Daily Current Affairs 03rd April 2020 iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-03rd-april-2020/
Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation 1. PM ASKS STATES TO SUGGEST PLAN FOR STAGGERED END TO LOCKDOWN. 2. VIRUS CASES DOUBLE IN INDIA IN FIVE DAYS. 3. GEO-FENCING APP WILL BE USED TO LOCATE QUARANTINE VILOATORS. 4. TABLIGHI JAMAAT: ON A MISSION TO PURIFY ISLAM. 5. DOCTORS WARY OF BCG VACCINE STUDY. 6. DRDO DEVELOPS BIO SUIT, SEALANT FOR SAFETY GEAR.
PM ASKS STATES TO SUGGEST PLAN FOR STAGGERED END TO LOCKDOWN Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at his second videoconference with Chief Ministers, on Thursday told them that it was “important to formulate a common exit strategy to ensure staggered re-emergence of the population once the lockdown ends”. Modi emphasised that the collective goal of all should be to “ save every Indian”. He asked the States to brainstorm and send suggestions for the exit strategy. Our first priority for the next few weeks should be testing, tracing, isolating and quarantine. For this, all State to district level efforts must be coordinated,” he pointed out. Modi urged that district-level disease surveillance officers should be appointed as soon as possible to make sure that penetration of this strategy is optimum. Data collected from private laboratories allowed to test should be collated district-wise to be utilised for further strategising on tackling the pandemic. He emphasised that the supply lines for medical equipment and drugs and raw materials needed for the manufacture of these products need to be kept seamless, even more than supplies of other products.
Separate Hospitals: Every State should ensure that there are separate hospitals for COVID-19 patients, and the doctors attending to them need to be protected. I would also urge you to step up online training of doctors in the treatment of COVID-19, he said. 1/10
This being the harvest season in many parts of the country, farmers and labourers, exempted from the lockdown, were engaged in harvest operations and they should maintain some physical distancing even on fields. As for procurement, we must find ways to do it beyond the route of Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMC). A truck pooling scheme should also be worked out with farmers for ferrying produce to the market. Harvesting will possibly need to be done in a staggered manner,. The Centre would release ₹11,000 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund by this month, and it should be used for efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The monies and grains released under the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana should be disbursed speedily. Significantly, he also told the Chief Ministers that volunteers of the National Cadet Corps and the National Service Scheme would also be recruited in the effort to combat COVID-19. Other than this, crisis management groups should coordinate with as many NGOs as possible and strategies should be shared with all stakeholders as we need everyone’s help at this time. Modi also urged the States that immunity boosting methods used by traditional systems of medicines in India such as Ayurveda should be promoted as fatalities were high among those with compromised immunity. “These are our traditional ways of boosting immunity,” he said pointing to the fact that an advisory by the AYUSH Ministry had been issued in this regard.
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VIRUS CASES DOUBLE IN INDIA IN FIVE DAYS The number of COVID-19 cases in India has doubled in the past week, with 328 more cases and 12 deaths reported on Thursday. The tally now stands at 2,069 cases, with 53 deaths and 155 cured of the novel coronavirus infection. The Health Ministry said there were reports of several doctors, nurses and paramedics testing positive. The number of cases increased sharply from 909 this weekend, and the Health Ministry confirmed that it was looking at tweaking the testing protocol With a rapid anti-body test in hot-spots, where those indicating a positive would be sent for confirmation and the others would be quarantined. The Health Ministry said extensive action was being taken in Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, after a death due to COVID-19 was reported there.
GEO-FENCING APP WILL BE USED TO LOCATE QUARANTINE VILOATORS The Centre is using powers under the Indian Telegraph Act to “fetch information” from telecom companies every 15 minutes to track COVID-19 cases across the country. The government has tested an application that triggers e-mails and SMS alerts to an authorised government agency if a person has jumped quarantine or escaped from isolation, based on the person’s mobile phone’s cell tower location. The “geo-fencing” is accurate by up to 300 m , a government communication said.
