• India and European Union have renewed its Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation for the next five years (2020-2025).
• The Agreement was initially signed in on 23 November 2001 and renewed two times in past in 2007 and 2015.

• Cooperative activities may take the forms of reciprocal participation of Indian research and European research entities in research, technological development, and demonstration projects under each other programme.
• India & the European Union agreed to renew the Agreement on Scientific cooperation for the next five years, 2020-2025, at the 15th India-EU Summit
• The cooperation has been focused on water, green transport, e-mobility, clean energy, circular economy, bio-economy, health, and ICT.
• Additional areas, such as climate change, sustainable urban development, manufacturing, advanced materials, nanotechnologies and biotechnology, food processing, and ocean research may also be considered in future endeavours.
• The EU-India cooperation should also foster innovation by promoting networking between EU and Indian innovators, start-ups, incubators, and accelerators, by setting up joint platforms, both offline and virtual, and engaging in coaching, training and staff exchanges.
• The mobility of researchers and innovators would be promoted in both directions.

• The 15th Summit between India and the European Union (EU) was held in virtual format on 15th July 2020.
• Leaders welcomed active people-to-people exchanges including among students, researchers, professionals, business persons & tourists as part of the implementation of the Joint Declaration on Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM).
• They noted the progress under the High Level Dialogue on Migration and Mobility (HLDMM) to streamline the movement of people in both directions in line with applicable migration and mobility rules.
• The leaders adopted the "India-EU Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025" to guide cooperation between India and the EU over the next five years.

• They welcomed the signing of the India-EURATOM Agreement on research and development cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
• They also adopted a Joint Declaration on Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy and welcomed the upcoming renewal of the India-EU Science and Technology Agreement for another five years.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about high throughput COVID-19 testing facilities)
What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister launched high throughput COVID-19 testing facilities on 27th July via video conferencing.
• These facilities will ramp up testing capacity in the country and help in strengthening early detection and treatment, thus assisting in controlling the spread of the pandemic.

Know! about the High-throughput testing facilities

• These three high-throughput testing facilities have been set up strategically at ICMR-National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; ICMR-National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai; and ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, and will be able to test over 10,000 samples in a day.
• These labs will also reduce turn-around-time and exposure of lab personnel to infectious clinical materials.
• The labs are enabled to test diseases other than COVID as well, and post the pandemic, will be able to test for Hepatitis B and C, HIV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cytomegalovirus, Chlamydia, Neisseria, Dengue, etc.

Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
Bihad area of Gwalior-Chambal region
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Bihad area in Gwalior - Chambal region + about Chambal ravines)
What's the NEWS

• The Centre, in collaboration with the World Bank, has decided to convert large area of ravines in Gwalior-Chambal belt of Madhya Pradesh into arable land
• The Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers held a meeting with the representatives of World Bank
• During this meeting it was decided that the substantive project would be prepared in collaboration and support from World Bank to accomplish the integrated development of the Bihad area in Gwalior - Chambal region.

Know! about Chambal ravines

• The rivers are full of energy and actively erode in their initial phases and progressively become passive as they attain their base levels( ie usually the sea level).
• But sometimes, due to tectonic movements the base level may be lowered further thus energising the river and re activating the erosion. This is known as River Rejuvenation.
• In case of Chambal river and it's many tributaries, river rejuvenation occurred not once or twice but multiple times.
• This along with the aforementioned climatic factors and the soil texture helped in creating a vast network of ravines in the Chambal river basin in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Know! about Chambal river

• The Chambal is the chief tributary of the Yamuna River and rises in the Vindhya Range just south of Mhow, western Madhya Pradesh state.
• From its source it flows north into southeastern Rajasthan state. Turning northeast, it flows past Kota and along the Rajasthan-Madhya Pradesh border; shifting east-southeast, it forms a portion of the Uttar Pradesh-Madhya Pradesh border and flows through Uttar Pradesh to empty into the Yamuna after a 550-mile (900-km) course.
• The Banas, Kali Sindh, Sipra, and Parbati are its chief tributaries.
• The Chambal's lower course is lined by a 10-mile (16-km) belt of badland gullies resulting from accelerated soil erosion and is the site of a major project in soil conservation

Prelims Factoids
Haryana to host the 4th edition of Khelo India Youth Games

Relevance IN - Prelims about khelo India Youth games)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and Haryana Chief Minister announced Haryana as the host state for the fourth edition of Khelo India Youth Games , which is currently scheduled to take place after Tokyo Olympics.
• The Games will be held in Panchkula in Haryana.
• Khelo India Games, envisioned by Prime Minister, has been instrumental in identifying grassroot level talent from across the country, who have represented India in international sporting events.

