Daily Current Affairs 3 July 2020 | UPSC Current Affairs 2020

Current Affairs Of Today Are

1) Delhi govt. launches India’s first plasma bank at ILBS Hospital

• To enable the search for plasma donors more systematic, the Delhi government inaugurated India’s first plasma bank at ILBS Hospital Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to those who have recovered from COVID­19 to come forward and donate plasma to help others recover. 

Eligibility checklist

• They should be between 18­60 years, weigh above 50 kgs and need to have been virus-free for over 14 days
• Women who have been pregnant at some time in their life, people with diabetes, hypertension, cancer survivors, those with chronic heart, liver, lung and kidney diseases, and high blood pressure cannot donate plasma. 

Convalescent Plasma Therapy

• Convalescent plasma (CP) therapy is not a new therapy and banks on the age-old concept of passive immunity.
• Basis of the Therapy:
• The convalescent plasma therapy seeks to make use of the antibodies developed in the recovered patient against the coronavirus.
• The whole blood or plasma from such people is taken, and the plasma is then injected in critically ill patients so that the antibodies are transferred and boost their fight against the virus.
• Period for Infusion:
• A study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases stated that a Covid patient usually develops primary immunity against the virus in 10-14 days.
• Therefore, if the plasma is injected at an early stage, it can possibly help fight the virus and prevent severe illness.
• Infusion into Covid-19 Patients:
• The plasma can be infused into two kinds of Covid-19 patients, those with a severe illness or individuals at a higher risk of getting the virus.
• However, while plasma transfers immunity from one person to another, it is not known if it can save lives in Covid-19 infection.
• The treatment could be effective for patients in the age group 40-60 but may be less effective for people aged beyond 60 years.
• Previous Application:
• The United States used plasma of recovered patients to treat patients of Spanish flu (1918-1920).
• Hong Kong used it to treat SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) patients in 2005.
• In 2009, the Swine flu (H1N1) patients were treated with plasma.
• It has also been used to treat critically ill patients during Ebola as well.
• The report of a study, Proceedings of National Academies of Sciences (U.S.), highlighted that CP therapy shows a potential therapeutic effect and low risk in the treatment of severe Covid-19 patients.
• According to the study, one dose (200 ml) of convalescent plasma with a high concentration of neutralizing antibodies is well-tolerated by patients and it can rapidly reduce the viral load in patients and improve clinical symptoms significantly.

Source: The Hindu

2) DAC approves capital acquisition of various platforms & equipment worth Rs 38,900 crore

• Defense Acquisition Council (DAC) in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh accorded approval for the capital acquisition of various platforms and equipment required by the Indian Armed Forces. Proposals for an approximate cost of Rs 38,900 crore were approved.
• Focused on indigenous design and development these approvals include acquisitions from the Indian industry of Rs 31,130 crore. The equipment is going to be manufactured in India involving the Indian defense industry with the participation of several MSMEs as prime-tier vendors. The indigenous content in some of these projects is up to 80 percent of the project cost. A large number of these projects have been made possible due to the Transfer of Technology (ToT) by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to the indigenous industry. These include Pinaka ammunitions, BMP armament upgrades, and software-defined radios for the Indian Army, Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile Systems, and Astra Missiles for the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force (IAF). The cost of these design and development proposals is in the range of Rs 20,400 crore. 
• The acquisition of new/additional missile systems will add to the firepower of three Services. While the acquisition of Pinaka missile systems will enable raising additional regiments over and above the ones already inducted, the addition of Long-Range Land Attack Missile Systems having a firing range of 1,000 kilometers to the existing arsenal will bolster the attack capabilities of the Navy and the Air Force. Similarly, the induction of Astra Missiles having Beyond Visual Range capability will serve as a force multiplier and immensely add to the strike capability of the Navy and Air Force. 
• Further, addressing the long-felt need of the IAF to increase its fighter squadrons, the DAC also approved the proposal for procurement of 21 MIG-29 along with upgradation of existing 59 MIG-29 aircraft and procurement of 12 Su-30 MKI aircraft. While the MIG 29 procurement and upgradation from Russia is estimated to cost Rs 7,418 crore, the Su-30 MKI will be procured from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at an estimated cost of Rs 10,730 crore.

