Memorize Current Affairs for UPSC 18 november 2020

India-Kazakhstan

NEWS :

• India-Kazakhstan sign Memorandum of Understanding.
• The countries signed the “Indian Grant Assistance for Implementation of High Impact Community Projects in Kazakhstan”.
• The consultations covered economic, political, defense, energy, space, cultural matters.
• The countries shared their experiences in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The countries also agreed to enhance their cooperation in multilateral forums including the forthcoming term of India as a member of the United Nations Security Council for the period 2021-22.

Team Halo

NEWS :

• United Nations launches “Team Halo” to counter misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines.
• Under the initiative, the scientists will create social-media friendly videos on COVID-19 vaccine science based on their personal experiences.
• Team Halo will act as a communication platform.
• Over 22 Indian scientists are part of the initiative.

United Nations launches Food Coalition

NEWS :

• The United Nations has created a new alliance to prevent the COVID-19 food crisis.
• It was proposed by Italy and led by Food and Agriculture Organization.

BRICS countries

NEWS :

• During the 12th BRICS Summit, the members adopted a counter-terrorism strategy.

Reciprocal Access Agreement

NEWS :

• Japan and Australia signed the “Reciprocal Access Agreement” to counter the growing influence of China in the South China Sea and in the Pacific Island Nations.
• This is the first agreement of Japan to allow foreign military presence in its sovereign territory since 1960.
• It signed the Status of Forces Agreement with the US in 1960 and with Djibouti in 2009.
• The agreement will pave the way to renew the Japan-US Status of Forces Agreement.

Chapare Virus

NEWS :

• The United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have discovered that the Chapare Virus is capable of human to human transmission.
• The Chapare virus was discovered first in 2004 in Bolivia.
• Chapare is the region in La Paz (capital of Bolivia).
• In the previous outbreaks, there were no signs of human to human transmission. It is the recent 2020 outbreak that has shown that human to human transmission is possible in the Chapare virus.

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Param Siddhi

NEWS :

• Param Siddhi has secured rank 63 in TOP 500 most powerful non-distributed computer system list in the world.
• It was jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Science and Technology. The supercomputer has a speed of 5.267 petaflops.

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World Economic Forum

NEWS :

• The World Economic Forum selected 36 cities from 22 countries for pioneering a policy road map for smart cities.
• Of the 36 cities selected, four are Indian cities.
• The four Indian cities selected are Bengaluru, Faridabad, Indore, and Hyderabad.

Microwave Weapons

NEWS :

• Recently social media was all about the use of “microwave weapons” by the Chinese Army.
• Microwave weapons are direct energy weapons. They deliver energy in a highly focused form such as laser, sonic, or microwaves at the target.