Used by Kerala: Kerala was one of the first States to use geo-fencing to track COVID-19 cases. On March 29, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) shared a standard operating procedure (SOP) with all telecom service providers regarding the application called COVID-19 Quarantine Alert System (CQAS). The system will collate phone data, including the device’s location, on a common secured platform and alert the local agencies in case of a violation by COVID-19 patients under watch or in isolation.
Secure Network: The SOP says that the DoT and C-DOT, in coordination with telecom service providers, have developed and tested the application. It said the location information is received periodically over a secure network for the authorised cases with “due protection of the data received”.
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The States have been asked to seek the approval of their Home Secretaries under the provisions of Section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, for the specified mobile phone numbers to request the DoT to provide information by email or SMS in case of violation of “geo-fencing”. The particular provision under the Act, amended multiple times since 1885, authorises the State or the Centre to access information of a user’s phone data in case of “occurrence of any public emergency or in the interest of the public safety.” The CQAS will prepare a list of mobile numbers, segregating them on the basis of telecom service providers, and the location data provided by the companies will be run on the application to create geo-fencing, the SOP said.
Data Will Be Deleted: It said that the phone number should be deleted from the system after the period for which location monitoring is required is over and the data would be deleted four weeks from thereon. “The data collected shall be used only for the purpose of Health Management in the context of COVID-19 and is strictly not for any other purposes. Any violation in this regard would attract penal provisions under the relevant laws,” the SOP said. The SOP said that geo-fencing will only work if the quarantined person has a mobile phone from Airtel, Vodafone-Idea or Reliance Jio, as “BSNL/MTNL” do not support location based services. BSNL and MTNL are government owned.
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TABLIGHI JAMAAT: ON A MISSION TO PURIFY ISLAM At least 2,000 people, both from across the country and foreign nations such as Indonesia and Malaysia, had attended the gathering in Nizamuddin that started in early March and went on for a couple of weeks. Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, leader of the group, has been booked by the Delhi police under the Epidemic Disease Act.
Jamaat’s Origins: The Tablighi Jamaat (Society of Preachers) was founded by a Deobandi Islamic scholar Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi in Mewat, India, in 1926. Al-Kandhlawi’s goal was to establish a group of dedicated preachers as a Muslim revivalist society, who could revive “true” Islam, which he saw was not being practised by many Muslims. The slogan Al-Kandhlawi coined for his new organisation captured the essence of its activities — “Oh Muslims, become true Muslims”. Al-Kandhlawi called upon his fellow Muslims to “ enjoin the good and forbid the evil”. Al-Kandhlawi’s mission was also to revive his faith, but based on its core teachings and lifestyle of its early leaders. Also in Mewat where the Tablighi was founded, the Meos Muslims, a Rajput ethnic group, had followed syncretic traditions. Al-Kandhlawi wanted to end it all through dawa (proselytising). He sent his volunteers to villages to spread “the message of Allah”. The organisation grew fast in British India. In its annual conference held in November 1941, some 25,000 people attended. After Partition, it grew stronger in Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Now, Tablighi’s largest national wing is in Bangladesh. The group has presence in 150 countries and millions of followers.
Purify The Faith: Inspired by the Deobandi creed, the Tablighis urge fellow Muslims to live like the Prophet did. They are theologically opposed to the syncretic nature of Sufi Islam and insist on its members to dress like the Prophet did (trouser or robe should be above the ankle). Men usually shave their upper lip and keep long beard. The focus of the organisation was on ‘purifying’ the Muslim faith. The organisation has a loose structure. The Emir is the leader of the international movement and is always related to the group’s founder Muhammad Ilyas alKandhlawi. The current leader, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, is the grandson of the founder. The group also has a Shura Council, which is largely an advisory council with different national units and national headquarters. 5/10
Key Activities: The Tablighi Jamaat members have declared they are not political. They have also decried violence in the name of religion. They say the Prophet Mohammed has commanded all Muslims to convey the message of Allah, and the Tablighis take this as their duty. They divide themselves into small Jamaats (societies) and travel frequently across the world to spread the message of Islam to Muslim houses. The group’s modus operandi is peaceful and it is focused entirely on the Muslim community worldwide. “There is a culture of secretism in the organisation, which develops suspicion,” Ajit Doval, now India’s National Security Adviser and a former intelligence boss, said in 2013.
