TNPSC Current Affairs April 06, 2020

www.tnpsc.academy – TNPSC Current Affairs April 06, 2020 (06/04/2020)

 

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Topic: Problems in Public Distributing Systems, General Administration

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court demanding full wages for over 7.6 crore active job card holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) during the 21-day nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.

What the PIL demands?

PIL urged the top court to “issue uniform guidelines to all states, UTs that for the entire duration of the lockdown at least all active and registered job card holders under the MGNREGA Act will be deemed to be at work and accordingly make full payment of their wages at the earliest.”

It also want the apex court to increase the entitlement from 100 days of work to 200 days per household to support rural livelihoods during the emerging economic crisis.

It also requested the top court to direct the Centre and states to issue individual temporary job cards within 15 days to all migrants who have returned from the cities to their native villages.

Why this is necessary?

MGNREGA is a programme meant to be a lifeline to rural workers during this kind of distress circumstances.

Therefore, it would be completely unfair to not enable MGNREGA to provide the support that it is designed to give when rural workers are facing the country’s worst challenge of unemployment and limited access to money and food grains. Over 12.2 crore labourers work in MGNREGA every year.

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Topic: Latest inventions on Science and Health

What is cytokine storm?

Of all the possible compounding effects of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the cytokine storm is one of the most feared.

How does our immune systems generally work?

The immune systems in our bodies protect us from bacteria, viruses, and parasites by removing them from our systems.

The immune system gets activated by things that the body does not recognise as its own. These things are called antigens, and include bacteria, fungi and viruses.

An effective immune system response involves inflammation, an important and indispensable part of the process.

Inflammation has an important protective function. The release of inflammatory mediators increases the blood flow to the area, which allows larger numbers of immune system cells to be carried to the injured tissue, thereby aiding the repairing process.

If this inflammatory response is not regulated, a ‘cytokine storm’ can be triggered.

So, what is cytokine storm?

A cytokine storm is an overproduction of immune cells and their activating compounds (cytokines), which, in a flu infection, is often associated with a surge of activated immune cells into the lungs.

The resulting lung inflammation and fluid buildup can lead to respiratory distress and can be contaminated by a secondary bacterial pneumonia — often enhancing the mortality in patients.

Occurrence:

A cytokine storm can occur due to an infection, auto-immune condition, or other diseases. Signs and symptoms include high fever, inflammation (redness and swelling), severe fatigue, and nausea.

Cytokine storms are not exclusive to coronavirus patients. It is an immune reaction that can occur during other infectious and non-infectious diseases as well.

What then, is the role of cytokines in the immune system?

Cytokines are signalling proteins that are released by cells at local high concentrations — a cytokine storm or CSS is characterised by the overproduction of immune cells and the cytokines themselves because of a dysregulation in the process.

A severe immune reaction, leading to the secretion of too many cytokines in the bloodstream, can be harmful since an excess of immune cells can attack healthy tissue as well.

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Topic: Latest Diary of Events

What is 1930s Great Depression?

With the novel coronavirus pandemic severely affecting the global economy, some experts have begun comparing the current crisis with the Great Depression — the devastating economic decline of the 1930s that went on to shape countless world events.

What was the Great Depression?

The Great Depression was a major economic crisis that began in the United States in 1929, and went to have a worldwide impact until 1939. It began on October 24, 1929, a day that is referred to as “Black Thursday”, when a monumental crash occurred at the New York Stock Exchange as stock prices fell by 25 per cent.

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Topic: Space and Technology, Latest Diary of Events

Artemis Program

NASA unveils plan for Artemis ‘base camp’ on the moon beyond 2024.

Artemis Base camp:

Artemis Base Camp is meant to be a long-term foothold for lunar exploration, perhaps in Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole.

The Camp itself would be a lunar foundation surface habitat that could host four astronauts at the south pole for visits of perhaps a week.

In the long term, the facility would also require infrastructure for power, waste disposal and communications, as well as radiation shielding and a landing pad.

The base could also be a site for testing new techniques for dealing with pesky lunar dust and the long, cold lunar nights, turning local materials into resources like water, and developing new power and construction technologies.

What is Artemis?

Artemis– Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of Moon’s Interaction with the Sun. It is NASA’s next mission to the Moon.

Objective: To measure what happens when the Sun’s radiation hits our rocky moon, where there is no magnetic field to protect it. Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology.

Significance of the mission:

With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024.

Mission details:

NASA’s powerful new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will send astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft nearly a quarter million miles from Earth to lunar orbit.

Astronauts will dock Orion at the Gateway and transfer to a human landing system for expeditions to the surface of the Moon.

They will return to the orbital outpost to board Orion again before returning safely to Earth.

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Topic: Political System in India, Latest Diary of Events

During India coronavirus lockdown, the laws that come into play

Section 188 IPC: deals with those disobeying an order passed by a public servant, and provides for imprisonment ranging from one to six months. For those violating orders passed under the Epidemic Diseases Act, Section 188 IPC is the provision under which punishment is awarded.

Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005: provides for punishment for two kinds of offences: obstructing any officer or employee of the government or person authorised by any disaster management authority for discharge of a function; and refusing to comply with any direction given by the authorities under the Act. Punishment can extend to one year on conviction, or two years if the refusal leads to loss of lives or any imminent danger.

Section 505 IPC provides for imprisonment of three years or fine, or both, for those who publish or circulate anything which is likely to cause fear or alarm.

Section 54 of the Disaster Management Act provides for imprisonment, extending to one year, of those who make or circulate a false alarm or warning regarding a disaster or its severity or magnitude.

Under Section 52, Disaster Management Act, whoever makes a false claim for obtaining “any relief, assistance, repair, reconstruction or other benefits” from any official authority can be sentenced to a maximum of two years imprisonment and a fine will be imposed on the person.

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Topic: International Diary of Events

A Tiger tests positive of COVID-19 in the US: Zoos on high alert in the country

The Central Zoo Authority of the United States asked all the zoos to stay on high alert after a tiger tested positive of COVID-19. This is the first time COVID-19 infections are reported on an animal.

Key facts:

A four-year-old Malayan tiger in the Bronx Zoo of New York has tested positive of Corona Virus.  It is still not known how the disease will develop in cats. This is because different species behave differently.

Till date there is no evidence that animals play a major role in COVID-19 transmission. Also, there is no evidence that a human can be infected by the virus from animals.