The Wimbledon championships were cancelled for the first time since World War Two on Wednesday as the coronavirus pandemic struck another blue-riband sports event off the calendar and wiped out the entire tennis grasscourt season.

While the decision had looked inevitable for some time, since the virtual shutdown of world sport and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, Wimbledon had been one of the few events not to have been officially cancelled or postponed.

But after emergency talks between the various stakeholders over the last few days, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) announced that it was impossible for the grasscourt Grand Slam, scheduled for June 29-July 12, to take place.

World Autism Awareness Day is observed by the Member States of the United Nations on April 2 to raise public awareness of autism. Several organisations across the world contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Autism is a developmental disorder and people with ASD are characterised by difficulties with social interaction and by restricted and repetitive behaviour. The problem is associated with a combination of environmental and genetic factors.

This year, World Autism Awareness Day is being observed amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has spread to over 150 countries and killed thousands of people globally.

Background

The resolution to observe World Autism Awareness Day was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. The proposal to observe this day was made by the United Nations representative from Qatar and was supported by all Member States.

The biggest ever consolidation exercise in the public sector banking space is slated to take shape on Wednesday when six PSU lender will be merged into four in a bid to make them globally competitive.

The exercise assumes significance as it is taking place at a time when the entire country is under the grip of COVID-19 outbreak. It has triggered 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Experts said merger at this point of time will not be very smooth and seamless. However, heads of the anchor banks are exuding confidence. "We don't foresee any problem it is going as per the plan. We have reviewed in the light of this situation also. Certain modification in implementation. We have done so that there is not any disruption for employees and customers. We are ensuring zero disruption," Union Bank of India Managing Director Rajkiran Rai G told PTI.

When we get past this crisis, which we will, we will face a choice, the UN chief said, we can go back to the world as it was before or deal decisively with those issues that make us all unnecessarily vulnerable to crises.

The coronavirus pandemic is the most challenging crisis the world has faced since World War II, one that is killing people and will also lead to an economic recession without any parallel in the recent past, according to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

According to the estimates by the Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 850,500 confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, and over 41,000 deaths. The US now has the highest number of cases in the world at 184,183 and more than 4,000 deaths.

US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has announced that it has selected a new mission to study giant solar particle storms.

The Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) will look into how Sun generates and releases the giant weather storms, known as the solar particle storms, into space.

The mission will help in a greater understanding of the solar system. The findings would safeguard astronauts from solar storms while they travel to Mars or the Moon, NASA said in a press release.

SunRISE contains six CubeSats which will work together as a large radio telescope. Each of the CubeSats would run on solar power and would be of the size of a toaster oven.

Together, these will observe radio images of low-frequency emission from solar activity and create 3D maps to locate the origin place of a solar particle storm on the Sun. The entire procedure of the storm evolution as it moves outward into space will be studied too.

NASA has awarded $62.6 million for building, designing and launching the mission. It will be headed by Justin Kasper of the University of Michigan and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The launch date of the mission has been set for July 1, 2023.

The government has cut interest rates on small savings schemes by 70 to 140 basis points (bps) for the April-June quarter of the financial year 2020-21, announcing another measure to shore up resources as it manages the implication of a three-week national lockdown against the coronavirus pandemic.

Interest rates on public provident fund the quarter were cut by 80 bps to 7.1 per cent as those for Kisan Vikas Patra were slashed by 70 bps to 6.9 per cent.

Interest rates were also cut for a senior citizens saving scheme and National Savings Certificate.

Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis.

With the reduction, term deposits of 1-3 years will now fetch an interest rate of 5.5 per cent from the existing 6.9 per cent, down 1.4 per cent, according to a notification by the finance ministry.

Interest rates are paid quarterly, while the five-year term deposit will earn 6.7 per cent from the current rate of 7.7 per cent.

Himachal Pradesh government will launch the Active Case Finding Campaign for COVID 19 patients from tomorrow. Under this campaign, health workers would provide information regarding symptoms of COVID-19 to the people at their doorsteps.

AIR correspondent reports that under the Active Case Finding Campaign, every ASHA worker with two person’s team will visit every house in the village and gather health information of every person and would share it with the department through Google form.

The timing for gathering information would start from 9 AM to 4 PM every day and the suspected persons would be investigated accordingly.
 
The Chief Minister Jairam Thakur said elected representatives of Panchayat Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies must be involved to identify persons in their respective areas who have intra or even interstate traveling history.

New Delhi, March 30 (SocialNews.XYZ) BharatPe has partnered with ICICI Lombard to roll out 'COVID-19 Protection Insurance' for shopkeepers.

According to the policy, on the diagnosis of COVID-19, the policyholder will be paid 100 percent of the sum insured, irrespective of the hospitalization expenses.

BharatPe's endeavor is 'first of its kind' product for retailers.

The ICICI Lombard health cover is reasonably priced. The premium starts at Rs 199 provides Rs 25,000 sum insured and value-added benefits, like health assistance and CHAT/virtual assistance, teleconsultation and ambulance assistance, as part of the offering.

It will cover all in the age group of 18-65 years.

The Ministry of Tourism has launched a portal ‘Stranded in India’ to help foreign tourists who are stuck in various parts of the country.

“With an aim to extend support to the foreign tourists who are stranded in India, the Ministry of Tourism has come up with a portal to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by foreign tourists who have stuck far away from their homeland,” said the official release.

The portal strandedinindia.com consists of information around COVID-19 helpline numbers and call centers that foreign tourists can reach out for help, information around the Ministry of External Affairs control centers along with their contact information and information around state-based/regional tourism support infrastructure.

Professor Arjun Dev, the legendary educationist, and historian, a kind, gentle and generous but extremely brave man, passed away today morning at a hospital near his home in Noida. Born on November 12, 1938, in Leiah, West Punjab (now in Pakistan), he did his schooling in Ambala and then studied at Kirori Mal College, Delhi University. He is survived by his wife Indira Arjun Dev with whom he shared every aspect of his professional life.

Prof. Arjun spent the better part of his academic life working as a historian at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). In partnership with Indira, he wrote a number of extremely popular textbooks for the NCERT on Modern and Contemporary India and the World. One of their books, which was discontinued by the NCERT under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime in 2002 was republished by Orient Blackswan as History of the World: From the Late 19th to the Early 20th Century and has remained a very widely read text.