NTPC Ltd, India's largest power producer & a central PSU under Ministry of Power, has invited Global Expression of Interest to provide 10 Hydrogen Fuel Cell based electric buses & an equal number of Hydrogen Fuel Cell based electric cars in Leh and Delhi.
The EoI has been issued by NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam.
‘Lifeline Udan’ flights are being operated by MoCA to transport essential medical cargo to remote parts to support India’s war against COVID-19. 383 flights have been operated under Lifeline Udan by Air India, Alliance Air, IAF & private carriers.
Air India and Alliance Air operates 223 of these flights.
NAFED will distribute 5.88 lakh metric tonnes pulses to 20 Cr households under National Food Security Act through ration shops for 3 months. Most of the beneficiaries will receive the quota for the 1st month within April or latest by the 1st week of May.
NAFED: National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation.
IIT Delhi developed a web-based dashboard for tracking & predicting the spread of COVID-19 in India. PRACRITI (Prediction & Assessment of Corona Infections & Transmission in India) dashboard will provide the R0 values of each district & state in India.
R0- Number of people to whom virus spreads from a single person.
Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, has collaborated with Hyderabad-based integrated pharmaceutical company, LAXAI Life Sciences, to develop and manufacture Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and drug intermediates.
IICT, Hyderabad is a constituent laboratory of CSIR.
Scientists at the CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow, have developed an herbal decongestant spray that helps in clearing the windpipe and congestion by removing the mucus or cough leading to ease of breathing.
Reason- Collection of CO2 & humidity in the mask’s inner cavity.
Chitra Magna, an innovative RNA extraction kit, has been developed by Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology, an Institution under the Department of S&T, as an innovative technology for isolating RNA from swabs for COVID 19 tests.
SARS-COV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19, is an RNA virus.
An e-karyalay application, that enables movement of files and documents without physical touch, has been launched for usage in the 1.62 lakh personnel-strong CISF to prevent coronavirus infection. It will enable officials to work from home.
A data recovery site has also been established with this.
Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management - Kerala has developed an AI Semantic search engine to enable researchers to get deeper insights into scientific studies, especially when they need to find an early solution to the COVID-19.
Named ‘www.vilokana.in’, which in Sanskrit means ‘finding out’.
Team led by IIT Bombay student has developed low-cost mechanical ventilator Ruhdaar. Design has been incubated at Design Innovation Centre, IUST, Pulwama. The project head Zulqarnain, a first-year student of Industrial Design Centre of IIT Bombay.
Prototype costed the team around Rs. 10,000.
L&T Finance Holdings has sold its wholly-owned subsidiary L&T Capital Markets (LTCM) to IIFL Wealth Finance for Rs 230 crore. As at end-March 2019, LTCM had total income of Rs 124.81 crore while the net worth stood at Rs 82.45 crore.
The company had announced the deal in August 2019.
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund Bharat-22 ETF picked up shares worth nearly Rs 59 Cr in National Aluminium Company through an open market transaction. As per the data on NSE, over 1.71 Cr shares were purchased at an average price of Rs 34.43 apiece.
This took the total deal value to Rs 58.9 crore.
CARE Ratings has projected 1.1%-1.2% GDP growth in FY21 and reduced forecast for FY20 to 4.7% from 5%. Gross Value Added (GVA) has been estimated to grow at 1.4% for FY21. Overall growth is expected to be driven only by the government expenditure.
CARE has assessed 8 sectors for GDP projection of FY21.
IIT Kharagpur has been ranked 57th in the Times Higher Education’s (THE) global list that ranks institutes of higher education in terms of their social and political impact framed around the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals (SDG).
The list includes 766 universities across 89 countries.
Iran recently launched its first military satellite to orbit at 425 km. This has increased tensions between US and Iran amidst COVID. The Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) launched the satellite. Messenger satellite launcher was used for this.
Iran Capital- Tehran, Currency- Iranian Rial.
The Brazilian Astronomers have discovered 19 new asteroids between the Jupiter and the Neptune. The astronomers believe that they joined the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Centaurs are group of asteroids between Neptune and Jupiter.
They are now a part of ‘Centaurs’ orbiting the sun.
Senior Congress leader and councillor in Amdavad Municipal Corporation Badruddin Sheikh passed away late last night following COVID19 infection. He had also served as State Congress spokesperson and Leader of opposition in AMC in past.
He was 68 and active in politics and public life.
Former Pakistan women’s skipper Sana Mir announced her retirement from international cricket, ending a 15 year long illustrious career. Mir featured in 226 international matches for Pakistan, including 137 as captain from 2009 to 2017.
Her last ODI was against Bangladesh in Lahore in November 2019.
Former doubles world number one Mathias Boe of Denmark has announced his retirement from badminton at the age of 39. Boe, silver medallist in the men’s doubles at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, had been the oldest active player at elite level.
Boe also won two European titles.
World Immunization Week- celebrated from 24 to 30 April- aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease. Immunization is widely recognized as one of the world’s most successful & cost-effective health interventions.
The theme this year is #Vaccines Work for All.
Veteran diplomat T. S. Tirumurti will be the new Permanent Representative of India to UN. Tirumurti, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1985, will be the 22nd Permanent Representative. He currently serves as the Secretary of Economic Relations.
He served in Indian missions in several countries.
Ravi Mittal- new Sports & Youth Affairs Secretary,Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan given a 3-month extension;Rajesh Bhushan Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Health and Family Welfare Deptt.;Nagendra Nath Sinha new Secretary of Rural Development.
Amit Khare-Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
Leena Nandan-Consumer Affairs Secretary;CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal-Secretary, Department of Education & Literacy;Rajesh Verma-new Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs;Anand Kumar-new Culture Secretary;Aramane Giridhar-Secretary,MORTH.
Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH).