Daily Current Affairs – April 24/2020

GS – 2

National

Anti – narcotics law:

• The Supreme Court of India pronounced that it is the quantity of the banned drug mixture that will decide the punishment of the offender and not the purity. The clarification was given by the apex court under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
• In order to determine whether the drugs are in “small or commercial quantity”, the neutral substance in the mixture is to be included along with actual weight.
• This is being clarified by the court as according to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances act, the punishment for possessing commercial quantity of drugs is more than that of smaller quantity.
• Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Act, 1985: The act prohibits a person to manufacture, produce, cultivate, possess, purchase, store, transport or consume narcotic drugs. Under the act, the GoI can constitute Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Consultative Committee to provide advise on matters relating to administration of the act. The committee shall consist of maximum of 20 members.
• Under the act, the GoI shall constitute National Fund to control drug abuse.

GS – 3

Science and Technology

Tianwen – 1:

• China named its first Mars exploration mission as Tianwen-1 as it celebrated Space Day on 24 April.
•  The observation marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the country’s first satellite Dong Fang Hong-I in 1970. 
• Tianwen – It means Heavenly Questions or Questions to Heaven, a poem written by China’s well-known poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC). 
• With this mission, the country aims to catch up with India, the US, Russia, and the European Union who is already executing their Mars Mission.

Virucidal coating to prevent COVID transmission:

• Researchers from Faridabad-based Regional Centre for Biotechnology (RCB) have initiated a study to engineer virucidal coatings to prevent the COVID-19 Transmission. 
• The study is carried out in collaboration with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) and Department of Textile Technology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. 
• The molecules that will target the membranes of COVID-19 viral particles selectively will be developed. 
  These molecules will be used to develop different surfaces including glass, plastic, and textiles including cotton, nylon, and polyester to provide a virucidal coating that can potentially inhibit the viral transmission.
• The researchers also initiated efforts to purify the Nonstructural protein 12 (nsp12) protein to develop high throughput plate assays.
• It can be used to identify different inhibitors of the protein. These inhibitors are serving as lead molecules for the development of drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
  Researchers are to identify possible inhibitors of two other proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus using computational tool
• These include Nonstructural protein 14 (nsp14), which has a methyltransferase and exoribonuclease activity, and nsp13 which has an RNA helicase activity.
•  The group of researchers is also analyzing the available genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 to identify regions in the genome that may be structured and can be targeted using a small molecule to perturb translation or replication of the genome.

International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace:

• The day is marked by the United Nations.
• It aims to preserve values of international cooperation and multilateralism, based on which the UN Charter and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are framed. Also, the day is marked to promote and support three pillars of the United Nations. They are peace and security, human rights and development.
• This year, the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace considers COVID-19 as the biggest challenge since the world war.
• This year the day is being marked to spread the importance of multilateralism to win over the combat against COVID-19.
• This is to be achieved by identifying common opportunities of the countries.