Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Giriraj Singh.

A team of scientists led by K.A. Sujana at the Kolkata based Botanical Survey of India have discovered 3 new plant species namely- Eugenia sphaerocarpa, Goniothalamus sericeus and Memecylon nervosum at the Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Power Finance Corporation (PFC), the central PSU under the Ministry of Power and India's leading NBFC, signed an agreement with Narmada Basin Projects Company Ltd. (NBPCL), a wholly-owned company of Government of Madhya Pradesh on 26 May 2020. The move aims to fund projects worth Rs.22,000 crore for 225 MW hydro-electric projects & multipurpose projects in the State of Madhya Pradesh.

The Indian Association Uganda and Indian Military Advisory and Training Team for Uganda Peoples Defence Forces have jointly set up military war game centre called 'INDIA' at the Uganda Senior Command and Staff College in Kimaka in Jinja District of Uganda with a cost of over 1 billion Ugandan shillings or $2,65,000. The centre was inaugurated by the Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

World Health Organization announced that it had selected 8 people out of the several people who step forward to participate in human challenge trials to develop new vaccines for COVID-19. Human challenge trials are trials in which participants are intentionally challenged (whether or not they have been vaccinated) with an infectious disease organism. In the first phase, a small group of people will receive the vaccination. In the second phase, Vaccine is given to people whose characteristics are similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended. In the third phase, the trial vaccine will be given to several thousand to test the safety and efficacy.

The Research Centre Imarat , DRDO laboratory, Hyderabad, Telangana, developed an AI -based Attendance application which allows non-contact based personnel verification, using facial features of the person in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. AINA can be deployed with minimal upgradation to the legacy attendance infrastructure with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) readers. AINA can be installed on a normal desktop computer with a GPU based display adapter.

International Missing Children's Day is observed every year on May 25 globally since 2001. The day aims to raise awareness on the issue of child abduction, educate parents on safeguarding measures to protect their children.

The Army Commanders Conference has been scheduled to be held in two phases amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The first phase of the conference will be held from 27 to 29 May 2020 and the second phase will be held in the last week of June 2020. The conference was scheduled for April 2020 and postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.