News Flash (14th August 2020): Top 10 Stories Of The Day

1. WHO says COVID-19 doesn’t spread with food packaging

– With rising coronavirus this raised concerns over the spread of virus being linked to food packaging. But the World Health Organization is convinced that the virus does not spread with food packaging. WHO’s head of emergencies programme, Mike Ryan said, “People should not fear food, food packaging or delivery of food.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture Department has also said “there is no evidence that people can contract COVID-19 from food or from food packaging.”

2. Mahindra Electric advises country to allow sale of EVs with battery only

The biggest expense in an Electric Vehicle (EV) is the batteries. They sum up almost half the cost of an EV making it more expensive than a regular combustion vehicle. The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) wanted to separate the batteries in an effort to reduce cost. This has raised questions by the manufacturers. 

3. NASA releases pictures of Mars’ craters, avalanche and dust devils

It has been fifteen years since NASA released Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It had the aim to study the atmosphere, water availability and other queries related to Mars. On its 15th anniversary NASA released a series of pictures taken by the orbiter. This included gigantic dust devils, craters, and avalanche. It also took detailed images of Mars’s Moon Phobos. The total collection of photos collected by the orbiter is 6,882,204 and still counting.

4. Seismologist narrated six smaller blasts that happened before Beirut explosion

Seismological data suggests that six blasts preceded the massive Beirut port explosion. Apparently the last of the blasts set off a warehouse that was loaded with ammonium nitrate. The six blasts exploded between 11 seconds of interval. While the last blast took just 43 seconds to set off by the preceding blast. Still now the reason behind it is unknown yet it is confirmed to have taken place at the same geographical location.

5. WB Govt confirmed that colleges will decline money during the application process

Government and government-aided colleges will set out to distribute application forms to undergraduates. The plan is to have no application fee for processing the documents. Many colleges have also looked into reducing the semester fee. West Bengal’s education minister added, “The colleges can’t even charge money for buying prospectus or in any other category.”

6. India aircrafts deliver 58 MT aid to Lebanon

The massive explosion in Beirut that killed more than 170 people and injured around 6000 people shook the entire world. India expressed its support to the people of Lebanon. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday sent an aid via IAF aircraft. This included medical and food supplies. The supplies were delivered with the use of an IAF C17 aircraft.

7. Flightradar24: Another plane too faces trouble before the Kerala crash

Data collected from a flight tracker showed that the plane had attempted to land twice before it crashed. The crash resulted in the death of the pilot and 17 other people, while carrying around 190 passengers. The plane was an Air Indian Express flying from Dubai as it skidded off the runway in Kozhikode airport. 

8. Plan to annex West Bank still on table: Israel PM a day after peace deal

The USA finally managed to broker a deal between Israel and UAE. This according to President Donald Trump is a “huge breakthrough” in diplomatic affairs.  After the peace deal was signed between Israel and UAE, the Israeli PM Benjamin Netayahu agreed to postpone the annexation of the occupied West Bank. But the proposal still stays “on the table.”

9. Tata Sons considers officially bidding for Air India

The Tata Group plans to soon officially bid for the national airline before its closing deadline. On the matter a Tata spokesperson said, “Tata Sons is currently evaluating the proposal and will consider a bid after due consideration and at the appropriate time. There is no plan to bring in a financial partner.” Nothing concrete was said by the officials as the discussion is in the  early stages.

10. A family council will be created by Ambani.

World’s fourth-richest person plans to set up a “family-council” that will govern the structure of managing the family’s massive empire. The plan will give equal representation to all Ambani kids – Akash, Isha and Anant. They are expected to take the business proceedings of separate verticales – retail, digital and energy within Reliance Industries in their hands.