Assam Current Affairs – July 08 – 14, 2020

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Assam Current Affairs & GK – July 8 - 14, 2020

( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the week of July 8 – 14, 2020 )

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July 08, 2020

Karnataka launches 6 locally developed products to fight Covid-19
  • Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwathnarayan launched six Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved products made by startups to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The six products are Shieldex 24, Florescence probes and PCR mix, Daksh, VTM, Cov-Astra and Anti-microbial face wash.
  • Developed by Ravi Kumar at Biofi, Shieldex 24 is a UV-ROS box for Covid sterilisation. It can help eliminate viruses located on objects and is useful in the transportation industry.
  • Govindarajan and Meher Prakash from VNIR have developed the Florescence probes and PCR mix for RTPCR detection. These probes are part of Covid testing kits which are currently being imported.
  • Arun Agrawal from Janitri has developed Daksh, a remote foetal monitoring device which is used in treating Covid positive pregnant women.
  • Manjunath and Dinesh from Deno Bio labs at IBAB have developed the VTM which helps in safely transporting live virus samples from a sample collection centre to a testing lab.
  • Cov-Astra is an Artificial Intelligence based device which can detect Covid virus through x-ray, relegating the conventional throat swab for testing people for the virus.
  • Developed by Adarsh Nararajan from Aindra A, Cov-Astra can help detect the virus at a significantly lower price of Rs 150 to Rs 250 per person.
  • Latha Damle and team from Atrimed have developed an anti-microbial face wash containing herbal anti-microbials, which can kill viruses on the face in a fraction of seconds.
India, Sweden agree to cooperate in fight against Covid-19
  • Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and his Swedish counterpart Lena Hallengren discussed via video link the status and plans to handle coronavirus and decided to co-operate in the field of health and medicine.
  • The two countries and agreed to hold the Joint Working Group”s (JWG) next meeting by autumn and stay in touch digitally till the end of crisis.
  • Vardhan spoke about the decade of vibrant Indo-Swedish partnership that oversaw 10 JWG level bilateral meetings and mentioned recent achievements of India, like the Ayushman Bharat Yojana that covered 550 million people.
World Bank provides $400 million to enhance support for Namami Gange
  • Indian government and the World Bank(WB) signed a loan agreement of $400 million, to enhance support for the Namami Gange programme that seeks to rejuvenate the Ganga.
  • The Second National Ganga River Basin Project will help stem pollution in the iconic river and strengthen the management of the river basin which is home to more than 500 million people.
  • The agreement comprises a loan of $381 million and a proposed guarantee of up to $19 million. The $381 million variable spread loan has a maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of 5 years.
  • The World Bank has been supporting the government’s efforts since 2011 through the ongoing National Ganga River Basin Project, which helped set up the National Mission for Clean Ganga as the nodal agency to manage the river, and financed sewage treatment infrastructure in several riverside towns and cities.
  • To ensure that these infrastructure assets function effectively and are well maintained, the project will build on the innovative Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) of public private partnership introduced under the ongoing NGRBP, and which has become the solution of choice for sewage treatment investments in the Ganga Basin.
  • Government pays a private operator 40 per cent of the capital cost to build a sewage treatment plant during the construction period; the remaining 60 per cent is paid as performance-linked payments over 15 years to ensure that the operator runs and maintains the plant efficiently.
India’s First NPNT Compliant Drone Flight Successfully Completed
  • Quidich Innovation Labs announced the successful completion of India’s First No-Permission No-Takeoff (NPNT) compliant drone flight on the A200 Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS).
  • The flight was carried out in a green zone identified by the DGCA in Karnataka and marks a critical breakthrough in online testing and permission systems. This will go a long way in opening up the skies for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
  • MoCA& DGCA released a comprehensive policy on use of UAVs, which came into effect in 2018. Under the new policy, only UAVs which complied to stringent manufacturing standards laid down by the government could be used. 
  • The UAV also had to be compliant with the newly formulated NPNT architecture. A Unique Identification Number (UIN) and an Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP), along with Online permission artifacts (OPA) for every flight, are mandatory.
Himachal Pradesh becomes the first state where everyone possesses LPG connection
  • Himachal Pradesh has become the first state in the country in which every household has an LPG gas connection.
  • HP Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that as many as 2,76,243 families were provided free gas connections under the Himachal Grihini Suvidha Yojana.
  • This scheme was launched for those households which were left out of the Central Govt’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana under which connections were provided free to poor women of rural areas.
CBDT, SEBI sign MoU for exchange of data
  • The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for data exchange between the two organisations.
  • The MoU will facilitate the regular sharing of data and information between the SEBI and the CBDT on an automatic and regular basis.
  • SEBI and the CBDT will also exchange with each other, on request and suo moto basis, any information available in their respective databases, for the purpose of carrying out their functions under various laws.

