Keywords May 2017

KEYWORDS
MAY 2017
1st MAY 2017
1. SAARC Satellite - GSAT-09

 On GSLV F09.
 12 Ku-band transponders
 For DTH, VSAT, Tele-education, Telemedicine and Disaster Management Support, etc.
 Cloud of secrecy by ISRO -> no live telecast, no media.
2. Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) devices
3. Paris Climate Accord
4. India‘s INDCs
5. Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha
 estuarine crocodiles
6. Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), northern West Bengal
 Six tigers would be relocated here to from neighbouring Assam
 Issue: existence of villages in the core area of the BTR
7. Precision agriculture
8. India-Pakistan Agreements:
(i) Karachi Agreement in March 1951
(ii) Tashkent Declaration in 1966
(iii) Simla Pact in 1972
9. UNMOGIP (UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan).
10. NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group)
11. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
12. Kisan Credit Card scheme
13. e- NAM (e-National Agricultural Market) Scheme
 launched on April 14, 2016
14. Real Estate Regulation and Development Act, 2016
15. Smart fence for LoC
 sensors
 planned for about 700 km
 existing fence called the Anti-Infiltration Obstacle System (AIOS) of concertina wire
 located about 700m from the LoC
16. THAAD anti-missile system
 in South Korea
 by USA
17. Polio virus Type 1, 2, 3
18. Vaccine-Derived Polio-Virus (VDPV) type 2
19. Internet of Things‘ (IoT)
20. Cloud Computing
21. ―Special 301‖ Report of USA
 on IPR (Intellectual Property Rights)
 India under ‗Priority Watch List‘
22. Software as a Service (SaaS)
23. Competition Commission of India (CCI)
24. Special Freight Train Operations Scheme
25. Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT)
26. ―moon village‖
 planned collaboration of Chinese and European Space Agency
 could serve as a launching pad for :
(i) deep space missions (such as one to Mars),
(ii) spot for space tourism
(iii) lunar mining
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2nd MAY 2017
1. Justice C.S. Karnan

 Calcutta High Court Judge
 Contempt of court proceeding by seven judge Supreme Court bench
 First time against a sitting judge
2. Great Indian Bustard
 India‘s most critically endangered bird
 State bird of Rajasthan.
 Its last remnant wild population of about 90 in Rajasthan accounts for 95% of the total world population
 Captive breeding planned
3. North Indian Ocean (NIO)
 consists of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and part of the Indian Ocean up till the 5°S latitude.
 sea levels fell from 1993 to 2003
 sea levels began an unprecedented, accelerated spike from 2004 till 2014
4. Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
 formed in 1967
 for economic growth, social progress, and sociocultural evolution
 Manila summit April 2017
 10 members
 Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Philippines.
5. SpaceX
 private USA-based aerospace company
 headed by billionaire tycoon Elon Musk.
 developed reusable rocket parts
 first military satellite launched by it for USA
6. NROL-76
 military satellite of USA
 made by National Reconnaissance Office, which makes and operates spy satellites for the United States
 launched by SpaceX on Falcon 9 rocket
7. Falcon 9 rocket
 Belongs to SpaceX private aerospace company
 reusable rocket
 first stage of the rocket comes back to Earth and lands upright at Cape Canaveral
8. Information Technology Agreement-I (ITA-I)
 Agreement of WTO
 India signed ITA-I
 certain inputs for IT products were exempted from duties.
9. Fourth Industrial Revolution
 Cyber physical systems
10. Eight core industries
 comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
1. Electricity generation (weight: 10.32%)
2. Steel (Alloy + Non-Alloy) production (weight: 6.68%)
3. Petroleum Refinery Products (93% of Crude Throughput) (weight: 5.94%)
4. Crude Oil production (weight: 5.22 %)
5. Coal production (weight: 4.38 %)
6. Cement production (weight: 2.41%)
7. Natural Gas production (weight: 1.71 %)
8. Fertilizer production (weight: 1.25%)
11. Prime Minister‘s Employment Generation Programme
 Launched in 2008 by Ministry of MSME
 Replaced REGP and PMRY schemes.
 a credit-linked subsidy programme
 through setting up of micro enterprises.
 for creation of employment in both rural and urban area of the country
12. Stents
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 Stents are spring like metal scaffolds used to prop open blocked arteries
 inserted through angioplasty
 price regulation in India in news
 two types:
i. Bare metal
ii. Drug-eluting stents
- polymer coating over mesh that emits a drug which prevents blockage of arteries from recurring
13. 3D printing
 process of making a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many thin
layers of a material in succession.
14. 3D bioprinting
 process of creating cell patterns in a confined space using 3D printing technologies, where cell function and viability
are preserved within the printed construct.
15. stem cells
 undifferentiated cells of a multicellular organism which is capable of giving rise to indefinitely more cells
 they have capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types
 totipotent or pluripotent
 two broad types:
i. embryonic stem cells
ii. adult stem cells
3rd MAY 2017
1. Panchavadyam
 orchestra of five instruments
 temple art form
 evolved in Kerala.
2. Thayambaka
 type of solo chenda
 Chenda is a cylindrical wooden drum.
 developed in Kerala
3. Mizhavu
 big copper drum
 played in the Koodiyattam performing art of Kerala
4. Koodiyattam
 Sanskrit theatre traditionally performed in Kerala.
 officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
 the only surviving specimen of the ancient Sanskrit theatre.
 finds several mentions in ancient sangam literature
5. Koothu
 informal dance structure, which originated in Tamil land.
 performances generally depict scenes from ancient epics like Ramayana, Mahabharatha and other classical epics.
 traditionally no dialogues, instead only songs.
6. ―457‖ visa policy
 of Australia
 scrapped by it
 benefited skilled Indian IT workers
7. Palestine
 Two parties:
Hamas - Gaza Strip
Fatah Party - West Bank
8. Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

 New base year 2011-12
9. National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC)
 launched in 2008
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 public private partnership for promoting skill development
 registered as a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC)
 100% government-funded but accountable to a board that consists of a majority of private sector industry
associations.
10. National Skill Development Fund (NSDF)
 set up in 2009
 to raise funds from both government and non-government entities
 NSDF is required to oversee the work of NSDC
 Board of trustees of the NSDF consists of three members which includes secretary (department of economic affairs)
and the chairman, NSDC
11. Sharada Prasad Committee
 constituted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
 in May 2016
 for Rationalisation and Optimization of the Functioning of the Sector Skill Councils
 Views:
1. skill councils a ‗hotbed of crony capitalism‘ that have tried to ‗extract maximum benefit from public funds.‘
2. instances of conflict of interest in the councils‘ membership base
3. many skill councils have overlapping roles
4. ―All these public funds have been used without serving the two basic objectives of meeting the exact skill
needs of the industry and providing employment to youth.‖
5. lacunae in the governance of the NSDF… NSDF is required to oversee the work of NSDC. How can the
supervisory body consist of head of the supervised body as a member? The Committee feels that this governance
structure compromises with the supervisor role of the NSDF.
Recommendations:
1. scrap all 40 existing skill councils
2. replaced them by just 21 councils in accordance with the national industrial classification of different sectors,
3. review the NSDC‘s role and functioning comprehensively with reference to its Memorandum of Association
4. introduce an oversight mechanism on the NSDC preferably from the central bank
5. Chairman of NSDC should be excluded from NSDF.
4th MAY 2017
1. Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act

