Current Affairs for SSC CGL Exams - 12 APRIL 2020

::NATIONAL::

In the video conference with Chief Ministers of states, Prime Minister NarendraModi today said that measures are being taken to ensure availability of protective gear and critical equipment for all front-line workers.
He also gave a stern message against black marketing and hoarding. Condemning and expressing distress at the instances of attacks on the doctors and medical staff, and at incidents of misbehavior with students from North-East and Kashmir, Prime Minister underlined that such cases need to be dealt with firmly.
Prime Minister talked about strengthening healthcare infrastructure and reaching out to patients through tele-medicine. He also suggested that direct marketing for farm produce can be incentivised to prevent crowding in mandis, for which model APMC laws should be reformed.
The Prime Minister also spoke about popularizing the AarogyaSetu app to ensure downloads in greater numbers. He said, based on the experiences of South Korea and Singapore, India has made its own effort at contact tracing through the app.

President’s rule should be imposed in Madhya Pradesh if Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is unable to form Cabinet, RajyaSabha member from the State and senior advocate VivekTankha said on Saturday in a letter to President Ram NathKovind.
The Congress leader said the patience of the 7.5 crore people of the State was “wearing thin” as they face a grim situation with regard to the spread of the COVID-19.
He argued that an “illegally designed and poorly conceived one-man show” had been unconstitutionally thrust upon the people amid a lockdown.

More than 30 crore poor people have received financial assistance of ₹28,256 crore under the PradhanMantriGaribKalyanYojana announced by Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman last month to protect them from the impact of the lockdown.
As part of the ₹1.70 lakh crore relief package, the government announced free foodgrains and cash doles to women and poor senior citizens and farmers.
“More than 30 cr. beneficiaries have been directly given support through Direct Benefit Transfer amounting to ₹28,256 cr. under #PradhanMantriGribKalyanPackage,” a tweet from the Finance Ministry said. Of the total disbursement, ₹13,855 crore has gone towards payment of the first instalment of PM-KISAN.
Under the scheme, nearly 6.93 crore out of the 8 crore identified beneficiaries got ₹2,000 directly in their account.As many as 19.86 crore women Jan Dhan account holders received ₹500 each in their account. The total disbursement under the head was ₹9,930 crore, it said.

President Donald Trump has ordered the relevant departments of his administration to impose visa sanctions on countries that do not accept their citizens who are currently in the U.S., if the U.S. seeks to repatriate them to their home countries.
The order is motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a memorandum issued by the White House on Friday night.
As it is worded, the scope of the order is unclear. While the clause above says it is motivated by the U.S. wanting to repatriate foreigners violating U.S. laws, there is another clause that says the sanctions process could be initiated if a foreign country delays accepting its nationals and such an action hampers the U.S.’s response to the ongoing pandemic.

Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has ruled out lifting lockdown in the Himalayan nation till situation normalises in India.
In a video conference with Chief Ministers of all seven provinces, Prime Minister Oli said Nepalese government cannot lift lockdown as Covid 19 cases continued to rise in India. He said, the government will have to adopt stricter measures to control the spread of COVID-19.
He stressed the need to step up coordination between the federal government and provincial governments and appealed Chief Ministers to launch awareness campaign on COVID-19.

A study led by researchers from Australia finds crucial differences in the way the immune system acting in the body fat of male and female mice operates. Studying the visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in the mice, they find key differences.
Visceral adipose tissue is fat tissue that is found in the abdominal region, surrounding various organs. This includes perigonadal VAT which surrounds the ovaries in females and testes in males, which is what the researchers studied.
“Historically, visceral adipose tissue was simply regarded as an energy storage [organ]. Many studies, however, have highlighted its endocrine function. Visceral adipose tissue has an endocrine function, meaning it secretes adipokines and hormones that play key roles in energy balance and metabolism,” says Dr.Vasanthakumar.
The study has implications for the way trials are conducted with animal models when carrying out research on diseases. For instance when studying metabolic disease, mostly male mice are used. This study implies that findings of such a test will not hold equally good for males and females.
“Until the recent past, for clinical trials mostly men were recruited although it is clear that disease susceptibility and response to drugs are different,” he says. “In this context tailoring drugs to gender is a possibility in the future. We will continue to explore the role of sex hormones in metabolism and other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”

Former India captain BhaichungBhutia has said he will consider contesting for the post of All India Football Federation (AIFF) president in future. Bhutia retired in 2011, after being Indian football’s posterboy for more than a decade.
“At the moment I am focusing on grassroots football with the BhaichungBhutia Football School and United Sikkim Club and also at district level (in Sikkim),” said Bhutia.