Test: April 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has advised National Informatics Centre (NIC) to assist the States /UTs in limited registration of BS-IV vehicles all over India except Delhi/National Capital Region (NCR) on the lines with Supreme Court order dated 27.3.2020. On March 27, 2020, Supreme Court instructed automobile manufacturersto sell their 10% of unsold BS-IV vehicles within 10 days after the end of the lockdown period (April 14), but not in Delhi-NCR. The verdict has been passed by a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta.

National Cadet Corps (NCC – Under Ministry of Defence) has offered its volunteer cadets to assist the civilian authorities to fight COVID-19 under ‘Exercise NCC Yogdan’. Only senior division above 18yrs can be part of the initiative and will be employed in small cohesive groups of 8 to 20 under the supervision of Permanent Instructor Staff or/and an Associate NCC Officeractivities.The HQ of NCC located at New Delhi.

A 48 hours online hackathon namely “Hack the Crisis – India” was launched by the Minister of State (Mos) Electronics & Information Technology, Communications and Human Resource Development Sanjay Dhotreto solve the problems arised due to COVID-19 crisis.Its key focus is to develop Non-Medical Solutions to deal with the aftermath of Coronavirus (Covid-19). The Hackathon is organised by ‘Hack A Cause – India’ and ‘Ficci Ladies Organization Pune’ and supported by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India (MEITY).

Tamil Nadu has topped the all-India level for micro-irrigation (MI), under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), with a coverage of 2,06,853.25 ha for the year financial year 2019-20& It is followed by Karnataka and Gujarat respectively. In the cumulative coverage of MI from 2015-20, Karnataka topped with coverage of 8,15,690.31 ha.

As a part of curbing the adverse impact of COVID 19, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) launched Lifeline Udan flights on March 26, 2020 for movement of medical and essential supplies across India. Over 6 days period i.e. till March 31, 2020, 74 flights have been operated which had covered an aerial distance of over 70,000 km to transport 37.63 tonnes of medical cargo, out of which more than 22 tonnes was transported on March 31, 2020. Hardeep singhpuri is the current civil aviation minister.

Kerala’s Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), an institute of National Importance under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has partnered with ‘Wipro 3D’ to build a portable and lightweight emergency ventilator system based on Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU).

Associations representing officers of Central Civil Services, including the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), have created an initiative called ‘Caruna [Civil Services Associations Reach to Support in Natural Disasters]’ to asssit and supplement the government’s efforts to battle against Corona Virus (COVID-19).

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given its approval to Diagnostic machines used to test drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) for conducting Covid-19 tests. In this regard, Truenat beta CoV test on Truelab workstation will be used for screening test of COVID-19.Currently India is using real time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) testing approved by United States and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The donations made under newly-formed Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES FUND) to aid the persons affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, are made eligible for 100% deduction under section 80G of the Income Tax (IT) Act, 1961.

The Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Narendra Singh Tomar has launched three new features of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Platform to enable farmers to sell their harvested produce directly from warehouse which will prevent crowding in mandis amid COVID-19 outbreak. The 3 features are as follows Negotiable Warehouse Receipt (e-NWRs) module, Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) trading module, Logistic Module.

National Health Authority (NHA) partnered with Uber India to provide 24/7 free UberMedic transport services to India’s frontline healthcare workers and hospitals engaged in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The National Health Authority (NHA) nodal agency of implementation of AB-PMJAY has announced that more than 50 crore eligible citizens under the health insurance scheme of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) will avail free testing through private labs and treatment for COVID-19 in empanelled hospitals to increase the supply of testing and treatment facilities in the country.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) government has proposed to buy a novel contraption, ‘Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM)’ to address the need for oxygen supply to coronavirus patients. It is developed by Personnel of the Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam (NDV).

Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions released the COVID- 19 National Preparedness Survey 2020 (conducted in 410 districts). The objective of the survey is to develop a comparative analysis of COVID- 19 preparedness across States.

Coronavirus (COVID 19) is causing terrible havoc in the country and the world currently. In such a situation, India is coming forward to help less capable countries in fighting Covid 19. In this sequence, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has launched ‘Operation Sanjeevani’ and air-lifted 6.2 tonnes of essential medical supplies to Maldives via transport aircraft C-130J as assistance in fight against the virus.

State-owned Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and private lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Bank have been nominated for the collection of donations for Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) – Earlier State Bank of India (SBI) was announced as the Banking partner of PM-CARES fund.

The Andhra Pradesh (AP) Government has issued a modified set of guidelines for the distribution of 25 lakh house sites to urban and rural poor under the Navaratnalu- PedalandarikiIllu (Houses for All Poor) programme.

The Odisha state government in collaboration with UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund), has launched a creative skill competition programme called “Mo Prativa” (My talent) to keep children engaged in some creative work during 21-days lockdown due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Founders of leading startups, independent advisors, investors, supporters & blue-chip venture capital firms jointly set up a Rs 100 crore ‘Action Covid-19 Team’ (ACT) Grants a first-of-its-kind initiative globally aims to seed over 50 initiatives to support companies who work on products & services to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha, has been conferred with Hero to Animals Award by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India for allocating funds to feed community animals in five municipal corporations and all 48 municipalities of Odisha during the COVID-19 lockdown. He has allocated Rs 54 lakhs from a relief fund for the same.

India and China have marked 70 years of diplomatic relations, both countries exchanged warm words of greetings and spoke of the partnership between the world’s two most populous nations. India became the first non-Communist country in Asia to establish diplomatic ties with China on April 1,1950.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopts a resolution– ‘Global solidarity to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)’, co-sponsored by 188 nations including India. It is the 1st resolution adopted by world organisation on the global pandemic.
The objective of the resolution isto intensify international cooperation to mitigate & defeat the pandemic which includes exchange of information, scientific knowledge & best practices in accordance with the guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization(WHO).

The Union Minister for Home Affairs, Shri Amit Shah has approved the release of Rs 11,092 crores to all States under the State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF) for 2020-21 after the Chief Ministers raised the issue of lack of funds in the state during a meeting through video conferencing with Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi.

To deal with Covid-19 epidemic, the central government has constituted a 10-member group under the chairmanship of NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog CEO (Chief Executive Officer) Amitabh Kant.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted four resolutions, voting for the first time remotely or through video-conferencing as the United Nations (UN) staff work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak. Importantly, UNSC is currently under China’s Presidency and China’s Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun is the Council President.