1. Which of the following launched “Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator”?
a. UNESCO
b. WHO
c. United Nations
d. G-20
S-d
EXPLANATION-
• The group of 20 (G20) launched “Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator”, an international initiative to accelerate development, production, and access to health tools needed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• The G20 is working towards reinforcing global cooperation on all fronts, and most importantly, on closing the immediate health financing gap.
• Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator’ initiative will be a global platform for action to enhance connections and leverage inter-dependencies for collective partnership, problem-solving, mobilising and guiding investments, and driving equitable access for new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.
2. Which country has launched 100% state-backed 'Bounce Back Loan Scheme' for small businesses?
a. United Kingdom
b. United States
c. Russia
d. Germany
S-a
EXPLANATION-
• UK's Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has unveiled a 100% state-backed 'Bounce Back Loan Scheme' for the country's small businesses to help them tide through the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
• The new fast-track finance scheme would help bolster the existing package of support available to crisis-hit UK businesses.
• Under the scheme, qualifying small businesses can apply online to borrow between 2,000 funds and 50,000 pounds as interest-free loans for the first 12 months.
• The scheme has been designed to ensure that small firms who need vital cash injections to keep operating can get finance in a matter of days. It comes alongside the 6 billion awarded in business grants, supporting 4 million jobs through the job retention scheme and generous tax deferrals supporting hundreds of thousands of firms.
• Firms will be able to access these loans through a network of accredited lenders.
• The government will work with lenders to ensure loans delivered through this scheme are advanced as quickly as possible and agree a low standardised level of interest for the remaining period of the loan.
3. In which country have two mink farms tested positive for COVID-19?
a. Netherlands
b. New Zealand
c. Germany
d. Israel
S-a
EXPLANATION-
• Animals at two mink farms in the Netherlands have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
• The Dutch Ministry of Agriculture said that some staff at the two farms had earlier displayed symptoms of the disease so it is assumed that these are human-to-animal infections.
• As a precaution, authorities are closing roads within 400 meters (yards) of the affected farms in North Brabant, which is the Dutch region the hardest hit by the coronavirus.
• The minks are not the first animals infected with the coronavirus. The findings come after positive tests in two pet cats in New York state and in some tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo, adding to a small number of confirmed cases of the virus in animals worldwide.
4. When is the World Book Day observed?
a. 20 April
b. 21 April
c. 23 April
d. 22 April
S-c
EXPLANATION-
• World Book Day 2020 is also known as World Book and Copyright Day.
• The World Book Capital 2020 is Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia.
• The day is celebrated by UNESCO and other related organisations across the world to honour authors, books worldwide, to promote the art of reading etc.
• UNESCO has selected 23rd April as World Book Day to pay tribute to great literary figures including William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega who died on this day.
5. Which of the following is a robot that can deliver medicines and food to COVID-19 patients in isolation wards without human intervention?
a. WardBot
b. HackBot
c. KavachBot
d. TikoBot
S-a
EXPLANATION-
• A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar in Punjab’s Rupnagar district has come up with a design of an autonomous ‘WardBot’ which can deliver medicines and food to COVID-19 patients in isolation wards without human intervention.
• Its deployment in hospitals will help in minimising the risk of the frontline health staff getting infected with the deadly virus.
• Based on the smart line following, WardBot, fitted with sensors, can work on a known path and can carry food items and medicines for delivery at different beds to patients in a ward.
• The ‘WardBot’ uses simple gesture sensors for a quarantined person to wave a bye to the bot, as an indication of receiving the material.
• Patients will get the intimation through bed-IDs being displayed on small LCD units.
• The design of an autonomous WardBot is such that it can be instructed to receive and deliver food and medicines and necessary equipment from one room to the other from the remotely located control room.
• The control room can instruct multiple bots to accomplish tasks simultaneously on different floors.
• WardBot also has a feature of self-sanitising on the return path and could be used for sanitising walls of the hospitals, said the researchers, adding it can also work under low-light conditions.
• WardBot can serve as a support structure to the healthcare sector at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on minimising human interaction with the coronavirus patients
