Daily Current Affairs 22nd April 2020

Daily Current Affairs 22nd April 2020 iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-22nd-april-2020/

Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation 1. HOSPITAL IN STATE GETS NOD FOR PLASMA THERAPHY TRIALS. 2. CBDT STICKS WITH BUDGET’S TAX TARGET. 3. KANDHAMAL TRIBES. 4. DRUG FOR SEPSIS TO BE TESTED FOR COVID-19.

5. PAKISTHAN REMOVES NAMES FROM TERRORISM WATCH LIST.

HOSPITAL IN STSTE GETS NOD FOR PLASMA THERAPHY TRIALS Bringing hope to the battle against COVID-19, the Central Drugs Control Organisation under the Director General of Health Services has approved a research proposal from a hospital in Karnataka to study the use of convalescent plasma therapy in treating COVID-19.

The therapy that holds promise in treatment of COVID-19 cases will be tested on at least 10 critical patients in the State in the initial phase.

Following the approval granted to HCG Hospitals, trials will begin on critical COVID19 patients who are currently in ICU and on ventilators using plasma from patients who recovered from Victoria Hospital.

It will be taken up in collaboration with the State government for the benefit of our patients.

The therapy could be used in the category of patients who are battling the disease along with severe comorbidities and respiratory distress.

We have planned a Phase I/II, Open Label, parallel arm clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of this therapy in COVID-19 infected patients for free.

The approval has been granted under the provisions of the New Drugs and Clinical Trial Rules, 2019.

The idea behind this therapy is that immunity can be transferred from a healthy person to a sick patient using convalescent plasma.

This therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a recovered COVID-19 patient to treat another critical patient. The recovered patient’s blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19. Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against coronavirus in the second person.

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Ashish Dhoot, immunohematologist at HCG, said the plan is to collect 500 ml of plasma from recovered patients from Victoria Hospital and use it on critical patients whose blood group is compatible with the donor’s plasma.

We will first collect a sample and test it before asking the patients to come to the blood bank and donate the plasma.

The collected plasma from recovered patients would be stored for use on other patients in future.

Use of convalescent plasma has been studied in outbreaks of other respiratory infections, including the 2003 SARS-CoV-1 epidemic, the 2009-2010 H1N1 influenza virus pandemic, and the 2012 MERS-CoV epidemic.

In India, currently there is one more registered trial for the same therapy, by Government Medical College, New Delhi. Trials have also begun in Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Kerala.

Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute had also sent a research request on behalf of COVID-19 hospitals in Bengaluru to Central agencies.

CBDT STICKS WITH BUDGET’S TAX TARGET CBDT: It is a statutory body established as per the Central Board of Revenue Act, 1963.

It is India’s official financial action task force unit.

It is administered by the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance.

Structure: The Central Board of Direct Taxes consists of a Chairman and six members that deal with the following: Income Tax 2/7

Revenue Legislation and Computerisation Audit and Judicial Investigation Personnel and Vigilance The Members of the CBDT are selected from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). The members constitute the top management of the Income Tax Department.

Functions: It deals with matters related to levying and collecting Direct Taxes.

Formulation of various policies.

Supervision of the entire Income Tax Department Suggests legislative changes in Direct Tax Enactments Suggests changes in tax rates Proposes changes in the taxation structure in line with the Government policies.

Why in News?

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown to combat it has brought the economy to a near standstill, the Centre has gone ahead and set its Income Tax authorities a daunting target of collecting ₹13.2 lakh crore for the fiscal year ending in March 2021.

In a correspondence to all Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax (PCCIT) dated April 16, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has spelt out zone wise targets for the collection of corporate tax, personal income tax and security transaction tax (STT).

The figures, which are a reiteration of the revenue receipt estimates spelt out by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget presented in February, comrprise a corporation tax component of ₹6.81 lakh crore, personal income tax of ₹6.25 lakh crore and STT at ₹13,000 crore.

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KANDHAMAL TRIBES The Kondhaor Kandha is the largest tribe of the state Odisha in terms of population.

They have a population of about one million and are based mainly in the Kandhamal and adjoining districts namely Rayagada, Koraput, Balangir and Boudh.

Traditionally hunter-gatherers, they are divided into the hill-dwelling Khonds and plain-dwelling Khonds for census purposes.

All the Khonds identify by their clan and usually hold large tracts of fertile land but still practice hunting, gathering and slash-and-burnagriculture in the forests as a symbol of their connection to and ownership of the forest.

Khonds speak the Kuiand Kuvi languages and write them in Odia script.

They are a designated Scheduled Tribe in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal.

Why in News?

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Kandhamal tribals do not tonsure their heads or have haircuts during funeral rituals.

Women grow their hair long and trim it among themselves.

Unlike other parts of Odisha, tribals of Kandhamal never had a special sect of barbers for hair grooming.

People needing haircut get together at a shady place near a stream. Mostly the youths prefer to do the haircut as novelty.

Most tribal families have their own set of comb and scissors to provide haircut to each other.

During this time of COVID-19 threat, when villages are obeying lockout norms, this practice of haircut by near and dear surely helps tribal people to block infection.

DRUG FOR SEPSIS TO BE TESTED FOR COVID-19 5/7

SEPSIS: Sepsis is caused by your body’s defense system (immune system) working overtime to fight infection.

It’s sometimes called septicemia.

The large number of chemicals released into the blood during this process triggers widespread inflammation.

This can lead to organ damage.

Blood clotting during sepsis reduces blood flow to limbs and internal organs.

This deprives them of nutrients and oxygen.

In severe cases, one or more organs may fail.

Causes: While any type of infection — bacterial, viral or fungal — can lead to sepsis, the most likely varieties include: 1. Pneumonia.

2. Infection of the digestive system (which includes organs such as the stomach and colon).

3. Infection of the kidney, bladder and other parts of the urinary system.

4. Bloodstream infection (bacteremia).

Why in News?

Sepsivac was originally developed for treating sepsis by a class of pathogens called gram negative bacteria, that are known to cause life-threatening infections.

Given the similarities in the immune-system response in critically ill COVID-19 patients, it is theorised, the therapy could stimulate a benign response.

A large quantity of cytokines, chemicals signalling the presence of an infection, are produced in the early stages of the body’s response against an infection to stimulate the production of antibodies.

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However, cytokines also cause inflammation of organs and can be counterproductive in protecting the body.

Keeping them in check is the goal of so called immuno-modulators, or medicines like Sepsivac.

PAKISTHAN REMOVES NAMES FROM TERRORISM WATCH LIST Pakistan has quietly removed around 1,800 terrorists from its watch list, including that of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur-Rehman Lakhvi, ahead of a new round of assessments by the global anti-moneylaundering watchdog FATF, according to a U.S.-based start-up that automates watchlist compliance.

The so-called proscribed persons list, which is maintained by Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority ( NACTA), is intended in part to help financial institutions avoid doing business with or processing transactions of suspected terrorists.

The list in 2018 contained about 7,600 names. It has been reduced to under 3,800 in the past 18 months, according to Castellum.AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company.

1,800 Names Removed: About 1,800 of the names have been removed since the beginning of March, according to data collected by Castellum.

Pakistan is working to implement an action plan that has been mutually agreed to with the Paris-based The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), part of which involves demonstrating effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions.”

It is possible that these removals are part of Pakistan’s action plan to implement the FATF recommendations.

The FATF will evaluate Pakistan’s progress in June 2020.

WORD OF THE DAY DE-JURE: According to rightful entitlement or claim; by right.

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