July 09, 2020

UP govt approves new start-up policy 2020
  • UP state government has approved the UP-Start-up Policy 2020 to promote fledgling units in various areas including agriculture, health, power, education, tourism and transport.
  • Objective of the policy is to ensure that UP is ranked within the first three states in the Centre’s start-up rankings, create 100 incubators with, at least, one in each district, create an ecosystem to promote at least 10,000 start-ups, set up state of the art excellence centres and create India’s largest incubator in Lucknow.
  • The policy will be valid for five years and will provide direct employment to 50,000 people and indirect employment to 1 lakh.
  • There are more than 1,800 start-up units registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Centre and since there is no holistic policy for start-ups, it was decided to create an ecosystem for promotion of start-ups which would require a new policy.
  • The state government is already providing start-ups with a subsidy and has started a Rs 1,000 crore fund to promote new entrants in the field.
Punjab okays Rs 3,200 crore for Industrial park and manufacturing cluster
  • Punjab govt approved development of a modern Industrial Park and Integrated Manufacturing Cluster near Ludhiana and Rajpura, respectively, at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore each.
  • The two projects, be set up in 1,000 acres each, the projects will help prospective entrepreneurs and industrialists set up ventures, will help accelerate industrialisation and create jobs.
  • The And Integrated Manufacturing Cluster near Rajpura in the Patiala district will be developed with the help of the National Industrial Corridor Development Corp.
  • To mobilise additional revenue, the cabinet gave the go-ahead to raise the mutation fee from Rs 300 to Rs 600. Accordingly the State Govt asked the Revenue Department to launch a campaign for clearing all pending mutations in the interest of landowners.
Union Cabinet approves Rs 12,450 crore recapitalisation of 3 Govt general insurance companies
  • The Union Cabinet approved capital infusion of Rs 12,450 crore for three state run insurance companies, viz. Oriental Insurance Company, National Insurance Company and the United India Insurance Company.
  • The approved amount also includes Rs 2,500 crore infused in FY 2019-20.
  • In the Union Financial Budget 2020-21, central government had set aside Rs 6,950 crore for recapitalisation of the three public sector general insurance companies.
  • The government aims to improve the solvency ratio of these companies before merging theses three state-run general insurance entities to create a general insurance giant.
NSDC, Microsoft partnership to impart digital skills to Indian youths
  • The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Software major Microsoft announced a partnership aimed at providing digital skills to over 1 lakh youth in the country over the next 12 months.
  • Microsoft will collaborate with NSDC’s eSkill India portal to provide free access to learning resources and conduct digital skilling awareness drives, equipping the next generation of learners with the skills they need to find employment opportunities in the digital economy.
  • Microsoft’s this partnership is an extension of it’s global skilling initiative to help 25 million people worldwide acquire new digital skills needed for the future economy.
  • Microsoft’s learning resource centre, Microsoft Learn will be integrated with the eSkill India digital platform to provide access to personalised learning paths and resources that are recently in demand and expected to continue to grow in the time to come.
  • Learnings will cover a broad range of skills, from entry-level digital literacy to advanced product-based skilling in critical technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud computing, providing numerous opportunities for people to reskill and upskill.