 Inserted by amendment to Finance Bill (which is part of Budget)
 mandatory linking of Aadhaar to PAN
 SC case invasion of privacy
2. Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act,
2016
 Every resident entitled to obtain an Aadhaar number. i.e. resided in India for 182 days, in the preceding year.
 Aadhaar number cannot be a proof of citizenship or domicile.
 To obtain an Aadhaar number, an individual has to submit his,
(i) biometric (photograph, finger print, iris scan) and
(ii) demographic (name, date of birth, address) information.
(iii) such other biometric and demographic information specified by Unique Identification Authority (UID)
 At the time of enrolment, the individual will be informed of
(i) the manner in which the information will be used
(ii) the nature of recipients with whom the information will be shared,
(iii) the right to access this information.
 The UID authority will authenticate the Aadhaar number of an individual, if an entity makes such a request.
 In two cases, Aadhaar information may be revealed:
(i) In the interest of national security
(ii) On the order of a court
 A person may be punished with imprisonment upto three years and minimum fine of Rs 10 lakh for unauthorised
access to the centralized database, including revealing any information stored in it.
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 No court shall take cognizance of any offence except on a complaint made by the UID authority or a person
authorised by it.
3. Tarang Sanchar Portal
 Web portal for sharing information on mobile towers and electromagnetic field (EMF) emission compliances
 Launced in May 2017 by Department of Telecom (DoT)
4. Dholes or Indian wild dogs
 Protected under Schedule 2 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
 ‗endangered‘ under IUCN
 conservation breeding centre at Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) amidst Kambalakonda Reserve Forest in
Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
 plans to reintroduce a pack of 16 into the forests in theEastern Ghats
 3rd such effort. Earlier two cases:
(i) Darjeeling‘s Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park had a programme for the red panda
(ii) Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme was undertaken in Assam
5. BrahMos
 product of joint collaboration between India and Russia
 named after Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers
 supersonic missile
 fire and forget capability
 initially range 290 km since MTCR restrictions. Now India member of MTCR
 now range 450 km and the plan is to increase it to 600 km.
 is capable of being launched from land, sea, sub-sea and air against surface and seabased targets.
 Advanced BrahMos Block III Land Attack Cruise Missile (LACM) successfully test fired
 Can be sold to friendly third world countries
6. Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)
 multilateral export control regime
 informal and voluntary partnership
 35 countries , including India since 2016 (China, Pakistan are not members)
 to prevent the proliferation of missile and unmanned aerial vehicle technology capable of carrying above 500 kg
payload for more than 300 km.
7. Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan
 initiated in 2013 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development,
 centrally sponsored scheme
 to provide strategic funding to higher educational institutions throughout the country.
8. Stressed assets = NPAs + Restructured loans +Written Off Assets
9. Non Performing Asset (NPA)
 An NPA means interest or principal is not repaid by the borrower during a specified time period (90 days).
10. Restructured asset
 Those assets which got an extended repayment period, reduced interest rate, converting a part of the loan into
equity, providing additional financing, or some combination of these measures.
11. Written off assets
 Those that bank or lender doesn‘t count as money that borrower owes to it.
 The financial statement of the bank will indicate that the written off loans are compensated through some other way.
 This does not mean that the borrower is pardoned or got exempted from payment.
12. Twin balance sheet problem
 stressed companies
 NPA-laden banks
13. Public Sector Asset Rehabilitation Agency (PARA)
 Bad Bank
 suggested by Economic Survey 2017-18
 to be established to deal with the problem of bad loans.
14. National Steel Policy 2017
 aims at attracting Rs. 10 lakh crore investments in the steel sector by 2030-31.
 gives ―preference to Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products (DMI&SP)‖ in Government Procurements.
15. SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing
Clusters)
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 Central Sector Scheme
 for the period 2016-20 coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission cycle.
 to supplement agriculture, modernize processing and decrease agri-waste.
 umbrella scheme incorporating ongoing schemes of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MFPI) like
(i) Mega Food Parks,
(ii) Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure,
(iii) Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure, etc.
(iv) Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters,
(v) Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages,
(vi) Creation / Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities
Etc.
16. UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik)
 Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)
 component of the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), 2016
 to stimulate regional connectivity with flights covering distances up to 800 km through a market-based
mechanism.
 caps fares at Rs. 2500 per seat per hour.
 43 cities are expected to be mainstreamed on India‘s flight connectivity grid.
 VGF will be used to bridge the gap between the cost of airline operations and expected revenue.
 Five airlines — Alliance Air, SpiceJet, Turbo Megha, Air Odisha and Air Deccan — were awarded 128 routes
under the scheme after a bidding process.
 Air India‘s subsidiary Alliance Air will be the first airline to start operating flights between Delhi and Shimla
5th MAY 2017
1. Swachh Survekshan-2017
 cleanliness survey commissioned by the Union Urban Development Ministry
 carried out by the Quality Council of India
 across 434 cities
 cleanest city: Indore in Madhya Pradesh; 2nd : Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh
 dirtiest city : Gonda in Uttar Pradesh
2. Bilkis Bano case
 post- Godhra riots case of 2002
 gang rape of pregnant woman
 Bombay High Court on 4 May 2017 upheld the conviction of 11 accused and set aside the acquittal of 7 others
3. Bhilar
 in Satara district, Maharashtra
 India‘s first ‗village of books‘
 robust collection of literature in Marathi
4. Central Information Commission (CIC)
 set up under the Right to Information Act, 2005
 to act upon complaints from individuals under the RTI Act.
 it comprises of 1 Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and not more than 10 Information Commissioners (IC)
 appointed by the President of India.
5. Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act (FATCA), 2010
 It is a United States federal law to enforce the requirement for United States persons including those living outside
the U.S. to file yearly reports on their non-U.S. financial accounts to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
(FINCEN).
 It requires all non-U.S. (foreign) financial institutions (FFIs) to search their records for indicating U.S. person-status
and to report the assets and identities of such persons to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
 FATCA is controversial because governments and banks have been forced to comply under threat of a 30%
withholding penalty of all U.S. dollar transactions.
 The U.S. has yet to comply with FATCA itself, because as of 2017, it has not yet provided the promised reciprocity
to its partner countries and it has failed to sign up to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS).
6. Agni series missiles
 family of medium to intercontinental range ballistic missiles developed by India
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 long range, nuclear weapons capable surface to surface ballistic missiles.
 The first missile of the series, Agni-I was developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program and
tested in 1989. After its success, Agni missile program was separated from the IGMDP upon realizing its strategic
importance.
7. Artificial Neural networks
 a computational model used in machine learning, computer science and other research disciplines
 based on a large collection of connected simple units called artificial neurons, loosely analogous to axons in a
biological brain.
 Such systems can be trained from examples, rather than explicitly programmed, and excel in areas where the
solution or feature detection is difficult to express in a traditional computer program.
 Like other machine learning methods, neural networks have been used to solve a wide variety of tasks, like
computer vision and speech recognition, that are difficult to solve using ordinary rule-based programming.
6th MAY 2017
1. Ordinance
 Temporary laws that are promulgated by the President of India on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet.
 They can only be issued when Parliament is not in session.
 Ordinances cease to operate either if Parliament does not approve of them within six weeks of reassembly, or if
disapproving resolutions are passed by both Houses.
2. Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A)
 launched by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in June 2016
 for addressing the large stressed assets of the corporate sector with banks
 eligible if total loans by all institutional lenders in the account exceed Rs 500 crore
 The project should have started its commercial operations and there should be cash flows from the project
 allows lender (bank) to acquire equity of the stressed project
 loans are divided into sustainable and unsustainable components.
 scheme allows banks to rework stressed loans under the oversight of an external agency.
 external independent agency evaluates how much of the debt is ‗sustainable‘
3. Joint Lenders Forum ( JLF)
 Under the stressed asset norms of RBI that took effect on 1 April 2014, as soon as interest payments on a loan are
delayed by 60 days, a JLF comprising all lenders must be put in place
 within 45 days, the JLF must come up with a Corrective Action Plan (CAP).
 Under the JLF framework for revitalising distressed assets in the economy, even before a loan account turns into
an NPA, the new system helped identify the stress by segregating the accounts into three categories —
 Special Mention Accounts (SMA)
i. SMA-0 --> if <30 days + sign of incipient stress
ii. SMA-1 --> loan overdue for 31-60 days
iii. SMA-2. --> if >60 days
4. Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case
 Incident of December 2012
 Supreme Court upheld the Delhi High Court‘s verdict of 2013
 confirmed the death penalty to four convicts
 One accused committed suicide in Tihar Jail
 One juvenile sentenced by the Juvenile Justice Board, now free
5. draft Civil Aviation Requirements on ―Handling of unruly or disruptive passengers‖
6. Supreme Court directions on children living in orphanages and child care institutions
7. Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005
 National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
 State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights
 India has acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1992
8. Part IX B of Constitution
 On ―The Co-operative Societies‖ (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT)
 Added by Ninety Seventh Constitutional Amendment Act, 2011
 Provisions for incorporation, regulation and winding up of co-operative societies based on the principles of
democratic process
 maximum number of directors on board as twenty-one.
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 reservation of one seat for SC/ST and two seats for women on the board of every co-operative society.
 fixed term of five years from the date of election in respect of the elected members of the board and its office
bearers; maximum time limit of six months during which a board of directors of co-operative society could be kept
under suspension; independent professional audit;
 right of information to the members of the co-operative societies
 Empowering the State Governments to obtain periodic reports of activities and accounts of co-operative societies
 Providing for offences relating to co-operative societies and penalties in respect of such offences.
9. Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
 grant special powers to the Indian Armed Forces in "disturbed areas".
 an officer of the armed forces has powers to:
i. After giving such due warning, Fire upon or use other kinds of force even if it causes death, against the
person who is acting against law or order in the disturbed area for the maintenance of public order,
ii. To arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed cognizable offences or is reasonably suspected of
having done so
iii. To enter and search any premise without warrant
iv. Stop and search any vehicle or vessel reasonably suspected to be carrying such person or weapons.
 Any person arrested and taken into custody under this Act shall be made present over to the officer in charge of
the nearest police station with least possible delay.
 Army officers have legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal
proceeding against anyone acting under that law.
 Nor is the government's judgment on why an area is found to be disturbed subject to judicial review
 On July 8, 2016, in a landmark ruling, Supreme Court ended the immunity of the armed forces from
prosecution under AFSPA
10. Special Drawing Rights (SDR)
 an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969
 to supplement its member countries‘ official reserves.
 SDRs can be exchanged for freely usable currencies.
 SDR is neither a currency, nor a claim on the IMF
 IMF may allocate SDRs to member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas
 The value of the SDR is based on a basket of five major currencies— US dollar, euro, British pound sterling,
Japanese yen and Chinese renminbi (yuan) added in Sept 2016
11. Disarib
 Molecule synthesised by Indian researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
 Can facilitate targeted killing of cancer cells
 Disarib works by binding itself to a protein called BCL2, which suppresses the death of cancerous cells
 Unlike the FDA-approved BCL2 inhibitor ABT199, disarib shows better efficiency in killing cancer cells, also does
not cause any side effects.
 However, expression of BCL2 is low in certain cancer cell lines such as breast cancer, chronic myelogenous
leukemia and cervical cancer. So the Disarib molecule would be ineffective in these cancers.
7th MAY 2017
1. One Belt, One Road (OBOR) or Belt and Road Initiative