Source: PIB

3) Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020 (DDH2020)

• Hackathon will primarily focus on computational aspects of drug discovery and will have three Tracks. Track-1 will deal with computational modeling for drug design or identifying ‘lead’ compounds from existing databases that may have the potential to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 while Track-2 will encourage participants to develop new tools and algorithms using data analytics and AI/ML approach for predicting drug-like compounds with minimal toxicity and maximal specificity and selectivity. A third track, named Track 3 is a Moon-shot approach that will only deal with novel and out-of-the-box ideas in this field.
• The first phase of the three-phase competition is being launched today. The hackathon consists of challenges that are posted as problem statements and, are based on specific drug discovery topics which, are open to the participants to solve. The competition is open to all Indian students and researchers from India and abroad. Hope that thousands of students will participate in the competition. It is an online competition and anybody anywhere in the country or world can participate. The winners will be given prizes and the best entries will be taken into stage 2 of the competition. The best of stage 2 will go to stage 3. The plan is that at the end of the stage 3 competition the best solutions such as drug molecules or drug targets will be taken to the experimental level and validated for their predictions by either CSIR labs or start-ups.

Background Information and Methodology of Hackathon:

• The hackathon consists of challenges that are posted as problem statements and, are based on specific drug discovery topics which, are open to the participants to solve.
• My Gov portal is being used and any Indian student can participate.
• Professionals and researchers from anywhere in the world can participate.
• Two kinds of challenges problem statements (PS) are being offered and a total of 29 have been identified.
• Track 1 will primarily deal with drug design for anti-COVID-19 hit/lead generation: this is done using tools such as molecular modeling, pharmacophore optimization, molecular docking, hit/lead optimization, etc.
• Track 2 will deal with designing/optimizing new tools and algorithms which will have an immense impact on expediting the process of in silico drug discovery
• There is also a third track called “Moon shot “which allows for working on problems that are ‘out of the box’ nature.

Source: PIB

4) Special Liquidity Scheme for NBFCs/HFCs

• Recently, the Central government has approved the proposal to launch a Special Liquidity Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) to improve its liquidity position.
• In the Budget Speech of 2020-21, it was announced that a mechanism would be devised to provide additional liquidity facility to NBFCs/HFCs over that provided through the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme (PCGS).
• HFCs are specialized NBFCs that have a separate regulator National Housing Bank (NHB).

Key Points

• Details of the Scheme:
• Under the scheme, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) would be set up to manage a Stressed Asset Fund (SAF) of the NBFCs/ HFCs.
• The SPV will issue securities, which would be guaranteed by the Government of India and purchased by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) only.
• The proceeds of the sale of such securities would be used by the SPV to acquire short-term debt of NBFCs/HFCs.
• The Scheme will be administered by the Department of Financial Services (Ministry of Finance).
• Eligibility for NBFCs/ HFCs:
• They should not have net Non Performing Assets (NPAs) of more than 6% as of 31st March 2019.
• They should have made a net profit in at least one of the last two preceding financial years of 2017-18 and 2018-19.
• They should not have been reported under the SMA-1 or SMA-2 category by any bank for their borrowings during the last one year before 1st August 2018.
• Banks classify borrowers into Special Mention Accounts (SMA) based on their delay in repayment.
• SMA-0 loans are overdue between 1 and 30 days.
• SMA-1 loans are overdue between 31 and 60 days.
• SMA-2 loans are overdue between 61 to 90 days.
• The asset turns NPA after 90 days of being overdue.
• Benefits:
• Unlike the Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme, NBFCs/ HFCs do not have to liquidate their current asset portfolio under this scheme.
• Current assets are all the assets of a company that are expected to be used as a result of standard business operations over the next year.
• The scheme would also act as an enabler for the NBFC to get investment grade for bonds issued.
• The Scheme would benefit the real economy by augmenting the lending resources of NBFCs/HFCs/MFls.
• This facility would supplement the liquidity measures taken so far by the Government and RBI.
• Financial implication:
• The direct financial implication for the Central government is Rs. 5 crores, which may be the equity contribution to the SPV.
• Beyond that, there is no financial implication for the government until the guarantee involved is invoked.
• However, on invocation, the extent of government liability would be equal to the amount of default subject to the guarantee ceiling, which has been set at Rs. 30,000 crores.