FACTFILE – National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

  • NSDC is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated on July 31, 2008 under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. It was set up by Ministry of Finance as Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
  • Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) holds 49% of the share capital of NSDC, while the private sector has the balance 51% of the share capital.
  • NSDC aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality and for-profit vocational institutions. It also provides funding to build scalable and profitable vocational training initiatives. Its mandate is also to enable support system which focuses on quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnerships.
  • NSDC acts as a catalyst in skill development by providing funding to enterprises, companies and organizations that provide skill training. It also develops appropriate models to enhance, support and coordinate private sector initiatives.
  • NSDC’s eSkill India portal catalogues more than 490 e-learning courses in multiple Indian languages through leading knowledge providers.
Chhattisgarh becomes India’s first state to start e-Lok Adalats
  • The Chhattisgarh High Court and the Chhattisgarh State Legal Services Authority organized the India’s first ever E-Lok Adalat amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
  • About 195 benches were constituted at different places of the state, including remote areas like Sarguja, Kanker, Bastar, Surajpur etc., via video conferencing and 3,135 cases were identified for compromise.
  • 2,270 cases were settled in a single day via e-Lok Adalat.

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July 10, 2020

Himalayan Butterfly ’Golden Birdwing’ is India’s largest butterfly
  • A Himalayan butterfly named Golden Birdwing is India’s largest, a record an unknown specimen had held for 88 years.
  • With a wingspan of 194 mm, the female of the species is marginally larger than the Southern Birdwing (190 mm) that Brigadier William Harry Evans, a British military officer and lepidopterist, had recorded in 1932.
  • The hitherto largest Indian butterfly that Brigadier Evans recorded in 1932 was an individual of the Southern Birdwing (Troidesminos), which was then treated as a subspecies of the Common Birdwing.
  • While the female Golden Birdwing was recorded from Didihat in Uttarakhand, the largest male was from the Wankhar Butterfly Museum in Meghalaya capital Shillong.
India good example in solar auctions amidst pandemic, say UN Secretary General
  • UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that as the world designs and implements Covid-19 recovery plans, it should invest in a better, more sustainable future.
  • Citing the case of India, he said at the International Energy Agency (IEA)’s Clean Energy Transition Summit that solar auctions have seen popularity amidst the height of the pandemic.
  • A growing number of coalitions of investors and real economy stakeholders are advocating for a recovery aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Bailout support to sectors such as industry, aviation and shipping should be conditioned on alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
  • Praising India, Antonio Guterres said that Solar auctions have seen popularity amidst the height of the pandemic. India serves as a good example.
IIT Hyderabad and Nvidia team up for AI research centre
  • Nvidia unveiled ‘The Nvidia AI Technology Centre ‘, a technology centre at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad that will accelerate research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its commercial adoption.
  • The collaboration between IIT Hyderabad and Nvidia will focus on advancing AI research in the areas of agriculture and smart cities, besides language understanding.
  • The projects in the area of increasing crop yield using AI algorithms, applying AI-based solutions to support safer transportation systems and better ways of managing traffic, will be taken up.

FACTFILE – Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

  • The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a public technical and research university located in Sangareddy district of Telangana, India.
  • It is known for its academic strength, research, publications and proximity to IT and industrial hubs.
  • IITH was founded in 2008, among the eight young Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
  • It was ranked 201st in Asia by the QS World University Rankings in 2020 and 94 among BRICS nations in 2019. Ranks in the range of 601-650 in the World.
  • In India, IIT Hyderabad was ranked 8 among engineering institutes by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in 2020 and 17 overall.
AIIB released $50 million loan to L&T Infra Finance for Renewable Energy
  • Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has released $50 million in the first tranche of assistance to L&T Infrastructure Finance Ltd for funding Renewable Energy projects in India.
  • AIIB invests in sustainable infrastructure, has sanctioned total $100 million loan to unit of L&T Finance Holdings. This is it’s first loan to an Indian non-banking financial company (NBFC).
  • AIIB provide loans for operational infrastructure projects of which majority are backed by tripartite agreements, government guarantee and support from government.

FACTFILE – Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

  • The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank that aims to support the building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • It has 82 members as well as 20 prospective members from around the world.
  • AIIB started operation after the agreement entered into force on 25 December 2015, with initial capital base of $100 billion, which is ​2⁄3 of the capital of the Asian Development Bank and about half that of the World Bank.
  • The bank received the highest credit ratings from the three biggest rating agencies in the world, and is perceived as a potential rival to the World Bank, ADB and IMF.

