3rd FEBRUARY 2026 ENGLISH TNPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS PDF TNPSC SHOUTERS
Trump approves trade agreement with India
- Following reports from the US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, that Trump had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the phone, Trump approved the trade agreement. Trump also stated that he would reduce the 25 percent tariff imposed on Indian goods to 18 percent.
- I discussed various issues with him, including trade and a solution to the Russia-Ukraine war. At that time, Modi agreed to stop importing Russian crude oil and import larger quantities of crude oil from the United States and Venezuela.
- Due to my friendship and respect for Prime Minister Modi, and at his request, I approved the US-India trade agreement. As a result, the 25 percent tariff imposed on Indian goods is being reduced to 18 percent. This comes into effect immediately.
- Following this, I expect India to agree to reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers against the United States to zero.
- While India has already decided to increase trade with the US in various sectors including energy, technology, agriculture, and coal to $500 billion, Prime Minister Modi agreed to further increase the import of American goods.
- Tamil Nadu climate scientist Veerabhadran Ramanathan (82) has been awarded the prestigious 'Crafoord Prize' for his research in earth sciences in the United States. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the Nobel Prize, announced this award.
- The Crafoord Prize, considered the ‘Nobel Prize’ for Earth sciences, has been announced in recognition of Ramanathan's years of research on factors that warm the Earth more severely than carbon dioxide, and on atmospheric brown clouds.
- In 1975, Ramanathan worked at NASA, the US space agency. It was there that he discovered that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) trap heat 10,000 times more effectively than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. His research transformed the understanding of global warming.
- His work on Indian Ocean research revealed the existence of brown clouds in the South Asian atmosphere. This research linked air pollution to changes in monsoon patterns in India and the rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers.
- His work formed the basis for important international agreements, including the Montreal Protocol, which prevents billions of tons of harmful gases from entering the atmosphere.
- Veerabhadran Ramanathan was born in Madurai and raised in Chennai. He studied and earned degrees from Annamalai University and the Indian Institute of Science, and began his professional career as an engineer in a refrigerator factory in Secunderabad, Telangana. It was there that he first encountered CFCs.
- Later, he worked at NASA in the US and is currently an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego. Along with the Crafoord Prize, Ramanathan will receive a cash award of 8 million Swedish kronor (approximately ₹8.25 crore).