2. China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
3. Farakka Barrage
 40-year-old
 2.6 km-long
 originally conceived to keep the Kolkata port navigable,
 alleged by Bihar CM to have worsened the flood situation in Bihar over the years.
4. National Waterway 1 (NW1)
 will be on the Ganga
 will span Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal
 from Haldia in West Bengal to Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh,
 1,620 kilometres
 detailed project report has already been prepared
 Rs. 42 billion crore project
 to be funded by the World Bank
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 project also involves constructing barrages -> concerns of silting
5. World Water Council
 international think tank founded in 1996
 headquarters in Marseille, France
 orgsanises World Water Forum
6. 8th World Water Forum
 to take place in the Brazilian capital Brasilia
 in March 2018
 theme 'Sharing Water'
 largest international event in the field of water
7. Namami Gange
 Rs. 20,000-crore clean-up programme
 100% centrally funded
8. National Mission for a Clean Ganga-NMCG
 executive authority tasked with commissioning treatment plants, cleaning and beautifying the ghats and setting up
improved crematoria.
9. Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015
 replaced Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000,
 provides that juveniles in conflict with Law in the age group of 16–18, involved in Heinous Offences, can be tried as
adults.
 came into force from 15 January 2016
10. Malabar trilateral exercises
 began in 1992 as a bilateral naval exercise between India and the U.S.
 in 2015, expanded into a trilateral format with the inclusion of Japan.
 Australia wants to join
 India reluctant to expand the exercises further due to sensitivities from China
11. Antibiotic Resistance
12. Thalassaemia
genetic blood disorder
requires regular blood transfusion
no known cure except bone marrow transplant (BMT) at early age
India is the thalassaemia capital of the world
Thalassaemia is now under the purview of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016
13. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016
14. X-ray free electron laser (XFEL)
 Many applications
 Can facilitate viewing the structure of cells or membranes at extremely sharp resolutions and filming chemical
reactions with unprecedented precision.
15. New Frontiers
 Programme of NASA
 fourth mission in the New Frontiers portfolio will be selected
 Earlier three are the New Horizons mission to Pluto, the Juno mission to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-Rex.
16. New Horizons
 NASA mission to Pluto
17. Juno Mission
 NASA mission to Jupiter
18. OSIRIS-Rex
 NASA mission to Bennu asteroid
19. Bennu asteroid
20. SOFIA (Stratospeheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy)
 NASA aircraft
21. Cassini Huygens Mission
 NASA mission to Saturn
 Cassini is orbiter
 Huygens is lander on Titan, a moon of Saturn
22. Kodaikanal Solar Observatory in Tamil Nadu
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 sun‘s images, ‗spectroheliograms‘ taken since 1902,
 in 1909 the data was used to discover the Evershed effect – that gases in sunspots flowed radially outwards.
 images digitized and uploaded
 has attracted international attention
23. Okinoshima
 Japan‘s island
 UNESCO advisory body has recommended adding to World Heritage list
 a men-only ancient religious site
 still follow strict taboos from ancient times, including the controversial ban on women from entering the island.
 Men setting foot on the island are first required to strip and perform a cleansing ritual.
8th MAY 2017
1. ―Cobweb phenomenon‖
 After the prices of a particular agricultural commodity shoot through the roof during a season of scarcity, farmers
resort to boosting the production on the premise of the pre-existing demand and prices, leading to a problem of
plenty.
2. Minimum Support Price (MSP)
3. Shell Companies
4. Round-tripping
 sending money to tax havens abroad in the guise of payments for fake imports through shell companies and bringing
back that money, showing it as ―foreign investment‖.
5. Prevention of Money Laundering Act
6. Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act
7. Non-Functional Upgrade (NFU)
 NFU entitles all officers of a batch who are not promoted to draw the salary and grade pay that the senior-most
officer of their batch would get after a certain period.
8. Chabahar port
9. Gwadar port
10. Asian Development Bank (ADB)
 regional development bank
 established in 1966,
 headquartered in Manila, Philippines.
 was modeled closely on the World Bank
 admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
and non-regional developed countries.
 ADB now has 67 members, of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside.
11. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
 It is a United States federal law
 It requires United States persons, including U.S. citizens who live outside the United States, to report their financial
accounts held outside of the U.S
 It requires foreign financial institutions to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about their U.S. clients.
 India had signed an agreement with the U.S. on July 9, 2015 which enables automatic exchange of financial
information between India and the U.S. The agreement came into effect on August 31, 2015.
 The agreement provides that Indian Financial Institutions will provide the necessary information to the Indian tax
authority i.e. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which information will then be transmitted to the U.S.
automatically in the case of FATCA.
 The compliance is needed for bank accounts, mutual fund, national pension scheme and other such
transactions.
12. Fuel cell
 a devices that split the hydrogen atoms into protons and electrons and get the electrons to flow through a
circuit — flow of electrons is electricity.
13. Cold fusion

