Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in the country to geotag its 7,368 community kitchens and community shelters across 75 districts which produce 12 lakh food packets a day. The state government has also tied up with Google to Geo-map the locations.
Establishment on the Google Map is for the ease of recipients.
Rajasthan has started rapid antibody tests, among the first states to do so, as the state capital Jaipur and Jodhpur have emerged as hotspots, reporting more than half the confirmed Covid-19 cases and accounting for 70% of deaths in the state.
PCR tests or laboratory tests will continue to be done.
Government through Central Nodal Agencies like NAFED & FCI has been striving to assure better returns for the farmers. Procurement of notified commodities at Minimum Support Price from the farmers in several States in the Rabi 2020-21 season has started.
It is done under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) scheme.
Finance ministry has increased coverage of a lender’s loss in case of loan default under the Credit Guarantee Fund for Micro Units scheme to 75%, from 50% earlier. CGFMU covers micro loans up to Rs 10 lakh extended under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana.
CGFMU scheme was announced in April 2016.
NCAER’s Business Confidence Index- an indicator of business sentiments across Indian industry, stood at 77.3 in Q4 of 2019-20. This was the lowest level of BCI recorded since the 25th Round of the BES in 1998, coinciding with the Asian Financial Crisis.
N-BCI in the third quarter of 2019-20 was 111.2.
Standard & Poor’s slashed FY21 growth estimate for India to 1.8% from 3.5% projected last month on concern that the covid-19 peak in India will come ‘somewhat later’ than most other countries. For the Asia-Pacific region, 2020 growth projection is 0.3%.
Forecast: Loss in household & corporate income of $2.2 tn.
In a first of its kind deal, Indian movie producer and distributor Eros International announced an all-share merger with Hollywood's six-year-old, privately-held STX Entertainment to create an equally-held global entertainment company.
Existing shareholders will hold about 42% of the merged entity.
From an automatic mist-based sanitiser for use while entering offices to ultraviolet devices that can destroy the genetic material of COVID-19, the DRDO introduced these two new technologies that are aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.
CFEES developed the Sanitiser Dispensing Unit.
Researchers at the Gujarat Biotechnology Research Centre (GBRC) have succeeded in decoding the entire genome sequence of the novel coronavirus after the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune and identified its three new mutations.
6 of the mutations were already found by other institutes.
More than Rs 36,659 Cr has been transferred by using Direct Benefit Transfer in the bank accounts of 16.01 crore beneficiaries during COVID 2019 lockdown. Total Direct Benefit Transfer amount disbursed has increased from 22% in 2018-19 to 45% in 2019-20.
DBT eliminates leakage and improves efficiency.
International team led by an IIM Kozhikode student has developed a one-stop COVID-19 platform for accessing emergency services from official government sources. The website - covidfyi.in - is a one-stop digital directory for all COVID-19 related services.
The core team of 16 is led by IIM Kozhikode student Simran Soni.
Microsoft India announced that it will be adding five new Indian languages to its Microsoft Translator. The Microsoft translator now supports ten Indian languages with the addition of Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam and Punjabi.
Translator service is part of Azure Cognitive Services API.
BCCI has suspended the Indian Premier League 2020 indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier, the IPL 2020, was suspended until April 15 after the country went on a 21-day lockdown in a bid to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, Secretary- Jay Shah.
The UN observes the UN Chinese Language Day every year on or around April 20. The contribution of Chinese literature, poetry and language in world culture is highlighted on this day. Chinese was established as an official language of the UN in 1946.
General Assembly included Chinese as a working language in 1973.
Oscar-winning illustrator and legendary Tom & Jerry director Gene Deitch has died aged 95. He went on to work with Rembrandt Films through the 1960s to produce a number of Popeye cartoons, as well as a dozen Tom and Jerry shorts for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
In 1958, Deitch was nominated for an Academy Award.
Indian weightlifting federation president Sahdev Yadav confirmed that Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga have made the cut for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Top-8 athletes from IWF rankings list are eligible to participate in the Tokyo Olympics.
Mirabai & Jeremy ranked 8th & 2ndrespectively in the IWF list.
Marion Hollins has elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame through the contributor's category, joining a 2021 class that so far includes Tiger Woods. Marion Hollins developed a golf course for women in New York and two fabled golf courses in California.
Hollins, who died in 1944 was 51.