Non-Banking Financial Company

• NBFC is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956.
• It is engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares/stocks/bonds/debentures/securities issued by Government or local authority or other marketable securities of a like nature, leasing, hire-purchase, insurance business, chit business.
• But, it does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture activity, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods (other than securities), or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of the immovable property.
• A non-banking institution which is a company and has principal business of receiving deposits under any scheme or arrangement in one lump sum or in installments by way of contributions or in any other manner is also a non-banking financial company (Residuary non-banking company).
• Features of NBFCs
• NBFC cannot accept demand deposits.
• NBFCs do not form part of the payment and settlement system and cannot issue cheques drawn on itself.
• The deposit insurance facility of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation is not available to depositors of NBFCs.

Source: PIB

5) Police reform and the crucial judicial actor

• The death of a father and son due to alleged custodial torture in Sathankulam town near Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu has brought into focus the topic “Police reforms and the role of Judiciary “.

Such recurring incidents also raise one significant question:

• How many more times must powerless citizens suffer the blows of a lathi or a baton, the kicks of patent leather boots, be violated by the “wooden rollers” around their private areas, not to mention spending hours inside a police lockup, all as a part of an “investigation” by police searching for “truth”?

Role of judiciary:

• As always, when the conversation veers in this direction it becomes natural to look towards the judiciary as the source of hope and action.
• In this case, the Madurai High Court has taken notice on its own and is “closely” monitoring the situation.

How has the Supreme Court handled this topic in the past?

• Supreme Court has intervened multiple times in the 1990s through cases such as Joginder Kumar v. State of UP [AIR 1994 SC 1349] and D.K. Basu v. State of West Bengal [(1997) 1 SCC 416], where guidelines were passed to try and secure two rights in the context of any state action:
• A right to life.
• A right to know.
• Through the guidelines, the Court sought to curb the power of arrest, as well as ensure that an accused person is made aware of all critical information regarding her arrest and also convey this to friends and family immediately in the event of being taken in custody.
• The Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2008 gave statutory backing to these judicial guidelines; it remains part of the law today.
• Finally, in Prakash Singh v. Union of India (2006) case, the Court pushed through new legislation for governing police forces to be passed by States across India. A key component of the new legislation was a robust setup for accountability that contemplated a grievance redress mechanism. 

What else has been advised by the judiciary to reduce police violence?

• Support for “scientific” investigations.
• The fascination for techniques such as narcoanalysis, ensuring video recording of investigations.
• Passing orders for installing closed-circuit television cameras inside police stations.

Why judicial interventions have failed to curb the violence?

• Judiciary’s approach of simply passing directions and guidelines has proven to be a failure.
• For it is the ordinary magistrate, and not the constitutional court, who is the judicial actor wielding real power to realize the substantial change in police practices.
• The gap between the highest court and the lowly police officer in India has been demonstrated through studies that show how despite criminal laws being struck down as unconstitutional, they continue to be enforced in various parts of the country by local police.

What needs to be done?

• Rather than expend energies in only passing more guidelines, constitutional courts must seriously contend with the concrete cases that come their way and expose how hard it is for a common man to get justice against police violence, either through compensation claims or prosecutions.
• They must shed the institutional baggage which often leads to them protecting the supposedly vulnerable morale of the police. 
• It is time to consider sanctions at a larger scale and impose monetary penalties at the district level, to drive home the message that the erring actions of one officer must be seen as a failure of the force itself.
• They could strike an inspired move by reorienting their guidelines to try and change the practices of magistrates, over whom they exercise powers of superintendence, as opposed to other non-judicial actors.

