1. Gujarat Police becomes first in India to introduce taser guns 

• The Gujarat Police is equipped with taser guns in order to ensure the safety  and security of the public. By introducing the taser guns as part of police weapons, Gujarat becomes the first state in India.
• The taser guns were used in agencies such as the UK Metropolitan Police, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the New York Police Department.
• The taser guns have been introduced to find an alternative between “ineffective lathis” and “deadly guns”.
• The taser guns (electrical weapon) use compressed nitrogen to fire, by sending electricity through attached wires, which disrupt voluntary control of muscles.

• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal informed that The Board of Approval on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) has approved 101 cases of de-notification between April 1, 2008, & February 29, 2020, on the request of SEZ private developers which include poor market response, lack of space demand & a change in the fiscal regime for SEZs.
• The denotified approval is subject to the refund of all obligations and tax credits obtained by SEZ Private Developers and on receipt of no-objection from the concerned State Governments.
• Under the Chairmanship of  Baba Kalyani, the chairman of Bharat Forge the government formed a committee to study the SEZ Policy of India on 04.06.2018. Several recommendations of the committee have already been implemented.

• Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi announced that it has approved to sign & ratify the extradition treaty between India and Belgium, which will enable the countries to surrender any person found in its territory who is accused of or convicted in an extraditable offense in the territory of the other party.
• It means an offense punishable by 1 year or more in accordance with the laws of both parties. If extradition is requested, the sentencing period will be at least 6 months. Taxation, or even one of the income-related offenses or financial matters, is within the scope of this agreement.
• The treaty states that if the offense involved is a political offense & also if the offense requested is a military offense the extradition will be refused. The agreement also mentions some offenses which will not be considered as political offenses.
• The treaty will provide a legal framework to hand over terrorists, economic criminals and other criminals from & to Belgium. After the ratification, the agreement will take effect from the day the exchange of instruments between India & Belgium.

Foot Notes: About Belgium:
Prime Minister- Sophie Wilmès (1st female PM)
Capital– Brussels
Currency– Euro

4. Gujarat Government signs an MoU with Dutch company of Flying car-maker PAL-V 

• Flying car-maker PAL-V (Personal Air-Land Vehicle) of the Netherlands will set up a manufacturing plant in Gujarat. A Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) was signed in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister (CM) Vijay Ramniklal Rupani between state industries Principal Secretary MK Das and Carl Maasbommel, Vice President of PAL-V’s international business development.
• The Dutch car company sets up the firm for the first time in India and has set a target of commencing production by 2021.
• The company has chosen Gujarat state for its world-class infrastructure, ease of doing business, better port, and logistic facilities.
• The PAL-V flying car is designed with 2 engines. The car runs at a speed of 160 kilometers (Km) on road and can fly at a speed of 180 kilometers. The car can turn into a flying vehicle in just 3 minutes & covers a distance of 500 km.

Foot Notes:
About Gujarat:
Capital– Gandhinagar.
Chief Minister (CM)– Vijay Ramniklal Rupani.
Governor– Acharya Devvrat.
About Pal-V:
Founded: 2001
Headquarters: Raamsdonksveer, Netherlands

5.COVID-19: Govt bans export of all ventilators, sanitizers

• In its efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has prohibited the export of all ventilators, including any artificial respiratory apparatus or oxygen therapy apparatus or any other breathing device.
• Commerce and Industry Ministry said that the government has also prohibited the export of all Sanitizers. The Ministry said, the Ventilators were put in the prohibited category on the 19th of this month itself.

Foot notes:
About Commerce and Industry ministry:
Minister: Piyush Goyal
Headquarters: New Delhi

6. Bridge constructed by BRO over Teesta River in North Sikkim opened for traffic

• The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) opened a 360 feet long bailey suspension bridge for traffic over Teesta River in Munshithang near Chungthang town, North Sikkim. The bridge constructed will be useful for the people residing in Lahen town, North Sikkim.
• Under the Project Swastik, the 86 Road Construction Company (RCC) of 758 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF), commenced the construction of the bridge in October 2019 & completed in January 2020.
• The bridge constructed will facilitate the movement of logistics for the Armed forces deployed in forwarding areas and also acts as tourist spots.

