24th April 2020 Daily Current Affairs

Daily Current Affairs of 24th April 2020

International Current Affairs

Today (24th April) is World Day For Animals In Laboratories (also known as World Lab Animal Day).
- This day was established in 1979 by the British National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS).
- The date 24th April was chosen to observe this day, as it marked the birthday of former NAVS president Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding.
Today is Pinhole Photography day.

National Current Affairs

Today (24th April) is National Panchayati Raj Day.
- This date marks a defining moment in the history of decentralization of political power to the grassroots level.
- Note : The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 that came into force with effect from 24th April, 1993 has institutionalized Panchayati Raj through the village, Intermediate and District level Panchayats.
On National Panchayati Raj Day today, the Prime Minister launched the e-Gramswaraj Portal and Mobile app as a portal to prepare and plan Gram Panchayat Development Plans.
- The portal is a major step towards digitization down to the Gram Panchayat level.
- It will ensure real time monitoring and accountability.
With the sighting of the moon, holy month of Ramzan began today.
- Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari announced it this evening. Muslims around the country will now start the fasting for the month-long festival from tomorrow.
Tripura CM Biplab Kumar Deb today announced that the state has become coronavirus free after the second patient has been found negative after consecutive tests.

Banking, Business & Economic Affairs

Britain's heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has launched a COVID-19 emergency appeal fund in his role as the Royal Founding Patron of British Asian Trust.
- The fund will support those suffering in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
3 private-sector banks have cut down their stakes in Yes Bank within two weeks of investing in the lender as part of a rescue plan, shareholding data showed.
- Between March 17 and 31, Federal Bank's stake fell to 1.92% from 2.39%, IDFC First Bank's stake decreased to 1.67% from 1.99% and Kotak Mahindra Bank's stake dropped to 3.61% from 3.98%.
Fitch Ratings has cut the 2020-21 growth projection for India to 0.8% from 2% projected on April 3.
- However, Fitch said, the growth is expected to rebound to 6.7% in 2021-22. A
Amazon has partnered with local grocery stores in India to launch 'Local Shops on Amazon', allowing them to sell their items online and has invested ₹10 crore into the initiative.
- The initiative was piloted six months ago and has already got 5,000 shops onboard across 100 cities.
- The shops can list a variety of items including consumer electronics to groceries.

Science & Technology

IIT Delhi has become the 1st academic institute to obtain ICMR approval for real-time PCR-based COVID-19 diagnostic assay with 100% specificity.
- Using comparative sequence analyses, the team identified unique regions (short stretches of RNA sequences) in the COVID-19/SARS COV-2 genome.
- These regions are not present in other human coronaviruses, providing an opportunity to detect COVID-19.
China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced the name of China's first Mars exploration mission, Tianwen-1, on China's Space Day.
- China plans to launch the Mars probe in 2020, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in one mission.
- Note : China's planetary exploration missions in the future will be named the Tianwen series.

Deaths

Theatre actor-director Usha Ganguli (74) passed away.
- A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1998, Ganguli founded the theatre group Rangakarmee, which essentially produces Hindi plays.

Sports Current Affairs

International Hockey Federation (FIH) today extended the current season of its Pro League by one year till June 2021 amid the suspension of all sporting events due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- FIH also announced that the next season of the Pro League will be held from September 2021 to June 2022.
- Note : India are placed 4th in current season's standings.