Current Affairs in Short: 24 July 2020

Home Minister launches Coal Ministry’s Tree Plantation Campaign-2020 

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched Coal Ministry’s Tree Plantation Campaign “Vriksharopan Abhiyan” in the presence of Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Pralhad Joshi on July 23, 2020. 
• The Home Minister congratulated the Coal Ministry for planting trees at more than 130 locations spread across 38 districts of 10 States. The drive was carried out at 10 coal/lignite bearing States through Video Conferencing. 
• The Home Minister also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 6 Eco parks and tourism sites. The eco-parks and tourism sites are being developed by PSUs under Coal Ministry while keeping in mind the requirements and well-being of the people living in the areas. 
More than 32000 people connected to the virtual event from 160 locations including 300 dignitaries. 

Largest Solar Power Plant of Indian Navy Commissioned

•  Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, Commanding-in-Chief of Southern Naval Command commissioned a 3 MW Solar Power Plant at the Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala on July 22, 2020 through virtual conferencing. 
•  The solar plant is Indian Navy’s largest plant and has an estimated life of 25 years. Its launch is in line with the centre’s initiative of ‘National Solar Mission’ to achieve 100GW of solar power by 2022.
•  All components of the plant were indigenously sourced including 9180 highly efficient monocrystalline solar panels employing the latest technology. 

AIIMS Delhi administers first dose of `Covaxin' to 30-year-old Delhi resident

• The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on July 24, 2020 administered the first dose of country's first indigenous vaccine candidate `Covaxin' to a 30-year-old man as part of efforts to combat COVID-19.
• This has kickstarted the first phase of human clinical trial after the AIIMS ethics committee gave its approval for the trial of the indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine candidate Covaxin.
• The first dose of the vaccine candidate was administered to a 30-year-old volunteer, who is from Delhi. He was screened two days ago and all his health vital parameters were normal. He does not have any co-morbid conditions or any pre-existing illness.
• After vaccination, the subject was in close observation for two hours. There was no sudden side-effect observed. The subject will be monitored for a week.Over 3,500 volunteers have already registered for the trial at AIIMS

24 Vaccine candidates in clinical trial stage, 150 vaccines in pre-clinical stages: WHO Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan 

• The Chief Scientist in World Health Organization Dr. Soumya Swaminathan confirmed recently that 24 vaccine candidates are in the human clinical trial stage currently and around 150 vaccines are in the pre-clinical stages across the world.
• Swaminathan stated that WHO has a robust pipeline of potential COVID vaccine candidates and the more vaccine candidates will maximise the opportunities.
• She further confirmed that three vaccine candidates are in the Phase-3 of human trials including the Oxford vaccine developed by Astrazeneca, mRNA-1273 by Moderna and the Chinese vaccine. 
• Swaminathan observed that vaccine development is generally a lengthy and complex process but harmonization at different level helps fasten the process. She emphasised that the safety and efficacy of the vaccine is very important in the vaccine development process.

Pakistan bans over 100 textbooks for 'objectionable content', not showing PoK part of country

• Pakistan's Punjab government has banned over 100 textbooks for having "blasphemous and objectionable content" such as not showing Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as part of the country.
• Some books had not printed the correct date of the birth of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah and national poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal. Some books reportedly contained content against the two-nation theory.
• Around 30 committees were set to review over 10,000 books taught at public and private schools and over 100 of them including those published by Oxford, Cambridge and Paragon Books, were found to have objectionable content. The committees had recommended a ban on such books.