MADE EASY WEEKLY CURRENT

AFFAIRS

WEEK-315th May - 21st May

Targeted Examinations:

CSE, ESE, PSUs, State Exams, SSC and Banking Exams

Current Affairs MADE EASY

(15th May to 21st May 2020)

15th May 2020

Recently granted GI Tags

• The Government of India recently granted Geographical Indications (GI) Tag to

Sohrai Khovar painting (Jharkhand) and Telia Rumal (Telangana).

• The application for the Sohrai Khovar painting of Jharkhand was made by Sohrai

Kala Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti, whereas for Telia Rumal application was made by

the Consortium of Puttapaka Handloom Cluster.

• Sohrai Khovar Painting

▪ The painting is created by the local tribal women in

Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. It is a traditional and

ritualistic mural art.

▪ It is created during marriage and harvest seasons. The

tribal women use naturally available soils of different

colours.

• Telia Rumal

▪ The Telia Rumal of Telangana is made of complex

handmade work over cotton loomed cloth. The process is

complicated and can be created only through traditional

handloom processes.

▪ The designs are created in three particular colours which

includes red, white and black.

COBAS 6800

• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched the

COBAS 6800 machine which is completely automated and

performs high end RT-PCR tests to confirm COVID-19

infection as it is more accurate.

• COBAS 6800 is capable of providing test results of 1,200

samples in 24 hours. Thus, the machine will help in

increasing the testing capacity of the country.

• The machine can also detect pathogens such as Hepatitis, HIV, Papiloma, MTb,

Chlamydia, CMV, Neisseria, etc.

• The machine is enabled with robotics. It will help minimize contamination as it

involves very little human intervention. It is the first such machine in India that is

completely automatic.

• It has been placed at National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi.

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EventBot

• The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)

has issued warning against a new malware called “EventBot”.

• The Eventbolt malware steals personal financial information

from phone users. It cheats victims secretly attacking

computer or phone operating system.

• Currently, the malware is capable of targeting more than 200

different financial applications. The malware has already

looted crypto currency wallets, bank accounts in Europe and

USA.

• CERT which operates under Ministry of Electronics and

Information Technology (MeitY), is the nodal agency in India

that deals with hacking, cyber security threats, phishing, etc.

16th May 2020

Carbon Foam

• The scientists from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

(CSIR) have developed light carbon foam which is easy to

fabricate, non-toxic and affordable. It will replace lead-acid

batteries.

• It is also useful to make heat sink, electromagnetic

interference shielding in aerospace, electrode for lead-acid

batteries, hydrogen storage and water purification systems.

• Key Highlights:

▪ The raw materials to make the carbon foam are easily available. It also helps to

remove oil, arsenic and other metals from contaminated water.

▪ The carbon foams are porous. The pores in the batteries help increase efficiency.

The micro cells completely make a new type of electrolyte structure. Hence, the

power, energy and life cycle of the batteries increases.

▪ Carbon foam batteries have better life cycle as compared to the lead-acid batteries.

GOAL Programme

• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched GOAL

Programme which aims to provide mentorship to

the tribal youth in digital mode. This will act as

catalyst to bring out more hidden talents of tribal

youth and women. The programme has been launched in partnership with Facebook.

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• The programme will focus on three areas such as life skills, digital literacy and

leadership, and entrepreneurship on sectors such as agriculture, handicrafts and

textiles, art and culture, nutrition, etc.

• It will also help them to acquire knowledge and skills through mentorship in food

processing, horticulture, bee keeping, medicinal herbs, etc.

• GOAL is an abbreviation for Going Online As Leaders.

Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme

• The Ministry of Defence has approved Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme under

which Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and ordinance

factories to create testing facilities for ammunition, firearms, radar and electronic

arms.

• Under the scheme, over six to eight test facilities are to be brought in the country.

75% of the cost to set up these facilities will be borne by the Central Government.

The rest of 25% is to come through private entities and the State governments. The

scheme is to be implemented at an estimated amount of Rs. 400 crores.

• This will help in promoting indigenous defence capacities of the country especially

amongst MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) sector and startups.

• The scheme will also help to aid India’s Defence Export targets. During the DefExpo

2020, India had set a target of boosting defence exports to 5 billion USD in next five

years.

17th May 2020

Tour of Duty (ToD)

• In order to help the country fight unemployment generated due to COVID-19 and also

citing resurgence of nationalism and patriotism, the Indian Army has launched Tour

of Duty (ToD)-a three-year internship for youths to work as officers and soldiers in

the Indian Army.

