CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE – July 16, 2020

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India and E.U. push trade talks

News: Prime Minister of India during virtual India-EU Summit 2020, held talks through video conference with EU representatives, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.

Key takeaways

  • Following are the major documents, signed during the summit
  1. EU-India strategic framework, called Roadmap to 2025: The document summarizes the framework of dialogue and cooperation on wide ranging areas, including:
  • Trade & investment
  • Foreign and security policy
  • Sustainable development
  • Research and innovation
  • Global governance, etc.
  1. India-European Atomic Energy Community Agreement: It will enable collaboration between the Department of Atomic Energy and EURATOM for research and development cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
  2. Renewal of Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement for another 5 years that will enable the research exchange in areas such as biotechnology, clean energy, e-mobility, energy efficiency, marine sciences, etc.
  3. Joint Declaration on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy to exchange best practices.

India-EU announced a “high level dialogue” on trade and investment at ministerial level, to revive talks and addressing ‘trade irritants’ on a Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) (Started in 2007 Brussels, Belgium and halted in 2013).

  • Both sides agreed to cooperate on their response to the coronavirus pandemic, and at the United Nations Security Council.
  • Other then that discussions on important political and security issues such as Chinese incursion on LAC, cross-border terrorism from Pakistan, situation in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the Citizenship Amendment Act also took place.
  • India-EU FTA or broad based BTIA negotiations cover Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Investment, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs and Trade Facilitation, Competition, Trade Defence, Government Procurement, Dispute Settlement, Intellectual Property Rights & Geographical Indications, Sustainable Development.
  • So far (including the present one), 15 rounds of negotiations have been held alternately at Brussels and New Delhi.
  • On FTA, last meeting was held in the week of 13th May, 2013 in New Delhi.
About European Union

  • European Union is a unique economic and political union between 27 EU countries, created by the Maastricht Treaty which entered into force on November 1, 1993. Euro has been used as a common currency throughout the region.
  • EU functions through 3 bodies: European Commission, European Parliament, and European Council.
  • Eurozone that consists of 19 EU countries is different to EU, it consists of members using Euro as their currency.

India-EU summit

  • The first India-EU Summit took place in Lisbon on 28th June 2000.
  • Last and 14th summit was held in New Delhi in October 2017. Presently 15th summit is ongoing.

Jio and Google partnership for developing affordable 5g phones in India

News: Reliance Jio has entered into a commercial pact with Google.

News Details

  • Jio Platforms unit has developed a 5G technology that will be trial ready once the 5G spectrum is available next year.
  • Under the commercial pact, Jio Platforms and Google will build a value-engineered Android-based smartphone operating system (OS).
  • OS will be used to develop and launch a new 5G supported affordable entry-level smartphone.
  • The deal will enable the design of entry-level 4g or even 5G smartphone for a fraction of its current cost.
  • Google is also aiming to take the affordable smartphones and services developed out of this partnership to the rest of the world.
  • As per Jio, major goal of developing these affordable smartphones is to accelerate the migration of 350 million Indians who currently use 2G feature phones to an affordable 5g smartphone.
  • Google will invest Rs 33,737 crore for a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio platforms after all regulations are met.
  • Deal came after the Google’s recent announcement to invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years.
  • Notably, both Google and Jio have previously made attempts to develop their own smartphones.

About 5G Technology

  • As name suggests, 5G refers to fifth-generation cellular network technology.
  • Speed: 5G promises to deliver data at a speed 100 times that of 4G networks.
  • Response time: It is designed to transmit data almost instantly with a network latency of less than 10 microseconds. Network latency is the time taken by data packet or a request to be transferred from the source to the destination.
  • Connectivity: It will also have an enhanced throughput to handle more simultaneous connections at a time than current-generation networks.
  • 5G will enable instantaneous connectivity to billions of devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) and a truly connected world. 

Indigenous vaccine for pneumonia gets nod

News: Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the first fully indigenously developed conjugate vaccine for pneumonia.

