The US, China and India were the world’s three biggest military spenders in 2019, followed by Russia and Saudi Arabia. The two Asian countries made it to the top three for the first time, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.
Total global spending rose to almost $2 trillion in 2019.
A 58-year-old doctor became the first coronavirus patient in Uttar Pradesh to receive plasma therapy as an experimental treatment for the disease at the King George Medical University (KGMU) Lucknow. It is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients.
Patient was administered 200 ml plasma.
The Saudi G20 Presidency has welcomed the launch of WHO’s ‘Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator’, a landmark, global and timely collaboration for the accelerated development, production and equitable access to new COVID-19 tools.
WHO Director-General: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Narendra Singh Tomar issued guideline of the SVAMITVA Scheme aimed at providing people residing in Rural parts with the right to document their residential properties & SOP regarding the e-Gram Swaraj Yojana.
SOP- Standard Operating Procedure.
Developing countries' repayments on their public external debt alone will soar to between $2.6 & $3.4 tn in 2020 & 2021, the UNCTAD has said in a new report while calling for a global debt deal to prevent COVID-19 pandemic from spreading economic disaster.
UNCTAD Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland.
India Ratings has further slashed its growth expectations for the economy to 1.9% for the ongoing fiscal, down from 3.6% in March. This will be the lowest GDP growth in the last 29 years and assumes that the partial lockdown will continue till mid-May.
Last time India experienced such low levels of growth on FY1992.
CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan launched the Jeevan Shakti Yojana. Under this scheme, women in urban areas can earn by making masks at home. The government will pay them Rs 11/ mask. They will submit their masks to the nodal officer appointed by the government.
They will get orders to make at least 200 masks at a time.
RBI decided to open a special liquidity facility of Rs 50,000 Cr for mutual funds to ease liquidity pressure on mutual funds. Under the SLF-MF, RBI shall conduct repo operations of 90 days tenor at fixed repo rate. The scheme is available from April 27.
SLF-MF is on-tap and open-ended.
CSB Bank said the Reserve Bank of India has extended the term of appointment of Madhavan Menon as the part-time Chairman of the Bank till July 21, 2020. Extension is in terms of Section 10B (1A) (i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
CSB Headquarters- Thrissur, Kerala.
Australia has informed India that their premier multilateral air combat training exercise Pitch Black 2020 scheduled from July 27 to August 14 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 situation. The next edition of Pitch Black is scheduled in 2022.
IAF for the 1st-time deployed fighter aircraft in 2018 edition.
The USGS (with help from NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute) has released the first complete geologic map of the Moon, providing a truly comprehensive look at our nearest cosmic neighbour. The team created the map using a mix of Apollo-era maps.
USGS- United States Geological Survey.
For the 1st time since it started functioning, the gravitational wave observatories at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Laboratory) scientific collaboration have detected merger of 2 unequal-mass black holes which are 2.4 bn light years away.
The black holes were 20 and 40 times the mass of the sun.
Middle distance runner Jhuma Khatun has been banned for four years by the Athletics Integrity Unit of the world governing body for testing positive for a banned substance- steroid- in a nearly two-year-old doping case which the NDTL had failed to detect.
NDTL- National Dope Testing Laboratory.
Former Governor of Bihar and Tripura and veteran Congress leader Devanand Konwar died of old age ailments at his Guwahati residence. He was 86. He had also served as governor (additional charge) of West Bengal from December 2009 to January 2010.
He was a Cabinet minister in the government of Assam.
In 2003, ILO began to observe World Day to stress the prevention of accidents and diseases at work, capitalizing on the ILO's traditional strengths of tripartism and social dialogue. 28 April- International Commemoration Day for Dead & Injured Workers.
Theme- Stop the pandemic: Safety & health at work can save lives
UK has unveiled a 100 per cent state-backed ‘Bounce Back Loan Scheme’ for the small businesses to help them tide through the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Qualifying small businesses can apply online to borrow 2,000- 50,000 pounds as interest-free loans.
This facility is available for the first 12 months.
US President Donald Trump has nominated senior Indian American diplomat Manisha Singh as America's next envoy to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. She is currently Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs.
OECD is Headquartered in Paris, France.
Small Industries Development Bank of India launched a special liquidity scheme for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through banks including Small Finance Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies including fintech NBFCs and Microfinance Institutions.
Tenor of these loans will be 90 days.
Punjab Government has constituted a Group of Experts, headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, to come out with the post-Covid revival strategy for the state. The 20-member Group has been mandated to submit its initial set of recommendations by July 31, 2020.
Captain Amarinder Singh, CM Punjab.
A total of 1,338 patents were filed in 2018-19, of which 59.4 percent were tech patents with computer technology, communication technology, and AI being the top domain areas,a report by industry body NASSCOM said. Non-tech patents (40.6 percent).
National Association of Software & Service Companies (NASSCOM).
Air India chief Rajiv Bansal has been promoted to the secretary-level rank, according to a Personnel Ministry order.He was appointed the chairman and managing director of Air India in February this year at the rank of additional secretary.
Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) ,headed by PM.
Shipping ministry has approved reconstitution of the 16-member NSB,which will be headed by former Director General of Shipping Malini Shankar. Members of the Board include DG Shipping Amitabh Kumar, Joint Secretary Shipping Satinder Pal Singh among others.
Mansukh L. Mandaviya, Minister of State (I/C) Shipping.
India joined a virtual meeting of the ministers and senior health officials of the eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations on the Covid-19 crisis.India was represented by Director General of Health Services,Rajiv Garg.
SAARC HQs- Kathmandu, Secretary-General,Esala Ruwan Weerakoon.
Ashok Leyland Ltd has acquired 15,796,406 shares of Rs 10 each constituting 3.36 per cent of the equity of its subsidiary Hinduja Leyland Finance for Rs 1.8 billion.The company's shareholding in HLFL stands increased from 65.45% to 68.81%.
Vipin Sondhi,CEO, MD- Ashok Leyland.
Bangalore-based wellness company TotalAyurvedaCare.com, recently launched a novel telemedicine platform that blends traditional Ayurvedic practices with modern technology, giving patients face-to-face interactions with Ayurvedic doctors.
Ed Lateef, Founder and CEO of TotalAyurvedaCare.com
Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) launched the #DigitalAgainstCOVID-19 virtual challenge to crowdsource digital solutions and ideas to help countries in Asia and the Pacific deal with COVID-19 pandemic.
ADB President ,Masatsugu Asakawa.
