Daily Current Affairs 6 May 2020 With Video Lecture

Chetan Apurav
May 6, 2020
925

Italian scientists claim world-first coronavirus vaccine breakthrough

An Italian coronavirus vaccine has antibodies generated in mice that work on human cells, according to tests carried out at Rome’s infectious-disease Spallanzani Hospital.
Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO of Takis, the firm developing the medication, said that a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) candidate vaccine has neutralized the virus in human cells for the first time.
This is the most advanced stage of testing of a candidate vaccine created in Italy, Human tests are expected after this summer: Aurisicchio

BRO perseveres with Atal Tunnel work through the lockdown, to complete it by September 2020

Proactive measures are being taken by Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to complete the work on strategic Atal Tunnel in the Pir Panjal ranges of Himachal Pradesh, which is at the crucial stage of construction.
Road surface works, installation of electro-mechanic fittings including lighting, ventilation and intelligent traffic control systems are being executed. One steel super structure bridge of 100 meter length across river Chandra on the North Portal of the tunnel is also under construction. The work was halted for 10 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Director General Border Roads Lt Gen Harpal Singh had taken up the matter with Himachal Chief Minister Shri Jai Ram Thakur. This resulted in resumption of work on April 05, 2020 with on-site labour in active coordination with the State Government. Works in Atal Tunnel are being executed with all necessary COVID-19 precautions in place to ensure its completion in September 2020 as planned.
Atal Tunnel is being constructed since Manali-Sarchu-Leh road remains closed for six months every year due to Rohtang Pass being completely snow bound between November and May. The tunnel will connect Manali to Lahaul Valley throughout the year and will reduce the road length of Manali-Rohtang Pass Sarchu-Leh road by 46 km. Besides connecting the people of Lahaul to rest of India through the year the tunnel will aid the forward connectivity offering the security forces a major strategic advantage.

Thinking of an Import Substitution Policy: Shri Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister for MSME and Road Transport and Highways, Shri Nitin Gadkari today informed that a policy on imports substitution is being thought of in the wake of the new economic situation created by COVID-19 pandemic. He called upon various stake-holders to convert knowledge into wealth by improving quality through innovations and cutting down cost. He cited the example of a Nagpur based MSME Orange cluster taking up PPE making from scratch. These PPEs cost between Rs 550 to Rs 650 against the market price of about Rs 1200 for which country was heavily import dependent. The cluster is in a position to supply large quantity of PPEs.
Shri Gadkari was addressing the meetings via Video Conferencing with the representatives of Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India (ALEAP) on impact of COVID-19 on startup eco system and MSMEs and also with Technical Service Providers and Performing Artists from entertainment Sector. Among others who participated include renowned singers Shri Sonu Nigam, Shri Nitin Mikesh, Shri Talat Aziz.
The Union Minister emphasized that special focus towards export enhancement is the need of the hour and necessary practices shall be adopted to reduce Power cost, Logistics cost and Production cost to become competitive in the global market. Further, he mentioned that there is also need to focus on import substitution to replace foreign imports with domestic production. He added that industry should focus more on innovation, entrepreneurship, science and technology, research skill and experiences to convert the knowledge into wealth.
Shri Gadkari also stressed upon the need for greater formalization of entertainment industry. He suggested for registration as MSMEs to take benefit of various Schemes of the Ministry of MSME.
He added that all the stakeholders must adopt an integrated approach to come over the crisis while ensuring livelihood of the people. Shri Gadkari also urged the industry to have a positive attitude during this time to tide over this crisis.
The Minister recalled that Government of Japan has offered special package to its industries for taking out Japanese investments from China and move elsewhere. He opined that it is an opportunity for India which should be grabbed.

