clataffairs

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 28 chaired the 43rd GST Council meeting via video conferencing.  The GST Council meeting was convened for the first time in nearly eight months on May 28. The council’s last meeting was held in October 2020. The council is required to meet once every quarter.  DECISIONS Council has decided to exempt import of relief items and is being extended till August 31, 2021.  Import of medicine for black fungus, that is Amphotericin B, has also been included in the exempted category.  Import of Covid-related relief items, even if purchased or meant for donating to government or to any relief agency upon recommendation of state authority, to be exempted from IGST till August 31, 2021. FM Sitharaman announced Amnesty Scheme to reduced late fee returns.  Small taxpayers can file pending returns under this scheme. A ₹ 1.58 lakh crore borrowing plan may for immediate compensation dues was also announced. GST COUNCIL It is a cons...

India hit out at President of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir for his comments on Jammu and Kashmir, Saying his "misleading and prejudiced" remarks does "great disservice to the office he occupies".  Volkan Bozkir of Turkey was elected the President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly. UNGA president Volkan Bozkir was speaking at a joint news conference with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. He said, “India and Pakistan’s Simla Agreement of 1972 which says that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means in accordance with the UN Charter.” He also noted that Palestine has more “political wind” behind it, whereas the Kashmir issue doesn’t have the “same enlarged political wind behind it”. The Simla Agreement, signed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972. It is a bilateral agreement that rejects any third-party m...

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has served a defamation notice on Ramdev for alleged disparaging remarks against allopathy and allopathic doctors. It demanded an apology from him within 15 days, failing which it said it will demand a compensation of Rs.1,000 crore from the yoga guru.  Terming the remarks of the yoga guru a “criminal act” under section of 499 of the Indian Penal Code, the notice demanded a written apology from him within 15 days of its receipt. It said that a compensation of Rs.1,000 crore will be demanded from him at the rate of Rs.50 lakh per member of the IMA if he failed to do so. The notice has also asked Ramdev to make a video clip contradicting all his allegations and circulate it on the social media platforms where he had uploaded his earlier video levelling them. Ramdev was forced to withdraw a statement made in a viral video clip in which he is heard questioning some of the medicines being used to treat the coronavirus infection and saying th...

The United Nation's top human rights body will launch an international investigation into potential "war crimes" committed during an 11- day conflict between Israel and militant group Hamas in Gaza.  The resolution calls for the creation of a "Commission of Inquiry" to report on rights violations in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. The commission will also investigate "underlying root causes" for recurring tensions in the region. China and Russia supported the resolution while some Western and African countries voted against it. UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is a department of the Secretariat of the United Nations. It works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.  The office was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 December 1993 in the wake of the 1...

Recently, messaging platform WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court to challenge the traceability provision in the New IT Rules 2021 . Earlier the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had sent a notice to WhatsApp asking it to withdraw a controversial update to its privacy policy which might be a threat to Data Protection of Indians. TRACEABILITY PROVISIONS It requires intermediaries to enable identification of the first originator of information on their platforms. Rule 4(2) of the Intermediary Rules states that a significant social media intermediary providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer resource as may be required by a judicial order or an order passed by a competent authority under the Information and Technology (IT) Act 2000. Failure to comply with this requirement would take away the indemnity provided to social media intermediaries under Section 79 of the IT Act. CONCE...

The Moon had the nearest approach to Earth on May 26, and therefore appeared to be the closest and largest Full Moon or “supermoon” of 2021.  This was be a superlunar event, as it was a:  1) Supermoon 2) Lunar eclipse and 3) Red or Blood moon, all at once. A supermoon and a total lunar eclipse have not occurred together in nearly six years.  TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE A total lunar eclipse takes place when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and its shadow covers the Moon. Total lunar eclipses happen only when:  It is Full Moon.  At the same time, the Moon is at (or very near) a lunar node, so the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth are aligned in a straight (or nearly straight) line. The duration of a lunar eclipse is longer than a solar eclipse.  SUPERMOON NASA notes that a supermoon occurs when the Moon’s orbit is closest to the Earth at the same time that the Moon is full.  As the Moon orbits the Earth, there is a point of time when the distanc...

