Focus Merit

Category: National Current Affairs

DCGI Given approval to India’s first Homemade Pneumonia Vaccine

July 18, 2020
Pneumonia vaccine
  • The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given approval to India’s first fully indigenously developed vaccine against pneumonia ‘Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine’.
  • The vaccine has been developed by the Pune-based firm Serum Institute of India.
  • After reviewing the phase I, II, and III clinical trial data for vaccines, submitted by Serum Institute, the drug regulator gave the market approval to the homemade vaccine.
  • Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine is the first indigenously developed vaccine in the field of pneumonia.

Government launches implementation guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund

July 17, 2020
  • The guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) launched by Union Minister of fisheries, Husbandry, and Dairying.
  • The fund will help to increase milk production to 330 million tonnes by 2024.
  • The Government of India is planning to increase milk processing up to 40%.
  • The AHIDF will facilitate the incentivization of investments to establish infrastructure for dairy and meat processing.
  • Under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Rs 15,000 crores were approved by the Union Cabinet for AHIDF.
  • The GoI is to set up a credit guarantee fund of Rs 750 crores to achieve the targets in the dairy sector. This is to be managed by NABARD

HRD Minister launches ‘world’s most affordable’ Covid-19 test kit developed by IIT Delhi

July 16, 2020
  • Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Minister of State for HRD Sanjay Dhotre have launched the most affordable COVID-19 test Kit.
  • It has been produced by IIT Delhi and manufactured by New Tech Medical Devices.
  • COROSURE is one of the companies which has received the non exclusive license from IIT Delhi for the probe free RT-PCR based COVID-19 test kit.

National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to provide a credit support to Bengal in Coronavirus Crisis

July 16, 2020
NABARD
  • To fight with the COVID-19 pandemic, National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) to provide a credit support of Rs 1,607 crore to West Bengal.
  • The help was provided through state cooperative banks, regional rural banks and micro-finance institutions.
  • Of the total credit flow, Rs 145 crore was given under the Rural Infrastructure and Development Fund (RIDF) to boost infrastructure in the country-side during the pandemic.

Iran drops India from Chabahar Rail Project due to funding delay

July 15, 2020
  • Iran has dropped India from the Chabahar rail project, for the construction of railway line from Chabahar port to Zahedan, along the Iran-Afghanistan border.
  • The reason that Iran gave for dropping India was delays from the Indian side in funding and starting the construction of the project.
  • Iran has now decided to move ahead with the construction of Chabahar railway line to Zahedan on its own.
  • For this $400 million will be sanctioned by the Iranian National Development Fund and the entire project will be completed by March 2022, without any assistance from India.
  • It must be noted that this decision has been taken by Iran at a time when it is seeking to finalise a 25-year economic and security partnership with China worth $400 billion.

Nitin Gadkari inaugurates, lays foundation stone of National Highway Projects in Haryana

July 15, 2020
nitin gadkari
  • On July 14, the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for Highway projects which will lay a new economic corridor in Haryana.
  •  The projects are worth over Rs. 20,000 crores.

Projects inaugurated by the Union Minister:

  • The 4 lane Rohna/Hasangarh to Jhajjar section of NH 334B which is of 35.45 km and costs Rs. 1183 crore.
  • The 70 km 4-lane of Punjab Haryana border to Jind Section of NH 71, it costs Rs. 857 crores.
  • 2-lane with paved shoulders Jind-Karnal Highway of 85.36 km on NH 709 which costs Rs. 200 crore.

Projects for foundation stone laying include:

  • The 227 km 6-lane access controlled Greenfield expressway from Ismailpur to Narnaul on NH 152D in 8 packages costing Rs 8650 crore,
  • The 46 km 4-lane Gurugram Pataudi-Rewari section of NH 352W costing Rs 1524 crore,
  • The 14.4 km 4-lane Rewari Byepass costing Rs 928 crore, the 30.45 km 4-lane Rewari-Ateli Mandi section of NH 11 costing Rs 1057 crore,
  • The 40.8 km 6-lane Narnaul Byepass on NH 148B, NH 11 and Narnaul to Ateli Mandi section of NH 11 costing Rs 1380 crore,
  • The 40.6 km 4-lane Jind-Gohana (Pkg 1, Greenfield alignment) of NH 352A costing Rs 1207 crore, the 38.23 km 4-lane Gohana-Sonipat section of NH 352A costing Rs 1502 crore,
  • The 40.47 km 4-lane UP-Haryana Border to Roha on NH 334B costing Rs 1509 crore.

United States remains India’s top trading partner for 2nd consecutive year in 2019-20

July 14, 2020
india united states
  • The United States has retained its position as India’s top trading partner for the second consecutive financial year in 2019-20.
  • As per the data of the Ministry of Commerce, the bilateral trade between the US and India in 2019-20 stood at $88.75 billion as against $87.96 billion in 2018-19.
  • In 2018-19, the US for the first time surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner.
  • China was India’s top trading partner since 2013-14 till 2017-18 and before China, UAE was the largest trading nation in India.
  • The bilateral trade between India and China dropped to $81.87 billion in 2019-20 from $87.08 billion in 2018-19.

Indian Railways will be the largest Railway in the world to have 100 percent electrification by 2030

July 14, 2020
railway minister
  • Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has said that Indian Railways will be the largest Railway in the world to have 100 percent electrification replacing diesel at the India Global Week-2020.
  • It will be the world’s first Green Railways running on 100 percent clean energy by 2030.
  • The government has opened up for bidding for additional 151 trains inviting private participation so the passengers can enjoy world-class facilities and high-speed journeys.

NITI Aayog presents India’s second Voluntary National Review at UN, titled ‘Decade of Action: Taking SDGs From Global to Local’

July 14, 2020
Decade of Action Taking SDGs From Global to Local
  • NITI Aayog presented India’s second Voluntary National Review (VNR) at the United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, 2020.
  • The India VNR 2020 report was titled Decade of Action: Taking SDGs from Global to Local.
  • The report was presented by Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog.
  • The HLPF is the foremost international platform for countries to present its follow-up and review of progress on achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • It is organized annually in July for eight days under the auspices of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN

India Ranks Eighth For Cancer Preparedness index 2020 Among 10 Asia-Pacific Countries

July 13, 2020
cancer preparedness
  • India has been ranked eighth for cancer preparedness among 10 Asia-Pacific countries where Australia ranked 1st.
  • The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report on “Cancer preparedness in Asia-Pacific: Progress towards universal cancer control”, sponsored by Roche, examines the findings from the EIU’s Index of Cancer Preparedness.
  • The report describes the complexities of the challenge of cancer facing 10 Asia-Pacific countries Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.