 It is a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR)
 It is not yet an established science
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 It generates energy from fusion of sub-atomic particles at near room temperatures
 An Italian engineer called Andrea Rossi came up in 2011 with a device ‗E-Cat‘ that he claimed produces more
energy than it consumes. His ‗E-Cat‘ is a small box with a pinch of nickel, hydrogen and lithium.
14. Barbary macaque monkey
 the only species of macaque outside Asia
 lives on leaves and fruits and can weigh up to 20 kg,
 once found throughout North Africa and parts of Europe.
 now restricted to the mountainous regions of Algeria and Morocco‘s northern Rif region and in Gibraltar Today,
the only native primate north of the Sahara, apart from humans
 in danger of extinction, according to IUCN.
 Conservationists blame illegal poaching, tourists who feed the monkeys and overexploitation of the cedar and oak
forests that form the species‘ natural habitat.
9th MAY 2017
1. Justice C. S. Karnan contempt of court case

2. Rs. 900- crore fodder scam
 Lalu Prasad Yadav
 2014 Jharkhand High Court decision to drop charges set aside by SC
3. TamRas
 a low-cost copper-based water purification device
4. Tumuni village
 In Odisha
 swears by its decades old practice of ‗self-rule‘
5. Special Infrastructure Scheme (SIS)
 in Left Wing Extremism affected States
 commenced from 2008-09
 to cater critical infrastructure gaps of Security forces which could not be covered under any other scheme.
 discontinued from Central assistance from the financial year 2015-16 as per 14th Finance Commission
recommendation
6. Integrated Action Plan (IAP)
 Additional Central Assistance (ACA) for LWE affected districts:
 commenced from 2010-11 covering 60 Tribal and Backward districts
 for accelerated development by providing public infrastructure and services.
 extended to 82 districts in 2012.
 discontinued from the central assistance from the financial year 2015-16.
7. Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API)
 raw materials from which drugs are made
8. CoBRA (COmmando Battalion for Resolute Action)
 specialised unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) of India
 proficient in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare.
 Originally established to counter the Naxalite problem
 deployed to address any insurgent group engaging in asymmetrical warfare.
 one of India's more experienced and successful law enforcement units.
9. MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme)
10. Palaeo-channels
 old rivers that have dried up and filled with sediment.
11. K.S. Valdiya committee
 set up in October 2016
 comprising of hydrologists, geologists and archaeologists
 commissioned by the Water Resources Ministry
 reported evidence on the course of the mythical Saraswati, mentioned in the Rigveda and Hindu mythology.
 It concluded that the Sutlej river ―represented the western branch of the Saraswati.‖
 The Markanda and the Sarsuti (now called the Ton-Yamuna rivers) watered the eastern branch of the river.
 MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) fund to recharge remnants of
ancient rivers — including the mythical Saraswati — in a bid to boost groundwater reserves.
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12. Emmanuel Macron
 Elected France‘s next President a
 At 39, the pro-EU former investment banker will become France‘s youngest-ever President.
13. Hambantota port
 deep-sea port in Sri Lanka
 built with Chinese loans in 2010
 part of Beijing‘s plans to create a Silk Route across Asia.
 Sri Lanka owes $8 billion-debt to China
 proposed deal to sell to China‘s state run China Merchants Port Holdings
 Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) raised many concerns as proposed deal gives sweeping powers to the Chinese
company to handle operations near the port.
 After signing a framework agreement with the Sri Lankan government in December 2016, the state run China
Merchants Port Holdings was expected to pay $1.12 billion for a 99-year lease, on an 80% stake in the Hambantota
port.
 Colombo and Beijing also agreed to develop a 15,000- acre industrial zone near the port,
 Beijing is now willing to sign the port deal, only if land for the industrial zone is made available.
 However, locals have been resisting the project.
14. Nontariff barriers
 form of restrictive trade where barriers to trade are set up and take a form other than a tariff.
 Nontariff barriers include quotas, embargoes, sanctions, levies, child labour laws, licensing, packaging, and
labeling requirements; sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules
15. Sanitary & Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) barriers
 aimed at the protection of human, animal or plant life from certain risks.
 policies relating to food safety (bacterial contaminants, pesticides, inspection and labelling) as well as animal and
plant health (phytosanitation) with respect to imported commodities.
16. countervailing duties
 an import tax imposed on certain goods in order to prevent dumping or counter export subsidies.
17. World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO)
 one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations.
 created in 1967
 headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
 to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world.
 currently has 189 member states, administers 26 international treaties.
18. Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS)
 In Kerala
 to rehabilitate Indian star tortoises (Geochelone elegans) seized from smugglers
 the only rehabilitation centre for star tortoises in the country.
10th MAY 2017
1. Kulbhushan Jadhav
 former naval officer
 sentenced to death in Pakistan
 Pakistan failed to provide consular access to India despite 15 requests,
 India won a stay order from the International Court of Justice
2. International Court of Justice
 primary judicial branch of the United Nations (UN).
 Seated in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands,
 settles legal disputes submitted to it by states and provides advisory opinions on legal questions
3. Geneva Conventions
 rules that apply only in times of armed conflict
 seek to protect people who are not or are no longer taking part in hostilities;
 these include :
I. the sick and wounded of armed forces on the field,
II. wounded, sick, and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea,
III. prisoners of war
IV. civilians
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4. Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963
 an international treaty that defines a framework for consular relations between independent states.
 A consul normally operates out of an embassy in another country, and performs two functions:
i. protecting in the host country the interests of their countrymen, and
ii. furthering the commercial and economic relations between the two states.
 The treaty has been ratified by 179 states
5. Vijay Mallya
 Chairman of UB Group, an Indian conglomerate with interests in beverage alcohol, aviation infrastructure, real estate
and fertiliser among others.
 Kingfisher Airlines, an airline established as a major business venture in 2005 became insolvent and was shut down
in 2012.
 A group of 17 Indian banks are trying to collect approximately ₹9,000 crore in loans which Mallya has
allegedly routed to gain 100% or a partial stake in about 40 companies across the world.
 Presently in UK; extradition sought
 Mallya also served in the Rajya Sabha for his home state Karnataka.
6. Amur falcon
 falcon family bird
 breeds in south-eastern Siberia and Northern China
 migrates in large flocks across India and over the Arabian Sea to winter in Southern Africa.
 diet consists mainly of insects, such as termites
7. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)
 autonomous body under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
 established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006
 responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.
8. Bishnois
 a Vaishnavite sect, living in western Rajasthan on the fringe of the Thar desert,
 have for centuries, been conserving the flora and fauna to the extent of sacrificing their lives to protect the
environment.
 The basic philosophy of this religion is that all living things have a right to survive and share all resources.
 In the fifteenth century, Swami Jambeshwar Maharaj initiated the Bishnoi sect.
 He laid down 29 tenets for his followers which included a ban on killing animals, a ban to the felling of trees –
especially the khejri – which grows extensively in these areas, and using material other than wood for
cremations.
9. Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010
 to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or
associations or companies
 prohibits acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the
national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
10. Chenab Bridge
 world‘s tallest railway arch bridge being constructed over the Chenab river in Jammu
 will be capable of handling high intensity blasts like high level trinitrotoluene (TNT) blast load.
11. Lopinavir gsyrup
 paediatric formulation for HIV infected children
 Cipla Pharmaceutical is its sole manufacturer in India
 Cipla stopped production over non-payment of dues by government.
12. Indian Antarctic Program
 a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional program under the control of National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean
Research (NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India.
 India has signed the Antarctic Treaty
 Dakshin Gangotri base commissioned in 1983, superseded by the Maitri base from 1990.
 The newest base commissioned in 2015 is Bharati, constructed out of 134 shipping containers.
 Under the program, atmospheric, biological, earth, chemical, and medical sciences are studied by India, which has
carried out more than 30 scientific expeditions to the Antarctic.
13. Electrick
 developed by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S.
 conductive touch screens can be created by applying conductive paints, bulk plastics or carbon-loaded film.
 uses a well-known technique called electric field tomography to sense the position of a finger touch.
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 Like many touchscreens, Electrick relies on the shunting effect — when a finger touches the touchpad, it shunts
a bit of electric current to ground.
11th MAY 2017
1. Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) 1976