Lakshadweep Administrator Praful Khoda Patel is facing opposition from the people of the union territory and politicians — both from within Lakshadweep and neighbouring Kerala — over policies introduced by him since his appointment in December 2020. PRAFUL KHODA PATEL Praful Khoda Patel was made administrator of Lakshadweep in December 2020, after the death of former administrator Dineshwar Sharma.  A former BJP leader, Patel was the minister of state for home in Gujarat, when Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister.  In addition to Lakshadweep, Patel also has the charge of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.  The appointment a departure from the earlier practice of appointing only IAS officers to the post. LDAR The contentious regulations include the Draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation 2021 (LDAR). It gives the administrator powers to remove or relocate islanders from their property, for town planning or any developmental activity. It pu...

IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, currently serving as the chief of CISF, has been announced as the new chief of CBI.  The post has been lying vacant since February first week when Rishi Kumar Shukla completed his tenure. The High-Powered Committee for selection comprises PM Narendra Modi, CJI N.V. Ramana and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of Congress. The chiefs of CBI, IB and R&AW have fixed two-year tenures. NEW PRECEDENT BY CJI Rakesh Asthana and YC Modi were reportedly the Centre’s top choices for the post. YC Modi is currently the chief of the National Investigation Agency, retires at the end of this month.  Asthana is currently heading the BSF, retires in July.  Both, known to be trusted by the Modi regime and having served many years in the CBI, were supposed to be top contenders for the post. Chief Justice of India NV Ramana cited a Supreme Court guideline to rule out their nominations.  CJI Ramana cited before the committee the “six-month rule” mentioned in...

Indian Navy’s destroyer INS Rajput has been  decommissioned on 21st May 2021 at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam.  The ship was the first Indian naval ship to be affiliated with an Indian Army's Regiment – The Rajput Regiment. A destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers.  INS Rajput served the nation for 41 years.  The Russian-built ship was commissioned on 4th May 1980 at Poti, Georgia by IK Gujral, then Ambassador of India to USSR.  Original Russian name = ‘Nadezhny’ meaning ‘Hope’ . Captain Gulab Mohanlal Hiranandani was its first Commanding Officer. Motto: “Raj Karega Rajput” . OPERATIONS Operation Pawan- As a part of IPKF mission against LTTE between 1987 and 1990, for patrolling duties off the coast of Sri Lanka. Operation Aman, off Sri Lanka to assist the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)  Operation Cact...

After Black and White Fungus, a case of Yellow Fungus infection has been reported in Delhi NCR amid COVID-19.  The first case of yellow fungus infection has been detected in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Yellow fungus grows internally.  Lethargy, weight loss, low appetite, or no appetite at all are said to be common Yellow Fungus symptoms. Yellow Fungus causes can range from high humidity to old food, however, the primary cause is said to be poor hygiene. Amphotericin B injection, which is an anti-fungal drug is used in the Yellow Fungus treatment. DANGER It is said to be more dangerous than the other two types. This is because of the manner in which it affects the body's internal organs. Unlike the two other infections, yellow fungus starts off internally, causes pus leakage, slow healing of wounds, and, in serious cases, can also cause devastating symptoms such as organ failure and acute necrosis. FUNGUS A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms.  These ...

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved India’s first self-use Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) for Covid-19 named as CoviSelf. It is developed by MyLab Discovery Solutions, a Pune-based molecular company.  It uses a RAT and gives results within 15 minutes.  This test is synced with a mobile app, CoviSelf, which will help directly feed the positive case’s report on the ICMR portal. ICMR has advised this test only for those who have symptoms or are high-risk contacts of positive patients and need to conduct a test at home. RAPID ANTIGEN TEST It is a point-of-care test, performed outside the conventional laboratory setting, and is used to quickly obtain a diagnostic result. Like RT-PCR (Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction), the RAT too seeks to detect the virus rather than the antibodies produced by the body.

An enormous iceberg 'A-76' has calved from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf, lying in the Weddell Sea, in Antarctica. It measures around 4320 sq. km in size – currently making it the largest berg in the world.  The newly calved berg 'A-76' was spotted in recent satellite images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. Sentinel-1 is one of the missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) under Copernicus initiative (an earth observation programme). It has surpassed the now second-place A-23A, about 3,380 sq km in size and also floating in the Weddell Sea. ICERBERGS An iceberg is ice that broke off from glaciers or shelf ice and is floating in open water. Icebergs travel with ocean currents and either get caught up in shallow waters or ground themselves. The US National Ice Center (USNIC) is the only organisation that names and tracks Antarctic Icebergs. Icebergs are named according to the Antarctic quadrant in which they are spotted. CALVING Calving is the gl...