July 11, 2020

Central Govt to set up Bamboo Industrial Park in Dima Hasao
  • The Central government has decided to set up the first Bamboo Industrial Park in the Northeast in Dima Hasao district of Assam for tapping the immense potential of bamboo sector of the locality.
  • The park on completion will cover an area of 75 hectares, would contribute to the overall economic development of the State apart from developing the bamboo-based industries.
  • The Bamboo Industrial Park would immensely benefit the bamboo growers of the State which has come close on the heels of Assam Govt’s Bamboo and Cane Policy.
  • DoNER ministry has taken at the initiative for setting up this Bamboo Industrial Park.
T-Hub partners MeitY to mentor hardware startups in India
  • Hyderabad-based global start-up catalyst T-Hub announced a partnership with the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to lead Digital India’s Scale Up programme for hardware and Internet of Things (IoT) startups.
  • As many as 15 startups with leading-edge solutions in mobility, energy, agriculture, aerospace, manufacturing, consumer, healthtech, medtech, smart cities and logistics and supply chain sectors will be shortlisted for the programme.
  • The startups will go through regular interventions through bootcamps and dedicated mentoring organised by T-Hub. The startups will get exposure to design/enhance their hardware.
  • They will receive mentorship in areas such as pricing, go-to-market strategies, fund raising, and will also receive equity-free grants.
BDL signs contract for licence & Technology Transfer of Akash Missile with DRDO
  • Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has signed a licence agreement and transfer of technology of Akash Missile Weapon System with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).  

FACTFILE – Akash Missile Weapon System (AKASH)

  • Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for Missile Systems, Bharat Electronics (BEL), Tata Power Strategic Engineering Division and L&T for other radars, control centers, launcher systems in India.
  • It can target aircraft up to 30 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m and has the capability to neutralize aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles as well as ballistic missiles.

FACTFILE – Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL)

  • Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) was founded in 1970 to be a manufacturing base for guided weapon systems.
  • It is one of India’s manufacturers of ammunitions and missile systems. It in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
  • BDL began by producing a first generation anti-tank guided missile – the French SS11B1. This product was a culmination of a licence agreement the Government of India entered into with Aerospatiale.
Injeti Srinivas appointed as Chairman of International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA)
  • IAS officer Injeti Srinivas has been appointed as the first chairman of the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) for the Gandhinagar-based Financial Special Economic Zone, popularly known as Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City.
  • Injeti Srinivas is a 1983 batch IAS officer from the Odisha cadre and served at the corporate affairs ministry for nearly three years. He has also served as secretary, department of sports, and as Director General of SAI.
  • The main function of the IFSCA is to regulate financial products such as securities, deposits or contracts of insurance, financial services, and financial institutions that have been previously approved by any appropriate regulator in an IFSC.

FACTFILE – International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA)

  • Indian government has established International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to regulate all financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) with headquarters in Gandhinagar.
  • IFSCA will regulate financial products such as securities, deposits or contracts of insurance, financial services, and financial institutions which have been previously approved by any appropriate regulator such as RBI, the SEBI etc., in an IFSC.
  • It will also regulate any other financial products/services/institutions in an IFSC.
  • It will consist of nine members, appointed by the central government, including the Chairperson of IFSCA, a member each from the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA; and two members from the Ministry of Finance and two other members will be appointed on the recommendation of a Selection Committee.
  • Unification of regulatory activities under one authority will be of immense benefit and would accelerate the development of India’s first IFSC at GIFT City, Gandhinagar.
Odisha Govt launches Bhubaneshwar Land Use Intelligence System
  • Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik launched BLUIS (Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System), the flagship development of General Administration and Public Grievances Departments.
  • Under the initiative, a web and mobile-based solution has been developed to monitor changes in all government lands in Bhubaneswar by leveraging high-resolution satellite imagery.
  • BLUIS is a geo-tagged repository of all the government lands in Bhubaneswar, created through high-resolution satellite imagery to detect all changes taking place on government lands.
  • Odisha became the first state in the country to tap space technology and artificial intelligence for safeguarding government lands.
  • The mobile app also enables crowdsourcing cases of unauthorised land use and can also be used by citizens to report any unauthorised development taking place over geo-tagged government lands. This will check the menace of encroachments of public lands.

