Current Affairs April 2020 - Places in NEWS

1 - Ahmedabad railway station gets sanitizing tunnel

Ahmedabad station of Western Railway has got the unique distinction of becoming the first station on Indian Railways to install a Walk Through Mass Sanitizing Tunnel. The tunnel is fitted with a sensor so that, when a passenger approaches the tunnel entrance, it starts fogging automatically with WHO approved sanitizer.

The tunnel has a capacity of sanitizing 25 to 30 persons per minute and consumes approximately 20 ml sanitizer per person. The system runs on the principle of Vaporization process which converts the sanitizer mixture into vapour which forms a uniform layer over the surface which dries up quickly.

2 - Pusa Decontamination & Sanitizing Tunnel inaugurated

Pusa Decontamination and Sanitizing Tunnel, developed by Division of Agricultural Engineering, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Framers’ Welfare, Shri Kailash Choudhary.

The sanitisation protocol includes hand washing with foot-operated soap and water dispenser and fogging in a sanitising tunnel for 20 seconds. In this tunnel, Quaternary Ammonium Compounds (QAC) are used at concentration of 0.045%, which is recommended by the Health Department.

3 - Thuthukudi airport in Tamil Nadu upgraded to level 3

The Thuthukudi airport in Tamil Nadu, near the strategically important Bay of Bengal coast, has been upgraded to level 3 by the Airport Authority of India. This signifies a rise in the operational potentials of the airport and increases the scope of getting more funds for expansion activities.

The airport run way is at present being extended to 3115 metres to enable bigger planes to use it. Plans are also in the pipeline for starting hopping flights to nearby destinations like Trivandrum, Kochi, Madurai etc.

4 - KGMU in Lucknow becomes first government hospital to successfully launch Plasma Therapy Treatment for COVID-19

The King George Medical University in Uttar Pradesh has become the first government hospital in the country to successfully launch the plasma therapy treatment for the COVID-19 patients.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recently allowed states to start clinical trials of plasma therapy. Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients. In this treatment, plasma from a cured COVID-19 patient is transfused to a critically ill coronavirus patient.

5 - Kerala government hospital deployed robot to serve COVID-19 patients

Ernakulam Government Medical College Hospital has deployed a robot to serve food and medicines to coronavirus patients with an aim to reduce risk of infections for doctors and health workers. The robot is named 'KARMI-Bot'.

The robots developed by ASIMOV robotics, a company working under maker village of Kerala start-up mission. The robot can carry a payload of up to 25 kgs and is capable of achieving a maximum speed of 1 m per sec. It featured in the latest cover story of Forbes magazine.

6 - IIITM-K developed an advanced search engine for COVID-19

Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management – Kerala (IIITM-K) has developed Vilokana, a search engine based on artificial intelligence to enable researchers to get deeper insights into scientific studies on Covid-19. The search engine is accessed through the website www.vilokana.in.

The user can supply key-words based queries, the meaning of which the search engine will be able to understand and find the relevant text from the scientific papers. The user also has the option to upload any scientific text for analysis.

7 - Saranda Forest Division makes immunity booster drinks

Officials of Saranda Forest Division in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand have come up with immunity booster herbal drinks made from barks of Arjun trees, Tulsi leaves, Guava leaves and other immune building herbs. The drink will help everyone restore their immune system. The immunity booster drinks are prepared to increase the general health of people as well.

Saranda Forest has been house to several medicinal plants. The idea is being taken from Kilimili, a word used in local language for a traditional tribal herbal medicine house.

8 - SIMFED launched mobile ration van in Gangtok

Sikkim State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd (SIMFED) launched a mobile ration van in Gangtok, for doorstep delivery of essential commodities and food. SIMFED’s van will deliver essential commodities like rice, mustard oil, pulse, flour, sugar, salt and soaps at reasonable rates.

The co-operative will work according to the route plan and customers would be informed in advance about the movement of the mobile ration van. SIMFED has made provisions for cashless transactions.

9 - Pune Municipal Corporation designs ‘Saiyam app’ to track home quarantined people

Pune Municipal Corporation has developed a mobile application named Saiyam under Smart Cities Mission to effectively track the home-quarantined citizens and ensure that, they are staying in the home. The Mobile Application has GPS tracking so that, whenever quarantined citizens leave their homes, City Administration gets alert and the local ward or the local police station gets informed.

The concerned people have instructions to keep the mobile running for 24 hours and to keep the GPS open at all times. The movement of the isolates will be observed in Red, Amber or Green, as in the central observatory.

10 - IIT-Bombay developed digital stethoscope called “AyuSynk”

Ayu Devices, a startup of IIT Bombay, has developed a digital stethoscope named as AyuSynk. AyuSynk will help in listening chest sounds such as wheezing and crackles that shows seriousness of the disease COVID-19. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoV-2. The disease spread globally, resulting in the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.

The digital device AyuSynk has ability to amplify chest sounds, send sounds from patients to doctors without physical tubing, store the auscultated sound as part of the health record of the patient and shares with other doctors for confirmatory opinion.

11 - IIM Kozhikode girl develops COVID-19 website

An international team led by an Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode student has developed a vital digital tool to fight the COVID-19 pandemic of misinformation. The website ‘COVID FYI’ (covidfyi.in) is a one-stop digital directory for all Covid19 related services and help released by official sources.

The website aims to bring the right information from the right sources to the right people, as only official information from government organisations is put on this platform to ensure authenticity and credibility.

12 - WHO map shows Ladakh's Aksai Chin as part of China

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reportedly shown parts of Ladakh as Chinese territory. It shows the Aksai Chin region as a part of China with a dotted line and colour code. The WHO map also marks Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) with dotted lines, suggesting it as a disputed territory. Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the rest of India are marked in different colour codes.

This is probably the first time that Ladakh and J&K are shown in different colour codes than the rest of India.