The central government asked states to notify black fungus or mucormycosis an epidemic.  An infection called white fungus or Candidiasis has also been found to affect some people. Covid-19 patients are more prone to white fungus as it affects the lungs and similar symptoms are created like that of coronavirus.  WHITE FUNGUS White Fungus or Candidiasis is a fungal infection caused by a yeast (a type of fungus) called Candida. Candida normally lives on the skin and inside the body, in places such as the mouth, throat, gut, and vagina, without causing any problems. Candida can cause infections if it grows out of control or if it enters deep into the body (for example, the bloodstream or internal organs like the kidney, heart, or brain). The most common species that causes infection is Candida albicans. Medical experts consider White Fungus infection deadlier than Black Fungus (this is debatable, though. Some sources say the converse) because the former impacts the lungs, along wi...

A ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas has come into effect.  The ceasefire was brokered by Egypt. This was after the U.S. pressed Israel to wind down the offensive. The ceasefire began early on 21st May, bringing to an end 11 days of bombardment in which more than 240 people have died, most of them in Gaza.  Both Israel and Hamas have claimed victory in the conflict.  COST OF THE RECENT CONFLICT Gaza’s housing ministry said that 16,800 housing units had been damaged.  Residents were estimated to be getting 3-4 hours of power versus 12 hours before the hostilities.  The Hamas media office estimated the bombardments had caused $40 million in damage to factories.  The United Nations and aid groups said Palestinians now had limited or no access to water facilities. ANALYSIS OF THE CLASH AND CEASEFIRE The last major fighting between Israel and Hamas ...

The cryptocurrency market saw a major correction with prices of major currencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, among others crashing as much as 30% within 24 hours.  Virtual currencies are retreating so broadly and sharply, it’s testing the durability of the cryptocurrency boom.  This has come in the backdrop of the Chinese regulators announcing a crackdown on cryptocurrencies. However, the Chinese announcement was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Bitcoin and Ethereum were on a decline since last week when Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the electric carmaker won’t be accepting Bitcoin as payment — a reversal of an earlier decision. As Bitcoin's fortunes turned for the worse, other cryptocurrencies did not fare well either.  Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency in the world, is down 40%. Dogecoin, the meme crypto popularised by Musk, lost 45% WHAT HAS CHINA ANNOUNCED?   China has barred financial institutions and payment companies...

The West Bengal government has decided to set up a Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad). The Legislative Council in the State was abolished in 1969.  FORMATION OF LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL The states can have a Legislative Council in addition to the Legislative Assembly through Article 169 of the Constitution. For setting up the Council, a Bill has to be introduced in the Assembly and then a nod from the Governor is required. The Parliament can abolish a Legislative Council (where it already exists) or create it (where it does not exist) by a simple majority, that is, a majority of the members of each House present and voting, if the legislative assembly of the concerned state, by a special majority, passes a resolution to that effect. Special majority implies a majority of the total membership of the assembly and a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of the assembly present and voting. COMPOSITION AND TENURE Under Article 171 of the Constitution, the Legislative Council...

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm is constructing the largest international submarine cable system centered on India.  The mobile broadband digital service provider is working with several key global partners and submarine cable supplier SubCom is currently deploying two next generation cables to support data demand growth across the region. The India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) system will connect India to Singapore and beyond. The India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) system will connect India to the Middle East and Europe.  The IAX system will have express connectivity from Mumbai and Chennai to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.  The IEX system will extend India's connectivity to Italy, landing in Savona, with additional landings in the Middle East and North Africa. IAX is expected to be ready for service by the middle of 2023, While IEX should be in service sometime in 2024. FIBRE OPTICAL CABLE A fiber optic cable is a direct link through which it connects one country to the rest o...

Cyclone Tauktae (pronounced Tau-Te), classified as a very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS) and developed in the Arabian Sea, has wreaked havoc across India.  Cyclone Tauktae made landfall in Gujarat. It has left a trail of destruction as it swept through the coastal states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. The cyclone is a tropical cyclone, named by Myanmar.  It means 'gecko', a highly vocal lizard, in the Burmese language. TROPICAL CYCLONES A tropical cyclone is an intense circular storm that originates over warm tropical oceans and is characterized by low atmospheric pressure, high winds, and heavy rain. A characteristic feature of tropical cyclones is the eye, a central region of clear skies, warm temperatures, and low atmospheric pressure. Storms of this type are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic and eastern Pacific and typhoons in South-East Asia and China. They are called tropical cyclones in the southwest Pacific and Indian Ocean region and Willy-willies in n...

