Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 15 April 2021
Current Affairs for BANK, IBPS Exams - 15 April 2021
::NATIONAL::
Union Health Ministry issues regulatory pathways for foreign produced COVID-19 Vaccines
- The Union Government has today issued the Regulatory Pathway in India for COVID-19 Vaccines approved for restricted use by US FDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan or which are listed in WHO Emergency Use Listing (EUL).
- The Central Drugs Standards Control Organization (CDSCO) headed by DCGI has today explained that the following would be the Pathway:
1. CDSCO shall prepare detailed guidelines specifying regulatory pathway for approval of foreign approved Covid vaccines based on NEGVAC recommendations.
2. These guidelines have since been prepared and posted by CDSCO on its website. CDSCO will take steps to widely disseminate these guidelines to the concerned stakeholders.
3. Applicants for grant of approval for Restricted Use in Emergency situation may be submitted to CDSCO.
4. Application can be made by the foreign manufacturer through its Indian subsidiary or through its authorized agent in India (in case it does not have an Indian subsidiary).
5. CDSCO will process such applications for Restricted Use in Emergency Situation and DCGI will consider and take a decision within 03 working days from date of submission of complete application by the applicant.
DCGI will issue permission for Restricted Use in Emergency situation with, inter-alia, the following conditions:
1. Vaccine shall be used as per the guidelines prescribed under National Covid-19 Vaccination Programme.
2. First 100 beneficiaries of such vaccines shall be assessed for 7 days for safety outcomes before it is rolled out for further Vaccination program.
3. Applicant shall initiate conduct of post approval bridging clinical trials within 30 days of such approval.
7. Applications for Restricted Use in Emergency situation for such vaccines maybe accompanied by bridging trial protocol, application for import registration certificate and application for import license.
8. CDSCO will process applications for Registration Certificate (registration of oversees manufacturing site and product: in this case Covid vaccine) and Import License, within 3 working days from the date of approval of Restricted Use in Emergency Situation.
9. As per the existing protocol of CDSCO for batch release of vaccines, each batch of the vaccine will be released by Central Drugs Laboratory(CDL), Kasauli before it can be used as per the guidelines prescribed under the National Covid-19 vaccination programme.
10. The applicant will use Covid vaccine, after receipt of CDL approval, initially only on 100 beneficiaries and submit the safety data to CDSCO.
11. CDSCO will review the safety data submitted by the applicant, and once found satisfactory, will authorise the applicant to use the vaccine.
12. CDSCO will approve the protocol for the bridging trial in consultation with Subject Expert Committee (SEC) within 7 days of the receipt of the proposal.
13. Applicant will conduct the bridging trial within the time lines specified in the approved protocol, and submit data generated in the bridging trial to CDSCO.
14. After the receipt of the bridging trial results, the DCGI will review the permission granted for Restricted Use in Emergency situation.
Printed Study Materials for IBPS, SBI Bank Exam
::International::
Voice of America to shut down its Bangla language radio broadcast
- The Voice of America (VOA) Bangla service will stop its FM and Shortwave radio transmissions after 63 years of continuous service on July 17.
- The VOA Bangla service catered to audiences in Bangladesh and Bangla speaking states of India including West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. However, the television and social media content of the VOA will expand considerably as these are more heavily used by the VOA Bangla’s 16 million weekly audience members, said a press statement issued by the organisation.
- The move comes as the audience for VOA’s shortwave declined to less than one percent while its social media audience base grew exponentially in recent years. Its engagement on Twitter rose by 54 percent over the last year while video views on Instagram were up by 274 percent during the same period.
- Prior to winding up, the service will broadcast retrospective programming, looking back at the changes in the country since 1958.
::Economy::
Government's indirect tax collection for FY 2021 stood at Rs 71 lakh crore
- The net indirect tax collections in 2020-21 grew 12.3 per cent to Rs 10.71 lakh crore as compared to the previous fiscal year, thereby exceeding the target set in revised estimates, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
- The mop-up through indirect taxes, which include GST, Customs and excise duties, was Rs 9.54 lakh crore in 2019-20. In the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2020-21, the target was set at Rs 9.89 lakh crore.
- In 2020-21, the net GST collection of the Centre stood at Rs 5.48 lakh crore, while Customs mop-up was Rs 1.32 lakh crore.
- The net tax collections on account of central excise and Service Tax (arrears) during 2020-21 stood at Rs 3.91 lakh crore as compared to Rs 2.45 lakh crore in 2019-20, thereby registering a growth of 59.2 per cent, the ministry said in a statement.
- “The provisional figures for indirect tax collections (GST and non-GST) for Financial Year 2020-21 show that net revenue collections are at Rs 10.71 lakh crore as compared to Rs 9.54 lakh crore for Financial Year 2019-20, thereby registering a growth of 12.3 per cent,” it said.
NCDC (National Cooperative Development Corporation) has obtained a loan of Rs 600 crore from Deutsche Bank of Germany for lending to cooperative societies in the country
- The National Cooperative Development Corporation, NCDC has secured Rs 600 crore loan from Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, for onward lending to cooperatives in the country. An agreement in this regard was inked today between NCDC and the German Bank in presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi.
- The Minister also presided over the signing of an agreement between the Indian Chamber of Commerce and NCDC to boost farmers' linkages with markets.
- Speaking on the occasion, MrTomar said, Prime Minister NarendraModi, has given a new vision to India's agrarian landscape and also to the economic relations with Germany. He added that the Farmer Producer Organizations being set up in the country would be able to access easier credit and market through the NCDC agreements with ICC and Deutsche Bank and it will help small and marginal farmers.
::Science and tech::
Astronomers find a group of appearing and disappearing stars
- An international collaboration of astronomers has identified a curious occurrence of nine stars like objects that appeared and vanished in a small region within half an hour in an old photographic plate.
- Astronomers collaborating across counties track vanishing and appearing celestial objects by comparing old images of the night sky with new modern one, register unnatural phenomena, and probe deep into such phenomena to record changes in the Universe.
- Scientists from Sweden, Spain, USA, Ukraine, and India, including Dr. Alok C. Gupta, Scientist from ARIES, investigated early form of photography that used glass plates to capture images of the night sky from the 12th of April 1950, exposed at Palomar Observatory in California, USA and detected these transient stars which were not to be found in photographs half an hour later and not traced since then.
- Such a group of objects appearing and disappearing at the same time have been detected for the first time in the history of astronomy.
- The astronomers have not found any explanation in well-established astrophysical phenomena like gravitational lensing, fast radio bursts, or any variable star that could be responsible for this cluster of fast changes in the sky.
::Sports::
Asian Wrestling Championship: India wins gold, two bronze medals
- Wrestling, SaritaMor stamped her authority in the Asian Wrestling Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan by defending the women's 59 kg title. Indian women also won two bronze medals through Seema and Pooja besides Sarita's gold.
- The 25-year-old Haryana wrestler made a dramatic turnaround in the closing stages of the six-minute final bout to score a thrilling 10-7 win over Mongolia's ShoovdorBaatarjav.
- In the Asian Championships held in February 2020 in New Delhi, Sarita had won gold while in the 2017 edition of the continental competition, she had won silver in 58kg. India picked up their second medal, a bronze in the women's 50 kg category, when Seema scored a thumping 10-0 win over Yung Hsun Lin of Taipei.
