Daily GK Updates - 14th April, 2020

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Prime Minister announces extension of nationwide lockdown till 3rd may: Prime Minister addressed the nation about India’s fight against COVID-19. He announced extension of lockdown till 3rd May, and ease of certain restrictions in low risk areas from 20 April. The PM said that High Risk Areas and Hotspots will be under constant vigil. He sought support for seven things including taking care of elderly and adhering to social distancing and lockdown. Prime Minister said India has benefitted from Lockdown. He said notwithstanding the economic travails being faced, it is clearly the correct path as it protected so many lives in the country. The lockdown was initially implemented in India from 25th March 2020 and was scheduled to end on 14th April 2020.

2. AIM’s, NITI Aayog & NIC jointly launches “CollabCAD”: Atal Innovation Mission, NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog and National Informatics Centre (NIC) jointly launched CollabCAD in ATL (Atal Tinkering Lab) schools. The CollabCAD online tool was launched via social media by Shri R Ramanan, Mission Director Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog. i.AIM: The aim of this initiative is to provide a great platform to students of Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) across the country to create and modify 3D (3- Dimension) designs with free flow of creativity and imagination. This software would also enable students to create data across the network and concurrently access the same design data for storage and visualization. CollabCAD will be used around 5000 schools where Atal Tinkering Labs are established.

Note: NITI Aayog Headquarters: New Delhi; Chairperson: Narendra Modi; Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Amitabh Kant; Vice Chairperson: Rajiv Kumar.

NIC Headquarters: New Delhi; Director General: Neeta Verma.

3. Kerala becomes the first state to commence clinical trial plasma therapy treatment: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given approval to Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, to commence clinical trial convalescent plasma therapy treatment. Therefore, Kerala becomes the first state in the country to start clinical trial plasma therapy treatment. SCTIMST, an institution of National Importance under the Union Department of Science and Technology, is expecting to start the trials by the end of April 2020, once the required approvals from the Drugs Controller of India & the Ethics committee are received.

Convalescent plasma therapy: The technique uses blood plasma of patients who have completely recovered from COVID- 19 as it will be rich in antibodies and some small studies have been done in China and the United States (US) where they had tried the plasma therapy technique. The project has been approved by the state government and five medical colleges– at Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kannur and an expert from COVID- 19 clinic in Kozhikode, Dr Anoop who will do the clinical follow up, will be participating in it.

Note: ICMR Headquarters: New Delhi; Director-General: Prof. Balram Bhargava.

Kerala Capital: Thiruvananthapuram; Chief Minister: Pinarayi Vijayan; Governor: Arif Mohammad Khan.

4. Control rooms set up to address wage related grievances: The Ministry of Labour and Employment has set up 20 control rooms to address wage related grievances arising in the backdrop of Covid-19. The control rooms have been set up on pan India basis under the Office of Chief Labour Commissioner and will be managed by the Labour Enforcement Officers, Assistant Labour commissioners, Regional Labour Commissioners, and Deputy Chief Labour Commissioners of the respective regions.

Note: Minister of State (I/C) for Labour and Employment: Santosh Kumar Gangwar.

5. AIIMS set up India’s 1st remote health monitoring system in Rishikesh: The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, in partner with BEL (Bharat Electronics Limited) has set up India’s 1st remote health monitoring system. The system is to be used in the state of Uttarakhand to monitor COVID-19 patients. The remote health monitoring system allows the doctors to monitor body temperature and oxygen of patients remotely.  A website and mobile application were also built as a part of the system. The patients can use these resources and inform doctors about their illness sitting at home. The system provides monitoring kits to patients when they are suspected of COVID-19. The system is currently being used in other parts of the world to monitor patients of hemodialysis.

Note: Headquarters of BEL: Bengaluru, Karnataka; MD & CEO of BEL:  M V Gowtama; BEL Established: 1954.

6. Science communication initiative “CovidGyan” launched: An initiative “CovidGyan” has been launched by Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and Tata Memorial Centre (TMC). It is a multi-institutional, multi-lingual science communication initiative that has been launched to bring the scientific and factual aspects of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on to public domain.

CovidGyan is a hub which gathers the collection of resources generated by public supported research institutions in India, in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The content related to COVID-19 has been presented here in the best available scientific understanding of the disease and its transmission. The contents cover a range of details about COVID-19, such as the exact behaviour of the novel coronavirus, transmission dynamics of the Corona flu and its diagnostics. The primary aim of launching the multi-institutional, multi-lingual science communication initiative “CovidGyan” is to create awareness in the public and to bring in a holistic approach to the understanding of COVID-19 disease and potential measures to mitigate it.