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MLA Madan Mitra, and former Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chattopadhyay in the Narada bribery case.  The move comes days after Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar gave his consent to the CBI for filing a chargesheet against the four accused and sanctioned prosecution against them. All of them were state ministers who were seen taking money in the purported Narada sting operation.  The tapes were released ahead of the 2016 state Assembly polls.  The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March 2017. THE NARADA CASE The Narada sting operation was conducted by Narada news founder Mathew Samuel for over two years in West Bengal.  Conducted in 2014 for the news magazine Tehelka, it was published on a private news website Narada News months before the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections. As part of the operation, Samuel formed a fictitious company name...

INDIA-ISRAEL RELATIONS In 1948, India was the only non-Arab-state among 13 countries that voted against the UN partition plan of Palestine in the General Assembly that led to the creation of Israel. India had given recognition of Israel in 1950 but without full diplomatic ties. PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s reasoning for the decision to recognise Israel was that it was “an established fact”, and that not doing so would create rancour between two UN members. The opening of an Indian embassy in Tel Aviv in January 1992 marked an end to four decades of giving Israel the cold shoulder.  For two-and-a-half decades from 1992, the India-Israel relationship continued to grow, mostly through defence deals, and in sectors such as science and technology and agriculture. In 2000, L K Advani became the first Indian minister to visit Israel. It was during NDA-2 that the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to take full ownership of the relationship with Israel.  In 2016, India abst...

India’s permanent representative to the United Nations, T S Tirumurti, made a carefully crafted statement at the UN Security Council “open debate” on the escalating Israel-Palestine violence. He strived to maintain balance between India’s historic ties with Palestine and its blossoming relations with Israel. BALANCING The statement, the first India has made on the issue, appears to implicitly hold Israel responsible for triggering the current cycle of violence by locating its beginnings in East Jerusalem, referring to the clashes in the Al-­Aqsa compound and East Jerusalem’s neighborhood, rather than from Gaza.  This means, India doesn’t see Hamas’s rocket firing on May 10 as the trigger of the conflict. The request that both sides refrain from “attempts to unilaterally change the existing status quo including in East Jerusalem and its neighbourhoods” seems to be a message to Is...

Three years after a huge win in the 2016 elections, the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were a wake-up call for the Trinamool Congress.  The BJP won 18 of 40 seats, and over 40% of the vote.  The Trinamool doubled down on its already extensive welfare web for the poor, bringing in Duare Sarkaar, and Didi ke Bolo, a campaign where complaints could be made to a centralised phone number. The Trinamool had focused on making the schemes more accessible to people. CAUSES OF TMC's WIN The central focus of many of these schemes were women , a constituency that has stayed loyal to Mamata Banerjee.  Across districts, even if men of a household were voting for the BJP, many women of the same household were staying with Mamata. As the campaign progressed, the elections devolved into a battle of personalities , Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee versus Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and to an extent Home Minister Amit Shah.  This ended up suiting the Trinamool as even though there was anger ...

TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) was negotiated in 1995 at the WTO.  TRIPS Agreement requires all its signatory countries to enact domestic law, which guarantees minimum standards of IP protection.  India and South Africa’s has sought waiver of IPR regulations suggesting that vaccine manufacturing process is complex and exercising all exsiting flexibilities in TRIPS will still be insufficient to enhance production.  US has now supported IP waiver proposal by India and South Africa. IPR waiver proposal has received strong support from other developing countries, such as Bolivia, Kenya, Mongolia, Pakistan and Venezuela.  However, developed nations, especially the EU, Switzerland, Australia, the UK and Japan have been opposing the waiver, saying it impedes innovation.  All 164 WTO members must agree on the draft of IPR waiver, and any one member can veto it.  THE PROBLEMS A waiver will do nothing to fillthe urgent shortfall...

