Bilateral Relations
3^rd India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue + about US- India relations) + Mains ( GS II bilateral relations)
What's the NEWS

• US State Secretary Mike Pompeo, Defence Chief Mark Esper to Visit India For 2+2 Talks on Oct 26-27
• The 2+2 ministerial meeting of the top foreign affairs and defence leaders of the India and the US in New Delhi next week will discuss the threats from China.

India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue (3RD edition) - highlights

• India will be hosting the third India-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue on October 27 in the national capital.
• US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark T Esper will be visiting India on October 26-27 to participate in the dialogue.
• From the Indian side, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will lead the delegations.
• The first two 2+2 Ministerial dialogues were held in New Delhi in September 2018 and in Washington DC in 2019.
• The 2+2 comes even as both countries are increasing engagement amid the growing Chinese aggressiveness. Both countries are part of the Quad grouping of countries which include Australia and Japan.

The Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA)

• The BECA deal is the third foundational agreement to be signed between India and the US after the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement and the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
• The signing of BECA and the follow-up arrangements between the sides will allow India to use American inputs on geospatial intelligence and to enhance military accuracy of automated hardware systems and weapons like cruise, ballistic missiles and drones.

India - US relation - highlights

• India and the US have been working very closely in the field of defence and security as India has acquired equipment worth around USD 20 billion from there in the last 15 years including the C-17 Globemasters and the C-130J Super Hercules Special Operations transport aircraft which have become the mainstays of the Indian Air Force`s heavy-lift fleet.
• In the field of choppers also, the American Chinook heavy-lift and Apache attack helicopters have come as force multipliers for the armed forces.
• The Army is also using the Ultra Light Howitzers from the US while the Navy has also recently opted for the American MH-60 Romeo anti-submarine warfare multirole choppers for its requirements.
• The two sides are also going to hold regular military exercises with the Army set to hold the `Yudh Abhyas` and `Vajra Prahar` with American troops early next year while the Navy is going to take part in the Malabar series exercise in November in the Indian Ocean with the Australian and Japanese Navies also set to participate.

Prelims Factoids
COVIRAP

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

• Low-cost, easy to conduct': IIT-Kharagpur's Covid test gets ICMR approval
• After rigorous testing with patient samples by an authorised ICMR laboratory, in adherence with the council's strict guidelines, it has granted certification for the Covid-19 diagnostic test,

Know! all about COVIRAP

• ‘COVIRAP' is a diagnostic machine developed by IIT Kharagpur researchers.
• A diagnostic machine to carry out tests to detect coronavirus infection, developed by researchers from IIT-Kharagpur - COVIRAP - has received approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The test has been validated for its efficacy in Covid-19 detection by the ICMR.
• The test is fairly easy to conduct, affordable and can produce results within one hour.
• The test can also detect extremely low levels of viral loads, thus diagnosing the infection in very early stages
• This new testing method implements a highly reliable and accurate molecular diagnostic procedure, conducted in an ultra low-cost portable device unit, said Tewari. The test costs only Rs 500
• After rigorous testing with patient samples by an authorised ICMR laboratory, in adherence with the council's strict guidelines, it has granted certification for the Covid-19 diagnostic test
• This technology is set to replace RT-PCR-based tests to a large extent
• The patented machine unit has not only been proven to be robust during patient sample testing, but also extremely flexible and generic.
• This means that other than Covid-19 testing, many other tests that fall under the category of ‘isothermal nucleic acid-based tests' (INAT), can be performed in the same machine.

Defence
India's anti-tank missile Nag test-fired in Pokhran, ready for Ladakh deployment

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Nag anti-tank missile )
What's the NEWS

• The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully completed the final trial of Nag anti-tank missile using a live warhead on a dud tank at Pokhran army ranges
• The shoulder launched four-kilometre range missile with imaging infrared seeker will now be inducted in Indian Army.

Stand-off Anti-Tank Missile (SANT)

• The Nag trial comes after the DRDO tested the helicopter launched Stand-off Anti-Tank Missile (SANT) with beyond 10 km range from Balasore testing range in Odisha
• Although the missile will ultimately integrated with attack helicopters in future, the test was conducted from ground and was successful.

Nag anti-tank missile and recent missile tested by DRDO

• The Nag anti-tank missile is now ready for induction at locations such as the East Ladakh sector as it has completed 10 successful user trial with the weapon finding and then hitting the target.
• The DRDO has been on a missile testing spree for a little over a month with only the 1,000 km range sub-sonic cruise missile Nirbhay, developing a snag during a test earlier this month.
• The missile is now expected to test fired in the coming months as the technical snag in the booster has been identified and rectified by the missile team.

Know! the benefits of having anti-tank missile

• The final trial of Nag anti-tank missile means that the Indian Army will no longer have to import this weapon from either Israel or the US for the range of four kilometres.
• It was due to unavailability of a credible anti-tank weapon, that India had to buy around 200 pieces of Spike anti-tank missiles from Israel as emergency purchases after the aggression by People's Liberation Army in Ladakh.

Space Awareness
NASA's OSIRIS-REx

Relevance IN - Prelims( about NASA's OSIRIS-REx )
What's the NEWS

• NASA's OSIRIS-REx - Origins, - Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer - spacecraft briefly touched asteroid Bennu, from where it is meant to collect samples of dust and pebbles and deliver them back to Earth in 2023.
• The asteroid was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
• Scientists are interested in analyzing the composition of the asteroids in the solar system because they are made of the same materials that formed the planets.

Know! more about the mission

• This is NASA's first mission meant to return a sample from the ancient asteroid.
• The mission is essentially a seven-year-long voyage and will conclude when at least 60 grams of samples are delivered back to the Earth.
• The mission was launched in 2016, it reached its target in 2018 and since then, the spacecraft has been trying to match the velocity of the asteroid using small rocket thrusters to rendezvous it.
• The spacecraft's robotic arm called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), made an attempt to "TAG" the asteroid at a sample site which was no bigger than a few parking spaces and collected a sample.
• The spacecraft contains five instruments meant to explore Bennu including cameras, a spectrometer and a laser altimeter. The departure window for the mission will open up in 2021, after which it will take over two years to reach back to Earth.

Know! about Asteroids

• Asteroids are rocky objects that orbit the Sun, much smaller than planets.
• They are also called minor planets. According to NASA, 994,383 is the count of known asteroids, the remnants from the formation of the solar system over 4.6 billion years ago.
• Asteroids are divided into three classes. First, those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
• The second group is that of trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet. NASA reports the presence of Jupiter, Neptune and Mars trojans. In 2011, they reported an Earth trojan as well.
• The third classification is Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA), which have orbits that pass close by the Earth. Those that cross the Earth's orbit are called Earth-crossers.

Know! about Asteroid Bennu

• Bennu is an asteroid about as tall as the Empire State Building and located at a distance of about 200 million miles away from the Earth.
• Scientists study asteroids to look for information about the formation and history of planets and the sun since asteroids were formed at the same time as other objects in the solar system.
• Another reason for tracking them is to look for asteroids that might be potentially hazardous.

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