Phone call between PM Shri Narendra Modi and H.E. Antonio Costa, PM of Portugal

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had a phone call today with H.E. Antonio Costa, Prime Minister of Portugal.
The Prime Minister recalled the State Visit of H.E. Mr. Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal to India in February.
The two leaders discussed the state of COVID-19 pandemic and the steps being taken by both countries to control its health and economic impact. The Prime Minister commended PM Costa for his effective handling of the crisis.
The leaders noted that proactive national measures were helpful in containing the spread of the virus. They offered all possible help to each other in dealing with the situation, and agreed to collaborate on research and innovation aimed at fighting COVID-19.
The Prime Minister thanked PM Costa for extending validity of visas of Indian travelers to Portugal who could not return because of the lockdown. Prime Minister Costa expressed his appreciation for the facilitation provided by Indian authorities to Portuguese citizens in India.
The leaders agreed to remain in touch and consult each other on the evolving dimensions of the crisis as well as the post-Covid context.

CSIR IGIB and TATA Sons sign a MoU for RAPID Diagnostic kit for COVID19

CSIR’s constituent lab, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB) and TATA Sons signed a MoU for licensing of KNOWHOW for FNCAS9 EDITOR LINKED UNIFORM DETECTION ASSAY (FELUDA) FOR RAPID DIAGNOSIS OF COVID-19.
The license shall include transfer of the knowledge for scaling up the KNOWHOW in the form of a kit that can be deployed for COVID-19 testing on ground as early as end of May. A completely indigenous scientific invention, FELUDA for COVID-19 has been designed for mitigating the ongoing COVID-19 situation and cater to mass testing. Its main advantages are its affordability, relative ease of use and non-dependency on expensive Q-PCR machines. CSIR IGIB and TATA Sons will now work together to bring it for widespread use at the earliest.
Commenting on the agreement, Mr. Banmali Agrawala, President – Infrastructure and Defence & Aerospace, Tata Sons said, “we are happy to enter into a partnership with Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology of CSIR (Council of Scientific & Industrial Research) for further development and commercialisation of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) based technology for COVID-19 detection. This innovative CRISPR ‘Feluda’ test uses cutting edge CRISPR technology for detection of genomic sequence of novel coronavirus. It uses a test protocol that is simple to administer and easy to interpret enabling results to be made available to the medical fraternity in relatively lesser time, as compared to other test protocols. We believe that CRISPR is futuristic technology that can also be configured for detection of multiple other pathogens in the future.
DG-CSIR, Dr. Shekhar C Mande commented that “CSIR labs such as CSIR-IGIB have been working on deep science and developing cutting edge technology and I am happy to see that leading Industry TATA Group is partnering towards its deployment. The strong partnership with industry in tackling Covid-19 has been the hallmark of CSIRs strategy in mitigation of Covid-19.
Dr. Anurag Agrawal, Director-IGIB highlighted that the technology was conceived and developed at CSIR IGIB under sickle cell mission and utilizes an indigenously developed cutting edge CRISPR Cas9 technology to specifically recognize COVID-19 sequence in a sample. A combination of CRISPR biology and paper-strip chemistry leads to a visible signal readout on a paper strip that can be rapidly assessed for establishing the presence of viral infection in a sample.

IIT Bombay Professor receives Young Career Award in Nano Science & Technology 2020

Professor Saurabh Lodha from Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, has received the Young Career Award in Nano Science & Technology for the year 2020 instituted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India.
This award recognises his pioneering contributions in the development of logic transistor technologies beyond silicon and Nano-electronic devices based on two-dimensional Van der Waals materials.

Scientists to culture novel coronavirus in human lung epithelial cell

Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad has tied up with Bengaluru based, Eye-stem Research Private Ltd.
An attempt will be made to grow novel coronavirus in human cell lines, which will enable in vitro testing of potential drugs and vaccines against the COVID-19.
The research team will use Eye-stem’s human lung epithelial cell culture system provided as part of its Anti-COVID Screening (ACS) platform to understand the molecular and pathological characteristics of the novel coronavirus, with a view of establishing a rational basis for testing potential drugs in vitro, said CCMB scientists.

Govt. to facilitate stranded Indian Nationals