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July 12, 2020

Central grant of Rs 631 crore released to Assam
  • The Centre has released the fourth tranche of the Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant equated monthly instalment amounting Rs 6,195 crore Assam and other 13 states.
  • The Centre released advance payments of over Rs 631 crore to Assam.
  • Other states which received the grant were Kerala (Rs 1,276 crore), Himachal Pradesh (Rs 952 crore), Punjab (Rs 638 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 491 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs 423 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 417 crore).
  • As per the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission, equal instalments of the grant have been issued by the Centre to the states since April 2020.
  • The grant will assist the states to take preventive and mitigation measures for containment of the COVID-19 and these funds can be used to cover the cost of consumables, and purchase of personal protection equipment (PPE) for healthcare, municipal, police and fire authorities, besides purchase of medical equipments.
Biosafety level two lab unveiled in Chikkaballapura, Karnataka
  • Karnataka Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar inaugurated a biosafety level two dedicated Covid and Virology lab in Chikkaballapura, Karnataka. The state-of-the-art lab is temperature controlled and complete clean air lab with fully automated machine for autolysis with RNA extraction.
  • It has contamination free passage for samples through ultra violet pass boxes without the need for human movement.
  • Bio-medical waste disposal from the lab is also carried through contamination free ISO – 8 classification process.
Flipkart signs MoU with Karnataka to promote local art and craft
  • Flipkart has signed an MoU with Karnataka Govt’s MSME and Mines Department to promote the states arts, crafts and handloom sectors by bringing them on to e-commerce and providing market access, under it’s Samarth programme.
  • The partnership will enable Karnataka’s local artisans, weavers and craftsmen to showcase their hallmark products to a pan-India customer base.
  • Both the parties will focus on creating avenues to increase business and trade inclusion opportunities for these underserved segments of the society.
Manipur’s  Gyanendro Ningombam elected as new President of Hockey India
  • Gyanendra Ningombam has been elected unanimously as Hony President of Hockey India. Gyanendra is a resident of Imphal East district, the septuagenarian Hockey lover has long been associated with Hockey promotion in Manipur for the last four decades.
  • He is instrumental in producing eminent international class hockey players from the state. He also served as General secretary of the earstwhile Manipur Hockey Association, and presently Senior Vice president of Manipur Hockey and also of Hockey India.
Indian battalion wins UNIFIL environment award
  • An Indian battalion stationed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has won an environment award for a project that aims to decrease waste generation, reuse plastic and build green houses.
  • UNIFIL’s Indian Battalion was adjudged first for a project that seeks to increase awareness and decrease waste generation by planting seedlings in their positions and areas of responsibility and reducing wastage.
  • Other UNIFIL units that received awards and recognitions included French-led Force Commander’s Reserve, Indonesian Battalion, Republic of Korea Battalion and Italian Battalion.
  • The awards commend individuals, UN positions, contingents, sections and units that have demonstrated leadership, innovation or exceptional activities in protecting the environment.

