Daily GK Updates - 21st April 2020

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Government forms high-level task force for vaccine and drug testing of COVID-19: The Central Government has formed a high-level task force for vaccine and drug testing for COVID-19. The task force is headed by Prof K. VijayRaghavan (principal scientific advisor to the Prime Minister). The objective of this task force is to speed up national and international efforts towards vaccine development to treat Covid-19. The department of biotechnology would also act as a nodal agency “to identify the pathway for vaccine development, monitor the progress of efforts at both national and international levels in this area and provide government facilitation where needed.

2. Health Ministry Uses Traffic Lights Colour Code to Map Country’s COVID-19 and Virus-free Zones: According to the latest data from the Union Health Ministry, the colour code- Red, Orange, Green– will now be used on the country’s map to highlight COVID-19 and virus-free zones. The government has decided to divide all districts across the country into three zones including hotspots (red zone), non-hotspots (orange zone) and green zones. This step will help in planning and managing the Covid-19 pandemic as well as partial opening up of economic activities during the extended period of the nationwide lockdown.

(1) Red Zone – Any district reporting more than six cases would be classified as hotspot district or red zone; (2) Orange Zone – Districts where new cases are emerging or showing a sign of decline has been classified as non-hotspots or orange zone; (3) Green Zone – Districts not reporting any cases across the country has been classified as Green zone. So far the government has identified 170 hotspot districts, 207 non-hotspot districts and 359 green zones. This number may decrease or increase as per the situation.

3. New chief justices recommended for Bombay, Meghalaya & Orissa High Courts:  New Chief Justices for the Bombay, Orissa and Meghalaya High Courts (HC) have been recommended by the Supreme Court (SC) Collegium led by the chief justice of India, Sharad Arvind Bobde.

S. No.	Name	High court
1	Dipankar Datta	Bombay High Court
2	Biswanath Somadder	Meghalaya High Court
3	Mohammad Rafiq	Orissa High Court

Justice Dipankar Datta is presently a judge at the Calcutta High Court. He will replace the current Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court Bhushan Dharmadhikari. Justice Biswanath Somadder is presently a judge at the Allahabad High Court. He will replace Mohammad Rafiq. Justice Mohammad Rafiq is presently a Judge at the Meghalaya High Court. He will replace Sanju Panda as Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.

4. BRO Constructs Daporijo Bridge over Subansiri River in Arunachal Pradesh: The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has constructed Daporijo bridge over Subansiri river in Arunachal Pradesh, to provide adequate movement of supplies to about 3,000 troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China, amid lockdown due to COVID-19. Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Shri Pema Khandu inaugurated it over video conferencing on April 21, and the same was open for traffic movement immediately. The 430 feet long bailey bridge at Daporijo has been constructed in Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh in a record time of 27 days to allow easy availability of supplies to 451 villages near it. The BRO was given a two-month deadline to finish the project but they finished the job in a month despite the COVID-19 threat. The bridge has even been upgraded from class 24 tons to class 40 tons which means that it can bear the weight of heaviest loads such as artillery guns that can then be taken to forward areas along the LAC.

Note: Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh: Pema Khandu; Governor: B.D. Mishra.

5. “e-sanjeevani-opd” facility rolled out in Himachal Pradesh: Himachal Pradesh government has rolled out “e-sanjeevani-opd” for free online medical consultation to sick people who were feeling uncomfortable to visit hospitals in view of COVID-19 pandemic. The ‘e-sanjeevani-opd’ service will provide free online medical consultation to sick people at their residence throughout the state. To reap the benefits of ‘e-sanjeevani-opd’, a person should have a computer, laptop, tablet along with webcam mike, speaker as well as internet connection. To provide the free online medical consultation, a team of 16 doctors of various medical colleges of state will be available on all working days. This free online health service has been started throughout the state and now people can consult to take health advice from the doctors of different medical colleges from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM on all working days.

Note: Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh: Jairam Thakur; Governor: Bandaru Dattatraya.

6. Madhya Pradesh announced CM COVID-19 Yoddha Kalyan Yojana: The state Government of Madhya Pradesh has launched the ‘Chief Minister COVID-19 Yoddha Kalyan Yojana’ to benefit the Anganwadi workers and Assistants of the state. Under the scheme, the state government will provide a special health insurance cover of Rs 50 lakhs. The benefit of this scheme will be given to the warriors under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), which was launched by the central Government.

Note: Madhya Pradesh Capital: Bhopal; Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chauhan; Governor: Lal Ji Tandon

7. Kapil Dev Tripathi appointed Secretary to the President of India: Former IAS officer Kapil Dev Tripathi has been appointed as the Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appointed Mr Tripathi as Secretary to the President on contract basis, for a term co-terminus with the tenure of the President. Kapil Dev Tripathi is a 1980-batch retired IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. Prior to this, he worked as the Chairman of Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB).