Developed by: Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd, Pune

Institute has been granted permission to manufacture domestically developed first Pneumococcal Polysaccharide Conjugate Vaccine.

This vaccine is used for active immunisation against invasive disease and pneumonia caused by “streptococcus pneumonia” in infants.

Since the manufacturers were all based outside India, Earlier, the demand for such vaccine was substantially met by licensed importers.

About Streptococcus pneumonia

  • It is a bacterium that is responsible for the majority of community-acquired pneumonia as well as meningitis in children and adults.
  • It can be transmitted from per son to person by touching, coughing and sneezing.

About Conjugate Vaccine

Vaccines are a mechanism to prevent a particular disease by invoking an immune response towards an antigen (Bacteria or virus) by inducing an attenuated or dead version of it into the body. so that the immune system can recognize the antigen and activate the defensive mechanism if attacked later.

However, the antigens of some pathogenic bacteria are not able to invoke a strong immune system response and doesn’t protect body from later infections. To elicit a strong response, Conjugate Vaccine is used.

under Conjugate Vaccine method, weak antigen is covalently attached to a strong antigen, in turn eliciting a strong immune response towards a weak antigen.

Trump ends HK’s special trade status, backs sanctions

News: U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday stripped Hong Kong of preferential trade treatment and authorised sanctions on banks over China’s clampdown.

News details

  • Under the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, the US treats Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous part of China with its own legal and economic system, differently than the Chinese mainland in trade, commerce and other areas.
  • As per US president’s executive order, now Hong Kong will receive no special privileges, no special economic treatment and no export of sensitive technologies and will now be treated the same as mainland China.
  • US president has also signed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which authorises sanctions against Chinese officials and Hong Kong police seen as infringing on the city’s autonomy and banks that make significant transaction with the infringers.
  • However, year-long grace period has been granted to the banks to stop doing business with entities and individuals, considered as primary offenders.
  • In response, China vowed to take strong countermeasures and sanction US officials and entities over the Hong Kong law

China national security law

Law was imposed by China on Hongkong after months of widespread pro-democracy protests last year. China has tagged protesters as violent, foreign-backed separatists.

The four categories of criminal offence outlined in the law are:

  1. Secession,
  2. Subversion of state power,
  3. Terrorist activities and
  4. Collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security.

Punishment of long-term imprisonment of 10 years and above for Lead perpetrators and serious offenders.

Damaging public transport and certain public facilities would be classified as terrorism under the law.

A national security agency, consisting of Chinese officials will be established to oversee enforcement of the law, such officials will not be subject to jurisdiction of Hong Kong.

If a case involves “state secrets or public order,” it could be held behind closed doors without juries in Hong Kong. Only the verdict and eventual judgements would be made public.

Foreign and external NGOs and news organisations will subject to oversight of government bodies.

Hong Kong courts will oversee national security cases, but Beijing can take over cases in special circumstances.

In which of the following country/region, China has implemented National security law?

a) Taiwan          b) Ladakh          c) Hongkong         d) Xinjiang

Ans) c

U.S. govt. rescinds restrictive rule on international students

News: Entomologists have found three indigenous bugs to be the biological weapons against a Caribbean origin enemy of Indian fruit farmers — the woolly whitefly.

News details

According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), around 30­35% of crops are damaged by pests in the country annually.

Woolly whitefly is the new addition to the 118 newest exotic pests that are troubling Indian farmers.

Entomologists from the Centre for Plant Protection Studies at the Coimbatore based Tamil Nadu Agricultural University have discovered three indigenous bugs that can control the pest by devouring them.

2 of these predators were ladybird beetles of the Coccinellidae family and one was the green lacewing fly from Neuroptera order.

These insects having four life stages — egg, grub, pupa and adult — complete their life cycle in 30­40 days. During the active grub stage for 10­12 days, bug feeds on the woolly whitefly.

About Woolly whitefly

Whitefly is an invasive and polyphagous (it can feed on various types of food crops).

It was first described from Jamaica and noticed in U.S. in 1909.

