# Oxford vaccine candidate

• Pharma major Astrazeneca which is working on COVID-19 vaccine in association with oxford university has said that its vaccine could be as much as 90% effective.

• It is an important development for India as the serum institute of India (a pune based vaccine producer) had signed a major contract with the Astrazeneca to produce this vaccine which will be partly available to India and partly being exported.

• It is better option for India as it is cheaper to make, easier to distribute, faster to scale up its production than many other foreign vaccine candidates.

# RBI working group proposals

• The proposal of RBI working group to allow corporate houses to set up banks has been criticised by former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and ex deputy governor viral Acharya.

• The main point raised by them is that – “how can the bank make good loans when it is owned by the borrower? It is not the best way to stop bad lending by banks.

# Illegal strike

• A bill titled “The odisha essential services (maintenance) Amendment bill,2020 which sought amendment to odisha Essential services (maintenance) act,1988. This bill is passed by the odisha state assembly.

• As per the new provision, it was proposed to impose penalty against an individual who expends or supplies any money in furtherance of or in support of strike which is illegal under this act, making such offense punishable with imprisonment or with fine or both.

# India-Nepal relations

• India’s foreign secretary Harsh shringla wiil pay an official visit to Kathmandu on november 26 and 27.

• This visit is in the backdrop of months of tension and sharpened rhetoric between India and Nepal over disputed maps published by Nepal.

# India and Gulf nations relations

• In a significant outreach to the Gulf states amid the COVID-19 pandemic, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar will leave for Bahrain and UAE on 24th november on a five day trip. He will also visit Seychelles.

• Mr. jaishankar will begin his tour by paying a condolence visit to the Bahrain government for the death of prime minister, Prince khalifa bin salman, al khalifa, who passed away this month.

• After that, he will visit UAE and meet his counterpart Sheikh abdullah bin zayed al nahyan. The topic of discussion would be cooperation on post covid-19 recovery and in particular, the future of mere than 3.3 million indian expariates there.

• His visit to the Seychelles comes weeks after election in the Indian ocean region (IOR) island, where opposition leader Wavel Ramkalawan defeated incumbent president Danny Faure. Mr Kalawan is of Indian origin and has been opposed to the 2015, India-Seychelles naval agreement to build facilities on Assumption island. His election may halt this project.

# Smartphone exports

• India is expected to export 1.5 billion dollar worth of smartphones this year to various countries including the UAE, US and Russia – accirding to a report by research firm Techarc.

# Today in India’s history

• 24 november 1932 – The Third round table conference ended in London. As gandhiji was in prison because of his civil disobedience movement he could not attend it. This conference ended without achieving anything.

• 24 november 1941 – Attack on pearl harbour(an US navy base in pacific ocean) by the japanese imperial army.

• 24 november 1969 – Guru Nanak university established at Amritsar, Punjab.