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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 02 May 2020

::NATIONAL::

Centre extends lockdown by 2 weeks with relaxed restrictions

The Centre extends the ongoing nationwide lockdown by two weeks from 4th of this month.The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order to this effect under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to extend the lockdown further.Home Ministry said, the decision has been taken after a comprehensive review of the COVID-19 situation.
The prohibited activities include travel by air, rail, metro and inter-state movement by road, running of schools, colleges, and other educational and training hospitality services, cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes.
All social, political, cultural and other kinds of gatherings and religious places or places of worship for public will also remain shut.Movement of persons by air, rail and road is allowed for select purposes and for purposes as permitted by MHA.
Outside the containment zone falling within Red Zones, certain activities are prohibited in addition to those prohibited throughout the country which includes plying of cycle rickshaws and auto-rickshaws, running of taxis and cab aggregators, intra-district and inter-district plying of buses, and barber shops, spas and saloons.
However, some activities have been allowed in the Red Zones with restrictions that includes movement of individuals and vehicles is allowed only for permitted activities with a maximum of two persons besides the driver in four-wheeler vehicles and with no pillion rider in the case of two-wheelers.
All government offices shall function with senior officers of the level of Deputy Secretary and above at full strength and the remaining staff attending up to 33 per cent as per requirement.

More states integrated under "One Nation, One Ration Card" plan

Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has approved the integration of five more States and Union Territories with the National Cluster under the One Nation, One Ration Card plan.
These States and UTs are Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
12 states have already under One Nation, One Ration Card plan namely - Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Tripura.
Mr Paswan on Friday reviewed the progress of the implementation of National Portability of ration card holders.With this, the facility of national and inter-state portability will be available for nearly 60 Crore beneficiaries of 17 States and UTs.

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::ECONOMY::.

Direct taxes account for healthy growth despite lockdown

Direct tax collection recorded a healthy growth in April despite the nationwide lockdown and grew by 36.6%.
Data accessed by The Hindu showed that the net direct tax collection for April 2020 was ₹34,780.4 crore as compared to ₹25,466 crore recorded in April 2019, a jump of 36.6%.Income tax collection in April was ₹19,762.1 crore while corporate tax collection was ₹14,608.1 crore.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had convened a video-conference on Friday with tax commissioners to review the collection position during the lockdown period. The collection figures of different zones were discussed during the meeting.
The department noted the effort of the officers in ensuring healthy growth of tax collection in these testing times. Among the zones, Mumbai reported a massive 500% growth in net tax collections, followed by Bengaluru that reported 160% growth. Delhi, at number three, reported a 34% growth in April.
The government is expected to miss the direct tax collection target for the financial year 2019-20. The revised estimate has pegged the target for collection of direct taxes for 2019-20 at ₹11.70 lakh crore. The government had collected over ₹7.52 lakh crore as direct taxes till January 31.
In addition, the outlook for indirect tax collection is also bleak in the first few months of the current financial year due to the countrywide lockdown.
Some reports suggest that GST collection in April and May could decline drastically as the number of electronic permits for transporting goods are down 80% in April. With the lockdown extended till May 17, tax collections are expected to remain subdued.

Centre hikes MSP for 49 minor forest produce

Government has raised the minimum support price for Minor Forest Produce of 49 items in view of circumstances arising out of Covid 19.
Tribal Affairs Ministry said, the increase across various items of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) ranges from 16 per cent to 66 per cent.The increase is expected to provide an immediate and much needed momentum to procurement of Minor Tribal Produce in atleast 20 States.
The Ministry said that the MSP for Minor Forest Produces is revised once in every three years by the Pricing Cell constituted under the Ministry.
It said that in view of the exceptional and very difficult circumstances prevailing due to COVID-19 pandemic, the competent authority has decided to relax the existing provisions in the scheme guidelines and revised the MSP.

Direct taxes account for healthy growth despite lockdown

Direct tax collection recorded a healthy growth in April despite the nationwide lockdown and grew by 36.6%.
Data accessed by The Hindu showed that the net direct tax collection for April 2020 was ₹34,780.4 crore as compared to ₹25,466 crore recorded in April 2019, a jump of 36.6%.Income tax collection in April was ₹19,762.1 crore while corporate tax collection was ₹14,608.1 crore.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had convened a video-conference on Friday with tax commissioners to review the collection position during the lockdown period. The collection figures of different zones were discussed during the meeting.
The department noted the effort of the officers in ensuring healthy growth of tax collection in these testing times. Among the zones, Mumbai reported a massive 500% growth in net tax collections, followed by Bengaluru that reported 160% growth. Delhi, at number three, reported a 34% growth in April.
The government is expected to miss the direct tax collection target for the financial year 2019-20. The revised estimate has pegged the target for collection of direct taxes for 2019-20 at ₹11.70 lakh crore. The government had collected over ₹7.52 lakh crore as direct taxes till January 31.
In addition, the outlook for indirect tax collection is also bleak in the first few months of the current financial year due to the countrywide lockdown.
Some reports suggest that GST collection in April and May could decline drastically as the number of electronic permits for transporting goods are down 80% in April. With the lockdown extended till May 17, tax collections are expected to remain subdued.

