PRELIMS CURRENT

AFFAIRS
3RD OCTOBER 2018
Questions from Previous Video
 Overview

• Geography of Israel

• NHAI

• Soil Moisture Map

• Exposure to Cosmic Radiations

MENTORSHIP
PROGRAMME
GEOGRAPHY
 Israel
• Golan Heights is a basaltic
plateau

• Sea of Galilee

• Mount Meron is highest point of

Israel

• Dead Sea : Earth’s lowest

elevation on land.
 POLITY &
INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
 NHAI
• Autonomous entity set up by an Act of Parliament under
the MoRTH

• Mandated to implement National Highways

Development Project (NHDP)

• Generates revenue through allocation of fuel cess,

budgetary resources, project revenues and through the
issue of capital market bonds

• It is biggest customer of IL&FS and a debtor as well

 International Solar Alliance
• Alliance of more than 121 countries, most of them being sunshine countries
(Suryaputras), which lie either completely or partly between Tropic of Cancer
and Tropic of Capricorn

• Objective : Efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil

fuels

• Aim : To mobilise more than $1 tn investment by 2030 for deployment of

minimum 1000 GW solar energy

• 44 countries have signed and ratified the framework

• Founded at Paris (France), framework agreement opened for signature during

CoP-22 in Marrakech (Morocco) and Headquarters at Gurugram (India)
ECONOMY
National Financial Reporting Authority
• Body proposed in Companies Act 2013 for establishment
and enforcement of accounting and auditing standards

• Independent regulator overseeing the auditing

profession

• Composition : Chairman + 3 Members

• Jurisdiction : Investigation of listed companies and large

unlisted public companies (Threshold to be decided)
AGRICULTURE
 Soil Moisture Map
• Prepared by IIT Gandhinagar and IMD, will predict the moisture
content in soil before the sowing season

• Based on ‘Variable Infiltration Capacity’ model

• Takes into account soil, vegetation, land use and land cover etc.

• Timely soil moisture forecasts will help target interventions, in

terms of seed varieties for better planning in agriculture

• Deficit moisture in : GJ, BH, JH, TN & southern AP

• Normal/Surplus : UP, Bundelkhand, CG

ENVIRONMENT
 Death of Lions
• Canine Distemper : contagious and serious disease
caused by a virus that attacks the respiratory,
gastrointestinal and nervous systems

• It can spread through airborne exposure

• Babesiosis : Tick-borne disease caused by parasites that

infect RBCs

• Ovine Rinderpest ( : contagious disease caused by

Morbillivirus. Does not infect humans
TECHNOLOGY
 Nobel in Physics
• Donna Strickland, Gérard Mourou and Arthur Ashkin

• Optical Tweezers : used for isolating and examining

very small particles, such as individual atoms, DNA
strands or biological cells

• Light beam produced by a laser have single frequency

(colour) and high intensity, thereby high power

• Laser is a device and not a beam itself

Long Exposure to Cosmic Radiations

• Heavy ions such as iron and silicon are damaging because of their
greater mass compared to non-mass photons such as x-rays and
gamma-rays on earth and low mass protons in outer space

• Ill-Effects

• damage to astronauts brains

• premature ageing

• GI tract’s renewal and replacement may get disturbed —

malfunctioning of physiologic processes such as nutrient
absorption and starts pathogenic processes such as cancer
 International Space Station
• A habitable artificial satellite in Low Earth Orbit

• It is the largest human-made body in low Earth

orbit and can be seen with naked eye

• Joint project among NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA,

ESA and CSA
QUICK BITES
 Effect of a Trauma
• Abused Children may carry the physical hallmark of that trauma
and it can even be passed on to generations

• The effect of trauma indelibly printed in regions of DNA of those

men who had experienced varying levels of emotional, physical or
sexual abuse

• Alterations are called methylations — could one day be used by

investigators

• Epigenetics : Study of changes in organisms caused by modification

of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself
 Champions of the Earth Award
• Awarded to Narendra Modi under the leadership
category in context of ISA and for his pledge to
eliminate all single-use plastic in India by 2022

• UN’s highest environmental honour awarded to

outstanding leaders from government, civil society
and private sector whose actions had a positive
effect on environment