News Flash (28th July 2020): Top 11 Stories Of The Day

1. ISB starts accepting applications for 2021 intake

ISB (The Indian School of Business) has set the deadline for its first round of applications till September 20, 2020. The one year MBA programme offered here is world-renowned as it occupies the fifth rank in Asia and twenty-eight around the world as per an article in Financial Times.With collaborations with top international universities like the Fletcher School, National University of Singapore and Wharton, ISB is open for all students who have basic GMAT/GRE scores, a bachelor’s degree in any discipline and minimum two years of full-time post qualification work experience.

2. Environment Minister: India is home to 70% of the world’s tiger population

On Tuesday, Prakash Javadekar, Union Environment Minister released a report of the Tiger Census on eve of Global Tiger Day. “India is proud of its tiger assets. The country today has 70% of the world’s tiger population. We are ready to work with all the 13 tiger range countries in their actual management of tiger reserves,” said the minister while addressing a function at the National Media Centre, New Delhi. 

3. UNICEF says, pandemic to leave 67 lakh more children malnourished

UNICEF has said that presently there are more than 20 million children who are suffering due to food wastage,that in a way creates a shortage .According to the Global Hunger Index 2019, wasting among children in India rose from 16.5 per cent in 2008-2012 to 20.8 per cent in 2014-2018.According to the Global Hunger Index 2019, wasting among children in India rose from 16.5 per cent in 2008-2012 to 20.8 per cent in 2014-2018.This phenomenon is present worldwide and has contributed in making of this massive number.

4. Two 14-year-olds in India discover an Earth-crossing asteroid

Vaidehi Vekariya and Radhika Lakhani,two fourteen year olds have made Gujrat proud by identifying an asteroid that has the potential of crossing the earth one day.Their discovery has been confirmed by NASA and the asteroid is now called HLV2514. They made this extraordinary discovery while being a part of a study at All India Asteroid Search Campaign of AISC,which was a part of a research programme by NASA.

5. Oxford Covid-19 vaccine reaches its final stage of testing

Oxford University, which has been leading in the process of developing a Covid-19 vaccine, has reached the final stage of its clinical trials. The vaccine is being co-developed with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company. The clinical trials of the vaccine have already begun in South Africa. Currently, the pandemic has infected over 95 lakh people across the globe. Serum Institute of India (SII) too has invested $100 million to mass-generate one billion doses for India and other low-and-middle-income countries. The vaccine is being developed from a virus called ChAdOx1 — a weakened and non-replicating version of a common cold virus (adenovirus). 

6. AI will overtake human intelligence in less than 5 years: Musk

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, who co-founded Neuralink, a AI-brain-chip startup, has warned that AI could “vastly” surpass human intelligence by the year 2025. “This doesn’t mean…everything goes to hell in five years…It means things get unstable or weird,” he said. “Very smart people don’t think a computer can ever be as smart as they are…This is hubris and obviously false,” he further added.

7. PM Modi to address grand finale of Smart India Hackathon on 1st August

Grand finale of the Online Hackathon is going to be graced by the presence of Honorable Prime Minister on August 1 at 7 pm.This hackathon is being conducted by the HRD Ministry, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Persistent Systems and i4c.In the current year, 10,000 students have competed to solve 243 problem statements from 37 central government departments, 17 state governments and 20 industries. Each problem statement has a prize money of Rs 1,00, 000 except the student innovation theme which will announce three winners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd with prize money of Rs 1,00,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.

8. IMF decides to sanction loan of $4.3 billion to South Africa 

The International Monetary Fund has sanctioned $4.3 billion in emergency funding for South Africa. It is the largest emergency disbursement provided by IMF to any nation to date to assist with fighting the coronavirus pandemic. “Once the pandemic is behind, there is a pressing need to ensure debt sustainability and implement structural reforms to support the recovery and achieve sustainable and inclusive growth” a Washington-based lender said in a statement 

South Africa is the worst-hit country on the continent with more than 445,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and almost 7,000 deaths. A lockdown that was imposed to curb the spread of the virus is dwindling the economy, with the government expecting it to contract 7.2% this year.

9. A Martian meteorite all set to be sent back to Mars

A piece of Martian meteorite will go back to Mars that has fallen on the Earth decades back, with NASA’s robot rover ‘Perseverance’. The ancient rock that fell from the red planet has been donated by the Natural History Museum in London and the rover carrying it will be propelled towards Mars on a seven-month journey after its launch on coming Thursday. As said by the Natural History Museum in London, the Martian meteorite was formed when a comet fell on the red planet around 600,000 to 700,000 years back. The impact sprayed the debris into space. The meteorite, now identified as Sayh al Uhaymir 008 or SAU 008 was discovered in 1999 in Oman and had been stored in London’s Natural History Museum since then. 

10. First mother to foetus transmission of Covid-19 in India

India’s first case of “vertical transmission” of the coronavirus infection from a mother to her child through the placenta was reported by the Sassoon General Hospital of Pune Maharashtra. Vertical transmission takes place when the baby is still in the uterus. If the mother tests COVID positive, the transmission of the infection takes place through the placenta, an organ that develops in the uterus during the period of pregnancy and supplies oxygen and other necessary nutrients to the baby growing inside. 

11. GOT actress, Sophie Turner & husband, singer Joe Jonas blessed with baby girl

‘Game of Thrones’ actress Sophie Turner and her husband, singer Joe Jonas, recently delivered their first child. Celebrity website TMZ said the baby is a girl, and has been named Willa. The couple got married last year in Las Vegas in May, which was followed by another formal wedding ceremony in France in June.