# India-US ties

• Democratic values and free citizenry bind India and the US together, said US secretary of state Antony Blinken.

• The two sides discussed cooperation on a wide range of issues, including Afghanistan, countering covid-19, the indo-pacific strategy and the Quad.

• Antony Blinken also met National security advisor Ajit Doval and Prime minister Narendra Modi.

# National education policy

• On the first anniversary of the National education policy (NEP) on thursday, the centre plans to officially roll out  some initiatives promised in the policy.

• It includes credit transfer system that will allow multiple entry and exit options in higher education.

• Other reform includes higher education as well as engineering programmes in regional languages.

• However, other promised reforms such as the Higher education commission of India (HECI), the four year undergraduate degree and the common university entrance test, are not ready yet.

# Chandrayaan-3

• The chandrayaan-3 mission is likely to be launched late next year, minister of state for space Jitendra singh said.

• Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during the third quarter of 2022.

• The chandrayaan-2 mission, launched in july 2019, was scheduled to be an effort aimed at landing a rover on the lunar south pole.

# Seroprevalence

• Madhya pradesh has the highest seroprevalence, or the presence of antibodies to the novel coronavirus.

• Kerela has the lowest seroprevalence at 44% among the 21 states studied.

• This is the fourth national serology survey of the Indian council of medical research (ICMR).

• Madhya pradesh has a seroprevalence of 79%, followed by Rajasthan (76%) and Bihar (75%).

# Deposit insurance

• Depositors in ailing banks such as PMC bank may get some relief soon.

• The cabinet on wednesday cleared amendments to the deposit insurance law to return upto 5 lakh rupees savings within 90 days.