The Tablighi members have declared they are apolitical and decried violence in the name of religion.PTIPTI
Why in News? The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has blacklisted 960 foreigners, present in India on tourist visas, for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat activities. It has also directed the Directors General of Police of all the concerned States and Union Territories including Delhi Police to take necessary action against all such violators, on priority, under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946, and Disaster Management Act, 2005. A blacklisted foreigner cannot get a visa from any of the missions abroad to come to India. About 9,000 people linked to the Nizamuddin event have been traced in different parts of the country. 6/10
DOCTORS WARY OF BCG VACCINE STUDY BCG Vaccine: Bacillus Calmette–Guérin(BCG) vaccine is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis (TB). In countries where tuberculosis or leprosy is common, one dose is recommended in healthy babies as close to the time of birth as possible. Adults who do not have tuberculosis and have not been previously immunized but are frequently exposed may be immunized as well. Additionally it is sometimes used as part of the treatment of bladder cancer. The BCG vaccine was first used medically in 1921. It is on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system.
What does BCG vaccination consist of? BCG vaccine consists of the strains of bacterium that cause lung tuberculosis in humans. The strain is named Mycobacterium Bovis. During vaccine making, the strength of active bacteria is reduced so that it does not cause disease in healthy people. It is called an active ingredient in the language of medicine. In addition to this, the vaccine contains sodium, potassium and magnesium salts, glycerol and citric acid.
BCG vaccine in India: The BCG vaccine was first introduced in India as a pilot project in the year 1948. The very next year, in 1949, it was started in schools across the country. In 1962, the National TB Program started in India and children were vaccinated soon after birth across the country. According to this, it can be assumed that a large population in India is BCG vaccinated.
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BCG Vaccination Scar on Arm.
Why in News? Doctors and scientists in India have expressed caution on a study which argues that countries that have deployed the BCG-tuberculosis vaccine in their immunisation programmes have seen fewer deaths from COVID-19. The study argues that 55 middle and high-income countries chosen for the analysis that have a current universal BCG policy had 78 deaths per million people. Whereas middle and high income countries that never had a universal BCG policy (five countries) had a larger mortality rate, with 39 deaths per million people, a significant variation. India wasn’t included in the analysis. The BCG vaccine is known to confer a strong immune response that have protective effects beyond just staving off a tuberculosis infection and because COVID-19 was particularly lethal to the elderly, those countries where the elderly were likely to have had a BCG shot in their childhood were likely to be better protected against the coronavirus. “Italy, where the COVID-19 mortality is very high, never implemented universal BCG vaccination. Japan [and which has a BCG policy since 1947] has maintained a low mortality rate despite not implementing the most strict forms of social isolation.
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DRDO DEVELOPS BIO SUIT, SEALANT FOR SAFETY GEAR In a major breakthrough, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape which is critical in personal protective equipment (PPE). A bio suit was also developed to keep medical and other personnel engaged in combating COVID-19 safe from the deadly virus. The DRDO has prepared a special sealant as an alternative to seam sealing tape based on the sealant used in submarine applications. Presently, bio suits prepared using this glue for seam sealing by an industry partner has cleared test at the Southern India Textile Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore. It said bio suit production in the country by DRDO industry partners and other industries was being hampered due to non-availability of seam sealing tapes. The DRDO can mass produce this glue through the industry to support the seam sealing activity by suit manufacturers.
Technology Transfer: At present, Kusumgarh Industries, with technology transfer from the DRDO, is producing the raw material, coating material, and the complete suit is being manufactured with the help of another vendor. The current production capacity is 7,000 suits per day. Another vendor with experience in garment technology is being brought in and efforts are on to ramp up the capacity to 15,000 suits a day. The bio suit has been subjected to rigorous testing for textile parameters as well as protection against infection from synthetic blood. Separately, Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, has designed and developed its own handheld Infra Red (IR) based temperature sensor for screening at its entry gates, which have an average influx of around 20,000 personnel every day. The instrument has been manufactured through in-house resources at a cost of under â‚š1000, a fraction of the cost of the temperature guns in the market.
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WORD OF THE DAY Proselytising: convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another.
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