• ToD is for those who do not wish to take defence services as a career, but still want to

experience adventure and thrills in armed forces. However, the entry criteria for these

candidates are not to be relaxed.

• The GoI through the initiative also tries to channelize the youths in the country

through trained, diligent, disciplined military practices. More corporates are expected

to come forward to hire these youths after their 3 years of services with the military.

61st Cavalry of Indian Army

• The 61st Cavalry regiment of Indian Army was raised in

1953 by amalgamating the horse mounted cavalry units in

the princely states of India.

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• Context:

▪ The Indian Army is to convert the 61st cavalry, the only horse serving cavalry

in the world into a regular armoured regiment with tanks.

▪ The main aim of the plan is to convert the 61st cavalry into a combat force.

This is largely a ceremonial unit that is based in Jaipur.

▪ After changing the cavalry into a combat force, the commanding officers will

have independent squadrons of tanks under them. There are oppositions to the

steps claiming that it will destroy the glorious tradition that lives with the

regiment.

18th May 2020

e-Education Initiatives

• PM e-Vidya

▪ PM e-Vidya which to be launched aims to unify the efforts related to online

education. It will also increase multi-mode access to education. It will include two

major initiatives namely One Nation One Digital Platform and One Class One

Channel.

▪ One National One Digital Platform: It will include DIKSHA (Digital

Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) to provide quality content to school

children.

▪ One Class One Channel: The One Class One Channel initiative will provide

quality education material for all classes from Class 1 to Class 12. This will

include Swayam online courses, study material for differently abled people called

DAISY (Digitally Accessible Information System).

▪ Mandorapan Initiative: The initiative is to provide psychological support to

teachers, students and families. It will provide support to national directory of

counsellors. A toll-free help line will be launched for this.

• National Curriculum and Pedagogical Framework

In order to promote creative and critical thinking and also to improve communication

skills of the students, joyful and experimental learning are to be focused under this

framework.

• National Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Mission

▪ The initiative will make sure every child attains foundational literacy and

numeracy in Grade 3. In order to achieve this, the mission will aim at teacher

capacity building, robust curricular framework, engaging online and offline

learning materials.

▪ The mission aims to cover the learning needs of more than 4 crore children in the

age group 3 to 11 years.

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Shekatkar Committee

• The Union Government has implemented the recommendations made by the

Shekatkar Committee to create border infrastructure.

• The Shekatkar Committee was formed by the Ministry of Defence under

chairmanship of Lt General (Retd.) DB Shekatkar in 2018.

• Key Recommendations:

▪ Engineering Procurement Contract (EPC) to be executed the works that costs

more than Rs 100 crores.

▪ The procurement power of Border Road Organization has been enhanced from Rs

7.5 crores to Rs 100 crores.

▪ New Technologies such as blasting technology, use of Geo-Textiles, plastic

coated aggregates for surfacing, cementitious base for pavements are being used

to enhance pace of construction.

▪ The statutory clearances and land acquisition for forest and environmental

clearances have been made part of Detailed Project Report.

▪ The committee recommended closure of military farms in peace regions.

▪ The recruitment standard for the drivers in the army and clerical staff was

enhanced.

▪ The committee recommended reorganization of Army Headquarters. The number

of officers in the army headquarters to be reduced by 200.

Troglomyces twitteri

• Troglomyces twitteri is a new parasitic fungus that

was discovered by a Denmark biologist, and has been

named after Twitter as it was discovered on this social

media platform.

• The biologist Sofia Reboleira of University of

Copenhagen, Denmark founded the species whose

image was posted in Twitter by an entomologist in

2018.

• The photo of the millipede (Millipedes have two pairs of jointed legs, and feed on

decaying leaves and dead matter) had tiny dots that looked like Fungi. The Fungi

belongs to the order called Laboulbeniales. These are fungi that attack millipedes and

insects. They look like larvae.

• The Millipedes help in decomposition process. They cause trouble in greenhouses

where they cause severe damages to seedlings. They are harmless to humans.

Baltic Travel Bubble

• The Baltic countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have opened their borders to one

another creating “travel bubble”. This is being called the Baltic Travel Bubble. These

countries are not badly affected due to COVID-19 like the other European countries.

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• With the opening of the borders, the citizens and residents of these countries can

move freely. However, people coming from outside the zone are being quarantined

for 14 days. This is the first travel bubble created since the lockdown ended.