ICAR’s National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources in Bengaluru had in 2019 reported the spread of the pest from the Caribbean island through transportation of infested seedlings.

This year, the pest was recorded from Ramanagara, Mandya and Bengaluru Rural districts of Karnataka, guava plantations in Kozhikode district of Kerala and Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu.

What is an invasive species?

  • An invasive species is an organism that causes ecological or economic harm to an environment where it is not indigenous, or native.
  • Being a foreigner species is not the only criterion for a species to become invasive, for that it must also be able to reproduce quickly and harm the native plant or animal species of a region.
  • It can be induced in an environment via intentional and accidental releases of aquaculture species, the ballast water of oceangoing ships, and other means.

Which of the following is an incorrect characteristic of an invasive species?

  1. It must be a foreign species
  2. It must be able to reproduce quickly
  3. It must be able to harm the native plant or animal species
  4. It must be transported in ballast water

Ans: d

Invasive species can be transported by any possible means. It is not necessary that it would be transported by ballast water only.

U.S. govt. rescinds restrictive rule on international students

What is F-1 Visa?

The foreign national arriving from abroad willing to enter U.S. for the purpose of education need to obtain a student visa which will be placed in the passport of the individual. The student visas are classified into two types.

F Student Visa (Academic Course)

F-1: F-1 Visa (Academic Student) are issued to the students willing to take admission in Academic and Language training Courses.

F-2: F-2 visas are issued to the dependents of F-1 visa holders, such as spouse or minor children.

M Student Visa (Non-academic or Vocational/Technical Course)

M-1 visa is issued to the person willing to take admission in non-academic or vocational course and M-2 visas are issued to dependents of M-1 visa holders.

Which of the following visa is issued to the students willing to take admission in Academic and Language training Courses in US?

a) F-1          b) F-2          c) M-1          d)M-2

Ans) a

News: United States government has rolled back its policy on foreign students taking online courses from in the country.

What was the policy?

In March the Trump administration permitted international students to take online classes during the pandemic. The July 6 order was passed override this order.

The order was issued on July 6 by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It provided that foreign (F-1 and M-1 visa categories) students taking their entire course online would have to depart the country. It was argued by the government that students didn’t need to be in the country if all their coursework was offered remotely.

Order was strongly opposed by voices in academia, industry and politics as it left the future of millions of students hanging.

Moreover, it would have meant loss of millions of dollars in tuition to the universities and shortage of highly skilled workers for US industries.

However, it is unclear whether new F-1 visas will be issued to the students, not yet enrolled in educational programs as march order didn’t cover them.

Another issue is that even if law permits to issue new F-1 visas for those outside the U.S., due to shortage of staff American consulates and embassies around the world, it won’t be possible to fulfil such demand.

  • Some 2,00,000 Indian students are studying at present in the U.S.
  • About 1 million international students enrol in US universities annually, contributing $41 billion to the economy annually and support more than 458,000 jobs.

What is F-1 Visa?

The foreign national arriving from abroad willing to enter U.S. for the purpose of education need to obtain a student visa which will be placed in the passport of the individual. The student visas are classified into two types.

F Student Visa (Academic Course)

F-1: F-1 Visa (Academic Student) are issued to the students willing to take admission in Academic and Language training Courses.

F-2: F-2 visas are issued to the dependents of F-1 visa holders, such as spouse or minor children.

M Student Visa (Non-academic or Vocational/Technical Course)

M-1 visa is issued to the person willing to take admission in non-academic or vocational course and M-2 visas are issued to dependents of M-1 visa holders.

Which of the following visa is issued to the students willing to take admission in Academic and Language training Courses in US?

a) F-1          b) F-2          c) M-1         d) M-2

Ans) a

Indigenous bugs help tackle invasive pest

News: Entomologists have found three indigenous bugs to be the biological weapons against a Caribbean origin enemy of Indian fruit farmers — the woolly whitefly.

News details

According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), around 30­35% of crops are damaged by pests in the country annually.

Woolly whitefly is the new addition to the 118 newest exotic pests that are troubling Indian farmers.

