🔰24th April Current Affairs🔰
♻️WAYS AND MEANS ADVANCES SCHEME OF STATE GOVERNMENTS/ UTs
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to continue with the existing interim Ways and Means Advances (WMA) scheme limit of ₹51,560 crore for all States/ UTs shall for six months i.e., up to September 30, given the prevalence of COVID-19
♻️KOWLOON PENINSULA
Hong Kong is set to grant a site on the western Kowloon peninsula, to China’s national security office for its permanent base in the city.
♻️SWAMITVA SCHEME
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the distribution of e-property cards under the SWAMITVA scheme on 24th April 2021 (National Panchayati Raj Day).
♻️CREW-2 MISSION
Four astronauts were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) from Florida as part of a collaboration between NASA and SpaceX under the Commercial Crew Program
♻️WORLD MALARIA DAY
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired the “Reaching Zero” forum on malaria elimination to celebrate World Malaria Day.
♻️NATIONAL PANCHAYATI RAJ DAY
India will commemorate the 12th National Panchayati Raj Day virtually on 24th April, 2021.
♻️The Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the distribution of E-Property Cards under the Svamitva Scheme
♻️The Government of India has granted complete exemption from basic health cess on import of oxygen-related equipment and customs duty for a period of three months.
♻️The exports of processed food products during April-February 2020-21 grew by 26.51%.
♻️The Drug Controller General of India recently provided “Restricted Emergency Use Approval” for the use of “Virafin”. Virafin is used to treat moderate COVID-19 infections.
♻️The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare recently announced that it is to bring nine million tonnes of land under mustard cultivation. This will increase mustard production to 17 million tonnes by 2025-26.
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iN SHORT CURRENT AFFAIRS
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Ways and Means Advance(WMA)
●Ways and means advances is a mechanism used by Reserve Bank of India under its credit policy to provide to States, banking with it, to help them tide over temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their receipts and payments.
●While normal WMA are clean advances, special WMA are secured advances provided against the pledge of the Government of India dated securities.
Border Roads Organization (BRO)
●The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is a road construction executive force in India that provides support to and is a part of the Indian Armed Forces.
●BRO develops and maintains road networks in India's border areas and friendly neighboring countries.
●BRO is also tasked with maintaining this infrastructure including operations such as snow clearance.
●BRO is instrumental in significantly upgrading and building new India-China Border Roads.
●BRO is entrusted for construction of roads, bridges, tunnels, causeways, helipads and airfields. The BRO is also in charge of maintenance of its road networks.
●In many places landslides, avalanches and snow block the routes and have to be cleared as quickly as possible.
SWAMITVA scheme
●SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) was launched on 24th April 2020 as a Central Sector Scheme.
●It aims to promote a socio-economically empowered and self-reliant rural India where property owners will be given their e-property cards.
●The Scheme has the potential to transform rural India using modern technical tools of mapping and surveying.
● It paves the way for using the property as a financial asset by villagers for availing loans and other financial benefits.
● The Scheme will cover around 6.62 Lakh villages of the entire country during 2021-2025.
Disk footed Bat
●The disk-footed bat (Eudiscopus denticulus) was recorded in the north-eastern State’s Lailad area near the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Sanctuary, about 1,000 km west of its nearest known habitat in Myanmar.
●Meghalaya has yielded India’s first bamboo-dwelling bat with sticky disks, taking the species count of the flying mammal in the country to 130.
