Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 26 April 2021

SSC CGL Current Affairs

::NATIONAL::

While the scourge of COVID-19 Pandemic is being dealt with on mainland India, its Island territories have also been extended assistance by Indian Navy.
As part of the nation's fight against COVID 19, Indian Navy ships under Headquarters, Southern Naval Command, Kochi took the mission of OXYGEN EXPRESS ahead in order to render support to the local administration of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep (UTL) to begin with.
Indian Navy informed on Sunday, “In the early hours today, INS Sharda, based at Kochi, undertook transfer of essential medical supplies to the capital of Union Territory of Lakshadweep, Kavaratti.”
The stores consisted of 35 Oxygen cylinders, Rapid Antigen Detection Test (RADT) kits, Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE), masks and other items to fight the COVID 19 pandemic.
The ship then continued with her mission to the island of Minicoy for disembarkation of Oxygen cylinders and medical supplies. The same supplies were disembarked also at Androth and Agatti islands.

There is no greater challenge facing our nation and our planet than the climate crisis. That’s why President Biden has laid out the boldest climate agenda in our nation’s history – one that will spur an equitable clean energy economy and cement the United States on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050. To achieve our global climate goals we need cooperation from all major emitters, including oil and gas producing nations, to identify and act on solutions to phase out unabated fossil fuel emissions, while reducing emissions to the maximum extent possible in the interim.
For this reason, the U.S. Department of Energy has led on creating a new international forum dedicated to developing long-term strategies to reach global net-zero emissions.
Canada, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, collectively representing 40 percent of global oil and gas production, will come together to form a cooperative forum that will develop pragmatic net-zero emission strategies, including methane abatement, advancing the circular carbon economy approach, development and deployment of clean-energy and carbon capture and storage technologies, diversification from reliance on hydrocarbon revenues, and other measures in line with each country's national circumstances.

Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, the union government decided to grant full exemption from basic customs duty and health cess on import of oxygen-related equipment for a period of three months with immediate effect.
"The decisions were taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister NarendraModi," said the government.
The meeting was attended by Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Principal Secretary to the PM, and other senior officials.
He was told that basic customs duty was exempted on Remdesivir and its API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) recently, and a suggestion was made that the import of equipment related to providing oxygen to patients needs to be expedited, the government statement said, announcing the measures.
The Prime Minister emphasised that there was an immediate need to augment the supply of medical grade oxygen as well as equipment required for patient care both at home and in hospitals.
During the meeting, the government also decided that basic customs duty on import of Covid vaccines be exempted with immediate effect for a period of 3 months.
"Modi stressed that all ministries and departments need to work in synergy to increase availability of oxygen and medical supplies," the government said in an official statement.

When NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took to the Martian skies on its third flight on April 25, the agency’s Perseverance rover was there to capture the historic moment.
Now NASA engineers have rendered the flight in 3D, lending dramatic depth to the flight as the helicopter ascends, hovers, then zooms laterally off-screen before returning for a pinpoint landing. Seeing the sequence is a bit like standing on the Martian surface next to Perseverance and watching the flight firsthand.
Located on the rover’s mast, or “head,” the zoomable dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager provided the view. Along with producing images that enable the public to follow the rover’s daily discoveries, the cameras provide key data to help engineers navigate and scientists choose interesting rocks to study.