NATIONAL UPDATES:
1. FM
Nirmala Sitharaman announced Economic relief package during Lockdown: The Union Finance
Minister Smt. Niramla Sitharaman on March 26, 2020 has announced Rs 1.70 Lakh
Crore relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana for the poor to
help them fight the battle against Corona Virus. Important announcements are:
(1) Insurance Related: Any health
professional, who while treating Covid-19 patients, meet with some accident,
then he/she would be compensated with an amount of Rs 50 lakh under the scheme;
(2) PM Garib Kalyan Ann (अन्न)
Yojana:
80 crore individuals who have been covered under the scheme will be provided
double of their current entitlement over next three months. 5 kg wheat or rice
and 1 kg of preferred pulses for free every month for the next three months.
Benefit to farmers: The first installment
of Rs 2,000 due in 2020-21 will be front-loaded and paid in April 2020 itself
under the PM KISAN Yojana; (3) Cash transfers Under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana:
A total of 20.40 crores PMJDY women account-holders would be given an ex-gratia
of Rs 500 per month for next three months; (4) Gas cylinders: Under PM
Garib Kalyan Yojana, 3 gas cylinders, free of cost, would be provided to 8
crore poor families for the next three months; (5) Help to low wage earners
in organised sectors: For Wage-earners below Rs 15,000 per month in
businesses having less than 100 workers, government proposes to pay 24 percent
of their monthly wages into their PF accounts for next three months; (6) Support
for senior citizens (above 60 years), widows and Divyang: Government will
give them Rs 1,000 to tide over difficulties during next three months; (7) MNREGA:
Under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, MNREGA wages would be increased by Rs 20 with
effect from 1 April, 2020. (To Rs 202 a day from Rs 182); (8) Self-Help groups:
Limit of collateral free lending would be increased from Rs 10 to Rs 20 lakhs;
(9) Employees’ Provident Fund Regulations will be amended to include Pandemic
as the reason to allow non-refundable advance of 75 percent of the amount or
three months of the wages, whichever is lower, from their accounts.
2.
Odisha CM Launches Mo Jiban Programme to Urge People to Pledge to Stay Indoors
& Keep Coronavirus At Bay: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has
launched state-wide ‘Mo Jiban’ (My Life) programme to fight Coronavirus. Under
the ‘Mo Jiban’ programme, people are requested to take a pledge to stay at home
during this period of crisis. The Chief Minister has asked the people to take
an oath in name of their children and parents that they will not be the reason
of danger for their family and community, and thus stay indoors. The chief
minister has also asked people to send him videos of them taking oaths.
Note: Governor of Odisha: Ganeshi Lal.
3.
Delhi Government Launches Rs 20 Crore Women Safety Scheme for Triggering
Behavioral Change: The
Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal has announced a new scheme ‘Behavioural
Change for Safety of the Women’ for awareness campaign to trigger behavioral
change in the society and make Delhi safer for women. The scheme has been
launched with an outlay of Rs 20 crore in 2020-21. The government has also
proposed Mukhyamantri Divyangjan Punravas Sewa Yojana, with an outlay of Rs 10
crore, to provide immediate treatment in cases of accident, stroke or any other
ailment, and accident causing permanent or partial disabilities.
4.
Government bans export of hydroxycloroquine amid COVID-19 outbreak: Government of India has banned the export of
anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine and the formulations made up of it within
the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. The government’s decision aims to ensure
sufficient availability of drugs within the domestic market. The utilization of
hydroxychloroquine has been recommended by the Indian Council of Medical
Research for the treatment of healthcare workers who are handling suspected or
confirmed coronavirus cases and also the asymptomatic household contacts of the
lab-confirmed cases. This has been approved by the Drug Controller General of
India (DGCI) for restricted use in emergency situations.
Note: Director-General of ICMR: Balram
Bhargava; Headquarters of ICMR: New Delhi.
5.
Health Ministry takes indelible ink from EC to stamp people for home
quarantine:
Election Commission of India has permit the use of indelible ink on persons for
stamping for home quarantine by health authorities insight of COVID-19. The
Health Ministry may standardise the mark and also the location of the mark on
the body where the mark has got to be applied in the order that it doesn’t are
available the way of conducting elections. The authorities shall even be
instructed to make sure that the ink shall not be used for the other purpose.
The concerned authorities are going to be instructed to not use the ink on any
finger on the left hand of any person. The choice has been taken in public
interest keeping in sight the demand from states to use an indelible marker on
quarantined individuals.
Note: Chief Election Commissioner of India:
Sunil Arora.
6.
Senior Journalist Chander Suta Dogra Pens Book ‘Missing in Action: The
Prisoners Who Never Came Back’: Chander Suta Dogra, a senior Indian
journalist has come up with her meticulously-researched new book titled
‘Missing in Action: The Prisoners Who Never Came Back’. The book is a story of
India’s soldiers who went missing during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars. They
are called “the missing 54” Indian soldiers, who have been forgotten in the fog
of past wars with Pakistan. With the help of the book, the author tries to
answer the key question: ‘what happened to these men?’.
Note: Chander Suta Dogra is a journalist
and author and has worked for various publications, including Outlook, Indian
Express, Hindu and Hindustan Times.
7.
AIIMS to launch Tele-Consultation facility: All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi will start Tele-Consultation facility for the non-Covid19
patients. The decision to start Tele-Consultation facility has been taken by
AIIMS for its follow-up patients. Those patients whose appointments are now
cancelled due to lockdown as well as the chronic patients can consult doctors
via this facility. Telemedicine can be used without exposing staff to
viruses/infections in the times of such outbreaks. AIIMS has also developed a
plan for hospital in-patient care service amid coronavirus virus crisis.
