Current Affairs 21-06-2020

Another round of Rajya Sabha elections has been completed. Polls to some seats were postponed in view of the situation caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The legislators send a batch of new members to the Upper House every two years for a six-year term. A third of Members of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, from each State, retire once in two years and polls are held to fill up the vacancies.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) issued two circulars (in 2014 and 20150, giving Rajya Sabha members the option to press the NOTA button in the Upper House polls.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals announced the introduction of an oral anti-viral drug for COVID-19 patients in the age group of 18 and 75 with mild to moderate symptoms. Nearly 80% of all positive cases in the country are in this category.
The drug will be available in seven to 10 days in strips of 34 tablets at ₹3,500. The prescribed first-day dose is 18 tablets — nine each in the morning and evening. From the second day, it will be four each twice daily. The treatment can last 14 days.
The drug is currently under clinical trial on 150 patients at 11 sites in India.

On June 15, the worst violence on the India-China border since 1967 claimed the lives of 20 Indian soldiers. The clash occurred in the Galwan Valley. On June 19, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed that the entire valley is located “on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).”
The Galwan Valley refers to the land that sits between steep mountains that buffet the Galwan River.
The river has its source in Aksai Chin, on China’s side of the LAC, and it flows east to Ladakh, where it meets the Shyok river on India’s side of the LAC.

International Yoga Day 2020 is being celebrated on June 21. This year, due to social distancing measures adopted by most countries, the theme set by the United Nations is “Yoga for Health – Yoga at Home”.
The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 after PM Modi called for the day to be adopted as a global celebration of yoga.
The first International Yoga Day celebration was organized at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015.
The World Health Organization (WHO) mentions yoga as a means to improve health in its Global Action Plan on Physical Activity 2018–2030: More active people for a healthier world.

PM Modi launched massive employment -cum- rural public works Campaign named ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas/ villages witnessing a large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19.
The Abhiyaan was formally launched from village Telihar, Block Beldaur, district Khagaria, Bihar on June 20.
Central Nodal Officers of the rank of Joint Secretary and above will be appointed to oversee the effective and timely implementation of various schemes in the identified districts.

A rare celestial event, annular solar eclipse popularly called as a ring of fire eclipse will be visible on June 21, 2020.
An eclipse happens when the moon while orbiting the Earth, comes in between the sun and the Earth, due to which the moon blocks the sun’s light from reaching the Earth, causing an eclipse of the sun or a solar eclipse.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has ruled that the liquidation process of a company under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) holds precedence over the outcome of an arbitration proceeding.
The NCLAT’s judgment essentially holds that if a corporate debtor is being liquidated, a creditor can not claim superiority over other secured creditors in the same band and that everyone must receive their fair share by following the waterfall mechanism of liquidation.
As the name suggests, the waterfall mechanism under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code gives priority to secured financial creditors over unsecured financial creditors.
The dues of the workmen include all their salaries, provident, pension, retirement and gratuity fund, as well as any other funds maintained for the welfare of the workmen.

One of the most archaic laws that punishes attempts to commit suicide – Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)— continues to exist in the statute book and is often misused.
In 2008, the Law Commission in its 210th Report said that an attempt to suicide needed medical and psychiatric care, and not punishment. In 2011, the Supreme Court too recommended to Parliament that it should consider the feasibility of deleting the section.

Assam Chief Minister ordered the arrest of a Kolkata-based political commentator, Garga Chatterjee, who had described Chaolung Sukapha as a “Chinese invader”.
Chaolung Sukapha was a 13th-century ruler who founded the Ahom kingdom that ruled Assam for six centuries. Contemporary scholars trace his roots to Burma.
Sukapha was a leader of the Ahoms. He reached Brahmaputra valley in Assam from upper Burma in the 13th century with around 9,000 followers.

The IIT-Palakkad has developed an automated lung ultrasound (LUS) for COVID-19 screening and monitoring through a cloud-based image analysis and scoring system.
The app, the first of its kind in India, is now available for clinicians to perform automated analysis by just uploading the ultrasound video.
The methodology would be extremely useful in time-critical COVID-19 working conditions, where clinicians have time limitations in manually evaluating ultrasound videos of all patients.
The approach is not only restricted to COVID-19 detection but also helps to identify other lung infections.