Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 08 July 2020

Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 8 July 2020

The government is readying a document that will lay down guidelines for companies and institutions working on potential COVID-19 vaccines.
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted regulators across the world to issue emergency use authorisation for certain drugs and trials on potential vaccines to accelerate the approval process without compromising on objectively assessing whether the potential vaccine or investigational drug provides some additional benefit or reprieve over being defenceless.
There are five promising candidate vaccines from India, including Covaxin from Bharat Biotech and one from Zydus Cadilla, which were cleared by the Drug Controller General of India for early human trials.

Defence Minister Rajanth Singh has said that the construction of strategic roads, bridges and tunnels in the border areas will be expedited. Mr. Singh said, Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is working vigorously towards this goal. The Minister reviewed the ongoing infrastructure projects of BRO at a high-level meeting in New Delhi yesterday.
During the meeting, the state of forward connectivity to border areas was reviewed and the consistent need of boosting the ongoing projects and to expedite the construction of strategic roads, bridges and tunnels in the border areas was discussed. The BRO has worked incessantly even during the restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 without affecting the progress of various projects.
Despite unprecedented snowfall, breaking 60 year old record, all strategic passes and roads were cleared this year for traffic about one month before their average yearly opening dates.

Fifteenth Finance Commission today held meeting with the World Bank and its High level Group (HLG) on Health Sector. For a better understanding of the contours of country’s Health Sector it was held.
In view of the Union Government’s need and intention for reprioritization of its health spending, the 15th Finance commission held a detailed meeting with representatives of the World Bank, Niti Aayog and member of the Commission’s High level group on the health sector.
Dr. Junaid Ahmad, country director, World Bank said, the bank has recently successfully concluded a 20 year long partnership with Government of India in the area of HIV.
Mr Ahmad said, health was not just a social expenditure but also important for economic growth and development of the country. The meet decided to develop and roll-out real time surveillance and reporting system for Human and Animal Health Surveillance as most future outbreaks will be Zoonotic.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman held review meeting with CMDs of 23 Central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) yesterday to boost expenditure in the economy.
Secretaries of Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Power, Coal, Mines and Atomic Energy also attended the meeting. In 2019-20, the capital expenditure (CAPEX) by the 23 CPSEs stood at one lakh 66 thousand 29 crore against the target of one lakh 64 thousand 822 crore rupees, which is 101 per cent.
Mrs Sitharaman said, CPSEs have a very important role in giving a push to the growth of the economy. She encouraged the CPSEs to perform better to achieve targets and to ensure that the capital outlay provided to them for the year 2020-21 is spent properly and within time.

India and the US have reaffirmed their commitment to work towards ensuring a free, open, inclusive, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific. They also agreed on the need to deepen cooperation in the United Nations, especially during India's membership of the United Nations Security Council.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale exchanged views on a number of regional and global issues of shared interests during the virtual foreign office consultations between the two countries yesterday.
They reviewed the entire gamut of engagements under the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, including political, economic, commercial, regional and international cooperation.

Union Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today released the ‘Guidelines for Evaluation of Nano-based Agri-input and food products in India through video link.
On the occasion, Dr Vardhan said, these Guidelines will help policy makers and regulators to frame effective provisions for future novel nano-based products in the agri-input and food sectors of India.
He said, it will also encourage the Indian innovators and industries to develop and commercialize new nano-based formulations and products in these sectors. He said, compared to bulk form of chemical inputs in crops, use of nano-nutrients can reduce nutrient run-off into ground and surface water and thus can reduce environmental pollution.

With the Sports Authority of India (SAI) not granting him a contract extension, Olympian Bahadur Singh’s 25-year reign as the chief coach of Indian athletics has come to an end.
A former Asian Games shot put gold medallist, the 74-year-old’s finest moment as chief coach came in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games where India won 20 medals, including eight gold.
“The COVID-19 outbreak forced the postponement of Tokyo 2020. He resigned in the wake of the Ministry of Home Affairs’ advisory restricting movement of senior citizens.”Radhakrishnan Nair, the deputy chief coach, is the favourite to succeed him