July 13, 2020

‘Ypthimawatsoni’ butterfly discovered in Tripura
  • A team of wildlife researchers has rediscovered ‘Ypthimawatsoni’ butterfly commonly known as ‘Looped three-ring’ after 61 years near a village in Jampui Hills under the North Tripura district of Tripura.
  • Researchers constantly survey the butterflies in North-East India to document current populations, distributions, and status of butterflies for the past five years.
  • Looped Three-ring Ypthimawatsoni, 1893 belonging to subfamily Styrene and family Nymphalidae of insect order Lepidoptera has not been recorded for approximately 61 years since it was last seen in the year 1958 in Manipur. 
  • This rediscovery is also important in the context of updating the status and distribution of the butterfly fauna for Tripura.
United States remains India’s top trading partner in 2019-20
  • The US remained India’s top trading partner for the second consecutive fiscal in 2019-20, which shows increasing economic ties between the two countries.
  • In 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $88.75 billion as against $87.96 billion in 2018-19.
  • The trade gap between the countries has increased to $17.42 billion in 2019-20 from $16.86 billion in 2018-19.
  • China was India’s top trading partner from 2013-14 to 2017-18. But in 2018-19, the US first surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner.
  • The bilateral trade between India and China has dipped to $81.87 billion in 2019-20 from $87.08 billion in 2018-19 and the trade deficit between the two has declined to $48.66 billion in 2019-20 from $53.57 billion in the 2018-19.
IIIT Delhi develops AI model to repurpose existing drugs to treat Covid cases
  • The Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Delhi) has developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) model for drug repositioning in the treatment of Covid-19.
  • Instead of manually going through available drug and checking its effectiveness against Covid-19 one, using AI to speed things up and find the drugs which have the highest probability of success against the disease.
  • The AI model computes the similarity between the chemical structures of the drugs and the similarity between the genomic structures of existing viruses and the novel Coronavirus.
  • The model analyse the historical information about the efficacy of the drugs on different viruses; it selects chemical structurally similar drugs that have been successful in treating viruses that have a genomic structure close to that of the novel Coronavirus.
Russia 1st nation to finish human trials for Covid-19 vaccine
  • Russia became the first nation to complete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine on humans, and the results have proven the medication’s effectiveness.
  • Russia had allowed clinical trials of two forms of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.
  • The first vaccine, in the form of a solution for intramuscular administration, was carried out at the Burdenko Military Hospital and other vaccine, in the form of a powder for the preparation of a solution for intramuscular administration, was carried out at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.
Microsoft joins Google to create new generation of web apps
  • Microsoft’s PWABuilder and Google’sBubblewrap have joined hands to help web developers get their Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) into the Play Store.
  • Progressive web apps use emerging web browser APIs and features, along with traditional progressive enhancement strategy, to bring a native app-like user experience to cross-platform web applications.
  • com is Microsoft’s open source developer tool that helps build high-quality PWAs and publish them in app stores.
  • Google’s Bubblewrap is command line utility and library to generate and sign Google Play Store packages from Progressive Web Apps.

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July 14, 2020

Arunachal Pradesh filmmaker Kezang D Thongdok bagged the Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2020
  • Kezang D Thongdok, an independent filmmaker, documented the process of honey hunting has bagged the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award 2020.
  • Thongdok’s short documentary ‘Chi Lupo’ artfully sketches the custom of honey hunting practised in the Shertukpen community wherein ‘Chi’ means honey and ‘Lupo’ means hunters
  • Thongdok’s attempt to depict and preserve the age-old tradition of honey hunting amongst the Shertukpens bagged him the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award this year.
Govt to curb import dependence of APIs/medical devices
  • As part of efforts to make India self-sufficient in manufacturing bulk drugs or APIs, the Govt of India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals is finalising guidelines for selecting locations of three bulk drug parks and four medical devices parks.
  • Currently, India imports more than 70 per cent of its API or bulk drug needs, largely from countries such as China.
  • The guideline will become the basis for selection of developers for this prestigious project which is part of government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat mission.
  • The guidelines which will form basis for objectively selecting locations of upcoming three bulk drugs parks and four medical devices parks in the country.
  • In order to encourage domestic production of critical APIs and medical devices, the Union Cabinet had recenlty approved a scheme for development of three bulk drugs and four medical devices parks in which the Centre will extend Grants-in-Aid to states with a maximum limit of Rs 1,000 crore per bulk drug park and Rs 100 crore per medical device parks.
  • Govt has also announced a production linked incentive scheme for promoting domestic manufacturing of key critical starting materials/drug intermediates & APIs and medical devices.
Google’s Rs 75,000 crore boost for digitisation in India
  • Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, announced a Google for India digitisation fund through which, the company will invest Rs 75,000 crore or approximately $10 billion over the next five to seven years to help India go digital.
  • The investment will focus on four areas important to India’s digitisation:
    • By enabling affordable access to information to every Indian in their own language.
    • By building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s specific needs.
    • By empowering businesses to continue or embark on digital transformation.
    • By leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence for social good in areas like health, agriculture and education.
India becomes second-largest foreign investor in the UK
  • India invested in 120 projects and created more than 5000 new jobs in the UK to become the second-largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) after the US in 2019.
  • The US remains the number one source of FDI for the UK, delivering 462 projects, followed by India, Germany, France and China and Hong Kong.
  • The Department for International Trade inward investment statistics for 2019-2020 found India moving up from its previous third-largest spot, representing an overall 4 per cent FDI increase for the UK on 2018-2019 with 1,852 new inward investment projects in the 2019/2020 financial year.
DRDO develops software tool for tracking Covid patients in quarantine
  • The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a software tool for enforcement of quarantine, which will be implemented in partnership with the Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA), an industry body of software professionals.
  • Both the organisations signed an agreement to implement the automated management of the software. The pilot for the implementation is likely to begin soon.
  • The DRDO has devised Smart Automated Management of Patients and Risks for Covid-19 (SAMPARC), an intelligent software for enforcement of quarantine or isolation.
  • The software tool will be a handy tool for law enforcement and health officials, as it would enable intelligent automated tracking of those in quarantine or isolation.
  • It will also generate alerts if there are violations or wilful suppression of movement details. This is expected to reduce the tracking workload of law enforcement or health officials.
  • The online pact was signed by Dr Rituraj Kumar, Scientist G, Centre for AI & Robotics (CAIR) of the DRDO and Sundeep Kumar Makthala, Global President, TITA.
  • The SAMPARC solution can be deployed as a national service by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), or can be distributed as a state-wise or region-wise service.
  • Relying on the information provided by the police and health officials, it allows geofencing, face recognition, display of data on map.
  • The rollout of the solution involves no cost to the patient and local authority needs to position only a suitable computer and the software is based on a combination of open-source software.
  • Details of the patient including name, cell phone number, IMEI of the phone, coordinates of the quarantine location, duration of quarantine, email id and optionally photographs of the patient for AI-based face detection.
  • The app has to be installed on the patient”s smartphone which would automatically send a protected message to the Covid server every 10 minutes. The app would run as a background service that would automatically restart even if the phone reboots.
  • Based on the requirements of the authorities, the patient will be able to send selfies taken through the SAMPARC app to the server for automated AI based face recognition.
Lee Hsien Loong won fourth term as Prime Minister of Singapore
  • Lee Hsien Loong has become the Prime Minister of Singapore after the People’s Action Party won the recently held General Elections. With this, Lee Hsien Loong has won a fourth term as the PM of Singapore.
  • The People’s Action Party (PAP) have won 83 seats out of the total 93 seats contested in the Election by securing 61.24 per cent of the total valid votes.