Foot Notes: About Sikkim:
Capital– Gangtok.
Chief Minister (CM)– Prem Singh Tamang.
Governor– Ganga Prasad Chaurasia.
About BRO(Border roads organization):
Headquarters: New Delhi
Director-General: Lt. Gen.Harpal Singh
Motto: everything is achievable through hard work..., ‘Shramena Sarvam Sadhyam’
Founder: Jawaharlal Nehru
Founded: 7 May 1960
 

7. Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan jointly contribute $3.5 mn to SAARC corona emergency fund

• The Government of Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan have pledged to contribute $1.5 million, $1 million and $1 million respectively to the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Corona Emergency Fund proposed by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on March 15,2020 with an initial grant of $10 million from India to deal with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
• Earlier, the governments of Maldives and Bhutan also pledged to provide $200,000 and 100,000 respectively. The remaining two nations of SAARC- i.e Pakistan and Sri Lanka are yet to declare their contribution for the fund.
• India also provided material assistance in the forms of masks, gloves and disinfectants with a cost of $1 million to SAARC countries in the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19.

Foot Notes: About SAARC:
Establishment: 8 December 1985
Headquarters: Kathmandu, Nepal
Secretary-General: Amjad Hussain B.Sial
Members (8): Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
 

8.Covid-19: SBI becomes the 1st bank to launch an emergency credit facility

• State Bank of India (SBI), an Indian multinational, public sector bank, became the 1st bank to launch COVID 19 emergency credit line (CECL) to provide funds to businesses affected by the infectious coronavirus.
• Under this emergency credit line, loan will be given at a fixed interest rate of 7.25 % for a period of 12 months. Maximum loan amount of up to Rs 200 crore or 10 % of the existing fund-based working capital limits (FBWC) will be provided and such facility will be available by 30 June 2020.
• The loan facility is available for all standard accounts which are not classified as Special Mention Account (SMA)-1(whereby principal or interest payment or any other amount is wholly or partly overdue between 31-60 days) or SMA-2 (61-90 days) till 16 March 2020.

Foot Notes: About Special mention accounts (SMA):
SMA are those assets/accounts that show traits of bad asset quality in the first 90 days itself or before it being identified as NPA(Non-Performing Assets).
About State Bank of India (SBI):
Headquarter– Mumbai, Maharashtra
Chairman– Rajnish Kumar
Digital banking platform– Yono
Tagline– The Banker to Every Indian, With you all the way, Pure Banking Nothing Else, The Nation’s banks on us.

9. Hillel Furstenberg & Gregory Margulis named as winners of Abel Prize Laureates 2020

• The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters named Hillel Furstenber from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Gregory Margulis from Yale University, USA as winners of the Abel Prize 2020. They share the prize & the amount of Norwegian Krone (NOK) 7.5 Million (USD 8.3400).
• They are awarded for their “pioneering  use of methods from probability & dynamics in group theory, number theory and combinatorics”. They used  probabilistic methods & random walks techniques  to solve deep problems in diverse areas of mathematics.
• Hillel Furstenberg hails from Berlin. He is the winner of the Israel Prize for exact sciences and the Wolf Prize in mathematics
• Gregory Margulis hails from Moscow,in 1978 he won the Fields Medal at 32 years old but did not receive the medal in Helsinki due to the refusal of Soviet authorities & is the winner of the Lobachevsky Prize and the Wolf Prize in Mathematics.

Foot Notes: About Norway:
Capital– Oslo
Prime Minister (PM)– Erna Solberg
Currency– Norwegian Krone (NOK)

10. India ranks 120th in Economic Freedom Index 2020, Singapore tops

• Heritage Foundation published its 26th annual edition of Economic Freedom Index 2020 to measure the level of economic freedom in 186 countries. India (56.5) ranks in 120th position & Singapore (89.4) tops the index for the 1st time
• Hong Kong(89.1) for the 1st time secured 2nd rank since the 1st publication in 1995.India secures 28th rank among 42 countries in the Asia-Pacific region & also has made improvement in its score by 1.3 points from 2019.
• New Zealand( 84.1) secured the 3 rank, North Korea(4.2) is positioned in 180th rank, Venezuela (25.2) in 179th rank & Cuba(26.9) in 178th rank. Due to lack of reliable statistics Iraq, Libya, Liechtenstein, Somalia, Syria, Yemen is not ranked.

Foot Notes: About Heritage Foundation:
It is an American conservative research & educational institution founded in 1973 to improve public policy based on principles including free enterprise, limited government & individual freedom.
Headquarters– Washington, District of Columbia(D.C.), United States
President– Kay Coles James

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