- Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the online delivery website ‘Cghaat’ to provide home delivery of fruits and vegetables during the extended lockdown phase.
- Ahead of extending restrictions on the mobility of goods and persons, the government plans to set up a chain of 20 lakh retail shops called ‘Suraksha Stores’ across India which will provide daily essentials to citizens while maintaining stringent safety norms.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points from four per cent to 3.75 per cent in a bid to inject liquidity in financial markets.
- To ensure adequate liquidity in the system, especially in the corporate bond market, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the third targeted long-term repo operation (TLTRO) on April 7 for Rs 25,000 crore.
- HDFC Bank has launched a Safety Grid campaign to encourage and reinforce social distancing while waiting at shops.
- Asia is expected to witness zero per cent growth in 2020 due COVID-19 pandemic, its worst growth performance in almost 60 years, but still the world’s largest and most populous continent is likely to fare better than other regions in terms of activity said by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
- According to the research report by SBI, India’s GDP growth may slide to 1.1 per cent in the current financial year, on account of the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the economy.
- Social media behemoth Facebook and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited are reportedly working together to develop a multi functional super-app.
- Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand has joined WWF (World Wide Fund) India as its ambassador for environment education programme.
- India’s limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma has become brand ambassador of ‘CricKingdom’, a cricket academy based in Dubai which will also facilitate coaching through its online platform after the global COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
- A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar in Punjab’s Rupnagar district has come up with a design of an autonomous ‘WardBot’ which can deliver medicines and food to COVID-19 patients in isolation wards without human intervention.
- Hemophilia Day is an international awareness day for hemophilia and other bleeding disorders. It is held annually on April 17, date of the birthday of Frank Schnabel, founder of the World Federation of Hemophilia. This year theme for Hemophilia Day is “Get + Involved”.