Source: The Hindu

6) Same Language Subtitling (SLS) project

• The Same Language Subtitling (SLS) project at IIM-Ahmedabad has researched and implemented SLS pilots on TV in eight major Indian languages.
• The project has completed a 23 years journey. And yet, the most critical policy step remains unaccomplished — quality implementation of the policy on TV channels.

About SLS project:

• In 1996 the Same Language Subtitling (SLS) program was launched as a research project.
• Its aim was to examine whether the subtitling of mainstream TV content could help people, especially those who were hard to reach through traditional literacy programs, to improve their reading and writing skills.
• In 1999, SLS was officially put into practice as a literacy intervention program by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), and not-for-profit organization PlanetRead.
• SLS has the proven power to transform much of TV and OTT content consumption into routine reading practice that is inescapable, subconscious, sustainable, scalable, and extremely cost-effective.
• The ‘Accessibility Standards’ of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), framed in September 2019 under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, require 50% of all entertainment content on TV to carry captions in the same language, or SLS, by 2025.
• The main approach of SLS is quite simple: to subtitle audiovisual content in the language of the audio track so the on-screen text and audio match perfectly. While watching TV, viewers can match the words on the screen to the sounds they are hearing simultaneously.

Significance and potential of the project:

• India is globally the first country where the mainstreaming of SLS on TV and streaming content is being advanced for mass reading literacy.
• When SLS is implemented on TV in all Indian languages, as broadcast policy now stipulates, it will automatically give daily reading practice to an estimated 600 million weak readers who currently cannot read and understand the simple text, like a newspaper.
• Within three to five years of regular exposure to SLS on entertainment content already watched, many of them will become functional and some even fluent readers.

Background:

• Close to a billion viewers in India watch on average 3 hours and 46 minutes of TV every day (FICCI-EY, 2019). No other activity, nationally, comes close to commanding four billion person-hours every day.

COVID 19 pandemic situation:

• COVID-19 has further highlighted the potential of the SLS solution for upping the nation’s mass reading skills. Globally, 1.4 billion children, and in India 300 million, have been locked out of schools. Intermittent school openings and closures are to be expected going forward.

Way ahead:

• National implementation of SLS on existing general entertainment content (GEC) on TV and streaming platforms, also known as Over-The-Top (OTT), would revolutionize reading literacy in India.
• This is in addition to having a massive national impact in two other domains, that of media access among Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) people and of language learning.

Source: The Hindu

7) G4 Virus

• Researchers in China have discovered a new form of swine flu that can infect humans, and they believe it has the potential to cause a future pandemic.
• This swine flu has been dubbed the G4 virus and it’s related to the H1N1 flu that caused widespread illness in 2009.

What is the G4 virus, exactly?

• The G4 virus is a newly discovered strain of the H1N1 flu virus.
• It’s basically a virus that’s found in pigs but has combined the swine flu virus with the H1N1 virus that circulates in humans.
• G4 viruses bind to receptor molecules in human cells and can replicate in the outer layer of the respiratory system.

Transmission and symptoms:

• The newly identified virus can efficiently infect ferrets via aerosol transmission, causing severe clinical symptoms in them like sneezing, wheezing, coughing, and a mean maximum weight loss ranging from 7.3 to 9.8 percent of the mammals’ body mass.

Concern:

• It has the potential to become a human virus.
• Of concern is that swine workers show elevated seroprevalence for the G4 virus.
• Moreover, low antigenic cross-reactivity of human influenza vaccine strains with G4 reassortant EA H1N1 virus indicates that preexisting population immunity does not provide protection against G4 viruses.

What is H1N1 influenza?