Moscow has plans to introduce the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine in India soon. Sputnik Light vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. SPUTNIK LIGHT V. SPUTNIK V Sputnik Light is the first component of Sputnik V – this means it is the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine.  The vaccine is based on recombinant human adenovirus serotype number 26 (rAd26).  The single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine demonstrated 79.4 percent efficacy, according to analysed data taken from 28 days after the injection was administered as part of Russia’s mass vaccination programme between 5 December 2020 and 15 April 2021. SPUTNIK V Sputnik V made waves for being the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus on 11 August 2020.  Russia's COVID-19 Vaccine Sputnik V is developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.  The vaccine is based on the e...

China successfully landed the Zhurong rover on Mars, making it China’s first landing on another planet.  China became the 3rd country to perform a successful soft landing successfully on Mars, after the former Soviet Union and the USA.  The rover is a part of the Tianwen-1 mission, which entered the orbit around Mars in February.  The rover performed its landing with a similar “seven minutes of terror”, as had the NASA landers, when the autonomous landing worked itself out in its most crucial stage nearly 350 million km away, with an 18-minute delay in signal reception and no human intervention.  TIANWEN-1 MISSION Tianwen-1 is an interplanetary mission by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to send a robotic spacecraft to Mars. It consists of 1. of an orbiter, 2. deployable camera, 3. lander and 4. the Zhurong rover. Landing Site: Utopia Planitia.  The lander, with the rover attached, touched down in Utopia Planitia, in the northern hem...

The Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepted a Hamas Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that crossed from Gaza into Israel.  IRON DOME Iron Dome is a multi-­mission system capable of intercepting rockets, artillery, mortars and Precision Guided Munitions like very short range air defence (V­SHO-RAD) systems as well as aircraft, helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) over short ranges of up to 70 km.  It is an all-weather system and can engage multiple targets simultaneously and be deployed over land and sea. Iron Dome is manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems. It has been in service with Israeli Air Force since...

The irony in the ongoing conflict is that Hamas, whose founding members were encouraged by Israel in the 1970s and 80s against Yasser Arafat’s secular national movement, has turned out to be Israel’s biggest rival in the Palestinian territories. HAMAS Hamas was established after the first intifada broke out in 1987, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.  Intifada was the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.  The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the second began in 2000. As strife between Israel and Palestine continued to soar as the latter resorted to the First Intifada, or uprising, in December 1987, Hamas as an organisation led by Sunni-Islamic fundamentalists, began to take shape.  Hamas could gain immediate and immense popularity within the protesting Palestinians because it was ...

Russia formally designated the United States and the Czech Republic as "unfriendly states" amid the biggest crisis in ties between Moscow and Washington in years.  The Russian government released a decree signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that was accompanied by a list of "unfriendly states“, that "have carried out unfriendly actions" against Russia, Russian nationals or Russian entities.  These countries will be prohibited from hiring Russian citizens to work in their diplomatic missions. The Czech embassy will be allowed to employ no more than 19 Russian nationals and the US embassy none at all. REASONS FOR THE STEP In recent months tensions have spiralled between Russia and the West over a litany of issues, Including Russia's troop build-up on Ukraine's border, interference in US elections and other perceived hostile activities.  Russia-US relations have rapidly deteriorated after Joe Biden increased pressure on the Kremlin since b...

Clashes between Arab and Jewish mobs on the streets of Israeli cities have given way to warnings from Israeli leaders that the decades-old conflict could be careening toward a civil war.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the scenes of arson and violence as “anarchy” and appealed for an end to “lynchings.”  ISRAELI ARABS In total, about 21% of Israel's population are Israeli Arabs - some 1.96 million people. During the war that surrounded the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Arabs were forced from or fled their homes.  Those who stayed in what became Israel, and their descendants, have been granted citizenship and are known as Israeli Arabs.  About 80% of Israeli Arabs are Muslim, with the rest identifying as either Christian or Druze. Most identify strongly with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, with many calling themselves "Palestinian citizens of Israel".

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing violent struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. It has been referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict", with the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip reaching 54 years.  PRE-1948 ERA The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs. After the Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I, the British took control of the area known as Palestine. The land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Arab majority. The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine and this gave rise to tensions. The Jews...

