Daily news will speed up the preparation for the Civil Services Examination and it also plays a crucial role to grasp the current affairs topic comprehensively. Here we have covered most of the topics related to various categories including National, International, Sports, Science and Technology, and so on.
1. Third India-US 2+2 dialogue
– India and the US have met the third edition of the 2+2 dialogue. Both the countries have inked defence pact, Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA).
– It aims towards the expansion of geospatial information sharing between armed forces of the two countries. These militaries came in the backdrop of India’s tense border standoff with China in eastern Ladakh.
– As per the 2+2 dialogue, both the countries talk about the critical issues including ways to further expand the already close relationship between the militaries of the two countries along with broader issues of mutual interest in the Indo-Pacific region.
– Under this dialogue, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration agreed for the collaboration that includes the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite which is scheduled to be launched by 2022.
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2. Agreement between India Post and United States Postal Service (USPS)
– India Post and United States Postal Service (USPS) have inked an agreement for the electronic exchange of customs data related to postal shipments exchanged between the two countries.
– The agreement aims to facilitate ‘ease of exports’ for small and large exporters through postal channels.
– This agreement will be very helpful to transmit and receive electronic data of international postal items prior to their physical arrival at the destination and would enable customs clearance of postal items in advance in line with the evolving global postal framework. This will also encourage the performance of postal services in terms of reliability, visibility and security.
3. India-Australia Circular Economy Hackathon
– Atal Innovation Mission and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will organise a two-day hackathon on circular economy called ‘India-Australia Circular Economy Hackathon (I-ACE)’, in December 2020.
– The idea of I-ACE was conceived during a virtual summit on 4th June, 2020, between the Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart. It aims to explore innovative ways to boost the circular economy in India and Australia. It also concentrates on the identification and development of innovative technology solutions by students, startups and MSMEs of both nations.
4. Sudan and Israel Relationship
– Sudan, an African nation was technically at war with Israel since its foundation in 1948, has now become the third country to forge diplomatic relations with it. This happened so because a deal brokered by the USA with Sudan.
– Earlier, the USA brokered diplomatic pacts between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain as well, to normalise their relations. The deal would deepen Sudan’s engagement with the West.
– The deal follows USA’s conditional agreement to remove Sudan from its blacklist of countries accused of sponsoring terrorism.
5. The PLACID Trial
– The PLACID Trial was conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and is the first and largest randomised control trial to be completed in the world. The aim behind the research was to investigate CPT’s effectiveness for the treatment of Covid-19. It is the first and largest randomised control trial to be completed in the world.
– A multicentre randomized controlled trial which is called as PLACID Trial has shown that the use of convalescent plasma (CP) as a therapeutic for Covid-19 patients showed no positive effects and did not improve the outcome of the patients.
– The randomised controlled trial (RCT) is a trial in which subjects are randomly assigned to one of two groups: one (the experimental group) receiving the intervention that is being tested, and the other (the comparison group or control) receiving an alternative (conventional) treatment.
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