 It barred foreign donations to political parties.
 It was replaced by FCRA, 2010 which also bars foreign donations to political parties
2. Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS)
 It will allow a litigant to digitally file a case and watch its progress on a realtime basis
 A step towards a paperless Supreme Court
 CJI proposed to integrate the system with all the 24 High Courts and the subordinate courts.
3. Operation Bluestar, 1984
 an Indian military operation ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi
 to remove militant religious leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his militant armed followers from the
Harmandir Sahib Complex (Golden Temple) in Amritsar, Punjab.
4. Multidrug Resistant-Tuberculosis (MDR-TB)
 a version of TB where patients do not respond to first-line drugs; at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the two
most powerful anti-TB drugs.
 Two new TB drugs, Bedaquiline and Delamanid required
5. Aadhaar Act of 2016
 The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, benefits and services) Act, 2016
 passed as a money bill
 aims to provide legal backing to the Aadhaar unique identification number project.
6. Rail Development Authority (RDA)
 Proposed to recommend :
i. tariff structures for passenger and freight operations,
ii. set performance standards for rail operations and
iii. create a level playing policy for private sector participation.
7. National Policy on Marine Fisheries, 2017
 to meet the multi-dimensional and growing needs of the marine fisheries sector for the next one decade.
 an ‗Implementation Plan‘ that will specify the action points under each recommendation contained in the Policy.
 also have a ‗Monitoring and Evaluation‘ section that will address the timeliness and efficacy of implementation.
 Make marine fisheries sector in India
i. sustainable and well-managed entity,
ii. ensuring enhanced utilization of the harvest for human consumption;
iii. employment, gender equity and livelihoods;
iv. inter-generational equity and equality;
v. provision of food security and nutrition; and
vi. creation of wealth and prosperity in the sector.
12th MAY 2017
1. The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act of 1939

 It gives specific grounds under which a muslim woman can seek divorce by approaching a court
 Presently, Muslim men do not have to move courts to get a divorce.
2. Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)
 India‘s apex regulator for genetically modified seeds
 GEAC cleared GM mustard in May 2017 for environmental release and use in farmers‘ fields for 4 years
 GEAC cleared Bt Brinjal in 2010 but it was blocked by the then Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, who
cited, among other things, a paucity of safety tests.
3. GM mustard -> Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH -11)
 Approved by GEAC in May 2017 for environmental release and use in farmers‘ fields for 4 years.
 has been developed by a team of scientists at Delhi University led by former vice-chancellor Deepak Pental
under a government-funded project.
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 it uses a system of genes from soil bacterium that makes mustard — generally a self-pollinating plant — better suited
to hybridisation than current methods.
 Activists have however maintained that publicly available data on DMH-11 shows that its yield is no better than
existing varieties.
4. El Nino and La Nina
 El Niño events are associated with a warming of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, while La Niña events are the
reverse, with a sustained cooling of these same areas.
 These changes in the Pacific Ocean and its overlying atmosphere occur in a cycle known as the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation(ENSO).
 The atmosphere and ocean interact, reinforcing each other and creating a 'feedback loop' which amplifies small
changes in the state of the ocean into an ENSO event.
 The term El Niño translates from Spanish as 'the boy-child'. Peruvian fishermen originally used the term to describe
the appearance, around Christmas, of a warm ocean current off the South American coast.
 La Niña translates as 'girl-child' and is the opposite ENSO phase to El Niño.
5. Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD)
 It is also known as the Indian Niño
 It is an irregular oscillation of sea-surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately
warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the ocean.
 The IOD involves an aperiodic oscillation of sea-surface temperatures, between "positive", "neutral" and
"negative" phases.
 A positive phase sees greater-than-average sea-surface temperatures and greater precipitation in the western Indian
Ocean region, with a corresponding cooling of waters in the eastern Indian Ocean-which tends to cause droughts in
adjacent land areas of Indonesia and Australia.
 The negative phase of the IOD brings about the opposite conditions, with warmer water and greater precipitation in
the eastern Indian Ocean, and cooler and drier conditions in the west.
 The IOD also affects the strength of monsoons over the Indian subcontinent.
6. Tehreek-e-Taleem (campaign for education)
 to be launched on October 15th, the birth anniversary of late president A P J Abdul Kalam.
 to be launched in 100 districts of the country to take government‘s educational programmes to the minority
communities.
7. ‗Spyder‘
 Low level surface-to-air quick reaction missile
 acquired from Israel
 Range : 15 km
 test fired from a test range in Odisha.
8. proposed Strategic Partnership (SP) model
 meant to promote the private sector in defence manufacturing.
 Proposed to create domestic expertise in four key areas, namely, fighter aircraft, helicopters, submarines, and
armoured vehicles and main battle tanks.
 One company would be selected for each area based on its competence, which would then tie up with the foreign
Original Equipment Manufacturer selected through the procurement process, to build the platform in India with
significant technology transfer.
 The Armed Forces are apprehensive over the overall model as they feel the SP model will block new technology
and new players coming to the defence sector.
 On the other hand, existing defence players argue for committed orders for the next 30 years to give them the
economies of scale as defence involves large investments.
9. Old Sana‘a
inscribed on UNESCO‘s World Heritage List since 1986.
 Perched 7,500 feet up in Yemen‘s western mountains, with more than 100 mosques and 6,000 houses built before the
11th century,
 the old city is famed for its multi-storeyed homes of red basalt rock, with arched windows decorated with white
latticework.
 But months after a Saudi led coalition intervened against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in March 2015, UNESCO added
the ancient city to its List of World Heritage in Danger.
10. WPI
11. CPI
12. IIP
13. GDP
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14. GNP
15. GVA
16. Real GVA
17. Nominal GVA
13th MAY 2017
1. The National Herald