ISRAEL-UAE PEACE DEAL In 2020, the President of the USA announced that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had agreed to establish full diplomatic ties as part of a deal to halt the annexation of occupied land sought by the Palestinians for their future state.  The agreement was called the ‘Abraham Accord’. Under the deal, Israel agreed to suspend its plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank. By the deal, the UAE became the first Gulf Arab state to do so and only the third Arab nation to have active diplomatic ties with Israel. Egypt had made a peace deal with Israel in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. Mauritania had recognized Israel in 1999, but later ended relations in 2009 over the Israel’s war in Gaza at the time. TRUMP PEACE PLAN Name : Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People.  This was a proposal by the Trump administration for resolving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The plan recognized Israel's rig...

Conflict has been escalating between Israel and Palestine.  Israeli armed forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Haramesh-Sharif in Jerusalem, ahead of a march by Zionist nationalists commemorating Israel’s capture of the eastern half of the city in 1967.  More than 300 Palestinians were injured in the raid.  EVENTS Tensions have been building up since the start of Ramzan in mid-April when Israeli police set up barricades at the Damascus Gate outside the occupied Old City, pre venting Palestinians from gathering there.  As clashes erupted, the police removed the barricades, but tensions were already high.  The threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah escalated the crisis further in the last week of Ramzan. The Israeli authorities had given permission to the Jerusalem Day march, traditionally taken out by far-right Zionists through the Arab Quarter of the Old City.  Ahead of the march on May 10 (...

Mucormycosis, commonly called black fungus, is a serious and rare fungal infection affecting those suffering from coronavirus in India.  The black fungus that invades the brain is being increasingly seen in vulnerable patients in India. The disease is a deadly fungal infection found in some Covid-19 patients with uncontrolled diabetes and prolonged intensive care unit (ICU) stay.  It is caused by a group of moulds known as mucormycetes present naturally in the environment.  It mainly affects people who are on medication for health problems that reduces their ability to fight environmental pathogens. Sinuses or lungs of such individuals get affected after they inhale fungal spores from the air.

The World Health Organisation on Monday classified a coronavirus variant first identified in India as a “global variant of concern”.  This variant called B.1.617 was classified as a variant under investigation (VUI) by authorities in the UK earlier in May.  It has already spread to more than 17 countries and several countries have put travel restrictions for passengers coming from India as a result of the surge in cases here.  HOW DOES THE WHO DEFINE A VARIANT OF CONCERN?   The WHO says that a variant of interest (VOI) becomes a variant of concern (VOC) if, through a comparative assessment, it has been demonstrated to be associated with increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology, increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation or a decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics. Alternatively, a variant may be classified as a VOC by the WHO in co...

DRDO has developed an Artificial Intelligence algorithm that can detect the presence of COVID-19 disease in Chest X-rays. Named ATMAN AI, the tool was developed by DRDO's Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), with the support of 5C Network & HCG Academics.  The ATMAN AI is an artificial intelligence tool for chest X-ray screening as triaging tool in COVID-19 diagnosis. It is a method for rapid identification and assessment of lung involvement. This would be utilised by 5C Network, the country's largest digital network of radiologists, with support of HCG Academics.  The method has shown an accuracy of 96.73 per cent.

Indian Prime Minister participated in the India-European Union (EU) Leaders’ Meeting. The meeting was held in a hybrid format with the participation of leaders of all the 27 EU Member States as well as the President of the European Council and the European Commission.  This is the first time that the EU hosted a meeting with India in the EU+27 format. The meeting was the initiative of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU. FREE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS India and EU decided to relaunch free trade negotiations by resuming talks that were suspended for the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). India and EU had launched talks for having a wide-ranging Free Trade Agreement (FTA), officially called broad-based BTIA, long ago in 2007. The BTIA was proposed to encompass trade in goods, services and investments. However, the talks stalled in 2013 over differences on market access and movement of professionals. CONNECTIVITY PARTNERSHIP Launched an ambitious and comprehensiv...

Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Oli has lost the trial of strength in Parliament.  The vote of confidence that he placed before the House secured 93 ‘Ayes’ votes against 124 ‘Nos’.  There were only 232 members of 271 present in the House.  This was the first vote of confidence unsuccessfully sought by the first government elected under the new constitution promulgated in September 2015. Oli will be submitting his resignation to President Bidhya Devi Bhandari who in turn will ask Parliament to explore formation of the new government within a week. WHY OLI LOST?    CPN-UML (Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist Leninist) had 121 seats in Parliament.  Its alliance Nepal Communist Party Maoist Centre led by Prachanda withdrew its support to the government, Oli's government was reduced to a minority one.  The Nepali PM had asked parliament for a vote of confidence in an attempt to show he still had enough support to stay in power despite an expecte...

