WEEKLY CURRENT AFFAIRS
19TH
– 25TH APRIL 2020
Watch Video Class related to the Weekly Current Affairs
(Video Class will be Live on 28th April 2020 at 1 PM)
1. COLOUR CODES
FOR LOCKDOWN 2.0: The Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) formulated a new set of guidelines for the
nationwide lockdown-2.0 or Smart Lockdown, which started from 20th April 2020
and continues till May 3, 2020. It decided to divide all Indian districts into
hotspots (red zones); non-hotspots (orange zones) and green zones on the basis
of the absolute number of cases and the speed of growth in cases. Any district
reporting more than six cases classified as a hotspot district or red zone.
2. RAPID
TESTING FOR COVID-19: Rajasthan
became the first state in the country to carry out Rapid Testing for COVID 19.
State’s urban primary health centre of Topkhana Desh (also known as Jaju
Dispensary) in Jaipur started rapid tests at 5 p.m where 52 persons were tested
and all were found COVID-19 negative. This test will be done at a large scale
to assess the prevalence of COVID 19 in hotspots or red zones. This test
requires a drop of blood just like a diabetes test and gives instant results.
Though this is not a confirmatory test but helps in quick isolation of person
tested COVID-19 positive to prevent spread.
3. 7,300 CRORE
RUPEES TO STATE & UTS UNDER MGNREGS: The Central Government has released 7,300 crore rupees to
the States and Union Territories (UT) under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to liquidate pending dues of last
financial year but also the wages dues for the first fortnight of 2020-21.
4. TVS MOTOR
ACQUIRES NORTON MOTORCYCLES: TVS
(Thirukkurungudi Vengaram Sundram) Motor Company Ltd, an Indian multinational motorcycle company,
has acquired the 122-year-old iconic
British company Norton Motorcycle (UK) Ltd for Rs 153 crore (£16 million).
5. EROS
& STX ENTERTAINMENT TO MERGE ALL
SHARE: 1st of its kind deal, where Indian movie producer
and distributor Eros International (which is also the holding company of the
Lulla’s-promoted Eros Group) a NYSE-listed announced an all-share merger with 6
year old, privately held Hollywood’s STX Entertainment to create an
equally-held global entertainment company with a value of USD 1 billion.
6. WORLD
HERITAGE DAY 2020: APRIL 18: Theme for
the year 2020: Shared Culture, Shared Heritage and Shared Responsibility.
7. SOUTH KOREAN
ELECTION: The Democratic Party of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has won
victory in parliamentary elections, with 163 seats in the 300-seat National
Assembly, first country conducted election among COVID-19 pandemic. The capital
and currency of South Korea is Seoul and South Korean won respectively
8. DEVELOPMENT
OF COVID-19 VACCINE: Central
government has constituted high level
task force for vaccine and drug testing for coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) co-chaired by Vinod Paul, member NITI (National Institution for
Transforming India) Aayog, and Professor Krishnaswamy VijayRaghavan, principal
scientific advisor to the government.