Daily Current Affairs, 03rd April 2020

1) NCC offers its cadets to fight COVID-19 under ‘Ex NCC Yogdan’

•National Cadet Corps (NCC) has offered its volunteer cadets for national duty to fight COVID-19 under ‘Exercise NCC Yogdan’. It has issued guidelines for temporary employment of its cadets to augment relief efforts and functioning of various agencies involved in battling the pandemic. Only Senior Division volunteer cadets above 18 years of age will be employed. The tasks envisaged for NCC cadets include, manning of helpline/call centres; distribution of relief materials/medicines/food/essential commodities; community assistance; data management and queue & traffic management.

What is NCC?

•The NCC, which operates under the Ministry of Defence, is the largest uniformed youth organisation of the country and has been engaged in conducting various social service and community development activities.

•The NCC cadets have been contributing to the national cause during natural calamities like floods, cyclone, etc since its inception.

2) Naval Dockyard Visakhapatnam designs multi-feed oxygen manifold

•The Naval Dockyard at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh has designed ‘Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM)’. This oxygen manifold is designed to supply oxygen to multiple patients at a time, which could prove helpful in a contingency created by COVID-19 spread. The preliminary trials were conducted at MI Room at NDV, followed by rapid trials at the Naval Hospital INHS Kalyani, where it was successfully installed within 30 minutes.

•The Navy personnel from the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) have developed a ‘Portable Multi-feed Oxygen Manifold (MOM)’ using a six-way radial header fitted to a single cylinder. This innovative system would enable one oxygen bottle supply to six patients at the same time, thereby enabling critical care management of a larger number of COVID-19 patients using the existing limited resources.

3) Andhra govt starts doorstep delivery of pensions

•The Andhra Pradesh government has started distributing pensions at the doorstep to 58,44,240 beneficiaries. They using its 2.5 lakh volunteer eliminating the need for pensioners to step out of their homes.  The aim is to encourage beneficiaries to stay at home and avoid stepping out.

•The beneficiaries have been receiving different amounts as per the defined categories. From old age persons to fishermen and folk artists, the pension will help every section amid the ongoing 21-day lockdown.

Pensioners Amount

•For old-age persons, widows, weavers, single women, fishermen, folk artists and traditional cobblers who will receive an amount of Rs 2,250 each.

•People with disabilities, transgenders and Dappu artists will receive an amount of Rs 3,000 each.

•Those who suffer from a chronic disease and are undergoing kidney dialysis at government and network hospitals will receive an amount of Rs 10,000 each.

After the completion of the distribution of pensions, the government will give financial relief to the poor and needy delivered at the doorstep on the 4th of April using the same network of volunteers.

4) ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ to address COVID-19 queries

•IBM has introduced ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ in India free of cost to address COVID-19 queries. ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ is an Artificial Intelligence platform which provides reliable information on COVID-19 related queries. ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ unites Watson Assistant, Natural Language Processing as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) search capabilities that helps in understanding and responding to common queries about COVID-19.




•‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ uses the currently available data from external sources. These sources includes the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and other government sources, citizen welfare schemes in India along with global resources such as World Health Organization and US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

•The AI-powered virtual agent ‘Watson Assistant for Citizens’ will be very useful for the governments in delivering accurate information to their citizens without overwhelming contact centres. To achieve this objective, the IBM Research has trained Watson Assistant in order to respond to queries in English as well as Hindi to enable various government agencies and departments to provide this service to its constituents.

5) NTPC appoints Dilip Kumar Patel as director HR

•National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited appointed Dilip Kumar Patel as its Director Human resources on 1 April. Patel has been the HR Head in various NTPC projects like NSPCL Bhilai, Sipat, and Tanda for around 12 years. He was also the Regional Head of HR in the Eastern Region-2 before he was appointed as the Director (HR).

6) SBI lists USD 100 million green bonds on India INX

•State Bank of India has listed green bonds of $100 million (about Rs 750 crore) on  BSE’s India International Exchange (India INX). The bank has listed green bonds under its USD 10 billion global medium-term note programme on India INX’s Global Securities Market Green Platform (GSM).

•SBI has adopted the green bond framework with the objective of creating a positive impact on the environment & this transaction is considered as part of the sustainability journey. The funds raised by green bonds are used to finance green projects that do not discharge toxic elements.

What is Green Bond?

•Green Bond is a type of fixed income instrument that is specifically reserved for raising money to climate & environmental projects so as to encourage sustainability. It is comparatively an attractive investment than a comparable taxable bond, as it provides tax incentives such as tax exemption and tax credits.

7) DRDO develops bio suit “Personal Protective Equipment”

•A bio suit named as “Personal Protective Equipment” has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The bio suit has been fabricated by DRDO to keep the medical, paramedical and other personnel engaged in combating COVID-19 safe from the deadly virus. The DRDO is also trying to ensure the production of bio suits in large numbers. DRDO is seeking biosuits to serve as robust line of defence for the medics, paramedics and other personnel engaged in combating COVID-19.

About “Personal Protective Equipment”:

•The “Personal Protective Equipment” has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). To fabricate the bio suit, the scientists at various DRDO laboratories have applied their technical knowledge and expertise in various areas such as textile, coating and nanotechnology. This Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is having specific type of fabric with coating. The bio suit is subjected to rigorous testing for textile parameters as well as protection against synthetic blood as per the criteria defined for body suits by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

8) India’s Naval Dockyard designs low-cost temperature sensor gun

•Indian Navy’s Naval Dockyard in Mumbai has designed and developed its own handheld infrared-based temperature sensor gun for the screening of personnel in a bid to limit the spread of COVID-19. Since the outbreak of the virus, temperature guns and non-contact thermometers have become scarce in the country.

•The sensor gun is to be used to check the personnel entering at the gates of the yard. They will help fight against virus more efficiently. The instrument was manufactured at less than Rs 1000. The manufacturing cost is a fraction of the instruments used in the market. The accuracy of the temperature gun is 0.2 degree Celsius. The temperature gun has a LED display and an infrared sensor.

What is Infrared Thermometer?

•The IR thermometer like the one made by the dockyard uses the lens to focus infrared light. It works on a principle called Black body radiation. The IR thermometer has a detector that concentrates these IR rays from the hot body. If the rays are more, the detector generates a higher current. Higher the current means the temperature of the body is high.