Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 06 MAY 2020

::NATIONAL::

India is launching a huge evacuation exercise in the wake of COVID 19 to bring back thousands of Indians stranded abroad. Government sources said over three lakh people have registered in Gulf countries alone.
The immediate focus will be to bring back Indians from the Gulf, countries in neighbourhood as well as from US, UK and Singapore.
Sources also said External Affairs Ministry will share detailed database with states and central ministries for the possible employment of skilled workers as thousands of Indians are returning after losing jobs.

Prime Minister NarendraModi has taken a detailed review of the current status of India’s efforts in vaccine development, drug discovery, diagnosis and testing related to COVID-19.
An official statement said, over 30 Indian vaccines are in different stages of development with a few going on to the trial stages. In drug development, three approaches are being taken which include the repurposing of existing drugs.
Secondly, the development of new candidate drugs and molecules are being driven by linking high performance computational approach with laboratory verification. Thirdly, plant extracts and products are being examined for general anti-viral properties. In diagnosis and testing, several academic research institutions and start-ups have developed new tests, both for the RT-PCR approach and for the antibody detection.
He desired that such coordination and speed should be embedded into a standard operating procedure. He emphasized, what is possible in a crisis should be a part of routine way of scientific functioning.
The successful candidates from the hackathon could be taken up by the start-ups for further development and scaling up. Mr Modi added that the innovative and original manner in which Indian scientists have come together with industry is heartening. This kind of pride, originality and sense of purpose should dominate India's approach going ahead.

Borrowings by 1.7 million companies tracked by the ministry of corporate affairs have nearly dried up since the government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 25 to rein in the Covid-19 outbreak.
Bank credit, bonds outstanding and commercial paper stood at Rs 6 lakh crore in FY20, down from Rs 16.8 lakh crorein the previous financial year.Banks accounted for as much as ₹5.9 lakh crore of the total lending, though it was nearly half of ₹11.9 lakh crore they had lent in the previous fiscal.
The pandemic has had a severe financial impact, even as the government has tried to stave off economic collapse. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Indian economy is projected to grow at 1.9% this fiscal, sharply lower than the level of about 5% forecast earlier. Global growth is set to contract 3%, as the world stares at the worst recession since the Great Depression of 1929-33.

The Textiles Ministry has assured farmers in Maharashtra that the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is fully prepared to purchase cotton at minimum support price in the state during the ongoing lockdown.
The MSP operations are continuing and Cotton Corporation of India's (CCI) procurement is currently on at 34 centres in the state.The ministry’s move comes amid concerns that traders may not offer a better price in view of the pandemic situation forcing farmers to avail the MSP rates.
In the remaining 22 centres the state government has been approached by the CCI for issue of passes/tokens to farmers to bring cotton and the matter is being constantly monitored by the Ministry of Textiles through daily status reports on arrival of farmers and procurements at the APMCs.

China on Tuesday successfully launched a new rocket and prototype spacecraft, state media said, in a major test of the country’s ambitions to operate a permanent space station and send astronauts to the Moon.
The spaceship will one day transport astronauts to a space station that China plans to complete by 2022 — and eventually to the Moon. It will have capacity for a crew of six.
The United States is so far the only country to have successfully sent humans to the Moon. But Beijing has made huge strides in its effort to catch up, sending astronauts into space, satellites into orbit and a rover to the far side of the Moon.
The successful maiden flight of the 54-metre Long March 5B — which has a take-off mass of about 849 tonnes — should reassure China, following failures of the 7A model in March and 3B model in April.

Weeks of lockdown in the country to fight coronavirus may have reduced greenhouse gas emissions enabling people to breathe cleaner air and feast on blue skies, but it is only a temporary phase and will not benefit the environment in the long run, experts have said.
Recently, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) released a report on effect of 'Janata Curfew' on the air quality in which it found that the reduction in number of on-road vehicles, resulted in up to 51 per cent reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels and 32 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels during March 22-23, 2020 as compared to March 21.
Environmentalists feel that carbon emissions may have reduced drastically but are likely to go back to the pre-corona levels in a few weeks' time, once the virus threat mitigates.
Sharing a similar opinion, Suyash Gupta, Director General, Indian Auto LPG Coalition, said many cities are breathing clean air after a long time but this shutdown cannot be expected to result in stabilization of carbon dioxide concentration.
"Researchers have already stated that we must not expect the impact of this global shutdown to result in any stabilization in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. However, this phase has certainly raised awareness about the need for people to adopt more eco-friendly lifestyles including the usage of clean transport fuels once human activity resumes," Gupta said.

While most sports federations are struggling to redraw their future activities due to uncertainty, Hockey India has sought interest from member associations to host various National championships in 2021.
While the deadline to express interest to host the 11th edition in 2021 is May 11, the deadline for inter-department and academy Nationals is June 5.
The window to host the senior competitions has been set for January 1 to April 30 and February 15 to April 30 for the junior and sub-junior categories.