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Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 28 March 2020

::NATIONAL::

President urges govt.sto mobilise various NGO’s to contain COVID-19

President and Vice President have expressed hope that the our inherent strength of sharing and caring and the government’s measures will mitigate the sufferings of the most vulnerable sections of the society, particularly the workers of the unorganised sectors and the destitutes.
President RamnathKovind exhorted the collective strength of the society and urged Governors, LGs and Administrators to mobilise volunteers of Indian Red Cross society, voluntary and religious organisations to contain the menace of COVID 19 at the earliest.
President Ram NathKovind and Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu interacted with all Governors, Lieutenant Governors and Administrators to find ways to complement the efforts of the Center and State governments in meeting the challenges arising from the outbreak of COVID-19.
14 Governors and Delhi Lt. Governor were shortlisted to share experiences in their territories as these areas were worst affected by the pandemic.
The video conference was conducted by the Vice President and it brought out the best practices initiated by various States to mitigate the people’s plight while enforcing the lock down in the country.

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Supreme court allows sale of BS4 vehicles 10 days after lockdown

In a relief to automobile dealers, the Supreme Court today allowed the sale of BS IV compliant vehicles for 10 days, except in Delhi-NCR, after the ongoing countrywide lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic is lifted.
The apex court, which had earlier fixed the deadline of March 31, 2020 for sale of BS IV compliant vehicles across the country, passed the order on a plea by Federation of Automobile Dealers' Association (FADA).
The plea had sought extension of time for sale of inventory amid coronavirus scare and economic slowdown.
A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta, which heard the matter through video-conferencing, made it clear however that no BS IV vehicles will be allowed to be sold in Delhi-NCR from April 1, 2020.

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::ECONOMY::

RBI cuts interest rates permits 3 months moratorium on loans

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das today announced cut in benchmark interest rate, Repo Rate by 75 basis points to 4.4 per cent to deal with the hardship caused due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The central bank also reduced the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of all banks by 100 basis points to 3 per cent with effect from March 28 for 1 year providing total liquidity injection of Rs 3.74 lakh crore to the system in current scenario.
While announcing decisions of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in a live video conferencing, RBI Governor said that RBI will maintain accommodative stance.
He informed that the Monetary Policy Committee voted for sizeable reduction in interest rate. The governor informed that the MPC has decided to advance its meeting due on 3 April to 24, 25, 27 March and undertook careful evaluation of economic situation in the country.
He said that the cut in Repo Rate has been made to encourage banks to give more to business rather than deposit it with RBI. The RBI has cut Liquidity Adjustment Facility by 90 bps to 4 percent. It also announced that the Reverse Repo Rate has been reduced by 90 basis points to 4% India has locked down economic activity.
The RBI chief noted that keeping finance flowing is the 'paramount objective' of the RBI, while India has locker down economic activity and financial activity is under severe stress.

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Post offices set to provide basic services during lockdown

Ministry of communications today said that Post Ofﬁces are providing basic postal and ﬁnancial services during lockdown in the wake of COVID-19. It said,prority is being given to delivery of essential items through the postal network.
It said, facility of withdrawal and deposit under Post Office Savings Bank and India Post Payments Bank is also available.
Besides, ATM facility and Aadhar Enabled Payment System are made available in Post Offices for withdrawal of cash from accounts standing in any bank.
Department of Posts is also ensuring that essential services are provided by implementing safety measures across its supply chain to protect its employees and effecting safe delivery of services to the citizens.

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::INTERNATIONAL::

India to join WHO’s medicine trial against COVID

India is all set to join World Health Organisation’s “solidarity trial” aimed at rapid global search for drugs to treat COVID-19. The country has stayed away so far from this multi-country trial “due to its small sample size and because our contribution would have looked minuscule,” said Head of Epidemiology and Communicable diseases at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) R. Gangakhedkar on Friday.
The Solidarity Trial will test four different drugs or combinations — remdesivir, a combination of two drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir, the two drugs plus interferon beta, and chloroquine — and will compare their effectiveness to what is called standard of care, the regular support hospitals treating COVID-19 patients use now.
Speaking of where India stands in terms of developing a drug or vaccine against COVID-19, Dr.Gangakhedkar said: “We have to prioritise what we need right now to deal with the situation. ICMR is currently looking at re-purposed drug molecules to find treatment for COVID-19. We don’t have the luxury of time right now.”
He added that vaccine development wasn’t a priority for ICMR currently. “There are 30 vaccine groups that are operational worldwide right now looking at COVID-19, with five having gone into animal-toxicity study. India will express its interest to participate in the trial for the Indian population when we feel the time is right,” he said.

Germany plans mass immunity study to track virus

German researchers plan to regularly test over 100,000 people to see if they have overcome infection with COVID-19 to track its spread, an institute behind the plan confirmed on Friday.
A spokeswoman for Brunswick’s Helmholtz Institute for Infectious Disease Research confirmed a report in news weekly Der Spiegel that large-scale testing for antibodies could start in April if researchers are given the green light.
“You could give immune people something similar to a vaccination certificate that could allow them exceptions from limits on their activities,” Helmholtz Institute epidemiologist Gerard Krause told Der Spiegel.

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::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Study finds mutations and Pangolins as main source of COVID-19

According to a research published in the journal “Pathogen”, virus jumped to humans from Pangolins. Also, mutation was the main reason for the virus to target human cells so easily and hence leads to fast spread of the virus.
The study has found that the virus has jumped to humans from Pangolins. Pangolins are the most trafficked animals in China. They are traded for theirmedicinal values.
The initial cases of the virus were reported to have originated from the Hunan market of Wuhan city where illegal trade of Pangolinsis common. Wuhan was the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The COVID-19 virus has a spike protein. These proteins contain Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) that facilitates the entry of the virus.The RBD binds with the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) found in lungs, heart, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract.
The researchers say that COVID-19 is a mutated version of SARS virus that created an epidemic in 2002-03. Also, the mutation increased their ability to get bonded to ACE-2 enzymes.

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::SPORTS::

Athletes who had qualified for Olympics will retain their spots in 2021

Athletes who had already qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before it was postponed will keep their places when the showpiece takes place in 2021, sources said.
Around 57% of the 11,000 scheduled participants for Tokyo had already made sure of taking part when the IOC pushed the Games back.The IOC and 32 international sports federations held a teleconference on Thursday where it was decided to respect the qualification process.
“Thomas Bach (the IOC President) first explained the reasons for the postponement of the Games, then said that the athletes qualified for Tokyo 2020 would automatically be qualified for 2021,” one of the participants in the conference told AFP.

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