Entomologists from the Centre for Plant Protection Studies at the Coimbatore based Tamil Nadu Agricultural University have discovered three indigenous bugs that can control the pest by devouring them.

2 of these predators were ladybird beetles of the Coccinellidae family and one was the green lacewing fly from Neuroptera order.

These insects having four life stages — egg, grub, pupa and adult — complete their life cycle in 30­40 days. During the active grub stage for 10­12 days, bug feeds on the woolly whitefly.

About Woolly whitefly

Whitefly is an invasive and polyphagous (it can feed on various types of food crops).

It was first described from Jamaica and noticed in U.S. in 1909.

ICAR’s National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources in Bengaluru had in 2019 reported the spread of the pest from the Caribbean island through transportation of infested seedlings.

This year, the pest was recorded from Ramanagara, Mandya and Bengaluru Rural districts of Karnataka, guava plantations in Kozhikode district of Kerala and Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu.

What is an invasive species?

  • An invasive species is an organism that causes ecological or economic harm to an environment where it is not indigenous, or native.
  • Being a foreigner species is not the only criterion for a species to become invasive, for that it must also be able to reproduce quickly and harm the native plant or animal species of a region.
  • It can be induced in an environment via intentional and accidental releases of aquaculture species, the ballast water of oceangoing ships, and other means.

Which of the following is an incorrect characteristic of an invasive species?

  1. It must be a foreign species
  2. It must be able to reproduce quickly
  3. It must be able to harm the native plant or animal species
  4. It must be transported in ballast water

Ans: d

Invasive species can be transported by any possible means. It is not necessary that it would be transported by ballast water only.

Indigenous bugs help tackle invasive pest

News: Positive news are expected soon from the 2 candidate vaccines from US-based biotech company Moderna and University of Oxford.

News details

Moderna was the first company to begin a human trial for a candidate vaccine Called mRNA-1273, against Covid-19 that went into phase 1 trial in March.

The vaccine uses mRNA technology, which involves injecting genetic instructions to human cells for creating proteins to fight the virus.

Oxford University has developed its candidate vaccine, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, in partnership with global biopharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca.

It delivers a SARS-CoV-2 protein to induce an immune response. Although results phase I of vaccine is yet to be announced, the vaccine has already gone into phase III trials.

What are the phases of vaccines development?

Phase 1- It involves basic understanding of virus to identify the structure of proteins and genetics that make up the virus. It provides basis for developing diagnostics kits and potential treatment options.

Phase-2- It involves identification of vaccine candidates by isolating the live virus before inactivating or weakening that can be used for immunity development.

Phase -3 – Pre-clinical testing: It involves testing of the vaccine on animals ta have an idea of response for human testing.

Phase -4 – Clinical trials: It involves testing on humans. There are 3 phases of clinical trials

  1. Phase I of a clinical trial only gives an indication of what is the ideal dose required to administer in the next stage, it provides an evidence of vaccine’s ability to generate an immune response and its safety. It involves small number of participants in the trial.
  2. In phase II, the age range of participants is expanded to see if there is variation in the immune response between older people and children and it also assess the time period for which antibodies last to provide immunity against the virus.
  3. Phase-III involves a very large group of people to investigate its efficiency among large population groups.

Phase- 5: It involves regulatory approval before the mass production of a vaccine starts.

Phase -6: It involves production of Vaccine.

2 Indian companies received regulatory approval for clinical trials

1.       Bharat Biotech India (BBIL) has been allowed to conduct human clinical trials by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for ‘Covaxin’, an indigenously developed Covid-19 vaccine candidate. It is the first indigenously developed vaccine candidate in India and being developed in collaboration with the National Institute of Virology (NIV).

2.       Zydus Cadila has been given the nod by DCGI to conduct phase I/II clinical trials of its vaccine candidate ZyCoV-D.

Which of the following is an Indian company, authorised to perform clinical trial of coronavirus vaccines?

a) Moderna          b) AstraZeneca          c) Zydus Cadila          d) Dabur

Ans: c

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