Relevance IN - Prelims (about SAFE PLUS and its objective + about SIDBI)
What's the NEWS

• The Small Industries Development Bank of India - SIDBI will provide emergency working capital of up to one crore rupees to small and medium enterprises(MSMEs) against their confirmed government orders.

• The SIDBI Assistance to Facilitate Emergency response against Corona virus - SAFE PLUS will be offered collateral free and disbursed within 48 hours.
• The loans will be offered at an interest rate of five per cent
• The bank further informed that the limit of SAFE loans announced a few days back has been enhanced from Rs 50 lakh rupees to Rs 2 crore.
• The scheme was launched to provide financial assistance to MSMEs engaged in manufacturing of hand sanitizers, masks, gloves, headgear, bodysuits, shoe-covers, ventilators and goggles used in dealing with COVID-19.
• The SAFE PLUS loan will be offered to the MSMEs as an emergency funding in the wake of the lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak.
• The limit has been enhanced for those MSMEs that are eligible under the respective state government's special policy package for interest subsidy, subvention or capital subsidy.
• Besides this, SIDBI has opened an additional financial window for the healthcare sector of India under its flagship scheme called SIDBI Make in India So" Loan Fund for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (Smile).

• The year 2020 could see the worst global economic fallout since the Great Depression in the 1930s with over 170 countries likely to experience negative per capita income growth due to the raging coronavirus pandemic,

Know! all about the Great Depression

• The Great Depression was a worldwide economic depression that lasted 10 years. It began on "Black Thursday," October 24, 1929.
• The depression was caused by the stock market crash of 1929 and the Fed's reluctance to increase the money supply
• GDP during the Great Depression fell by half, limiting economic movement.
• A combination of the New Deal and World War II lifted the United States out of the Depression.
• The Great Depression was a major economic crisis that began in the United States in 1929, and went to have a worldwide impact until 1939.
• The Depression's pain was felt worldwide, leading to World War II.
• Germans were already burdened with financial reparations from World War I. That caused hyperinflation. As a result, the people became desperate enough to elect Adolf Hitler's Nazi party to a majority in 1933.

Know! the impact of Great Depression in India

• The Depression had an important impact on India's freedom struggle.
• Due to the global crisis, there was a drastic fall in agricultural prices, which made substantial sections of the peasantry rise in protest and this protest was articulated by members of the National Congress.
• The effects of the Depression became visible around the harvest season in 1930, soon after
• Mahatma Gandhi launched the Civil Disobedience movement around the harvest season in 1930
• There were "No Rent" campaigns in many parts of the country
• Radical Kisan Sabhas were started in Bihar and eastern UP.
• Agrarian unrest provided a groundswell of support to the Congress and that enabled the party to achieve its landslide victory in the 1936-37 provincial elections held under the Government of India Act, 1935- which significantly increased the party's political might for years to come.

Health
Containment plan for large outbreaks
Relevance IN - Mains (GS II Governance + GS IV Ethics - case study)
What's the NEWS

• The government of India has released a containment plan for large outbreaks.

Know! about Bhilwara model

• The plan is based on the Bhilwara model - Rajasthan government's strategy in the Bhilwara district, which is a Covid-19 hotspot.
• The Bhilwara plan was implemented when 27 Covid-19 cases were reported.
• The district was completely sealed.
• Out of 2,816 Covid-19 tests that were conducted in Bhilwara, 27 were found positive.
• No new case has been reported in Bhilwara in the last seven days

Know! the government's plan for containment (based on Bhilwara model)

• The government has drawn a plan for containment of the virus in hotspots based on the steps taken in Bhilwara.
• Geographical areas will be quarantined under this model.
• Clusters of infections will be identified within the quarantined area and steps, which were taken in Bhilwara, will be taken in these clusters.
• The Disaster Management Act of 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 can be used to implement the model.
• CrPc and IPC sections can be used to book violators.
• People will be checked for influenza-like symptoms. They will be monitored actively and tested.
• Labs will give results in 12 to 24 hours. People with respiratory infections will be reported to a central database.
• All healthcare workers should use hydroxychloroquine as prophylactic.
• Very ill patients should be given a combination of hydroxychloroquine & azithromycin.
• If there are no cases for four weeks, normalcy can be declared.

Science & Technology
DST approves funding for developing a gel for nasal passage as prevention for COVID 19

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the nasal passage gel and its working mechanism) + Mains GS III( awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is supporting a technology by the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering (DBB), IIT Bombay for capturing and inactivation of novel corona virus, the causative agent of COVID-19.
• BDBB is develop a gel that can be applied to nasal passage, which is a major entry point of the corona virus.
• This solution is not only expected to protect the safety of health workers, but can also lead to reduction in community transmission of COVID-19, thereby helping disease management.

Know! the working mechanism of nasal gel

• The team is planning a 2-pronged approach to limit transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the causative agent of COVID-19.
• Primarily, since viruses replicate within host cells of the lungs, the first component of the strategy will be to inhibit binding of viruses to host cells. While this is expected to reduce host cell infection, viruses will still remain active, therefore, raising the need to inactivate them.
• Secondly, biological molecules would be incorporated, which would inactivate the trapped viruses in a manner similar to that of detergents. Upon completion, this approach will lead to development of gels that can be locally applied in the nasal cavity.

Science & Technology
Indian researchers start working on novel coronavirus genome sequencing

Relevance IN - Prelims (about genome + genome sequencing + about DNA) + Mains (GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
What's the NEWS

• The Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad and Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi have started working together on the whole genome sequencing of novel coronavirus.
• This will help us to understand the evolution of the virus, how dynamic is it and how fast it imitates.

Know! about Whole-genome sequencing

• It is the method used to determine the complete DNA sequence of a specific organism's genome.
• The approach for sequencing the latest coronavirus involves getting samples from patients that have are found to be positive and sending these samples to a sequencing centre.
• Genome sequencing need very large number of samples for study.
• For this purpose, National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune has also been requested to give virus that has been isolated from different places.

Know! about genome

• A genome is an organism's complete set of genetic instructions. Each genome contains all of the information needed to build that organism and allow it to grow and develop.
• Our bodies are made up of millions of cells each with their own complete set of instructions
• This set of instructions is known as our genome and is made up of DNA
• Each cell in the body, for example, a skin cell or a liver cell, contains this same set of instructions
• The instructions in our genome are made up of DNA.
• Within DNA is a unique chemical code that guides our growth, development and health.
• This code is determined by the order of the four nucleotide bases that make up DNA, adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine, A, C, G and T for short.

Know! about DNA

• DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid is a long molecule that contains our unique genetic code. Like a recipe book it holds the instructions for making all the proteins in our bodies.
• DNA contains four basic building blocks or ‘bases': adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
• The order, or sequence, of these bases form the instructions in the genome.
• DNA is a two-stranded molecule.
• The human genome is made of 3.2 billion bases of DNA

Know! about genome sequencing

• Sequencing is a technique that is used to ‘read' DNA. It finds the order of the letters of DNA (A, T, C and G), one by one.
• Sequencing a human genome means finding the sequence of someone's unique 3 billion letters of DNA.

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