PRELIMS CURRENT

AFFAIRS
18TH OCTOBER 2018
✤ Channar Revolt

✤ Index of Autonomy

✤ Global Public Health Emergency

✤ GSLV Mk III
 HISTORY
& CULTURE
Sabarimala Issue

✤ Lord Ayyappan : Presiding deity

✤ Entry of women aged between 10 to 50 is denied

✤ Ayyappan worshiped as celibate and pilgrims

expected to practice celibacy and abstinence during
the 41 day vratam

✤ The pilgrimage accommodates all devotees

irrespective of religion and caste
Channar Revolt

✤ A.k.a Marumarakkal Samaram or Channar Lahala

✤ Began in 19th C, when women from Channar caste

(now Nadar) who had converted to Christianity
sought to cover their breasts, a right only Hindu
upper caste women were allowed to exercise
SOCIETY
Index of Autonomy
✤ Rachel Heath and Xu Tan of Washington University

✤ Women’s participation in household decision-making and

mobility tend to be higher in families with daughters

✤ A mother cares more about her daughter’s consumption

than her husband does

✤ This difference in preferences prompts women to exert

greater control over household income and join workforce

✤ Having a daughter generally increases the probability of

mothers working outside their homes and increases
likelihood of mothers taking up high-paying jobs
✤ Costs Involved

✤ Increased autonomy doesn’t necessarily improve

overall well-being of women

✤ If a woman knows her husband is unlikely to spend

on their daughters, they may decrease their own
consumption to ensure that resources are devoted to
daughters

✤ Conflicts at home

✤ Social norms that stigmatise working women

Polity and International
Relations
Justice Verma Committee
✤ Rape : Recommended retention of gradation of sexual offences in IPC 1860

✤ Any non-consensual penetration of a sexual nature should be included in the

definition of rape. 

✤ Didn’t recommend death for rapists but rigorous imprisonment

✤ Sexual Harassment

✤ Domestic workers be included

✤ Trafficking : Criminalising trafficking by threat, force or inducement and also

employment of a trafficked person

✤ Police Reforms

✤ Est. State Security Commissions to ensure insulation of police from state gov

✤ Police Establishment Board to decide transfers, postings and promotions

ECONOMY
Global Competitiveness Index
✤ Released by WEF

✤ India’s rank improved by 5 places, reaches 58

✤ largest gain amongst G 20 economies

✤ It assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels

of prosperity to their citizens

✤ This depends on how productively a country uses

available resources
HEALTH
Global Public Health Emergency
✤ An occurrence or imminent threat of an illness or health condition, caused
by bio terrorism, epidemic or pandemic disease or novel and highly
infectious agent of biological toxin, that poses substantial risk of

✤ a significant number of human facilities or

✤ permanent of long term disability

✤ Declared by WHO

✤ First time in 2009 due to the spread of Swine Flu

✤ Polio resurgence in 2014

✤ Ebola Outbreak in 2014 in Western Africa

✤ Zika virus Outbreak in 2016

Terms
✤ Outbreak

✤ Occurrence of disease cases in excess of normal expectancy —

number of cases varies according to disease-causing agent,
size and type of previous and existing exposure to agent

✤ May affect a small and localised group or impact upon

thousands of people across an entire continent

✤ Epidemics : type of Outbreak

✤ Used for infectious diseases, as well as diseases with an

environmental origin, such as a water of food borne disease

✤ Pandemics : An epidemic that has a near-global presence

TECHNOLOGY
GSLV Mk III

✤ Three-stage heavy lift vehicle developed

by ISRO

✤ 2 solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster

and cryogenic upper stage

✤ Liquid stage uses Vikas Engines

✤ Carry loads of about 10 tons to LEO and

4 tons to GTO
Gaganyaan

✤ India plans to send 3 humans in space for 7 days

before 2022

✤ It will be placed in Low Earth Orbit of 300-400 km

✤ If India does launch it, it would be the fourth nation to

do so after US, Russia and China

✤ It will enhance S&T, improve industrial growth,

development of technology for social benefits