BIOGRAPHY – Lee Hsien Loong

  • Lee Hsien Loong is a Singaporean politician who has served as the 3rd Prime Minister of Singapore since August 2004. Lee is the eldest son of the 1st Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.
  • He led the People’s Action Party to victory in the 2006, 2011, 2015 and 2020 general elections.
  • Lee graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University and later earned a Master of Public Administration at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
NTPC Limited wins CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2019
  • National Thermal Power Corporation has won the prestigious CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2019, under Outstanding Accomplishment in Corporate Excellence Category. It has also received Commendation for Significant Achievement in the category of CSR.
  • NTPCs flagship CSR program Girl Empowerment Mission, a four weeks residential program has been institutionalized in the vicinity of its power stations for the benefit of school going girls to support in their overall development.
India’s 2018 Tiger census sets new Guinness World Record
  • The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018 has entered the Guinness World Record for being the world’s largest camera trap wildlife survey. 
  • The country now has an estimated 2967 tigers as per the latest census, which makes India home to nearly 75 percent of the global tiger population and has already fulfilled its resolve of doubling tiger numbers, well ahead of the target year of 2022.
  • The fourth iteration of the survey – conducted in 2018-19 – was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed. Camera traps were placed in 26,838 locations across 141 different sites and surveyed an effective area of 1 lakh 21 thousand 337 square kilometres.
Atal Innovation Mission launches app development module for school students
  • NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission has launched the ATL App Development Module for school children across the country.
  • Through six project-based learning modules and online mentoring sessions, young innovators can learn to build mobile apps in various Indian languages.
  • To build capacities and acumen for app development within school teachers, periodic Teacher Training sessions will be conducted on the AIM App Development course.
  • NITI Aayog is now bringing the skills of app development to the young tinkerers of Atal Tinkering Labs across the country so that they can integrate their Tinkering Lab innovations with mobile apps enhancing the usability and reach of their innovations.

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