 an Indian newspaper established in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru.
 it ceased operations in 2008.
 Income Tax case against Congress leaders
2. Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) dispute
 Between Punjab and Haryana
3. Goa Civil Code
 A Uniform Civil Code
 The Portuguese Civil Code is applicable to all communities in Goa which is an erstwhile Portuguese colony.
 It prohibits polygamy, except in certain circumstances, where the first wife is not able to reproduce till the age
prescribed therein.
 Under the code, Muslim men can neither practise polygamy nor is the verbal divorce recognised in the State.
4. Hysterectomy
 a surgical operation to remove all or part of the uterus.
5. Masala Bond
 a bond issued outside India denominated in the Indian rupee
6. Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT)
 statutory body established under the Securities and Exchange Board of India Act, 1992.
 It‘s function is to hear and dispose of appeals against orders passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India
(SEBI) or by an adjudicating officer under the Act
7. Satyam scam
 Satyam is an Indian IT Company
 In 2009, its then chairman Ramalinga Raju confessed that the company's accounts had been falsified.
8. ―Yuegong-1‖
 means ―Lunar Palace‖
 a sealed laboratory of China simulating a lunar-like environment
 Four postgraduate Chinese students will live in for up to 200 days
 Beijing prepares for its long-term goal of putting humans on the moon.
9. Tiangong-2
 China‘s orbiting space lab
 China sent its first cargo spacecraft, Tianzhou-1 successfully completed docking with Tiangong-2 in April 2017
14th MAY 2017
1. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT— In)

 It is government organisation under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTy).
 It is a nodal agency that deals with cyber security threats like hacking and phishing.
 It strengthens security-related defence of the Indian Internet domain
2. Ransomware
 It is malware that encrypts the files on an infected system and then demands a ransom to decrypt them, with
escalation in the demand over time.
 The ransom demand is in Bitcoins, the cyber cryptocurrency that is hard to trace
3. WannaCryptor 2.0 aka WannaCry
 It spreads using a flaw in older Microsoft Windows systems, which was made public when documents and cyber
tools of the U.S. National Security Agency were leaked online.
 It originates from a tool called EternalBlue that was among the NSA-related tools dumped online in April by an
anonymous group, Shadow Brokers.
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 Microsoft had earlier made available an update to eliminate the vulnerability. But a whole lot of systems had not
been updated.
 The WannaCryptor 2.0 has been asking a ransom of the Bitcoin equivalent of $300. It often reaches victims as mail
attachment.
 Once opened, it spreads to other computers in the network exploiting the Windows vulnerability.
 The biggest hit has been the U.K.‘s National Health Service, which has been forced to halt treatments and surgeries.
 In May 2017, it has hit government departments, universities and companies in nearly 100 countries.
4. Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP)
 The UIP provide free of cost vaccines to all children across the country to protect them against 12 life threatening
diseases. These 12 diseases are :
1. Tuberculosis,
2. Pertussis (Whooping cough),
3. Diphtheria,
4. Tetanus,
5. Hepatitis B,
6. Polio,
7. Measles,
8. Rubella,
9. Japanese Encephalitis (JE)
10. Rotavirus,
11. Diarrhoea
12. Pneumonia and Meningitis due to Haemophilus Influenzae type b (Hib),
(Rubella, JE and Rotavirus vaccine are given in select states and districts).
5. Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1)
 NASA‘s first integrated flight of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft
 No astronauts aboard
 This is the first in a broad series of exploration missions that plans to take humans to deep space, and eventually
to Mars.
6. 3D printing
 also known as additive manufacturing (AM)
 a processes used to create a three-dimensional object in which layers of material are formed under computer control
to create an object
 Objects can be of almost any shape or geometry and are produced using digital model data from a 3D model or
another electronic data source such as an Additive Manufacturing File (AMF) file.
7. CRISPR-Cas9
 Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are segments of prokaryotic DNA containing
short, repetitive base sequences.
 These play a key role in a bacterial defence system, and form the basis of a genome editing technology known as
CRISPR-Cas9 that allows permanent modification of genes within organisms.
8. Bharatiya Nirdeshak Dravya (BND 4201)
 India‘s own standard bar of gold that is 99.99% pure and can be used to verify the purity of gold sold in shops.
 The bar, weighs 20 gm
 It will mean that Indian jewellers will no longer need to import gold bars to check the purity of ornaments.
 The India Government Mint (IGM), had signed an agreement in November 2016 with the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) and CSIR-National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to develop the first gold standard.
9. National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
 The NPL is the repository of standard units — such as the kilogram, the second, and the centimetre — in India and
provides calibration services.
10. Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969
 It defines a treaty as "an international agreement concluded between states in written form and governed by
international law,"
 It affirms that "every state possesses the capacity to conclude treaties."
 It restricts the application of the Convention to written treaties between States, excluding treaties concluded between
the states and international organizations or international organizations themselves.
11. Atlantique incident, 1999
 In the incident, a Pakistan Navy plane was shot down by India in the disputed Rann of Kutch area,
 The ICJ ruled in favour of India then, saying it had no jurisdiction in the existence of bilateral agreements.
12. Operation Rahat
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 Indian Air Force's rescue operations to evacuate civilians affected by the 2013 North India floods.
 Thousands of pilgrims in transit in the hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh were stranded in various
valleys.
13. Operation Maitri
 Rescue and relief operation in Nepal by the government of India and Indian armed forces in the aftermath of the
April 2015 Nepal earthquake.
14. Operation Sankat Mochan
 operation of the Indian Air Force to evacuate Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from South Sudan during the
South Sudanese Civil War.
 The operation was carried out in view of 2016 Juba clashes
15. e-way bill
 A waybill is nothing but a physical document that allows movement of goods.
 e-way bill is electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the GSTN (common portal).
16. GST Council
 It has been established as per Article 279A of the Constitution.
 It is joint forum of the Centre and the States to make recommendations on important issues related to GST.
 Union Finance Minister is Chairperson of the council.
 Besides, Union Minister of State (MoS) in-charge of Revenue of finance and Minister In-charge of taxation or
finance or any other Minister nominated by each State Government are its Members.
15th MAY 2017
1. Panchsheel
 five principles of peaceful co-existence
 Their first formal codification in treaty form was in an agreement between China and India in 1954.
 This agreement stated the five principles as:
1. Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
2. Mutual non-aggression.
3. Mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs.
4. Equality and cooperation for mutual benefit.
5. Peaceful co-existence.
2. Hafiz Mohammad Saeed
 He set up Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) in 1991
 LeT involved in Indian Parliament attack in Dec 2001.
 A series of seven explosions on suburban Mumbai trains in 2006. LeT suspected to be behind the attacks.
 Coordinated shooting and bomb blasts across Mumbai in 2008. LeT and JuD involvement suspected.
 UN declares Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) as a front for LeT and labels it a banned organization in 2008.
 Pakistan bans JuD too. Puts Hafiz under house arrest following the UN decision.
 Hafiz again put under house arrest in Lahore since Jan 2017 for ―spreading terrorism in the name of jihad.‖
3. ―Road Connectivity Project for LWE Affected Areas‖ scheme
 centrally sponsored scheme
 approved in December 2016
 will be implemented under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 44 districts.
 in LWE States including the 35 worst affected LWE districts which account for 90% of total LWE violence in the
country and 9 adjoining districts critical from security angle
 The PMGSY guideline does not permit construction/upgradation of Major District Roads (MDRs). However,
keeping special circumstances of LWE areas in view, MDRs would be taken up under the scheme as a special
dispensation. The National Highways and the State Highways would be excluded from this project.
4. Thermographic camera
 It is also called an infrared camera or thermal imaging camera
 It is a device that forms an image using infrared radiation, similar to a common camera that forms an image using
visible light.
 Instead of the 400–700 nanometre range of the visible light camera, infrared cameras operate in wavelengths as long
as 14,000 nm (14 µm).
 A team of scientists from IIT-Bombay has now made a key breakthrough in developing India‘s first infrared
sensors for thermal imaging.
 The research started in 2010, with funding from DRDO.
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5. NGO - Darpan
 A NITI Aayog portal
 In 2016, the government made it mandatory for NGOs and voluntary organisations to register with the NITI Aayog
portal to enable them to apply for grants from any Ministry.
 However, the trusts and NGOs not seeking government funding were not required to do so.
 Educational trusts and societies seeking minority status are required to register with the NITI Aayog portal, whether
they need government aid or not.
 It is not needed only in cases of institutions run by individuals.
6. National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions
 Its inception in 2004
 has awarded minority status certificates to 12,954 schools and colleges in the country.
 Minority status permits schools and colleges to have a say in the reservation quantum and limits interference from
the government.
7. Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
 It is a guided ballistic missile with a minimum range of 5,500 kilometres
 It is primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery.
 Russia, the United States, China, North Korea and India are the only countries currently known to possess land-based
ICBMs, Israel has also tested ICBMs but is not open about actual deployment.
8. Agni-V
 It is an intercontinental ballistic missile developed by DRDO.
 It is a three-stage solid fuelled missile
 Agni V has been successfully test-fired by DRDO in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 and has been inducted
 The exact range of the Agni-V missile is classified but stated to be more than 5,500 km
 Chinese experts say that the missile has the potential to reach targets 8000 km away and that the Indian government
had deliberately downplayed the missile's capability in order to avoid causing concern to other countries.
16th MAY 2017

