# Mount Everest

• Nepal and China jointly announced the new height of mount everest at 8848.86 metres in a high profile virtual ceremony.

• This high profile virtual ceremony was conducted with presidents of China and Nepal exchanging letter and the foreign ministers in attendance.

• Mount Everest is known as Sagarmatha in Nepal and mount Qomolangma in China.

• The last survey was by the survey of India, which measured the height of Mount Everest at 8848 metres.

# Chennai-Salem highway

• The supreme court on tuesday gave the green signal for National highway authority of India and the union government to acquire land for the 277.3 KM long chennai-krishnagiri–salem national highway project.

• The supreme court gave the green signal saying “national highways are the arteries of India’s economy”.

• The eight lane highway (NH179A and NH179B) is a part of the first phase of the “Bharatmala pariyojana” project, which stretches across 24,800 km and has an estimated outlay of 5.35 lakh crore rupees, to improve the efficiency of freight and passenger movement.

# Covid19 vaccines

• The union health ministry on Tuesday said “some of the covid-19 vaccine candidates may receive license in the next few weeks.

• India’s regulatory framework has a specific provision for the grant of Emergency use authorisation under the new drugs and clinical trial rule,2019.

• The preparatory activities for the vaccine roll out being carried out by the central government in collabaration with the states and UTs.

# Unspecified disease in Eluru, AP

• Officials of the AIIMS, The national institute of nutrition (NIN) and other teams found the presence of nickel and lead elements in blood samples collected from patients in the Eluru government general hospital.

• The presence of nickel and lead chemicals in blood samples may affect the neurological system.

# Religious freedom

• The United states has designated pakistan and china among other countries that are of particular concern for violation of religious freedom.

• These countries include Pakistan, china along with myanmar, eriteria, iran, nigeria, north korea, south africa, tajikistan and turkmenistan.

# Srilanka-China relations

• Srilanka announced on tuesday the first large scale chinese investment in manufacturing in the country.

• It is a $300 milion tyre factory near a strategic deep sea port.

• The factory will be adjacent to the Hambantota port, which was leased to a chinese company in 2017 after srilanka failed to service the $1.4 billion debt from Beijing used to built it.

# Today in India’s history

• 1484 – Surdas (1484-1563), blind hindi bard and singer of agra whose hymns to krishna are compiled in the “sursagar”, was born in sihi village near delhi.

• 1946 – The first meeting of constitutional committee was held in parliament.