Mrunal’s Daily Current Affairs:UPSC-May-09-2021: Mucormycosis, 2-DG drug, IQ vs EQ, Group Thinking

Economy?

• Unemployment in USA: 42% small businesses had job vacancies but could not fill in March 2021 while 80 lakh Americans are receiving unemployment Allowance cheques from Government. Reason for this contrast: Many jobless/lazy/fearful people are preferring to stay at home & collect Unemployment allowance cheque, instead of going out for work in the times of Corona. Lesson: Countercyclical fiscal policy ke naam pe Giving unemployment allowance may result in such a negative outcome. So Government money should be given conditionally for doing some work, and not for sitting at home. क्योंकि अमरीकी सरकार बेरोजगारी-भत्ता दे रही है तो बहुत सारे कामचोर/आलसी लोग नौकरी पर जा ही नहीं रहे हैं और बहुत सारी छोटे उद्योगों को श्रमिक/मजदूर मिल नहीं रहे हैं, जबकि वे छोटी उद्योगपति लोगों को नौकरी देने के लिए तैयार है.
• BANKS Board Bureau (BBB, a non-constitutional non-statutory body under the department of financial services under Finance ministry): which is responsible for selecting chairmen, CEOs and MDs of public sector banks and insurance companies—has chosen Mini Ipe and BC Patnaik as Managing Directors of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). Inderjeet Singh for the position of CMD in United India Insurance Company and Suchita Gupta for the position of CMD in National Insurance Company. (BizGK for non-IAS Bank-Insurance exams)

Science?

• Mucormycosis: a fungal infection occurring as a post-coronavirus complication. ultimately result in loss of vision if not treated immediately. Excessive use of steroids in diabetes patients responsible for vulnerability to this disease. Antifungal injection Amphotericin-B required. Gujarat government forms a Task force because of the severity of mucormycosis cases in the state.
• Union government new guidelines on Corona patient admission 1) positive test for Corona not required for admission to a Covid health facility. 2) No patient will be refused services on any count. This includes medications such as oxygen or essential drugs even if the patient belongs to a different city. 3) Hospital admissions must be based on need and beds should not be occupied by persons who don’t need hospitalization. यानी कि कुछ लोग जिनको वास्तव में हॉस्पिटल बेड की जरूरत नहीं है लेकिन फालतू में ही “मेरी छाती में दर्द हो रहा है, मुझे ऑक्सीजन सिलेंडर दो” बोलकर हॉस्पिटल बेड पर कब्जा जमाए हुए हैं-तभी तो सरकार ने अपनी दिशा निर्देश में इसका जिक्र किया है. उसी तरह जिस तरह कुछ बाबू शोनो की यूपीएससी क्लियर करने की कैपेसिटी नहीं लेकिन फिर भी दशकों तक दिल्ली में अड्डा जमा कर बैठे रहते हैं कि “मैं यूपीएससी की तैयारी कर रहा हूं.” और आजकल तो वेब सीरीज मैं यूपीएससी तैयारी का ग्लोरिफिकेशन/महिमामंडन देखकर ऐसे लोगों की संख्या और बढ़ सकती है.
• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s new oral drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug can provide early relief from oxygen dependency among the Corona patients. Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted emergency use permission to it. कोरोना मरीज यह दवाई मुंह से लेगा तो उसे ऑक्सीजन की जरूरत कम होगी.
• SUPREME Court set up a 12-member National Task Force (NTF), including top experts and doctors for formulating a methodology for the scientific allocation of oxygen to states and UTs (Union Territories). Although the name of the chairman is not given in the news report, or may be, I didn’t look carefully.
• VACCINE MAITRI: India gave 6.6 cr Vaccine doses to 93 countries. This enough to vaccinate all adults in Delhi and Mumbai. यानी कोई आदमी “विश्वगुरु” बनने निकले, लेकिन खुद के बच्चों को वजीराम में फ़ीस भरने के वान्धे हो जाए, ऐसी बात है.
• Government Data: 50,000 Covid patients in India are currently in intensive care units, 14,500 are on ventilator support, 1.37 lakh patients are currently on oxygen support. Parallelly on Twitter: 1.16 lakh tweets demanding release of Asaram Bapu.

Ethics GSM4☯️

• IQ vs EQ: “businesses on spreadsheets has become a passé/useless, When Corona pandemic has caused new challenges like migration of labourers, workers falling sick/dead, supply chain management disruptions, Work from home causing new set of emotional distress/Family dispute etc. So, the time has come to combine emotional quotient (EQ) and intelligence quotient (IQ). IQ and EQ Should not be seen as two different binaries, but as complementary elements” – IIM-A chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla Convocation speech, भावनात्मक गुणक और बौद्धिक गुणक को दो अलग-अलग एकम के रूप में ना देखते हुए, उनका एकीकरण करने की जरूरत है. क्योंकि कोरोनावायरस सिर्फ एक्सेल फाइल में लीपापोती करने से धंधा नहीं चल सकता जब आपकी फैक्ट्री के मजदूर पलायन कर रहे हो, मर रहे हो, वर्क-फ्रॉम-होम वाले कर्मचारी भी मानसिक तनाव/पारिवारिक समस्याओं से पीड़ित हो.
• Lack of empathy while in a group: IIM-A Director Errol D’Souza Convocation speech-
  • 1) Being a part of the group somehow lowers the sense of personal accountability and de-individuated its members. e.g. In 2002 riots in Gujarat, prayer was held at Sabarmati Ashram but some hooligans came and beat up a journalist. Prof D’Souza asked the Gandhian who were sitting in prayer to fetch water for the wounded photographer But none of them helped. I believe the Gandhians in that meeting were relying on cues from the overt reactions of the others in the group to figure out what course of action to follow, each looked (around) to understand how others are reacting. We become indifferent to others’ sufferings and intervene less when there are others around us who are not helping that person. That is disturbing, because it means even if we agree as to what constitutes wrongdoing or to what requires us to act, in practice, we may not act on that knowledge
  • 2) Enron scandal of 2001, doping scandals in sports, Fake encounter/corruption by police personnel : there were instances of group loyalty fostering cultures of crime by demanding members’ silence to others’ crimes/transgression.
  • 3) We are living in VUCA (volatility,uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world. differences in perspectives, thoughts and insights that often enable decision makers to avoid blind spots and find creative ways to address problems. But “group thinking” prevents difference of opinion in meetings/decision making due to fear of reprisal by others in the group.
  • 4) During a road accident, if group of bystanders, then no one will help but if a single bystander he is more likely to help. जब हम किसी “समूह/भीड़” का हिस्सा होते हैं तो व्यक्तिगत जिम्मेदारी/जवाबदेही कम हो जाती है, और हम कई बार गलत चीजों पर भी अपनी आवाज नहीं उठाते/ मौन / मुक प्रेक्षक बने रहते हैं, हैं क्योंकि उस समूह या भीड़ के बाकी के लोग आवाज नहीं उठा रहे.

PIN-GK?️

• Book: India’s Power Elite: Caste, Class And Cultural Revolution BY SANJAYA BARU. Earlier he had written a book “the accidental prime minister” on Manmohan Singh.
• Book: Bengal and Partition: An Untold Story By Bhaswati Mukherjee
• Death: KK Tiwari, a scorer with the Board of Control for Cricket in India, passed away because of Covid-19
• Death: Hockey player and women hockey coach Maharaj Krishan Kaushik. Winner of 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Arjuna Award, Dronacharya Award. He wrote book The Golden Boot.
• Death: Hockey player Ravindra Pal Singh – Winner of 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

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