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the emergency use of Drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe Covid-19 patients.  DEVELOPMENT The Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), has developed the drug, in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Hyderabad. In April 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic, INMAS-DRDO scientists conducted had laboratory experiments with the help of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. It found that this molecule works effectively against SARS-CoV-2 virus and inhibits the viral growth.  WORKING 2-DG, works by preventing the supply of glucose molecules to the cancerous cells, which need glucose for survival.  With the drug stopping the glucose supply, the cells start dying.  The drug comes in powder form in sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water....

India’s armed forces have launched Operation "CO-JEET" to aid anti-COVID-19 efforts.  Under this, they will undertake efforts like strengthening medical infrastructure and oxygen supply chains, and take measures to ensure mental wellbeing of people. Department of Defence has created a COVID-19 Crisis Management Committee.  The Committee is working together with the armed forces on COVID-19 Crisis Management.  CO-JEET stands for co-workers of all the three services who will finally achieve 'Jeet' [victory] over COVID. MADHURI KANITKAR Lt. Gen. Madhuri Kanitkar, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Medical), is working round the clock to strategise and monitor steps to provide relief to COVID-19 patients. She is the third woman to become a three-star general in the armed forces.  The post comes under the Chief of Defence Staff. 

Eight Asiatic lions at Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park have tested positive for the deadly coronavirus. It is the first known case of the human infecting the felines and making them sick in India. Earlier in 2020, Tiger being infected with Covid-19 was reported in New York (Bronx Zoo).  ASIATIC LIONS The Asiatic Lion (also known as the Persian Lion or Indian Lion) is a member of the Panthera Leo Leo subspecies that is restricted to India. Its previous habitats consisted of West Asia and the Middle East before it became extinct in these regions. Asiatic lions are slightly smaller than African lions. These are listed as endangered in the IUCN Red List.

The Supreme Court struck down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018. The act extends reservation to the Maratha community in public education and employment.  The the Bombay High Court had previously upheld the constitutional validity of the quota,  It said that the quota should be reduced from 16% to 12-13%, as recommended by the State Backward Classes Commission. THE CURRENT DECISION Case name: Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister. The judgment was delivered by a Constitution bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat. The Court said that there were no extraordinary circumstances to grant reservation to Maratha community over and above 50% ceiling. Exceeding the ceiling limit above 50% without exceptional circumstances violates Article 14. The Court further ruled that Gaikwad Commission has not made out a case of existence of extraordinary situ...

A team of researchers from Hyderabad and Ghaziabad has found that, the mutant N440K of the novel coronavirus is 10 to 1,000 times more infectious than certain strains now in circulation. The mutant N440K was first found in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool city. It was first discovered by Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). The N440K was detected in December 2020, by genome sequencing by INSACOG. The new variant has shorter incubation period (the number of days between when you're infected with something and when you might see symptoms) and the progress of the disease is much rapid.  According to the researchers, the N440K variant belongs to the lineage of A2a strain. 

Indian Navy has launched Operation Samudra Setu-II for shipment of Oxygen-filled containers to India. Seven Indian Naval ships viz. Kolkata, Kochi, Talwar, Tabar, Trikand, Jalashwa and Airavat have been deployed for shipment of liquid medical oxygen-filled cryogenic containers and associated medical equipment from various countries. Two ships, the INS Kolkata and INS Talwar, have entered the Port of Manama, Bahrain, to carry back 40 tonnes of liquid oxygen to Mumbai. The INS Jalashwa is enroute to Bangkok while the INS Airavat is on its way to Singapore on similar missions Operation Samudra Setu was launched in May 2020 as part of the national effort to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

A malaria vaccine has proved to be 77% effective in early trials. It could be a major breakthrough against the disease, says the University of Oxford team behind it. Despite many vaccines being trialled over the years, this is the first to meet the required target. The most effective malaria vaccine to date had only shown 55% efficacy in trials on African children. THE VACCINE R21/Matrix M is a modified version of RTS, S. It has been developed by scientists at University of Oxford, the same  location where the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine was developed. They’ have been working on this version for almost 6-7 years now. This vaccine was produced in the Serum Institute of India.