Know! about Khelo India Youth Games

• Khelo India Youth Games, earlier known as Khelo India School Games is held annually in January or February.
• The national-level grassroots games in India are held for two categories, under 21 college students, and under 17-year-old school students.
• The ministry of sports conducts school level, college level and university level programmes.
• In the games, every year 1000 best kids are given an annual scholarship of Rs. 5,00,000 for the time period of 8 years in order to prepare them for the international sporting event.
• On 31 January 2018, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, inaugurated Khelo India School Games and from the 2019 events, Khelo India School Games were renamed to Khelo India Youth Games after Indian Olympic Association came on board earlier in September 2018.
• The second edition of the event was kicked off in Pune (2019)
• The third edition was held in Guwahati, Assam (2020)
• On 22 February 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first edition of the Khelo India University Games in Cuttack to give athletes the exposure of multi-disciplinary events at the university level.

Training of Trainers (TOT) Programme

• The Training of Trainers (TOT) Programme will be held in December 2018- January 2019 in the first phase. Here total of 160 trainers will be trained in 4 batches of 40 each in December-January period.
• This TOT Programme will be carried out semi-annually or quarterly to include all the interested teachers, principals, vice-principals and physical education trainers.

Prelims Factoids
National Transit Pass System
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about National Transit Pass System (NTPS)
What's the NEWS

• Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar t virtually launched piloting of the National Transit Pass System

Know! about National Transit Pass System (NTPS)

• The National Transit Pass System enhances seamless movement of forest produce.
• Now, people can apply for Passes from their mobile phones as well as receive e passes in their mobile phones.
• It will make the process of getting permits faster and without physically going to" forest department offices.
• The pilot project will be functional in Madhya Pradesh and Telangana for now.
• NTPS will bring ease of business and expedite issuance of transit permits for timber, bamboo and other minor forest produce without physically going to forest offices.
• NTPS will replace manual paper-based transit system by online transit system and will bring in one permit for whole India for transit of timber, bamboo and other minor forest produce for ease of doing business
• Transit of timber, bamboo and other forest produce is governed by various state specific acts and rules.
• National Transit Pass System generates Pan India Transit Passes facilitating seamless movement of forest produce across India
• NTPS will ensure seamless movement of forest produce across all states thereby resulting in enhancing the income of rural people and also facilitating the ease of doing business in the country

Space Awareness
Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths (ASTHROS)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ASTHROS)
What's the NEWS

• NASA has started work on a new mission to send a telescope, on a football stadium-sized balloon, high into the stratosphere to observe wavelengths of light invisible from the Earth.
• The mission will try to find answers about formation of giant stars in the galaxy.

Know! all about ASTHROS

• The telescope mission called Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observations at Submillimeter-wavelengths (ASTHROS) is likely to be launched in December 2023 from Antarctica.
• It will spend about three weeks drifting on air currents above the icy southern continent
• Managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, ASTHROS will observe far-infrared light, or light with wavelengths much longer than what is visible to the human eye at an altitude of about 130,000 feet (40 km) roughly four times higher than commercial airliners fly.
• The balloon included a telescope, science instruments, and subsystems such as the cooling and electronic systems.
• ASTHROS will carry an instrument to measure the motion and speed of gas around newly-formed stars.
• During the flight, the mission will study four main targets, including two star-forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy.
• It will also for the first time detect and map the presence of two specific types of nitrogen ions which can reveal places where winds from massive stars and supernova explosions have reshaped the gas clouds.
• ASTHROS will make the first detailed 3D maps of the density, speed, and motion of gas in these regions to gain insight into how stellar feedback works. Stellar feedback provides information about the formation of a star.
• NASA expects the balloon will complete two or three loops around the South Pole in about 21 to 28 days, carried by prevailing stratospheric winds. Once the mission is complete, flight termination commands will separate the gondola, and the connected parachute will bring it back to the Earth's surface.

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