7. Indian Actress Tamannaah Bhatia signed as brand ambassador for MPL: India’s largest mobile gaming platform, Mobile Premier League (MPL) has brought Tamannaah Bhatia of Baahubali fame, as its brand ambassador, to endorse their gaming platform. Recently, MPL also renewed its association with Indian Cricket Captain Virat Kohli for another one year. MPL currently has more than 35 million users, with over 40 games on the platform.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. OPEC and Russia agreed to cut crude oil production amid Coronavirus crisis: In view of the fall in crude prices due to the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an intergovernmental organization of 13 nations, and allies including Russia — a group known as OPEC+, have agreed to cut crude production by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) from May 1,2020 and will extend through the end of June 2020.

The decision, agreed after four days of meeting, was following pressure from US President Donald Trump to arrest the price decline. This decision will reduce the worldwide supply of crude oil by 20% (or 20 million bpd). Global oil prices have come down below $ 30 a barrel due to falling disputes in Russia and Saudi Arabia during the Coronavirus epidemic.

Note: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Headquarters– Vienna, Austria

Secretary General– Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo

2. World Bank releases “South Asia Economic Focus” report: World Bank has released a report titled “South Asia Economic Focus”. The report forecasts a sharp economic fall in each of the region’s eight countries. The cause of the sharp economic fall have been stated as the halting economic activity, collapsing trade as well as greater stress in the financial and banking sectors which is a result of COVID-19 outbreak. In its twice-a-year regional update, the bank said that South Asian governments must ramp up action to curb the health emergency, protect their people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, and set the stage for fast economic recovery. The report states that the regional growth will get dropped to a range between 1.8% and 2.8% in 2020, down from 6.3% that was projected 6 months ago.

 Note: President of World Bank: David Robert Malpass; Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States; Membership: 189 countries (IBRD); 173 countries (IDA); Founded: 1944

3. World Chagas Disease Day: 14 April: World Chagas Disease Day observed globally on 14 April. On 14 April 2020, the world community is to celebrate World Chagas Disease Day for the 1st time. The main aim of marking the day is to increase awareness of Chagas disease and to marked as a day to spread awareness about this “silent and silenced disease”.

Chagas Disease: A vector-borne disease caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and transmitted by the faeces and urine of triatomine bugs, among other modes of transmission, Chagas disease is prevalent mainly among poor populations of Latin America and affects 6–7 million people.

Note: Headquarters of WHO: Geneva, Switzerland; Director General of WHO: Tedros Adhanom; WHO founded: 7 April 1948.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. India to Host the 2020 Asian Boxing Championships: India will host the 2020 edition of the Asian Boxing Championships, the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) announced. The national federation president Ajay Singh shared the news with the stakeholders during their review meeting while later taking to Twitter for the public announcement. It is learnt that the BFI was awarded the hosting rights in February for the event which is scheduled for the November-December window. Speaking to the Press Trust of India later, the BFI Executive Director R K Sacheti later said that the federation is yet to finalise on the host city, but they remained confident of organising the event at the end of the year.

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. Birupaksha Mishra becomes new Executive Director of Union Bank of India: Birupaksha Mishra becomes new Executive Director of Union Bank of India, after its amalgamation with Corporation Bank and Andhra Bank. Prior to this, Birupaksha Mishra was Executive Director at Corporation Bank. He started his banking career as a Probationary Officer in the year 1984. He has worked in various parts of the country and has handled Credit and Credit Monitoring Portfolio of the Bank and headed IT vertical of the Bank. Union Bank already has three executive directors- G S Gusain, Dinesh K Garg and Manas R Biswal.

Note: Union Bank of India Headquarters: Mumbai; MD and CEO- Rajkiran Rai G.

2. Yes Bank extends bancassurance tie-up with Max Life Insurance for 5 years: YES Bank has announced the extension of its strategic bancassurance relationship with the Max Life Insurance. The tie-up has been extended for 5-years in order to reaffirm their commitment to invest in building a digitally-enabled ecosystem, to offer customers a broad range of need-based products and services in order to provide a seamless experience for customers. Under the partnership, the products of the life insurer would be sold through the branches of Yes Bank. In this regard, the both companies dedicated the current financial year i.e. FY 2020-21 as the “Year of the Customer”.

Note: About Max Life Insurance Headquarters: New Delhi; Founder: Analjit Singh

OBITUARIES

11. Former Pakistani cricketer Zafar Sarfraz dies of coronavirus: Former Pakistani first-class cricketer Zafar Sarfraz became the first professional player in the country to die after contracting the novel coronavirus. The 50-year-old first fell ill earlier this month and was put on a ventilator at a hospital in Peshawar after his condition deteriorated.

2. Father of modern Iraqi architecture Rifat Chadirji passes away: Father of modern Iraqi architecture Rifat Chadirji passed away due to COVID-19. He was credited to design some of Iraq’s most valuable structures and iconic “Freedom Monument” in the now protest hub of Baghdad’s Tahrir Square. He was studied in London and returned to Iraq in the 1950s to design his magnum opus, elegant arch entitled “The Unknown Soldier” as well as the capital’s post office and other public buildings.