1. Ahmedabad railway station becomes first station of Indian Railways to install sanitizing tunnel

• The Ahmedabad railway station at Kalupur, Gujarat of Western Railway became the first station of Indian Railways (IR) to install a Walk Through Mass Sanitizing Tunnel to ensure the safety of staff and passengers in the view of the COVID-19. The tunnel was inaugurated by Ahmedabad DRM (Divisional Railway Manager) Deepak Jha.
• The tunnel uses WHO (World Health Organization) approved sanitizer and fitted with a sensor, so that when a passenger approaches the tunnel entrance it starts fogging automatically.
• The distance of the tunnel is 20 feet long which can be covered within 10 seconds. The tunnel has a capacity of sanitizing 25 to 30 people per minute & consumes approximately  20 ml sanitizer per person.
• The sanitization system runs on the principle of Vaporization process which converts the sanitizer mixture into vapour which forms a uniform layer over the surface & dries up quickly.

• On April 10, 2020, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), has inked an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), a non-profit organisation based in Jaipur, Rajasthan, to promote consumers to contribute to the global development agenda as well as support their respective governments in times of global crisis like coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
• Tha MoU, valid for 5 years, aims to create joint technical co-operation initiatives to support ongoing activities in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
• As per the MoU, CUTS will support e-commerce as a platform to accelerate Member States’ transition to the digital economy and adapt to the 4th Industrial Revolution.
• Both the agencies also decided to implement a BRICS e-commerce project that will build upon the success of UNIDO’s pilot e-commerce project implemented in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries from 2016 to 2018.

• On April 7, 2020 the Jana Small Finance Bank, a scheduled commercial bank, has launched DigiGen, a digital banking platform which enables the customers to open digitally a savings account & fixed deposit instantly anytime & anywhere.
• It is a 3 step process to open an account, where the customers are eligible for 4.5% interest rates on savings accounts with no minimum balance and up to 7.5% interest on fixed deposits.
• The new digital solution offers many features including online bill payment, instant cash transfer and airport lounge access on a debit card.

Foot Notes: About Jana Small Finance Bank
Headquarters– Bengaluru, India
Managing Director (MD) & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)– Ajay Kanwal

4. IMF to consider $1.4 bn loan to Pakistan after Imran Khan seeks help to tackle COVID-19 economic fallout

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called its executive board meeting on April 16 to consider disbursement of an extra loan worth $1.4 billion to Pakistan after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s request.
• Khan said that in developing countries, apart from containing the virus and dealing with the economic crisis, the biggest worry is people dying of hunger as a result of the lockdown.
• The Pakistan government had also requested the IMF last month for a low-cost, fast-disbursing loan under the fund's Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to deal with the adverse economic impact of COVID-19.The RFI is used to provide financial assistance to IMF member countries facing an urgent balance of payments need.
• The $1.4 billion loan to Pakistan is additional to the country's $6 billion bailout package that it signed with the IMF in July last year to stave off a balance of payments crisis.
• The government is also planning to seek more support from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank in the future to save its economy from the dire economic fallout.

Foot Notes: International Monetary Fund
Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
CEO: Christine Lagarde 
Managing Director: Kristalina Georgieva
Chief Economist: Gita Gopinath

5. India sends 5,022 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan

• India has shipped the first consignment of 5,022 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan to ensure food security during difficult times of COVID-19 pandemic. 
• Indian Embassy in Afghanistan has announced that 251 containers carrying the first consignment of 5,022 metric tonnes of wheat out of the total gift of 75,000 metric tonnes from India to Afghanistan set sail from Kandla port to Chabahar port. 
• Last year, India Ambassador to Afghanistan Vinay Kumar had said that India would give 75,000 metric tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan. 
• Indian embassy in Afghanistan has also announced that New Delhi will send 5 lakh hydroxychloroquine tablets soon.

Foot notes: About Afganistan
Capital: Kabul 
President: Ashraf Ghani
Currency: Afghan afghani

6. Sir Stirling Moss, F1 and motor racing legend, dies at the age of 90 after long illness

• Stirling Moss, the British racer widely regarded as the greatest Formula One driver ever to win the world championship, has died at the age of 90.
• He made 67 starts in the F1 World Championship, winning 16 races and claiming 16 pole positions and 24 podium positions.
• He retired from top-level competition after a crash in 1962 but continued in historic racing and was highly active within motor racing for the rest of his life. In 1961 he was named the BBC’s sports personality of the year.

7. Apple books coronavirus domain name after Google collaboration

• Apple has booked a domain name called AppleCoronavirus.com, after the iPhone maker and Google last week announced a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the new coronavirus.
• Apple and Google are launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing.

About Google LLC:
Headquarters– California, United States
CEO– Sundar Pichai
About Apple Inc:
Headquarters– California, United States
CEO– Tim Cook
 

8. COVID-19: IIT-Bombay researchers develop ‘digital stethoscope’ which can hear a heartbeat from a distance 

• On April 11, 2020, A team from Biomedical Engineering & Technology incubation Centre (BETiC) at the Indian Institute of Technology of Bombay (IIT-B) has developed a “digital stethoscope” that can listen to hear beats from a distance and record them. Thus the smart stethoscope minimises the risk to doctors and health care professionals who are handling COVID- 19 (Coronavirus) patients.
• The IIT-B team has received a patent for the device that records the auscultated sound from lungs & store it as a part of a patient’s health record and the data can be shared with other doctors for analysis.
• The data or the auscultated sound from a patient’s chest is wirelessly sent to the doctor using Bluetooth.
• The team in collaboration with “AyuDevice”, a startup company in IIT-B campus, has sent 1,000 digital stethoscopes to different hospitals and healthcare centers across the country. The product has been developed with clinical inputs from doctors at Reliance Hospital and PD Hinduja Hospital.

9. People's Bank of China now owns 1.01% stake in HDFC

• The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has bought 1.01 percent stake in the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC).
• PBOC held 1.75 crore shares of HDFC during the quarter that ended in March.
• HDFC Vice Chairman and CEO Keki Mistry said the PBOC has been an existing shareholder and had owned 0.8 percent in the company as of March 2019.
• Due to the coronavirus crisis, HDFC shares fell nearly 39.87 percent this year from a high of Rs 2,493 to a low of Rs 1,499 last week.

Foot notes: About PBoC(People's Bank of China)
Central bank of: China
Party Secretary Governor: Yi Gang
 

10. Vice President greets the nation on the occasion of Vaisakhi, Vishu, Puthandu, Masadi, Vaishkhadi and Bhoga Bihu

• The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has wished the people on the occasion of Vaisakhi, Vishu, Puthandu, Masadi, Vaishkhadi and Bhoga Bihu which are being celebrated in different parts of the country on 13th and 14th April, 2020. 
• Vaisakhi, also known as Baisakhi is a historical and religious festival in Sikhism and Hinduism. It is usually celebrated on 13 or 14 April every year, which commemorates the formation of Khalsa panth of warriors under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.
• Vishu is a Hindu festival celebrated in the South Indian state of Kerala, Tulu Nadu region in Karnataka, bordering areas of Tamil Nadu and their diaspora communities.
• Puthandu, also known as Puthuvarusham or Tamil New Year, is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar and traditionally celebrated as a festival.Rongali or Bhoga Bihu is an important Assamese festival celebrating spring festival.