Current Affairs 18th APRIL 2020

Current Affairs

18th APRIL 2020

April 17: World Hemophilia Day

Every year April 17 is celebrated as World Hemophilia Day. The day is observed by the World Federation of Hemophilia. Apart from the organization, several other international organizations mark the World Hemophilia Day.

Theme: Get + involved virtually and stay safe

Government Action Plan to monitor the COVID -19 Outbreak

The Government of India has made an action plan for strengthening of surveillance networks to monitor the spread of COVID-19 in India. The information was passed by the Union Health Ministry.

Action plan:

1. An action plan has been prepared by the GOI to strengthen surveillance with the help of the World Health Organization's (WHO) national polio surveillance network team.
2. The Ministry discussed the micro-plan for clusters and outbreak containment of COVID-19 at district-level was discussed.
3. India has received 5 lakh testing kits, including rapid antibody test kits, from two Chinese firms for better monitoring and surveillance.
4. The Ministry stated that 2 lakh rapid COVID-19 test kits received from China are not for early diagnosis, but for surveillance purposes.

 ‘Cghaat’ website

Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the online delivery website 'Cghaat' on 16 April. Cghaat will facilitate doorstep delivery of fruits and vegetables during the extended lockdown phase due to contain COVID-19 spread.

Cghaat

1. The web portal, cghaat.in, has been developed by Chhattisgarh government's agency Chips.
2. The fruit and vegetable vendors who are interested to provide services can register online through this portal.
3. After registering, they can provide home delivery against online orders placed as soon as they receive Collector's permission.
4. Cghaat service is available free of charge to vendors.
5. Customers interested in purchasing from the portal can also register free of charge and choose the vendor of their choice.
6. Other essential items such as milk, groceries, forest-produce, etc is set to be delivered soon through the portal.
7. The portal will come in handy for people who practice physical distancing and will also minimize the chances of crowding at the shops.

Chhattisgarh: Formation: 1 November 2000

Governor: Anusuiya Uikey

Chief Minister: Bhupesh Baghel

Official language: Chhattisgarhi, Hindi

Tree: Sal tree

Flower: Lady's Slipper

Bird‎: ‎Hill Myna

Animal‎: ‎Wild Asian Buffalo

RBI cuts Reverse Repo rate to 3.75% and announced Rs. 50,000 crore for LTRO

The Reserve Bank of India announced a slew of measures after GoI extended the lock down till May 3, 3030. The Apex bank cut the reverse repo rate to 3.75%. It cut the repo rate to 4.4% from 5.15%. Also, the central bank has announced Rs 50,000 crore for Long Term Repo Operation (LTRO).

49th round of OBICUS by RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the 49th round of quarterly OBICUS (Order books, inventories, and capacity utilization survey) of the manufacturing sector. The survey includes the period of January-March 2020.

OBICUS:

1. The OBICUS survey will provide valuable input for monetary policy formulation.
2. The Central Bank has conducted the OBICUS of the manufacturing sector on a quarterly basis since 2008.
3. The data collected in the survey includes quantitative data on new orders received during the reference quarter, backlog of orders, pending orders, total inventories with a breakup between work-in-progress (WiP) and finished goods (FG) inventories and item-wise production.
4. RBI also stated that the company level data collected during the survey will be treated as confidential and never disclosed. 
5. In the 48th round of the OBICUS for the quarter, October-December 2019 over 704 manufacturing companies were covered. The last survey showed that capacity utilization (CU) had declined to 68.6% in the third quarter of 2019-20 from 69.1% in the previous quarter.
6. The orders that were received in the third quarter of the year 2019-20 were less when compared with the previous quarter.

RBI: Reserve Bank of India

Established: 1st April, 1935

Act: Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934

Currency: Indian rupee

Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra

Governor: Shaktikanta Das

Grand Master Viswanathan Anand named ambassador of WWF India

Chess Master Viswanathan Anand has been appointed as the new Ambassador for World Wide Fund (WWF) India's Environment Education program.

Viswanathan Anand:

Viswanathan Anand was born on 11 December 1969 at Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu. In 1983. He won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship. He won the Asian Junior Chess Championship in 1984, which earned him the International Master norm.
In 2007, Anand entered the (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) FIDE World Championship Tournament in Mexico as the world's top-ranked player. Anand stood as the World Chess Champion from 2007 to 2013. He won the World Chess Championship five times in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012. He became one of the 6 players who broke the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list.
In 1985, he was conferred the Arjuna Award for Outstanding Indian sportsperson in Chess. In 1987, he was awarded the Padma Shri. He received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in the years 1991-92. In 2000 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan and he was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2007.

WWF:  World Wide Fund for Nature

Formation: 29 April 1961; 58 years ago as World Wide Fund

Headquarters: Gland, Vaud, Switzerland

President: Pavan Sukhdev

Director General: Macro Lambertini

Short Notes

Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) is currently developing an inactivated virus vaccine for COVID-19.  These inactivated vaccines are known for their safety and easy production.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) proposed to release its full $1 trillion lending capacity to support countries that battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The IMF described the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis like no other crisis ever. The announcement was made by the IMF head Kristalina Georgieva.

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar addressed the "National Conference on Kharif crops 2020" through a video conference.

State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) is to deliberate on model bid documents for the development and operation of underground mines. CIL has decided to augment its dry-fuel output to coal through mine operators.

the Delhi Government launched “Assess Koro Na” application to conduct door to door survey. The application has been launched in COVID-19 containment zones.

India is to attend BRICS foreign ministers meet by the end of April 2020. The members will discuss economic fallout due to the spread of COVID-19.

The Government of India launched the “Krishi Rath” application to help farmers to transport their agriculture produce to the mandis.

International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) President Tamas Ajan, 81 years old, resigned in the wake of allegations of corruption and doping violations. The IWF Executive Board accepted the resignation of the IWF president. Ursula Papandrea will be the acting president of IWF.