1. Unified Payment Interface (UPI)
 payment system launched by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and regulated by RBI
 facilitates the instant fund transfer between two bank accounts on the mobile platform.
 UPI is built over Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) for transferring funds
2. Immediate Payment Service (IMPS)
 IMPS is an instant real-time inter-bank electronic funds transfer system in India.
 offers an inter-bank electronic fund transfer service through mobile phones.
 Unlike NEFT and RTGS, the service is available 24/7 throughout the year including bank holidays.
 managed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is built upon the existing National Financial
Switch network.
 IMPS was publicly launched in 2010.
3. E-wallets
 A digital wallet refers to an electronic device that allows an individual to make electronic transactions.
 This can include purchasing items on-line with a computer or using a smartphone to purchase something at a store.
 An individual's bank account can also be linked to the digital wallet.
4. Merchant Discount Rate (MDR)
 The rate charged to a merchant by a bank for providing debit and credit card services.
 The MDR is divided up between the bankers involved in the transaction, the company that installed the PoS and the
card network company.
 In short, the merchants and in turn the consumers, have to pay a fee to use the payment infrastructure developed by
the financial institutions.
5. Point of Sale (PoS) device
 A point-of-sale (POS) terminal is a computerised replacement for a cash register which can process credit and debit
cards.
 A customer needs to enter a card PIN to complete the transaction using the PoS terminal.
6. Farzad- B natural gas block
 It was discovered by ONGC Videsh (OVL) — the overseas arm of state-owned ONGC
 It was discovered in the Farsi block in Iran about 10 years ago.
 In fresh conditions, Iran wants India to pay more than triple the gas price for award of the coveted Farzad- B natural
gas block to OVL
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7. Antidumping duty
 An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it
believes are priced below fair market value.
 Dumping is a process where a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its
own home market.
 To protect local businesses and markets, many countries impose stiff duties on products they believe are being
dumped in their national market.
17th MAY 2017

1. Southern Bird Wing Butterfly
 Largest Butterfly in India
 Endemic to South India, particularly Karnataka
 Designated Karnataka‘s state Butterfly
 Second state to designate so
 Maharashtra designated Blue Mormon as State Butterfly in 2015
2. Siachen Glacier
 located in the eastern Karakoram range in the Himalaya Mountains
 At 76 km, it is the longest glacier in the Karakoram and second-longest in the world's non-polar areas.
 Siachen conflict began in 1984 with India's successful Operation Meghdoot during which it gained control over
all of the Siachen Glacier (unoccupied and undemarcated area).
 The Siachen Glacier is the highest battleground on earth, where India and Pakistan have fought intermittently since
1984.
 Both countries maintain permanent military presence in the region at a height of over 6,000 metres (20,000 ft).
3. Six-Day War of 1967
 Third Arab–Israeli War
 was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967 by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt (known at the time as
the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria.
 Israeli forces conquered the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.
 Israeli forces seized East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank from Jordan.
 Israeli forces seized Golan Heights from Syria.
4. ‗brain-on-a-chip‘
 Researchers grew brain cells — on a semiconductor wafer patterned with nanowires that act as a scaffold to guide
their growth.
 may lead to the development of neural implants.
 Such implants can help the brain recover after damage due to an accident, stroke or degenerative neurological
diseases such as Alzheimer‘s and Parkinson‘s
5. Alzheimer‘s disease
 a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time.
 It is the cause of 60% to 70% of cases of dementia.
 The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss).
 As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting
lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioural issues.
 As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society.
 Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death
6. Parkinson‘s disease
 long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system.
 The symptoms generally come on slowly, the most obvious are shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement, and
difficulty with walking.
 Thinking and behavioral problems may also occur.
 Dementia becomes common in the advanced stages of the disease.
 Depression and anxiety are also common.
 Other symptoms include sensory, sleep, and emotional problems.
7. Henderson Island
 a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
 is located about halfway between New Zealand and Chile
 is recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site.
 density of trash found is the highest recorded anywhere in the world.
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 It is at the edge of a vortex of ocean currents known as the South Pacific gyre, which tends to capture and hold
floating trash.
8. VoCo
 New software developed that provides an easy means to add or replace a word in a recording of a human voice.
9. Spirit (Mars Exploration Rover (MER-A))
 It was launched by NASA in 2003 and landed successfully in 2004.
 Nearly 6 years after the original mission limit, Spirit‘s wheels became trapped in sand.
 In 2010, NASA conceded defeat in its efforts to free the rover and stated that it would now function as a stationary
science platform, but later lost contact.
 NASA ceased attempts to re-establish communication in 2011.
10. Opportunity (Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B))
 It was launched by NASA in 2003 and landed successfully in 2004.
 Opportunity is still operational and mobile as of May 2017.
11. Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory (MSL))
 It was launched by NASA in 2011 and landed in 2012
 Curiosity is still operational and mobile as of May 2017.
12. Yellow eyed penguins
 New Zealand‘s iconic penguins
 may go extinct within the next 25 years due to rising ocean temperatures and climate change,
 unless urgent conservation actions are undertaken.
18th MAY 2017

