Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (April 18, 2020) for CSS, PMS

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April 18 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. Govt, IMF agree to put on hold $6bn programme

• With $1.4 billion upfront breathing space, Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed to put on hold the existing $6bn Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and revise it after the Covid-19 pandemic is over as the macroeconomic indicators deteriorate.
• `The Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) is the appropriate instrument to support Pakistan at this juncture as the severity of the shock and the uncertainty about the outlook make it difficult to recalibrate the existing EFF to ensure that it remains on track to meet its objectives,` said a staff report released by the IMF on April 17, 2020 after its executive board approved $1.4bn fresh support to Islamabad.
• `The Rapid Financing Instrument is disbursed in one tranche, at once, upon approval,` said Teresa Dabán Sanchez, the IMF`s resident representative in Islamabad. The IMF staff believed the RFI would catalyse additional donor financing as it estimated $2bn gap this year and $1.6bn next fiscal year, including the RFL The Fund anticipated `significant` near term impact of Covid-19 and said the forecasts were subject to higher than usual uncertainty, but economic activity could contract for the first time since the 1950s.

2. Centre, Sindh reach consensus over Covid-19 tests on bodies

• Despite some differences over the level of the lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, the federal and Sindh governments have agreed to start conducting Covid19 tests on bodies being brought to hospitals to ascertain the cause of death.
• Meanwhile, the country`s capability to conduct Covid-19 tests is gradually increasing and on April 17, 2020 the highest number of tests 6,264 were conducted since the first case was detected.

3. Governor launches data management system of ration

• Governor Chaudhry Sarwar on April 17, 2020 launched a Ration Management System (RMS) under the Punjab Development Network offering some 16 welfare organisations complete information about the poor families affected by the coronavirus crisis.
• Speaking at the launch ceremony of the RMS at Governor House and later speaking to media persons, the governor said a poor family under the system would be able to get help from one welfare organization at a time.
• This system would also help ensure transparency in distribution of ration. He said Pakistan`s economy had also been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis.

4. US announces $8.4m to help Pakistan`s anti-virus efforts

• The United States announced on April 17, 2020 a funding of $8.4 million for Pakistan to combat the spread of new coronavirus in the country.
• The contribution was announced on US mission`s social media platforms by Ambassador Paul Jones.
• An amount of $3m will be utilised to provide three new mobile labs to enable Pakistanis living in virus hotspots to be tested, treated and monitored to stop the spread. High-tech emergency operations centres will be established in Islamabad, Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan under the initiative.

5. ‘Pakistan starting clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine’

• Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Ahmed Chaudhry April 17, 2020 announced that Pakistan would be starting the first phase of ‘clinical trial for a novel coronavirus vaccine’, as the world’s scientists including Pakistan in race to find a way to combat the deadly pathogen.
• Talking to media, Fawad Ch said Pakistan is fully contributing to the 66 global studies being conducted on Coronavirus adopting three different approaches including Re-purposed Drugs, Antibodies and Vaccines.

6. Fixed tax for construction industry introduced

• Fixed tax has been introduced for the builders and developers for residential, commercial and industrial plots under the ordinance approved by President Dr Arif Alvi after its approval by the federal cabinet on April 17, 2020.
• For builders of commercial buildings of any size of plots in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, the tax has been fixed at Rs250/square foot. For Hyderabad, Sukkur, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Sahiwal, Peshawar, Mardan, Abbottabad and Quetta, the tax has been fixed at Rs230/sq. ft, while for urban areas, other than these mentioned cities, the tax rate has been fixed at Rs210 per square foot.

7. Japan donates $1 million for Afghan refugees

• Japanese envoy presents contribution to Shehryar Afridi in response to his call made two weeks back.
• Japan contributed one million US dollars to Pakistan as assistance for Afghan Refugees. This is the first international contribution in response to the call made by Minister for SAFRON & Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi for helping out the Afghan refugees.
• In this regard, Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Mr Kuninori Matsuda called on Minister for SAFRON & Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi here and presented the contribution on behalf of the government and people of Japan. He said that the amount had been paid to the UNHCR and it would be used to help the Afghan refugees.

8. Taraweeh, Eid prayers should be offered at home, says Saudi grand mufti

• Saudi Arabia`s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the highest religious authority in the country, said that Muslim prayers during Ramazan and for the subsequent Eidul Fitr feast should be performed at home if the coronavirus outbreak continues, Saudi`s Okaz newspaper reported on April 17, 2020.
• `Ramazan`s Taraweeh (evening) prayer can be performed at home if it cannot be performed at mosques dueto the preventive measures taken to fight the spread of coronavirus,` he said in response to a question, adding that the same applies for Eid prayers, according to the paper.
• The holy fasting month of Ramazan begins next week.

9. Astronauts land back on Earth transformed by pandemic

• Two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut on April 17, 2020 made a safe return from the International Space Station to find the planet transformed by the coronavirus pandemic.
• Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka touched down in central Kazakhstan in the first returning mission since the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a global pandemic in March.
• Morgan had been on the ISS since July last year, while Meir and Skripochka arrived in September.

10. 13,000-year-old fossils suggest photonic nanostructures in insects

• Researchers from Yale-NUS College in Singapore and University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have analyzed preserved scales from wing cases of two fossil weevils from the Late Pleistocene era (approx. 13,000 years ago) to better understand the origin of light-scattering nanostructures present in present-day insects.
• The researchers, led by Yale-NUS Assistant Professor of Science (Life Sciences) Vinod Kumar Saranathan and UCC paleobiologists Drs Luke McDonald and Maria McNamara, found that the wing cases of the fossil weevils contained preserved photonic ‘diamonds’, one of the many types of crystal like nanoscopic structure that interacts with light to produce some of the brightest and purest colors in nature.

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