Current Affairs in Short: 16 July 2020

Bilateral Air Bubbles to be created to resume international travel amid COVID pandemic: Hardeep Singh Puri

• The Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced in a press briefing on July 16 that Bilateral Air Bubbles will be the way to resume international travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic with certain conditions.
• The Minister stated that India’s negotiations with three countries for air bubble mechanisms have reached an advanced stage. Under the mechanism, Air France will begin operating 28 flights from July 18 to August 1, 2020 between Paris and Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. 
• For the India-US air bubble, an agreement is being finalised with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India and the US between July 17- July 31st. The agreement is, however, an interim one. 
• India had also received a request from Germany and the air bubble mechanism will be established with the nation once the agreement with Lufthansa is completed. The agreements come as India’s Vande Bharat Mission enters its fourth stage. 

WHO, UNICEF warns against decline in number of children receiving life-saving vaccines 

• The World Health Organization and UNICEF have warned against the alarming decline in the number of children receiving life-saving vaccines around the world due to COVID-19.
• The coronavirus pandemic has caused major disruptions in the delivery and uptake of immunization services. As per WHO and UNICEF’s latest data, these disruptions threaten to reverse hard-won progress to reach more children and adolescents with a wider range of vaccines.
• The data shows that improvements made such as the expansion of the Human PapillomaVirus vaccine to 106 countries and greater protection for children against more diseases are in danger of lapsing.
• As per a survey conducted by the organisations in collaboration with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Sabin Vaccine Institute, three-quarters of the 82 countries that responded reported COVID-19-related disruptions in their immunization programmes as of May 2020.

Kerala HC bans all gatherings, agitations in the state till July 31

• The Kerala High Court has banned all gatherings, specifically demonstrations, processions and agitations in the state till July 31, 2020. 
• With this order, all gathering has been banned except the ones permitted under the guidelines issued by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) last month. The bench gave the order while considering a plea seeking to prevent public protests and huge gatherings in the state violating COVID-19 protocols, 
• A Division Bench of the High Court has directed the state government to take all measures to ensure that there are no processions or agitations in the state. The bench also directed the state and police to ensure no political party violates the orders of the court. 

India ranks among top ten nations in intellectual property filings

• India is ranked among the top ten nations in the total (resident and abroad) Intellectual Property (IP) filing activity, as per World Intellectual Property Indicators-2019 Report.
• India’s IP filing and grant activity is likely to increase with the government’s increasing push to a scheme like ‘Make in India’, ‘Skill India’ and now ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
• India’s Industry 4.0 is witnessing new inventions and breakthroughs as it faces challenges in providing the right environment to stimulate innovation, especially in AI and machine learning. 
• Besides this, IP-intensive industries have been identified as an important and integral part of a country’s economy and account for more jobs and a larger share of its GDP.

Indian Government launches implementation guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund

• The Union Government launched the implementation guidelines for Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund on July 16, 2020. The AHIDF fund worth Rd 15000 crore was approved by the Union Cabinet last month under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan economic package to boost growth in several sectors.
• The fund has been set up to promote and incentivise MSMEs and Private companies to encourage their involvement in processing and value addition infrastructure. India is increasingly engaged in ensuring breed improvement to increase milk production and taking care of the processing sector. India currently produces about 188 million tonnes of milk and by 2024, milk production is expected to rise to 330 million tons. 
• The AHIDF fund is the first type of scheme for the private sector and it is expected to benefit millions of farmers once the required infrastructure is created and more milk will be processed. This will also lead to an increase in the export of dairy products, which is presently negligible.