• Swine flu (H1N1) is a highly contagious respiratory infection caused by a type of Influenza A viruses in humans. It has been named so as people who worked near pigs (or in close contact with them) were seen getting infected by this disease. It was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation in the year 2009 as it was spreading aggressively back then.

Source: Indian Express

8) Lax on safety: On Nevveli and Vizag disasters

• Second Fatal Boiler Blast In Two Months At Plant In Tamil Nadu.
• The blast took place at a power plant of the central government-owned NLC India Limited (formerly known as Neyveli Lignite Corporation Limited) in Cuddalore, about 180 km from the state capital Chennai.
• This once again underscores the value of safety protocols, particularly the Indian Boilers Act.

About the Indian Boilers Act, 1923:

• Enacted to provide mainly for the safety of life and property of persons from the danger of explosions of steam boilers and for achieving uniformity in registration and inspection during operation and maintenance of boilers in India.

Definitions:

• Boiler: Under Section2(b) of the Act, Boiler is any closed vessel exceeding 22.75 liters in capacity which is used expressly for generating steam under pressure and includes any mounting or other fitting attached to such vessel, which is wholly or partly under pressure when is shut off.
• Accident means an explosion of a boiler or steam- pipe or any damage to a boiler or steam- pipe which is calculated to weaken the strength thereof to render it liable to explode.

Conclusion:

• Such accidents are mostly preventable, and occur rarely in the industrialized world, because of impeccable attention to safety. India’s aspirations to industrialize should be founded on safety.

Source: The Hindu

9) Two New Species of Butterfly

Recently, the lepidopterists have discovered the two new species of butterfly i.e. Striped Hairstreak and Elusive Prince in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.

• At present, India has 1,327 species of butterfly as compared to 1,318 species in 2015.
• A lepidopterist is a person who specializes in studying butterflies and moths.

Key Points

• Striped Hairstreak:
• Scientific Name: Yamamotozephyrus kwangtugenesis
• Discovery: It is found in the Vijaynagar village of Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Myanmar.
• It was a subject of interest for the lepidopterists as its genus is diversified into several genera (i.e. sub-divisions) and thus, difficult to trace.
• Habitat:
• It was first recorded in the Hainan province of China.
• It is also found in North America, from the Rocky Mountains
• Elusive Prince:
• Scientific Name: Rohana tonkiniana
• Discovery: It is found in the Miao subdivision situated on the periphery of the Namdapha National Park.
• In India, only a male specimen of the Elusive Prince was found.
• Initially, it was considered as a variant of the Black Prince, but the study revealed that it is different and not recorded in India before.
• Habitat: It was first recorded in Tonkin in North Vietnam.
• The Rohana Genus: It has been represented in India by two species — the Black Prince (Rohana parisatis) and the Brown Prince (Rohana parvata).
• Significance for Arunachal Pradesh:
• These discoveries from Arunachal Pradesh indicate the rich biodiversity of the State.
• The government thus needs to focus on helping volunteers or citizen scientists by providing the support needed. This will help in boosting eco-tourism apart from regular scientific research.

Butterfly

• Butterflies are insects from the order Lepidoptera of phylum Arthropoda which also includes moths.
• Adult butterflies have large, often brightly colored wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight.
• Significance:
• Rich Biodiversity: The abundance of butterflies in any area represents the rich biodiversity.
• Indicator Species: The butterfly acts as an indicator species.
• An indicator species provides information on the overall condition of the ecosystem and of other species in that ecosystem. They reflect the quality and changes in environmental conditions as well as aspects of community composition.
• Pollinator: It acts as a pollinator by helping in pollination and conserving several species of plants.

Namdapha National Park

• It lies at the international border between India and Myanmar within Changlang District in the state of Arunachal Pradesh.
• It is only parked in the World to have the four Feline species of big cat namely the Tiger (Panthera Tigris), Leopard (Panthera Pardus), Snow Leopard (Panthera Uncia) and Clouded Leopard (Neofelis Nebulosa).
• Hoolock Gibbons, the only ‘ape’ species found in India is found in this National Park.

Source: The Hindu