Daily Current Affairs – April 14/2020

GS – 2

International

Indo-US to address COVID-19 Challenges:

• The IUSSTF (Indo-US Science and Technology Forum) has invited proposals from Indian and American scientists.
• The proposals will demonstrate value and benefits of Indo-US partnership in COVID-19 research.

IUSSTF

• The IUSSTF was established in March 2000. It was established under an agreement between India and USA. It is an autonomous organization that is jointly funded by both the governments. It promotes interaction between the governments in the field of science, engineering, innovation and technology.

Objectives of IUSSTF

• The IUSSTF aims to create awareness through exchange programmes. It also encourages public-private partnerships to foster innovation.
• Key features:
• The global partnerships and collaborations are bringing together scientists and engineers from different parts of the world to find solutions for COVID-19
• The IUSSTF is now encouraging such collaborations to catalyze both India and United States.

Health and welfare

First remote health monitoring system:

• It has been set up in India by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rishikesh along with Bharat Heavy Electronics Limited (BHEL).
• The system is expected to be used in Uttarakhand state to monitor COVID-19 patients.
• The digital medical system has been developed so that the doctor sitting in AIIMS can monitor the patient’s body temperature and the amount of oxygen in the blood and the speed of his breath while at home.
• The therapeutic system will not unnecessarily hospitalize the patient.
• Using the system, the vital parameters of the patient will be displayed in the AIIMS command & control center. 
• The patients can inform the doctors about their illness and the doctors will give proper counseling after seeing the symptoms stated by the patient.
• If the patient is suspicious of the corona infection, then he will be provided with a monitoring kit from the institute. The patient can sit at his home and consult the doctor.
• The kit will issue alert if the patient needs to be admitted to the hospital.
•  The system will also show in which parts of the state the disease is spreading in a serious way.

Government policy and scheme

e- NAM:

• e-NAM was launched on 14 April 2016. eNAM is an online trading portal for agricultural products in India. 
• National agriculture market portal, e-NAM completed 4 years of implementation.
• AIM: To achieve “one Nation, one Market” for Agri-produce.
• e-NAM has been expanded to cover an additional 415 mandis which will take the total number of e-NAM mandis to 1000 soon. 
• Over 1.66 crore farmers and 1.28 Lakh traders registered on the e-NAM platform. By registering, the farmers can upload their produce for sale online to the traders across all e-NAM mandis. Traders can then bid for the lots available for sale on e-NAM from any location
• With this interface, the traders have accessed more than 7.76 lakh trucks through e-NAM Platform.
• It functions under the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, GoI. The Union Minister responsible is Narendra Singh Tomar. The platform facilitates the smooth marketing of their produce.