CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE – JULY 28, 2020

News: Leadership of big banks like HDFC, Kotak Mahindra pushed for a one-time loan restructuring scheme to tackle the rising banking stress at the national council meet of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

News details 

In March, RBI had initially announced a three-month loan moratorium and later extended it by another three months till 31 August.

This deferred the obligations of all term loan borrowers from repaying the interest and principal component of the loan. 

The number of borrowers availing the moratorium has gradually risen since March.

Reason for one-time loan restructuring scheme

NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) in the banking system could worsen to 12.5 per cent by March 2021 from 8.5 per cent in March 2020, as per RBI’s financial stability report released recently. 

News: PM launches 3 High Throughput COVID testing facilities.

About facilities

These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at:  

1. ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; 
2. ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and 
3. ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata.

Testing capacity will be boosted by almost 10,000 daily tests by setting up these hi-tech state-of-the-art testing facilities.

These labs will not be limited to testing for COVID, but in future, will also be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Dengue and several other diseases.

These labs will also reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials.

News: 4 Scheme for setting up of Bulk Drugs Parks & Medical Devices Parks launched in the country. 

Launched by: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers. 

Objective: for promotion of domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs and medical devices in India.

Need: 

Despite India’s exports of critical life-saving medicines to needy countries, heavy dependency on imports for basic raw materials, viz. Bulk Drugs (Key Starting Materials (KSMs)/ Drug Intermediates (DIs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs)) is concerning. 

86% of its requirements of medical devices in the country are fulfilled by imports. 

Scheme details 

Scheme for promotion of Bulk Drug Parks 

• The scheme envisages creation of 3 bulk drug parks in the country.
• The grant-in-aid will be 90% of the project cost in case of North-East and hilly States and 70% in case of other States. 
• Maximum grant-in-aid for one bulk drug park is limited to Rs.1000 crore with total financial outlay of the scheme at Rs. 3000 crores. 
• States will be selected through a challenge method. The interested States will be scored and ranked on an evaluation criterion, given in the guidelines, which captures above parameters.
• The States interested in setting up the parks will have to ensure assured 24*7 supply of electricity and water to the bulk drug units located in the park and offer competitive land lease rates to bulk drug units in the park. 
• The location of proposed park from environmental angle and logistics angle would be taken into account while selecting the States. 

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for promoting domestic manufacturing of Medical Devices

• The scheme intends to boost domestic manufacturing of medical devices in four target segments by giving financial incentives on sales to a maximum number of 28 selected applicants for a period of 5 years.

• Financial incentive will be given at a rate of 5% of the sales of domestically manufactured medical devices.
• Any company registered in India and possessing a minimum net worth (including group companies) of Rs.18 crore (30% of threshold investment of first year) is eligible to apply for incentives under the scheme. 
• The total financial outlay of the scheme is Rs.3,420 crore.

News: An innovation contest ‘Dare to Dream 2.0’ has been launched by DRDO. 

About contest

• Contest has been launched on 5th death anniversary of former President and noted scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. 
• It is an open challenge to promote the innovators and startups of the country in defence and aerospace technologies.
• It is in line with vision of self-reliance in the country in the science and technology as per the call of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. 
• The scheme has been launched for emerging technologies to promote the individuals & start-ups for innovation. 
• Award money: Winners of the contest will receive monetary rewards i.e. up to Rs 10 lakh for start-ups and Rs 5 lakh for individual category.

News: Mobile app “Mausam” has been launched for India Meteorological Department (IMD). 

Launched by: Ministry of Earth Sciences

Designed and development: jointly by ICRISAT’s Digital Agriculture & Youth (DAY) team, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and India Meteorological Department.

Objective: To communicate the weather information and forecasts to the general public, in a lucid manner without technical jargons. 

The Mausam mobile app will be an important tool for dissemination of weather information and warnings to meet the requirements of public in an attractive and user-friendly manner. 

Services that will be provided 

Following are the services that will be provided by this app: 

Nowcast – Three hourly warnings of localized weather phenomena and their intensity issued for about 800 stations, and districts of India by State Meteorological Centres of IMD. In case of severe weather, its impact also is included in the warning.

Current Weather – Current temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction for 200 cities updated 8 times a day.

City Forecast – Past 24 hours and 7 day forecast of weather conditions around 450 cities in India.

Warnings – Alerts issued twice a day for all districts for the next five days in colour code (Red, Orange and Yellow) to warn citizens of approaching dangerous weather. (The colour code Red is the most severe category urging authorities to take action, Orange code prompts authorities and public to be alert and Yellow code prompts authorities and public to keep themselves updated.)

Radar products – Latest Station wise radar products updated every 10 minutes.

News: Five Rafale fighter aircrafts are on 7,000-km journey from France. 

New details 

• It is the 1st batch, out of the 36 twin-engine fighter planes bought from Dassault Rafale in 2016 through an inter-governmental agreement. 
• Five aircrafts including three single seater and two twin seaters, will be inducted at Air Force Station Ambala.
• 1st Rafale jet was handed over to the Indian Air Force, in a ceremony attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in France, in October 2019. 
• In total, 10 aircrafts have been delivered, of these ten, five have left for India, while the other five will remain in France for training missions. 
• The jets India has bought are a mix of single-seater and two-seater planes. The jets on their way to India are also a mix of both. 
• The first jets will be stationed in Ambala to become part of resurrected No 17 ‘Golden Arrows’ squadron of the Air Force. The Golden Arrow squadron was raised in 1951 and have been involved in a number of significant operations through their history, including the Kargil War. 
• But the squadron was disbanded in 2016, after the Air Force started to phase out the Mig-21, which were operated by the Golden Arrows.