About:

• Mandate: This will be a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  
• Administration: Prime Minister is the Chairman of this trust and its Members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.
  
  
• Features: Citizens and organisations can go to the website pmindia.gov.in and donate to PM CARES Fund. This fund will enable micro-donations allowing a large number of people will be able to contribute with smallest of denominations.
  
  
• Donations to this fund will be exempted from income tax under section 80(G).
  
  

About:

• Name: The project CoNTeC, an acronym for COVID-19 National Teleconsultation Centre.
  
  
• Bodies involved: It has been conceptualised by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and has been implemented by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.
  
  
• Objective: CoNTeC has been made operational at AIIMS with a view to connect the Doctors across the country to AIIMS in real time for treatment of the COVID-19 patients.
  
  

About:

• According to IMF, this It is clear that we have entered a recession that will be worse than the one in 2009, following the global financial crisis.
  
  
• Stressing that while containment is the main reason for the economy to stand still and get into a recession, IMF said containment is very necessary to come out of this period and step in to recovery.
  
  
• There is risk of a wave of bankruptcies and layoffs that can undermine the recovery. 
  
  

About:

• Viral infections are mainly identified by two kinds of tests– genetic and serological.
  
  
• Genetic tests can identify infections that are active, but cannot be used to detect past infections. This is what serological tests seek to determine.
  
  
• Unlike genetic tests, which look for RNA in swab samples, serological tests work on antibodies in blood samples. Hence, they are also called ‘antibody tests’.
  
  
• To disable a pathogen, the antibody latches to a unique protein molecule on pathogen’s surface, called an antigen. Serological tests use antigen molecules to detect the presence of antibodies relevant to the infection.
  
  
• Such tests are relatively inexpensive, and can display results within a few minutes.
  
  

About:

• The initiative will have in place a system in which partners will be able to alert each other to disinformation about COVID-19.
  
  
• This will enable partner platforms such as Facebook and Google to review promptly and the publishers in the network can ensure that the information is not republished.
  
  
• The Trusted News Initiative, in which the BBC partners with other leading global news and technology organisations, was announced in June 2019.
  
  
• The partners within the initiative are: the BBC, Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter, Microsoft, AFP, Reuters, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, CBC/Radio-Canada, First Draft and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. 
  
  

About:

• Indian Scientists’ Response to CoViD-19 (ISRC) is a voluntary group of scientists who regularly discuss the rapidly evolving situation with its dire need for science communication.
  
  
• With nearly 200 members, the group has scientists from institutions such as the NCBS, the IISc, the TIFR, the IITs, the IISERs and many others.
  
  
• The group aims to study existing and available data to bring out analyses that will support the Central, State and local governments in carrying out their tasks. 
  
  

About:

• Type: A statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, viz. The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.
  
  
• Established in: 1949. 
  
  
• Mandate: Regulating the profession of Chartered Accountancy in the country; Formulation of Accounting Standards; and Prescription of Standard Auditing Procedures.
  
  
• Parent Body: It functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India.
  
  
• Council: The affairs of the ICAI are managed by a Council which constitutes of 40 members of whom 32 are elected by the Chartered Accountants and remaining 8 are nominated by the Central Government. 
  
  

About:

• NDFs are foreign exchange derivative instruments on non-convertible or restricted currencies traded over the counter (OTC) mainly at offshore centres outside the direct jurisdiction of the respective national authorities.
  
  
• The RBI took the decision despite the recommendation by a task force set up by it against allowing banks in the NDF market. The task force submitted its report in July 2019.
  
  
• The Task Force on Offshore Rupee Markets, set up by the RBI, had proposed that Indian banks should not be permitted to deal in the offshore rupee derivative market — or the NDF market — for the present as the downside of permitting them to deal in this market outweighs the advantages.
  
  

Kabul gurdwara attack

• On 25 March 2020, suicide bombers and assailants armed with guns attacked the Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib (Sikh shrine) in Kabul (Afghanistan), in which 25 Sikh worshippers were killed.
  
  
• Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – Khorasan Province has claimed responsibility for the attack. It said the attack was carried out in response to the Indian government's actions in Kashmir.
  
  
• One of the gunman was identified as Abu Khalid al-Hindi, an Indian citizen from Kerala.