Centre hikes MSP for 49 minor forest produce

Government has raised the minimum support price for Minor Forest Produce of 49 items in view of circumstances arising out of Covid 19.
Tribal Affairs Ministry said, the increase across various items of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) ranges from 16 per cent to 66 per cent.The increase is expected to provide an immediate and much needed momentum to procurement of Minor Tribal Produce in atleast 20 States.
The Ministry said that the MSP for Minor Forest Produces is revised once in every three years by the Pricing Cell constituted under the Ministry.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

World observes international labour day

Yesterday was the International Labour Day, also known as International Worker's Day or May Day. The day is celebrated to honour the contribution of working men and women.
President Ram NathKovind has greeted the men and women workers on the occasion of International Labour Day.In a tweet, Mr Kovind said, this day is dedicated to honour the hard work and dedication of crores of men and women workers.
He said, they are laying the foundation for a better and prosperous India and they are the nation builders in the true sense.
In his message, Director General of International Labour Organization, Guy Ryder called upon everyone to together build a better normal.
He said, the time is now to bring solutions to the table and secure a future of work built on social justice.
Mr Ryder said, the lasting legacy of the 2020 global health and human crisis must be that Labour Day 2021 marks progress in shaping a better normal.

WHO raises concern over use of BCG vaccines

In a letter published in The Lancet on April 30, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General TedrosAGhebreyesus and others highlight a few critical issues over the use of BCG vaccine for COVID-19. They underscore the importance of randomised controlled trials of the vaccine to understand its safety and efficacy before using it on healthcare workers.
Randomised controlled trials are under way in the Netherlands and Australia to find out whether the vaccine can reduce the incidence and severity of COVID-19 among healthcare workers.
The authors do state that the BCG vaccine, which “enhances the innate immune response to subsequent infections, might reduce viral load after SARS-CoV-2 exposure, with a consequent less severe COVID-19 and more rapid recovery”.
A study, posted on March 28 in a preprint server medRxiv, found an association between countries that have a universal BCG vaccination and reduced coronavirus cases — and even deaths. Preprints are yet to be peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals.
BCG given early in life does improve the immune system. The vaccine can prevent intracellular infections. So the protective effect of BCG against COVID-19 is a biologically plausible hypothesis,” Prof. Gagandeep Kang, executive director of the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad, had earlier told.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Study finds improved water quality in Ganges amid lockdown

The Lock Down imposed in the country on March 22, 2020 has improved air quality and water quality.According to CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board), 40 million litres of waste water enters water bodies.
The water pollution of a river is measured based on Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD). The Ganga has become dump yard for industrial waste and untreated sewage.
Since 1985, several schemes and programmes have been launched to clean Ganga starting with Ganga Action Plan I. Later in 2015, the biggest initiative NamamiGange was launched.
After lock down, the real time monitoring data from the CPCB say that out of 36 monitoring points of the Ganges, 27 are now clean and suitable for wildlife and fisheries propagation.
The dissolved Oxygen values have reported to have improved in the cities like Varanasi where the pollution peaked. The improvement has been from 6.8 mg/litre as compared to 3.8 mg/litre before lock down.
The major reasons for the improvement in the water quality is that activities such as bathing, tourism, fairs near the ghats were stopped. Also, the major industrial activities around the river were stopped.
Though sewage persists to enter the river, now the situation is different. This is because when sewage effluents get mixed with the industrial effluents get mixed with the industrial effluents, it is highly difficult for the river to assimilate itself.

::SPORTS::

Australian team tops Test and T20 rankings

Australia has deposed India in the world Test rankings and Pakistan in the Twenty20 standings, the International Cricket Council said on Friday.
Just two points separate Australia (116), New Zealand (115) and India (114) in the Test standings, with cricketsuspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
India, which had held the No. 1 spot since October 2016, stays on top of the World Test Championship table.

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