DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 07TH MAY 2020 - Shiksha IAS
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 07TH MAY 2020
Posted on May 8, 2020 by admin
Page: 1
Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation
1. POOR FIND ACCESS TO ACCOUNTS HARD: STUDY.
2. MICROWAVE OVEN TURNS STERILISATION UNIT.
3. A LAB AT THE HEART OF U.S.-CHINA VIRUS SPAT.
4. VIZAG GAS LEAK CLAIMS 11 LIVES;OVER 350 HOSPITALISED.
POOR FIND ACCESS TO ACCOUNTS HARD: STUDY
The Centre said more than 33 crore people had received cash benefits under its COVID-19
relief scheme.
A survey of rural households in six States cautioned that difficulty in accessing bank accounts
meant that the impact of these benefits is more limited for the rural poor.
Forty days after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a COVID-19 relief package,
including extra grain allocations and cash transfers for the poor, Finance Ministry data showed
that ₹34,800 crore has been transferred so far.
Beneficiaries include 20 crore poor women who received the first instalment of ₹500 in their
Jan Dhan bank accounts, indicating more than 98% coverage of the target group.
More than 5.5 crore have got the second instalment as well.
Almost 3 crore pensioners, 8.2 crore farmers, 2.2 crore construction workers and 45 lakh
salaried workers also received benefits.
It is important to note that some of these groups overlap with each other, and some of the
funds are prior existing benefits anyway.
A survey of 130 rural families in Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand and
Madhya Pradesh, conducted by students and volunteers under the guidance of development
economists Reetika Khera and Jean Dreze at the end of April, showed that only a third of the
households had been able to go to the bank last month.
Only 23% of surveyed households said they had received ₹500 in their Jan Dhan bank accounts
or received an SMS notification about it.
About a third of households did not get any money, but more than 40% said they simply did not
know if the money had been received.
“The problem with the government’s decision to give female Jan Dhan account holders ₹500 is
that many poor women have non-JDY accounts.
The survey showed that the foodgrain portion of the relief scheme may have had better reach
among intended beneficiaries, with 96% of surveyed households having received their ration
for April.
Page: 2
Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
MICROWAVE OVEN TURNS STERILISATION UNIT
Rajat Kumar Panigrahy, Principal of the government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Odisha’s
Berhampur, has started transforming discarded microwave ovens into ultraviolet (UV)
sanitisation chambers for the disinfection of mobile phones, pens and other small objects
carried by medical staff working in COVID-19 hospitals.
The ITI will approach the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for validation of this low-
cost UV sanitisation chamber.
Transformation of discarded microwave ovens into UV sanitisation chambers costs only ₹1,200.
Any equipment has to be placed in it for 15 minutes for disinfection and we have also added a
timer for the purpose.
Existing purpose-built UV sanitiser units in the market were found to cost too much, observed
Mr. Panigrahy.
UV light sources, he however found, were quite inexpensive.
The only obstacle was the availability of an affordable sealed chamber, so as to ensure that the
UV rays could not escape posing a threat to human health.
Keeping the concept of ‘wealth from waste’ in mind, Mr. Panigrahy started searching for such a
chamber.
After experimenting with various options, he settled on a discarded microwave oven as the
most suitable choice, a decision that was technically endorsed by some of his friends serving
as faculty in different Indian Institutes of Technology.
Page: 3
Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
Rajat Kumar Panigrahy with his innovation. Special Arrangement Special Arrangement.
A LAB AT THE HEART OF U.S.-CHINA VIRUS SPAT
The Chinese laboratory accused by top American officials of being the source of the
pandemic conducts research on the world’s most dangerous diseases.
S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both claimed that there
is evidence the pathogen came from the lab in Wuhan — the city where the disease was first
detected late last year.
But the World Health Organization (WHO) said Washington had offered no evidence to
support the “speculative” claims, and scientists believe the coronavirus jumped from animals
to humans, possibly at a Wuhan market selling wild animals.
Page: 4Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
The top U.S. epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has echoed the WHO’s statement, telling National
Geographic that all evidence so far “strongly indicates” a natural origin.
China’s Foreign Ministry responded on Wednesday that Mr. Pompeo had no evidence and that
questions over the origin of the virus should be left to scientists, “not politicians who lie for their
own domestic political ends”.
What Do Researchers Do?
Work by the lab’s scientists helped to shed light on the COVID-19 pathogen in the early days of
the outbreak in Wuhan.
In February, they published work concluding that the new virus shared a 79.6% sequence
identity to the SARS coronavirus, and that it was 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a
coronavirus found in bats.
What Does It Handle?
The Wuhan institute houses the largest virus bank in Asia which preserves more than 1,500
strains.
The complex contains Asia’s first maximum-security lab equipped to handle Class 4
pathogens (P4) such as Ebola.
Could There Be A Leak?
US diplomatic cables seen by The Washington Post earlier said that officials were concerned
about inadequate safety standards related to researchers’ handling of SARS-like bat
coronaviruses in the high-security lab.
The institute has said it received samples of the then-unknown virus on December 30,
determined the viral genome sequence on January 2 and submitted information on the
pathogen to the WHO on January 11.
Shi Zhengli, deputy director of the Wuhan P4 lab, said she would “bet her life that (the new
coronavirus) had nothing to do with the lab.
Page: 5Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
A file photo of a lab technician inside the P4 laboratory in
Wuhan.
VIZAG GAS LEAK CLAIMS 11 LIVES; OVER 350 HOSPITALISED
Eleven people, including a six-year-old girl, died and over 350 were admitted to hospitals after
styrene monomer gas leaked from a chemical plant belonging to LG Polymers India at R.R.
Venkatapuram in Visakhapatnam.
The gas leak began around 3.30 a.m. in the plant, which is situated in the midst of a densely
populated area.
It was set up in 1961 in the area, then a suburb.
The gas reportedly spread over a radius of about 3 km, affecting at least five villages.
About 2,000 people were evacuated from the 3-km radius.
Chaotic Situation:
According to eyewitnesses, people initially thought it was a fire accident.
But as the pungent smell spread, people rushed out of their homes, carrying children and
supporting the elderly.
Many, running out of their houses leaving doors unlocked, fell unconscious on the road.
The gas is not lethal but prolonged exposure to it could affect the central nervous system,
which may lead to depletion of oxygen to the brain and cause nausea, vomiting and
breathlessness.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister announced compensation of ₹1 crore for family members of the
Page: 6Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
deceased.
This amount includes the compensation to be paid by the company he said.
He also announced that a four-member committee, headed by the Special Chief Secretary,
Environment and Forests, would inquire into the incident.
Page: 7Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
Page: 8Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
WORD OF THE DAY
Benzene:
Benzene (C6H6), simplest organic, aromatic hydrocarbon and parent compound of numerous
important aromatic compounds.
Benzene is a colourless liquid with a characteristic odourand is primarily used in the production
of polystyrene.
It is highly toxic and is a known carcinogen; exposure to it may cause leukemia.
Page: 9Best IAS Coaching in Bangalore Daily Current Affairs 07th May 2020
Shiksha IAS https://iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-07th-may-2020/
There are no comments yet.
Page: 10You can also read
