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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 03 April 2020

::NATIONAL::

PM interacts with all CM’s to check spread of COVID-19

Prime Minister NarendraModi today outlined that the common goal for the country is to ensure minimum loss of life due to COVID-19 pandemic. Interacting with the Chief Ministers of states via video conferencing to discuss measures to combat the pandemic, Mr Modi said, testing, tracing, isolation and quarantine should remain the areas of focus.
He highlighted the necessity of maintaining supply of essential medical products, availability of raw material for manufacture of medicines and medical equipment. He said, it is necessary to ensure availability of separate, dedicated hospital facilities for COVID-19 patients.
Underscoring the importance of coordinated action, Mr Modi talked about the need of setting up Crisis Management Groups at district level and appointment of District Surveillance Officers. He said that data must be taken from the accredited labs for testing. The Prime Minister said, it is necessary to ensure staggered release of funds to the beneficiaries under the PM GaribKalyanYojana to avoid crowding at banks.
Mr Modi said since this is the time to harvest crops, the government has given some relaxation from lockdown. He however said, it is necessary to continuously monitor and maintain social distancing as much as possible.
The Chief Ministers thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership, continuous guidance and support in this time of crisis. They appreciated the Prime Minister for taking the bold and timely decision of lockdown which has helped check the spread of the virus in the country.

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Doctors express caution on BCG vaccine study from various countries

Doctors and scientists in India have expressed caution on a study which argues that countries that have deployed the BCG-tuberculosis vaccine in their immunisation programmes have seen fewer deaths from COVID-19.
The study argues that 55 middle and high-income countries chosen for the analysis that have a current universal BCG policy had 0.78 deaths per million people, whereas middle and high income countries that never had a universal BCG policy (five countries) had a larger mortality rate, with 16.39 deaths per million people, a significant variation.
Low and middle-income countries, even if they had universal immunisation policies, were excluded from the analysis because they were also likely to have low testing rates for COVID-19 infection and therefore fewer reported deaths. India wasn’t included in the analysis.
The BCG vaccine is known to confer a strong immune response that have protective effects beyond just staving off a tuberculosis infection and because COVID-19 was particularly lethal to the elderly, those countries where the elderly were likely to have had a BCG shot in their childhood were likely to be better protected against the coronavirus, the authors argue.
However it was premature for India — that has had a consistent TB vaccination policy since 1968 — to take comfort. Gagandeep Kang, microbiologist and executive director, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, said only data that showed people who’d been immunised and showed less disease would be convincing.”

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::ECONOMY::

Centre urges states to clear RE producer’s dues

The Centre has asked States to continue to buy power from renewable energy producers and clear their dues “on a regular basis as was being done prior to the lockdown.”
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, on April 1, wrote to all States and electricity distribution companies after renewable energy producers complained that some states were curtailing purchase and payment for electricity generated from sources such as solar energy.
In the letter, the Ministry said the power ministry had recently issued instructions providing for a moratorium to distribution companies or discoms for making payments to electricity generating companies in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak and the following nationwide lockdown.
The Ministry, according to the letter reviewed by PTI, directed the discoms to accept invoices and billing through emails and make payments to renewable energy generators as per their power purchasing agreements (PPAs).

GST revenue drops below 1 lakh cr in March after 4 months

Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections for March 2020 stood at ₹97,597 crore, dropping below the ₹1 lakh-crore mark after four months.Gross GST revenue for the month was 8% lower than that of March 2019, according to Finance Ministry data released on Wednesday.
For the full financial year 2019-20, gross GST collections grew 4% in comparison to the previous year.
As the March revenue collections are based on the business conducted in February, these figures do not take into account the full impact of COVID-19 and the consequent shutdown of many business sectors in India. Analysts warn that next month’s revenues are likely to dip much further.
There has also been a sharp 7% decline in the filing of February GSTR-3B returns, with only 76.5 lakh returns being filed till March 31 in comparison with the more than 83 lakh filed in the previous two months. “It seems that many businesses may not have been able to pay GST because of the liquidity issues being faced after the lockdown,” said Pratik Jain, partner and indirect tax leader at PwC India.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India airlifts essential drugs to Maldives

An Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J transport aircraft on Thursday delivered 6.2 tonne of essential medicines and hospital consumables to Maldives under Operation Sanjeevani.
These medicines and consumables were procured from eight suppliers in India but couldn’t be transported through any other means due to the 21-day lockdown imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, an official statement said.
Among other things, these medicines include influenza vaccines, anti-viral drugs such as lopinavir and ritonavir — which have been used to treat patients with COVID-19 in other countries —medicines for cardiac conditions, kidney ailments, hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, allergies and cancer treatment, anticonvulsants, as well as as catheters, nebulisers, urine bags and infant feeding tubes, the statement added.
Air India has received China’s clearance to operate cargo flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong to help Indian pharmaceutical companies import personal protective equipment for frontline health workers.
“We have secured requisite approvals from Shanghai for our flights on April 4 and 5 and await clearances for flights on April 6,7 and 8. Permissions have also been obtained for operations to Hong Kong,” said Air India Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal. The flights are being operated on a commercial basis following requests from pharma firms.

Saudi Arabia imposes curfew in holy cities

Saudi Arabia has announced imposing of 24 hour curfew in the holy cities of Makkah and Madina until further notice. The curfew has been imposed from today.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) today reported that the decision was taken to supplement the Kingdom’s efforts to confront Coronavirus pandemic and in the interest of public health.
The Royal order also prohibited the practice of any commercial activities within the residential neighborhoods of the cities of Makkah and Madinah, except for pharmacies and food supply stores, gas stations and banking services.
The Saudi government assured the people that these measures were taken within the framework of the Kingdom's efforts to preserve public health and prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus.
It also called on everyone to sense individual responsibilities, follow instructions, and adhere to isolation measures for the public interest.
According to the Saudi Health Ministry, the total number of cases in Kingdom is 1720, while the death toll stands at 16.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Geo-fencing application to locate quarantine violators

The Centre is using powers under the Indian Telegraph Act to “fetch information” from telecom companies every 15 minutes to track COVID-19 cases across the country.
The government has tested an application that triggers e-mails and SMS alerts to an authorised government agency if a person has jumped quarantine or escaped from isolation, based on the person’s mobile phone’s cell tower location. The “geo-fencing” is accurate by up to 300 m, a government communication said.
On March 29, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) shared a standard operating procedure (SOP) with all telecom service providers regarding the application called COVID-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS).The system will collate phone data, including the device’s location, on a common secured platform and alert the local agencies in case of a violation by COVID-19 patients under watch or in isolation.
The States have been asked to seek the approval of their Home Secretaries under the provisions of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, for the specified mobile phone numbers to request the DoT to provide information by email or SMS in case of violation of “geo-fencing”.
The CQAS will prepare a list of mobile numbers, segregating them on the basis of telecom service providers, and the location data provided by the companies will be run on the application to create geo-fencing, the SOP said.

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::SPORTS::

Tony lewis the man behind DLS method passes away

Tony Lewis, one of the men behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method used in weather-affected limited-overs matches, has died aged 78, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Wednesday.
“Tony, alongside fellow mathematician Frank Duckworth, devised the Duckworth-Lewis method which was introduced in 1997 and adopted officially by the ICC (International Cricket Council) in 1999.
“Renamed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method in 2014, the mathematical formula continues to be used in rain reduced limited overs cricket games across the globe,” said an ECB statement.
A career academic, and not the Welshman of the same name who captained England, Lewis received an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to cricket and mathematics in 2010. The big difference between the DLS and previous methods was that it gave credit to sides defending a target for taking wickets as well as chasing sides for scoring runs.Significantly, this meant the target could be adjusted proportionately in the event of more than one stoppage.
An enduring criticism of the system is that it is difficult to understand without having access to a chart that shows where teams need to be over by over, for however many wickets they have lost.
But the sight of a D/L target soon became a familiar feature on cricket scoreboards around the world.

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