Daily Current Affairs, 09th July 2020

1) US formally announced its withdrawal from WHO

•The United States has formalized to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 6, 2021. The actual project of disentangling the U.S. from WHO began on July 6, 2020, with a letter signed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. It will take one year to go into effect.

Why United States decide to withdraw from the WHO?

•The US has accused the WHO of siding with China on the outbreak of the virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, alleging the health body misled the world resulting in deaths of over half a million people globally, including over 130,000 in America alone.

•In April, the US stopped funding to WHO as the Trump administration reviewed the ties. A month later, President Donald Trump announced the US was terminating the relationship.

•The US is the single largest contributor to the WHO, providing over USD 450 million per annum. China’s contribution to the global health body is about USD 40 million, one-tenth of that of the US.

•The US has been a party to the WHO Constitution since June 21, 1948. Its participation was accepted by the World Health Assembly with certain conditions set out by the US for its eventual withdrawal from this world body.

2) Maldives & Sri Lanka eliminate measles & rubella, ahead of 2023 target

•According to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO), South-East Asian Region (SEAR) office, Maldives and Sri Lanka were verified for having eliminated measles and rubella.  Now, Maldives and Sri Lanka are the first two countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region to achieve measles and rubella elimination ahead of the 2023 target.

•The Maldives reported last endemic case of measles in 2009 and of rubella in October 2015, while Sri Lanka reported last endemic case of measles in May 2016 and of rubella in March 2017.

•The announcement was made after the fifth meeting of the South-East Asia Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination, held virtually. The Commission comprises of 11 independent international experts in the fields of epidemiology, virology and public health. A country is verified as having eliminated measles and rubella when there is no evidence of endemic transmission of the measles and rubella viruses for over three years in the presence of a well-performing surveillance system.

3) AIIB extends $50 mn loan to L&T Infra Finance Ltd

•Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has released $50 million loan to L&T Infrastructure Finance Ltd. This is the first tranche of a $100 mn loan to L&T Infrastructure Finance Ltd for funding Renewable Energy projects in the country. This loan has been extended by the Bejing-based multilateral development bank to on-lend to large and mid-scale wind and solar power infra projects in India.

•A $100 million loan sanctioned by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to the unit of L&T Finance Holdings is AIIB’s first loan to a non-banking financial company (NBFC) in India.

4) ‘Compact XL’ system for covid-19 tests lauched by MyLab

•Mylab Discovery Solutions has launched the ‘Compact XL’ system for conducting a wide range of tests, including RT-PCR tests for COVID-19. This is India’s first machine to automate the manual processes of molecular diagnostic tests such as RNA/DNA-based tests including COVID-19 RT-PCR tests.

5) Himalayan Golden Birdwing butterfly named as India’s largest butterfly

•Himalayan Golden Birdwing butterfly named as India’s largest butterfly, a record an unknown specimen had held for 88 years. The female Golden Birdwing with 194 mm wingspan was recorded at Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district’s Didihat town, while the male Golden Birdwing with 106 mm wingspan was recorded at the Wankhar Butterfly Museum (in Shillong).

•The new measurements of this and 24 other species of butterflies were published in the latest issue of Bio notes, a quarterly newsletter for research on life forms. Shristee Panthee of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Yunnan and Peter Smetacek of the Butterfly Research Centre at Bhimtal in Uttarakhand are the authors of the study.

6) Akash Missile: BDL signs licence agreement & ToT with DRDO

•Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has signed License Agreement and Transfer of Technology (ToT) with Defence Research and Development Organisation–Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDO–DRDL) for Akash Missile Weapon System (Indian Army Variant).

7) CBDT & SEBI signs MoU for data exchange

•The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has signed an agreement for data exchange. The agreement will facilitate the sharing of information and data between the two organisations on an automatic and regular basis. For regular exchange of data, the two organizations will also exchange with each other, on request and suo moto basis, any information available in their respective databases, for the purpose of carrying out their functions under various laws.

•For this initiative, a Data Exchange Steering Group has also been constituted, which will meet periodically to review the data exchange status and take steps to further improve the effectiveness of the data-sharing mechanism.