• Travel Bubble: The term Travel Bubble came into existence in the month of April

2020. Under the travel bubble strategy, the governments will open the travel

pertaining to safe travel zones in the world. This will include regions where the virus

risk is minimal. This was initiated by Australia and New Zealand. These countries

agreed to the idea of travel bubble between them recently.

Gaganyaan Mission

• Gaganyaan is a planned crewed space programme of ISRO. The Mission is to be

launched in December 2021. Under the programme, three air force pilots will be

carried to space. India had sent its pilots to Russia to get trained for the Gaganyaan

mission.

• Along with the crew, a female-looking robot Vyommitra is to accompany the

astronauts. The robot will provide warnings if the environmental changes within the

cabin get uncomfortable to the astronauts. The flight duration will be approximately

for 7 days.

• Context: ISRO has identified 17 technologies at lower costs from Indian start-ups to

use in Gaganyaan mission. The technologies identified include food and medicine for

astronauts, life support systems, inflatable habitats, thermal protection technologies

and anti-radiation technologies. ISRO will also share its intellectual properties with

the companies participating in the mission.

19th May 2020

Garbage Free Cities Star Rating

• The Garbage Free Cities Rating System was

launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban

Affairs in 2018. This was launched to provide a

mechanism to achieve Garbage free status to

cities. Such a rating system motivates cities to

achieve higher cleanliness.

• The rating mainly focuses on solid waste management.

• Context:

▪ The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has released list of garbage free cities

for the year 2019-20.

▪ According to a statement by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, cities that

got the 5-star rating are Mysuru, Ambikapur, Rajkot, Surat, Navi Mumbai, and

Indore. New Delhi got 3-star garbage-free rating, alongside Ahmedabad, Bhopal,

Jamshedpur, Tirupati, Karnal, Bhilai Nagar, and Vijayawada.

▪ The ministry has given 3-star rating to 65 cities and 1-star rating to 70 cities.

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Super Earth • The scientists from New Zealand have discovered the Super

Earth, which potentially holds the conditions to sustain

human life.

• The Super Earth is one of the handful of planets discovered

that are of the same size and orbiting distance as that of the

earth. The host star of the planet is 10% the mass of the sun.

• The discovered planet is larger than the earth and could be

cold according to the scientists as the star is much smaller than the Sun. Due to this

reason, water may not exist in its liquid state, but might occur as ice. As the planet is

heavier in mass, it might take 617 days to revolve around its star. The planet is 111

light years away from the earth.

• The Super Earth, according to the scientist might possess Goldilocks Zone in the

future. Goldilocks Zone is the space around a star where temperature aptly sustains

water in liquid state. The space also supports life.

New Map of Nepal

• Nepal has launched a new political map that included the territories of Kalapani,

Lipuleh and Limpiyadhura territories which have been claimed by India as well. In

October 2019, India had issued a new political map that included Lipulekh and

Kalapani on its side of border.

• Issue: India recently inaugurated a road section in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand.

According to India, under Treaty of Sugauli, Limpiyadhura is the point of origin of

Kali River. It is the point where Nepal border begins.

• Background: In 1816, the Kingdom of Nepal and British India signed the Treaty of

Sugauli under which Kali River was fixed as the Western Border of Nepal. The issue

has arisen in locating the source of the river that led to boundary disputes between

India and Nepal. Both the countries are supporting their own claims.

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20th May 2020

Ayushman Bharat

• The Ayushman Bharat Scheme which was launched in 2018, provides an insurance

cover of Rs. 5 lakh per annum per family. The eligible families under the scheme are

fixed based on the Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC).

• Context:

▪ The number of beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat has touched 1 crore. On this

occasion, PM Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with the one croreth

beneficiary of the scheme.

▪ The Government of India has made the testing and treatment of COVID-19 free

under Ayushman Bharat. The testing of COVID-19 is being carried out according

to the protocols fixed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Amphan Super Cyclone

• The Amphan Super Cyclone recently hit West Bengal and

some coastal parts of Odisha with wind speeds between

150 km/hr and 160 km/hr. In order to review the

preparatory measures, the National Crisis Management

Committee met under the chairmanship of Cabinet

Secretary, which oversees the command, coordination and

control of disaster response.

