Bharat Padhe Online campaign
Context :
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has launched the ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign on 10 April in New Delhi. The campaign aimed for crowdsourcing of Ideas for Improving the Online Education ecosystem of India.
Aim :
A week-long campaign aims to invite all the best brains in India to share suggestions and solutions directly with the Ministry of Human Resource Development to overcome constraints of online education while promoting the available digital education platforms.
Bharat Padhe Online :
- Ideas can be shared on bharatpadheonline.mhrd@gmail.com and on twitter by using # BharatPadheOnline up to 16 April 2020.
- While using Twitter one must tag @HRDMinistry and @DrRPNishank so that the ideas can be notified to them.
- Students and teachers are the main target audience of the campaign.
- It aims to improve existing online education methods.
- The teachers and students can suggest their ideas and queries about what is lacking in the existing online platforms and how can it be made more engaging.
- Educators across the country have been asked to contribute with their expertise and experience in the field of education.
Kerala gets nod for trial of plasma therapy
Context :
Recently, Kerala has got the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approval for the clinical protocol exploring the feasibility of convalescent plasma transfusion which may be administered to severe Covid-19 patients.
Key Points :
- A proposal was submitted to ICMR saying that the Transfusion Medicine Department of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Kerala would help the Health Department in exploring the possibility of Convalescent Plasma (CP) therapy for Covid-19 treatment.
- The move was taken as a precautionary step to be prepared for the more severe second and third waves of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
- Kerala had also sought ICMR’s early clearance for using HIV antivirals (lopinavir/ritonavir) for treating Covid-19 after reports on their potential use surfaced.
- Kerala might need to submit an expanded access protocol to ICMR and Drugs Controller General’s approval and Institutional Ethics Committee approval would be necessary before the administration of the treatment.
- One major challenge is the non-availability of the kit for checking the antibody level in the plasma of a recovered person.
- It is not available in India and has to be brought from Germany.
- The cancellation of international flights would lead to delay in importing the desired number of kits.
Convalescent Plasma Therapy :
- Convalescent plasma (CP) therapy is not a new therapy and banks on the age-old concept of passive immunity.
- Basis of the Therapy:
- The convalescent plasma therapy seeks to make use of the antibodies developed in the recovered patient against the coronavirus.
- The whole blood or plasma from such people is taken, and the plasma is then injected in critically ill patients so that the antibodies are transferred and boost their fight against the virus.
- Time Period for Infusion:
- A study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases stated that a Covid patient usually develops primary immunity against the virus in 10-14 days.
- Therefore, if the plasma is injected at an early stage, it can possibly help fight the virus and prevent severe illness.
- Infusion into Covid-19 Patients:
- The plasma can be infused into two kinds of Covid-19 patients, those with a severe illness or individuals at a higher risk of getting the virus.
- However, while plasma transfers immunity from one person to another, it is not known if it can save lives in Covid-19 infection.
- The treatment could be effective for patients in the age group 40-60, but may be less effective for people aged beyond 60 years.
ICMR approves use of diagnostic machine used for drug-resistant TB for COVID-19
Context :
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has approved the use of diagnostic machines used for testing drug-resistant tuberculosis for conducting coronavirus tests.
The ICMR has validated ‘TruenatTM beta CoV test on TruelabTM workstation’ and has recommended it as a screening test.
Highlights :
- Issuing a guidance on the use of Truenat beta CoV, the ICMR said throat/nasal swabs will be collected in the viral transport medium (VTM) with virus lysis buffer provided along with the kit.
- “Earlier studies have shown that virus lysis buffer neutralizes Nipah and H1N1 viruses.
Rs. 15000 Crore Sanctioned to States
Context :
Recently, the Central Government has sanctioned ₹15,000 crore to States under the India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package.
Key Points :
- The package is a 100% centrally-funded scheme and the funds will be provided under a mission mode approach.
- Amount of ₹7774 crore will be utilised for immediate Covid-19 Emergency Response and rest will be used for medium-term support (1-4 years).
- The amount of ₹4113 crore has already been disbursed to all the States and Union Territories (UTs) dealing with the emergency response to the pandemic.
- Objective:
- Mounting emergency response through development of diagnostics and dedicated treatment facilities.
- Strengthening pandemic research, community engagement, risk communication and implementation
- Management, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation.
- As per the evolving conditions, the government is authorised to re-appropriate resources among various components of the package and among various implementation agencies like the National Health Mission, Central Procurement, Railways, Department of Health Research/Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), National Centre for Disease Control.
- The States can use the funds for:
- Centralised procurement of essential medical equipment and drugs required for treatment of infected patients (Personal Protective Equipment, isolation beds, ICU beds, ventilators, etc.)
- Strengthen and build health systems to support prevention and preparedness for future disease outbreaks.
- Setting up of laboratories and bolstering surveillance activities, biosecurity preparedness, pandemic research and proactively engage communities.
- Conducting risk communication activities.
Reasons for Strained State Finances
- Fall in the revenues due to the lockdown and higher spending due to the coping measures against novel coronavirus pandemic.
- There are no buyers for state bonds, and goods and services tax collections are down, revenues from fuel, liquor, stamp duty and registration charges are also down.
- At the same time, the states are incurring bulk of the on-the-ground expenditures on containing Covid-19.
- States are currently mandated to keep their fiscal deficits within 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
- A one percentage point relaxation will give them latitude to borrow an extra ₹200,000 crore or so, but this will not really work in a “broken” bond market as investors demand higher interest rates.
- Simply put, the borrowing costs for states have gone up by almost one percentage point in less than a month’s time.
- Few states wanted to borrow around ₹37,500 crore through sale of bonds, with tenures ranging from two to 15 years, conducted on the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) auction platform.
- However, they were able to mobilise only ₹32,560 crore.
- Since 1st April, the central bank has increased the existing ways and means advances limits (for states to borrow at the repo rate) by 30%, apart from allowing them to be in overdraft for 21 continuous working days, from the earlier 14 days.
Source : the hindu
Measures for Farmers’ Welfare
Context :
The Government has taken up measures to protect farmers facing obstacles during the lockdown due to Covid-19.
Measures for Fruit and Vegetable Farmers
- Fruit and Vegetable Farmers have been among the hardest hit by the lockdown. They are facing major losses due to obstacles in harvesting and marketing their perishable produce.
- The Central Government has directed all the States and Union Territories to implement the Market Intervention Scheme to ensure remunerative prices to farmers for perishable crops.
- It has also begun a train service to transport perishable agricultural and horticultural commodities to markets due to the obstacles in road transport.
- According to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare 50 trains have been deployed for this purpose.
Measures for Pulses and Oilseeds Farmers :
- Farmers, mostly in dry-land areas, have been complaining that market prices for toor and urad dal, chickpeas and soybean are far below the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) in many mandis, with trading disrupted by the lockdown.
- The MSP is the rate at which the government buys grains from farmers.
- It is fixed on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).
- The Centre has extended the procurement window for its Price Support Scheme (PSS) up to 90 days from the date of commencement of the scheme in each State.
- The PSS is operationalised on the State governments’ request when the prices fall below the minimum support price (MSP).
- The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) and other agencies procure pulses and oilseeds under the scheme at the MSP.
- The procurement of pulses will also aid in the implementation of the Centre’s promise to provide one kg of pulses per month to all families with ration cards for the three months as part of a Covid-19 relief package (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana).