Current Affairs for IAS Exams - 14 June 2020

::NATIONAL::

Government launches portal for healthcare supply chain

• AarogyaPath, a web based solution for the healthcare supply chain was launched to serve manufacturers, suppliers and customers to effectively deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. This national healthcare supply chain portal will remove supply chain bottlenecks during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The vision of this initiative is to set up an information management and forecasting database platform at national level. It will capture demand and supply scenarios for key healthcare needs items. This public platform will help healthcare users like hospitals, pathology laboratories, research institutes, medical colleges and patients.
• It will also provide seamless access to suppliers, manufacturers and importers for prevailing needs and demand related to medical equipment, diagnostic instruments, drugs, Personal Protective Equipment, respiratory assistance devices.
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR said that AarogyaPath will become the national healthcare information platform of choice in the years to come. It said it will fill a critical gap in last-mile delivery of patient care within India through improved availability and affordability of healthcare supplies.

Returning migrants might be deployed for completion of JalJeevan mission 

• The flagship programme of the NarendraModi government in its second avatar, the JalJeevan Mission, or providing piped drinking water to all rural households by 2024, is also being pushed as a way to ameliorate some of the effects of the mass migration of inter-State workers back to their home States in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Jal Shakti Ministry, the nodal ministry for the implementation of the scheme, has written to various States that returning labour, especially those working in the construction sector (skilled, unskilled and semi-skilled), may be deployed to expedite the completion of works under the scheme, as an arrangement that could provide employment to the currently unemployed workers.
• Skill mapping by various State governments has shown that a majority of inter-State workers returning home are from the construction sector. In Uttar Pradesh alone, 16 lakh out the 18 lakh migrant labour mapped till now are from this sector.
• The State has assured funding of ₹3,382 crore coming its way under the JalJeevan Mission, which, officials say, should be utilised in providing employment in rural areas to returning migrants. Bihar, another big receiver State, has funds ₹2,090 crore available under the scheme.

::ECONOMY::

PM-EAC moots fine tuning of stimulus package

• The government’s ₹20.97 lakh crore rescue package for the economy is not cast in iron and there is scope to fine-tune it, the PM’s economic advisory council (EAC-PM) member AshimaGoyal said on Saturday.
• Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had announced the package in five tranches, which included ₹3.7 lakh crore support for MSMEs, ₹75,000 crore for NBFCs and ₹90,000 crore for power distribution companies, free foodgrains to migrant workers, increased allocation for MGNREGS, tax relief to certain sections and ₹15,000 crore allocated to the healthcare sector. On revival of India’s growth, Dr.Goyal said the COVID-19 pandemic was a ‘temporary exogenous shock’ for the economy.
• The COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdowns have severely disrupted economic activities.S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings have said India’s economy will shrink by 5% in the current fiscal, while Moody’s has projected a contraction of 4%.
• Commenting on India’s reserves crossing the $500 billion mark, Dr.Goyal said, “Our foreign exchange reserves are borrowed reserves. Best way to increase foreign exchange reserves is to attract investment”.

RBI to review ownership and corporate structure of private banks

• The Reserve Bank of India has constituted a five-member Internal Working Group to review the guidelines related to ownership, governance and corporate structure of private sector banks. 
• In a press release, RBI informed that RBI Central Board Director P K Mohanty will head the committee, which will submit its report by 30th September, 2020.
• The panel will also examine norms for promoter shareholding at the initial/licensing stage and subsequently, along with the timelines for dilution of the shareholding.
• RBI said, it is necessary to align regulations to meet the requirements of a dynamic banking landscape as macro-economic, financial market and technological developments continue to influence the future of banking.
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::INTERNATIONAL::

Nepal parliament passes amendment on new map

• The Lower House of Nepal's Parliament on Saturday unanimously voted for the Second Constitution Amendment Bill, which guarantees legal status for the new political map of the country that includes part of Indian territory in Uttarakhand.
• Responding to the development, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said it had “noted” the legislative process.
• “The artificial enlargement of claims is not based on historical fact or evidence and is not tenable. It is also violative of our current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues,” said MEA spokesperson AnuragSrivastava.
• The voting showed that members from all the political parties of the PratinidhiSabha voted in favour of the motion moved by the government of Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli.
• Apart from the ruling Nepal Communist Party, the amendment received support of the Nepali Congress and the newly formed JanataSamajvadi Party-Nepal.

India holds discussion with Laos on COVID challenges

• Prime Minister NarendraModi yesterday spoke on phone with Prime Minister of Laos People's Democratic Republic (PDR) Dr.ThonglounSisoulith. The two leaders exchanged views on the health and economic challenges posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Prime Minister commended the effective measures undertaken by the Government of Laos PDR to contain spread of the pandemic in Laos.
• Both leaders agreed on the need for international cooperation and for sharing of best-practices and experiences, in order to prepare for the post-COVID world. 
• Mr Modi highlighted India’s historic and cultural links with Laos and expressed satisfaction at being involved in the restoration of the World Heritage Site at Vat Phou.
• Laos Prime Minister thanked Prime Minister Modi for India’s support for Laos development programmes, in capacity building and for scholarships. Mr Modi reiterated India’s commitment to continue its development partnership with Laos PDR, a valued partner in India’s extended neighbourhood.

::SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY::

Researchers develop AI based system to track social distancing

• A group of researchers at IIT-Kharagpur has developed a cyber-physical system based on artificial intelligence for monitoring social distancing in public places, an official said on Saturday.
• The team, under the leadership of professorDebashishChakravarty and professor AdityaBandopadhyay, has engineered a low-cost device which can detect the gap between individuals, a spokesperson of IIT-KGP said.
• "The device will play a proximity alert sound through audio output, whenever any violation of the social distancing norms occurs. It captures images of the field view and computes the distance as per criteria set by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare," a member of the research group said.
• The researchers had focused on the ease of deployment of such a device in remote places and curtailing the cost by using inexpensive and easily accessible hardware materials, he said.
• Students have come up with the device leveraging readily-available hardware while the lockdown was in place, the spokesperson said.
• The system has been successfully tested by installing three prototypes of the device within the IIT-Kharagpur campus.

::SPORTS::

NADA issues notices to cricket players failing to disclose whereabouts

• Five centrally contracted Indian cricketers including CheteshwarPujara, RavindraJadeja and K.L. Rahul have been issued notices by National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for failing to disclose their whereabouts as the BCCI cited “password glitch” as the reason for delay.
• The other players to have received the notice include women stars SmritiMandhana and Deepti Sharma, who are among the five cricketers in the 110 strong National Registered Testing Pool (NRTP).