• The rapid intensification of Amphan into a Super Cyclone

happened mainly because of rapid warming up of Bay of

Bengal. The main reasons that led to rapid intensification

of the cyclone are high sea surface temperature, enough moisture in the middle layers

of the atmosphere and low vertical shear winds.

• Note: Both hurricanes and cyclones are tropical cyclones. They are named differently

based on their region of formation. Cyclones are formed in South Pacific and Indian

Oceans. On the other hand, hurricanes are formed in North Atlantic, Eastern and

Central Pacific Oceans.

Charan Paduka Campaign

• Charan Paduka Campaign has been launched in Madhya Pradesh for the migrant

workers passing through the state.

• Under the campaign the migrant workers were provided with shoes and slippers to

reduce their plight of journey.

• The campaign is being conducted by the Police of Madhya Pradesh state.

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World Health Assembly

• The World Health Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the World Health

Organization (WHO). It is mainly composed of health ministers of member countries.

The members of the assembly meet every year in Geneva during the month of May.

• It approves works of World Health Organization and also budgets and elects its

Director General.

• Context:

▪ In this year’s World Health Assembly, India was represented by Union Minister

Dr. Harsh Vardhan who has also been elected as chairman of the Executive Board

of the WHO. He succeeds Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan.

▪ Apart from COVID-19, the World Health Assembly also addressed Global

Vaccine Plan, polio eradication and neglected tropical diseases.

▪ Around 120 countries backed the resolution to conduct investigation on China

over the origin of COVID-19.

National Test Abhyas

• The Ministry Human Resources Development (MHRD) recently

launched a new mobile application called National Test Abhyas. It

was developed by the National Testing Agency.

• The application will help the candidates to take mock tests for

exams such as JEE Mains, NEET, etc. The application is powered

by Artificial Intelligence and therefore the students will get instant

results after taking the tests.

• National Testing Agency (NTA): It conducts the competitive exams in the country.

This includes JEE, NEET, GPAT, UGC, NET, etc. The NTA is an autonomous

organization. It was established under the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860.

21st May 2020

Agappe Chitra Magna

• Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and

Technology (SCTIMST) operating under Department of

Science and Technology has launched magnetic nano-

particle based RNA extraction kit called Agappe Chitra

Magna.

• The kit was validated by the National Institute of

Virology. The kit was developed by the SCTIMST and was transferred to Agappe

Diagnostics and hence the name Agappe Chitra Magna kit. The approval of the kit

was provided by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO).

• The kit enhanced detection of positive cases of COVID-19. This is because the

magnetic nanoparticles bind to the viral RNA and give concentrated RNA.

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Konark Sun Temple

• The Konark Sun Temple is a world heritage monument, built

by King Narasimhadeva-I in the 13th century AD. The temple

had been designed in the shape of a chariot. It was declared a

UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984.

• The temple was once called the Black Pagoda as it was then

believed to draw ships and cause shipwrecks.

• Context: The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has

launched a scheme to solarize the Konark sun temple and

town completely.

▪ The scheme has been launched to develop the historic Sun Temple in the town of

Konark. The development will be to deliver the message of synergy between the

Sun temple and the modern use of solar energy.

▪ The scheme will set up 10 MW grid connected solar project. It will also launch

applications such as solar drinking water kiosks, solar trees and off grid solar

power plants with battery storage.

▪ The project is to be implemented by Odisha Renewable Energy Development

Agency.

Fifteenth Finance Commission

• The Finance Commission is a constitutional body established under Article 280 of the

Constitution of India. It is constituted by the President of India for the period of the 5

years, to seek suggestions on the share of states in the Centre’s taxes.

• The 15th Finance Commission is headed by N.K. Singh. The duration of the 15th

Finance Commission was supposed to be from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2025 but

it is 2021-26 for the full set of recommendations.

▪ Formation: 27 November 2017

▪ Chairman: N.K. Singh

Full-time Members: Ashok Lahiri, Ajay Narayan Jha, and Anoop Singh.

Part-Time Member: Ramesh Chand

[Shaktikanta Das served as a member of the Commission from November 2017 to

December 2018.]

▪ Parent Department: Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance

• Context:

▪ The Fifteenth Finance Commission recently discussed health sector and fiscal

consolidation in the country.

▪ A high-level group was constituted by the Finance Commission on health sector.

The group had submitted its report in August 2019. Some of its recommendations

were incorporated in the first report of the Finance Commission for the year 2020-

21.

▪ The group has now been asked to recommend measures to contain the spread of

COVID-19.

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