23rd April 2020 Current affairs

1. World champion P V Sindhu was on April 22, 2020 named as the ambassador of Badminton World Federation’s “I am Badminton” campaign. The Campaign was launched to advocate for honest and clean play. Other ambassadors of the campaign include Valeska Knoblauch of Germany, Zheng Si Wei and Huang Ya Qiong of China, Chan Ho Yuen of Hong Kong and Michelle Li of Canada. 

2. Theatre veteran Usha Ganguly passed away on April 23, 2020 after suffering from a cardiac arrest. She was 75. The founder of ‘Rangakarmee’ had worked on the script of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan- Ajay Devgun starrer Raincoat in 2014, which was a Hindi film based on O Henry’s The Gift of the Magi. The film was directed by Rituparno Ghosh.

3. PM Narendra Modi will be conducting his third video conference with all the Chief Ministers on April 27, 2020. PM Modi is expected to discuss the way ahead in the nation’s fight against coronavirus pandemic.

4. Two cats have tested positive for coronavirus in New York, becoming the first pets to have contracted COVID-19 infection in the United States. The cats have reportedly got the infection from their owners. 

5. The former Director-General of Shipping Malini Shankar has been appointed by the government as the new head of the National Shipping Board, the highest advisory body on matters related to Indian shipping. 

6. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on April 22, 2020 that the air pollution in India has reached a 20-year low. 

7. The Indian Council of Medical Research has instructed that not more than 5 samples will be pooled together for testing to improve the efficacy of pooled testing. The council also announced on April 22, 2020 that pooled testing will only be conducted in areas where the COVID-19 prevalence is less than 5 percent. 

8. The Central Government has frozen the hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) to Government Employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to Pensioners till July 2021 amid the COVID-19 crisis. The government employees and pensioners will continue to receive DA/ DR at the current rate of 17 percent of the basic pay/pension.