Note: Director of All India Institute Of
Medical Sciences, New Delhi: Dr Randeep Guleria.
8.
NBT launches initiative #StayHomeIndiaWithBooks: The National Book
Trust, India has launched initiative #StayHomeIndiaWithBooks to encourage
people to read books during their stay at home. This initiative has been
launched as a preventive measure to contain the spread of Covid-19 and to
encourage people to #StayIn and #StayHome. Through this initiative, NBT is
providing people its select and best selling titles for FREE Download. These
books are available in various languages including Hindi, English, Odia,
Marathi, Bodo, Nepali etc covering various genres such as fiction, biography,
popular science and many more.
Note: Chairman of National Book Trust:
Govind Prasad Sharma; Established: 1957.
INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:
1.
IMF launches Tracker of Govt. Policies in Response to COVID-19: The International
Monetary Fund has launched a “Tracker of Policies Governments are Taking in
Response to COVID-19” which outlines the key economic responses taken by the
government of various countries in order to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The
policy tracker brings into focus the discretionary measures that supplement
existing social safety nets and insurance mechanisms. The policy tracker covers
the responses on the basis of three pillars, namely: Fiscal; Monetary and
Macro-Financial and Exchange Rate And Balance Of Payments.
Note: Managing Director of IMF: Kristalina
Georgieva.
2.
CDC Launches Coronavirus Self-Checker Chatbot Called ‘Clara’: The U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has introduced an AI chatbot called
Clara, to talk to the people about the symptoms of COVID-19, and whether or not
they should seek medical assistance. Clara, the “coronavirus self-checker”, is
intended for use by people currently in the United States. CDC has created
Clara in partnership with CDC Foundation and Microsoft Azure’s Healthcare Bot
service. Clara will assess symptoms and risk factors for people who are
concerned they might get infected, suggest what action they should take, and
provide information for how to safely manage at home.
Note: Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft:
Satya Nadella; Microsoft Founded: April 4, 1975; Headquarters of Microsoft:
Washington, United States.
OTHER UPDATES:
BANKING AND FINANCE
1.
Indian Bank announced additional funding facility for MSME: State-run Indian
Bank has announced an additional funding facility for MSME, retail customers,
pensioners and self-help groups (SHGs) in the wake of COVID 19. IND-COVID
Emergency Credit Line will provide additional funding of up to 10% of the
working capital limits with a maximum limit of Rs 100 crore. The loan tenor
will be for 36 months with an initial moratorium of up to 6 months and would
carry fixed interest rate of 1-yr Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate.
2.
Cabinet approves recapitalization of RRBs: The Cabinet Committee on Economic
Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given its approval
for continuation of the process of recapitalization of Regional Rural Banks
(RRBs) to maintain minimum Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9%,
as per the regulatory norms prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India. The CCEA
also approved utilization of Rs.670 crore as central government share for the
scheme of Recapitalization of RRBs.
3.
Romesh Sobti Retires as MD & CEO of IndusInd Bank: The long term
managing director (MD) and chief executive (CEO) of the private sector lender
IndusInd Bank, Romesh Sobti, retired on 23 March 2020 as he turned 70. Sobti
took over the position of MD and CEO of the bank on February 1, 2008, serving
the position for 12 years. Further, IndusInd Bank has appointed Sumant
Kathpalia as the new Managing Director and CEO with effect from 24 March 2020
for a period of three years.
4.
SBI Commits 0.25% of FY21 annual profit to help fight COVID-19: India’s biggest
lender State Bank of India (SBI) has announced to provide 0.25 percent of its
annual profit for 2020-21 to fight the coronavirus outbreak in India. This is
in line with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ notification, for spending CSR
funds by companies to deal with the coronavirus outbreak as corporate social
responsibility (CSR) activity under the companies law.
AWARDS AND HONOURS
1.
Zoya Akhter honoured with IIFTC Tourism Impact Award 2020: Asia’s largest film
tourism event, 8th India International Film Tourism Conclave (IIFTC) was held
in Mumbai. Veteran filmmaker Zoya Akhter has been honoured with IIFTC Tourism
Impact Award 2020 for her outstanding contribution to the world tourism through
her cinema. IIFTC is Asia’s largest locations show presenting a credible
platform for film commissions, tourism offices and production service companies
from around the world to showcase their locations, incentives and services to
the Indian film industry.
OBITUARIES
1.
“Asterix and Obelix” co-creator Albert Uderzo passes away: The co-creator of
the “Asterix and Obelix” comics, Albert Uderzo passed away. He produced Asterix
in 1959 along with the fellow Frenchman and writer Rene Goscinny. “Asterix and
Obelix” entertained its audience over the past 60 years. “Asterix the Gaul” was
the first Asterix book that was launched in 1961 and became an overnight
sensation.
2.
Yesteryear Bollywood Star Nimmi Passes Away: Veteran actress of Hindi Cinema,
Nawab Banoo, known by her screen name as ‘Nimmi’, passed away after prolonged
illness. She was 88. The doe-eyed star, was famous for her 1950s and ’60s Hindi
movies such as “Aan”, “Barsaat” and “Deedar”.
Her last movie was ‘Love and God’.
3.
Former Indian footballer Abdul Latif passes away: Former India
midfield footballer and 1970 Asian Games bronze medallist, Abdul Latif (73
years) passes away. He had represented India in an Asia Cup Qualifier in 1968
in Myanmar and Merdeka Cup in 1969 in Kuala Lumpur. He was the part of the last
national football team that had a podium finish at the continental games. Latif
represented Mohammedan Sporting from 1963-1967 and later took over as coach.
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