8. Civil Services Day: April 21: In India, the ‘Civil Services Day’ is celebrated on April 21 every year as a thanks giving day to all the Civil Servants for their service to the society and also for Civil Servants to ‘rededicate themselves to the cause of citizen and renew their commitments to public service’. The day April 21 has been chosen to commemorate the day when the first Home Minister of Independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947 at Metcalf House, Delhi. In his address, he called Civil Servants, the ‘Steel Frame of India’. The day was celebrated for the first time on 21 April 2006.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank held: Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman represented India in the 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank which was held through video-conference. During the meeting, she lauded the efforts made by New Development Bank in establishing itself as a credible Global Financial Institution, living up to its mandate successfully by taking more sustainable and inclusive measures. FM Sitharaman appreciated NDB’s effort on fast tracking of financial assistance of about $5 billion to BRICS countries including Emergency Assistance of $1 billion India to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

Note: The New Development Bank was formed in 2014 by the BRICS countries i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

President of New Development Bank: K V Kamath.

2. China begins testing of digital currency – DC/EP: People’s Bank of China (Central Bank of China) has started testing its digital currency named Digital Currency Electronic Payment, DC/EP. It is built with Blockchain and Cryptographic technology. The currency is pegged 1:1 to the Chinese National Currency – the RenMinBi (RMB). China’s official digital currency is undergoing testing and has not been officially released.

3. World Creativity and Innovation Day: 21 April: The World Creativity and Innovation Day (#WCID) is celebrated on April 21 every year to raise awareness around the importance of creativity and innovation in problem solving and encourage creative multidisciplinary thinking at the individual and group levels. The United Nations recognised the day in April 2017 and the first UN World Creativity and Innovation Day was celebrated on April 21, 2018. The World Creativity and Innovation Week is observed from April 15-21.

Note: Secretary-General of the United Nations: Antonio Guterres.

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS

1. Charles Leclerc wins Chinese Virtual Grand Prix: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won his second successive Formula One esports race with victory in a virtual Chinese Grand Prix. Red Bull’s Thai driver Alexander Albon and F2 racer and Guanyu Zhou finished as second and third. The 28-lap race was the 3rd in a series designed to give fans something to watch after Covid-19 stalled F1. Leclerc also won a “Race for the World” esports charity event that raised more than $71,000 for Covid-19 charity. Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the actual F1 races are not being held. In its place, Formula 1 has announced new F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix series. The virtual races will run in place of every postponed Grand Prix. The series will use the official F1 2019 PC video game, developed by Codemasters.

BANKING AND FINANCE

1. RBI increases WMA limit for Central Govt to Rs 2 lakh cr from 1.2 Lakh cr for H1FY21: In an important revision, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in consultation with Indian Government has increased the limit for Ways and Means Advances (WMA) by 66% for Central Government (UTs) to Rs 2,00,000 crore from Rs 1,20,000 crore for the remaining part of first half of the financial year 2020-21 i.e H1 FY21 (April 2020 to September 2020) to tackle the financial crisis arisen due to COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, RBI increased the WMA limit of state governments by 60%. With this move states would get greater financial support to undertake COVID-19 containment and mitigation efforts.

2. ICICI Bank launches voice banking services on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant: ICICI bank has rolled out a new feature of voice banking services on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant for its customers. It will enable customers to #BankWithTheirVoice and get answers to banking queries, check account balance & transactions, credit card due date and more. The service is available 24x7, without any branch visit. The company’s new voice banking service uses an multi-channel chatbot called iPal to allow users to interact with virtual assistants on Alexa or Google Assistant-powered devices. ICICI Bank had recently launched a WhatsApp chat-based ICICIStack which provides uninterrupted banking services for both retail and business customers.

Note: Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Bank: Sandeep Bakhshi; ICICI Bank Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra.

3. Fifteenth Finance Commission Advisory Council meet to be held: The Economic Advisory Council of the Fifteenth Finance Commission will meet on 23-24 April 2020 through video-conference It will be presided by N. K. Singh (15th Finance Commission Chairman), and attended by the 5 Members of the Council including Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Dr. Sajjid Z Chinoy, Dr. Prachi Mishra, Mr. Neelkanth Mishra and Dr. Omkar Goswami on 23rd April 2020. The meeting with the remaining Members of the Council will be held on 24th April 2020.

OBITUARIES

1. BMW India CEO & President Rudratej Singh Passes Away: Rudratej Singh, the current President and CEO of BMW Group India has passed away in a sudden massive cardiac arrest. He was 46. Rudratej was the first Indian to lead the BMW India operations and was appointed as the head of India operations from August 1, 2019. Prior to BMW India, Rudratej 'Rudy' Singh who had over 25 years of experience holding multiple leadership positions in auto and other industries was the Global President at Royal Enfield and Unilever India. Meanwhile, BMW Group India has appointed Chief Financial Officer Arlindo Teixeira as the interim President.

2. Nigerian President’s Chief of Staff Abba Kyari passes away: Abba Kyari (67 years), chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari passes away due to COVID-19. He had been considered by some as Nigeria's most powerful government figure. He was also chief executive officer of the United Bank for Africa Plc and served on the boards of both Unilever Nigeria Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Nigerian unit. In 2015, he was appointed as the chief of staff to the Nigerian president.