PRELIMS CURRENT

AFFAIRS
16TH OCTOBER 2018
 Overview

✤ Sir Syed Ahmed Khan

✤ Human Capital Index

✤ India Energy Forum

✤ Data Mirroring
MENTORSHIP
PROGRAMME
HISTORY & CULTURE
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan
✤ Established Gulshan School at Muradabad, Victoria
School at Ghazipur, Scientific Society for Muslims in
1864 Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in 1877

✤ Published Tahzibul Akhlaq and Aligarh Institute

Gazette

✤ He never took interest in concept of pan-Islamism

SOCIETY
Human Capital Index
✤ Released by World Bank

✤ India ranks 115, lower than Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh

✤ Findings

✤ Indians born today are likely to be just 44% productive as workers, way
below their Asian peers

✤ Poor investment in human capital puts a threat on productivity of India’s

future workforce — half of what Singapore citizens will achieve

✤ Only 96% of Indians born will have the probability to survive to age 5 —
India struggling to control infant mortality

✤ Indian children not learning enough in schools — Actual expected years of

school is 5.8 years

✤ 38% of kids at risk of cognitive and physical limitations that can last a lifetime
Polity and International
Relations
NIA
✤ Statutory body, that functions as the Central Counter Terrorism Law
Enforcement Agency in India

✤ It was created in the wake of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks

✤ NIA Act extends to whole of India and also applies to citizens of India
outside India

✤ Scheduled Acts

✤ Atomic Energy Act, 1962

✤ UAPA, 1967

✤ Anti-Hijacking Act, 1982

✤ SAARC Convention Act, 1993

India Energy Forum
✤ Only Indian Organisation which represents energy
sector as a whole

✤ It has acquired a unique status as a spokesperson of

total energy sector

✤ It was established in October 2001

✤ Most major public and private sector organisations in

Power, Oil and Gas, Coal and Renewable Energy have
become its members — NTPC, NHPC, Indian Oil, Tata
Power etc.
ECONOMY
Short Selling
✤ Short seller is a trader who believes that a stock will fall. He borrows
stocks and sells them hoping to buy back at a lower price

✤ Thus stocks are returned to the lender and he keeps the profits

✤ In cash market borrowed share can be held on intra-day basis

✤ In futures and options market, it can be held for as long as 12 months

✤ SEBI allows retail and institutional investors to participate in short

selling and even exchanges facilitate these transactions

✤ Problem : Loss of a company is short seller’s gain, they are perceived as

villains who want to destroy the company

✤ But, it gives liquidity to markets by keeping valuation of stocks in check

Bharat Net

✤ Provide minimum 100 Mbps broadband connectivity

to 2.5 lac Gram panchayats

✤ WB Study : 10% increase in broadband connectivity

leads to 1/38% increase in GDP

✤ Broadband penetration in India at present is < 2%

✤ Project is funded by Universal Service Obligation

Fund (USOF)
ENVIRONMENT
Effects of 2 degree Rise
✤ 18% insects, 16% plants and 8% vertebrates would lose more than half of their
habitat

✤ It would wipe out more than 99% of corals

✤ Tropical regions, including parts of India, could experience the biggest increase in
number of ‘highly unusual’ hot days

✤ Crop yields expected to drop significantly, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa,

Southeast Asia, and Central, South America

✤ Additional 10 cm of sea-level rise could hurt livelihoods of more than 10 mn

people living on coast

✤ Thawing of 1.5-2.5 mn Km2 of permafrost (about size of Mexico)

✤ Positives

✤ Benefit Arctic fisheries

TECHNOLOGY
Data Mirroring

✤ Refers to real-time operation of copying data, as an

exact copy, from one location to a local or remote
storage medium

✤ It is used when multiple exact copies of data are

required in multiple locations
QUICK BIES
Proton Pump Inhibitors

✤ It reduces the production of acid by blocking the

enzyme in the wall of the stomach that produces acid