1. Toshiba Westinghouse
 Westinghouse Electric Company is a US based nuclear power company formed in 1998
 Japanese multinational Toshiba Group is the majority owner of Westinghouse.
 On March 24, 2017, parent company Toshiba announced that Westinghouse Electric Company would file for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy because of US$9 billion of losses from nuclear reactor construction projects.
 Deal for six reactors in Andhra Pradesh, is floundering after Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,
2. Areva
 Areva is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power and renewable energy
 Deal for reactors in Jaitapur remains mired in negotiations over costing.
3. Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India (SHAKTI)
4. National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO)
 technical intelligence agency under the National Security Advisor in the Prime Minister's Office.
 created in 2004, after the 1999 Kargil conflict, as a dedicated technical intelligence agency.
 also includes National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development (NICRD), which is first of its kind in Asia.
 Now listed under The Intelligence Organisations (Restriction of Rights) Act, 1985, a demand being made by the
organisation for over a decade now.
 will now have the same ―norms of conduct‖ as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing
(R&AW).
5. The Intelligence Organisations (Restriction of Rights) Act, 1985
 The Act prevents employees of a notified agency from forming unions/associations, puts restrictions on the
employee‘s freedom of speech, bars any communication with the press, or publishing a book or other document
without the permission of the head of the intelligence organisation.
6. Air India suffering losses
7. Operation ‗Garam Hawa‘
 The BSF operation in Rajasthan, under which vigil along the international border with Pakistan has been stepped up
 chances of infiltration increase during intense heatwave conditions.
8. ―Aliyah‖
 the migration of the Jewish diaspora to Israel
 Among the Indian groups which migrated in large numbers are the Bene-Israelis from Maharashtra, Cochin Jews,
Baghdadi Jews from Kolkata, as well as some from the so-called ―lost tribe‖ of B‘nai-Menache from Manipur.
9. Gulf of Aden
 Piracy incidents
 warship INS Sharda has been deployed for anti-piracy operations in the region since April 6.
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10. Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion
and Profit Shifting
11. ferroelectret nanogenerator (FENG)
 paper-thin, flexible device, scalable and bidirectional, meaning it can convert mechanical energy to electrical energy
and electrical energy to mechanical energy
 can generate energy from human motion
 has been used to power a keyboard, LED lights and an LCD touch-screen.
 could one day lead to foldable loudspeakers or even talking newspapers
12. In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)
 A process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm outside the body, in vitro ("in glass").
 The fertilised egg (zygote) is cultured for 2–6 days in a growth medium, an embryo culture, and is then transferred to
the same or another woman's uterus, with the intention of establishing a successful pregnancy.
13. In Vitro Gametogenesis, (IVG)
 scientists will likely be able to create a baby from human skin cells that have been coaxed to grow into eggs and
sperm and then used to create embryos that can be implanted in a womb.
 With IVG, two men could have a baby that was biologically related to both of them, by using skin cells from one to
make an egg that would be fertilized by sperm from the other.
 Women with fertility problems could have eggs made from their skin cells
 Some scientists are even talking about what they call the ―Brad Pitt scenario‖ when someone retrieves a celebrity‘s
skin cells from a hotel bed or bathtub.
19th MAY 2017

1. National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)
 The Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) is a Naga insurgent group demanding a sovereign Naga
state, "Nagalim", which would consist of all the areas inhabited by the Naga people in Northeast India and
Northwest Myanmar.
 The NSCN (K) has been designated a terrorist organisation in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,
1967.
 The NSCN (I-M) signed a peace accord with the Government of India in August 2015 in presence of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, and NSA Ajit Doval
2. Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development
 a cash award of Rs. 1 crore
 awarded by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust (IGMT)
 For the year 2014, ISRO was selected for the prize
 For the year 2015, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was selected for the prize.
3. Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) or Mangalyan
 It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on PSLV C25.
 It is orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014.
 It is India's first interplanetary mission
 ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European
Space Agency.
 It is the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit,
 It is the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.
 At Rs. 450 crore, it is the world‘s cheapest mission to Mars.
 The mission is a "technology demonstrator" project to develop the technologies for designing, planning,
management, and operations of an interplanetary mission.
 The secondary objective is to explore Mars' surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian atmosphere
using indigenous scientific instruments
 An illustration of the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft is featured on the reverse of the ₹2,000 currency note of
India.
4. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

 has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987
 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society and
 to organize Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes.
 In every State, State Legal Services Authority has been constituted.
 In every District, District Legal Services Authority has been constituted.
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5. Nyaya Sanyog or ‗Legal Assistance Establishments‘
 to be established by NALSA as State Legal Services Authorities‘ offices all over the country
 will cater to poor litigants and the families of undertrials languishing in jails to get quick access to justice.
 will provide facilities that enable litigants to access court documents, case status and connect to their advocates
online and through dedicated phone numbers.
6. M777 ultralight howitzers
 manufactured by BAE Systems of USA
 In November 2016, India entered into a contract with the U.S. government for buying 145 BAE Systems built
M777 A-2 artillery guns in a $737-million deal.
 Twenty-five of them will be imported and 120 assembled in India in partnership with the Mahindra group.
 These are the first modern 155-mm artillery guns to be inducted after the Swedish Bofors guns in the 1980s, the
deal for which kicked up a major controversy and left the Army‘s artillery modernisation programme stalled for
years.
 The Bofors guns, found effective during the Kargil war, continue to be the mainstay.
7. Bofors scam
 The Bofors scandal was a major political scandal that occurred between Sweden and India during the 1980s and
1990s, initiated by Indian National Congress (Congress party) politicians and implicating the Indian prime minister,
Rajiv Gandhi, and several other members of the Swedish and Indian governments who were accused of receiving
kickbacks from Swedish arms manufacturer Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply India's 155 mm field
howitzer
 It was the biggest arms deal ever in Sweden, and money marked for development projects was diverted to secure this
contract at any cost. The investigations revealed flouting of rules and bypassing of institutions
8. ‗Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2017‘
 A Bill that seeks to deter economic offenders from fleeing the country by attaching and confiscating properties
owned by them in India.
 The Bill makes provisions for a special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to declare a person a
‗Fugitive Economic Offender‘.
 A Fugitive Economic Offender is a person who has an arrest warrant issued in respect of a scheduled offence and
who leaves or has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or refuses to return to India to face criminal
prosecution.
 It comes against the backdrop of India seeking the extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya from the U.K. for
defaulted loans to banks.
9. African Development Bank
 The African Development Bank (AfDB) has 81 member countries, 57 of which are from Africa. India is among the
other 24 non-regional members
 annual meeting of AfDB in Gandhinagar, Gujarat in May 2017
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the meeting,
 PM had in the India- Africa Summit committed a $10 billion line of credit to African nations.
20th MAY 2017

1. Anti-profiteering clause in GST
 This clause requires businesses to pass on the benefit of input credit or tax reduction to the end consumer by way of
a commensurate reduction in prices.
2. Coal allocation scam (Coalgate)
 It is a major political scandal concerning the Indian government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to public
sector enterprise (PSEs) and private companies.
 In 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused the Government of India of
allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 2004–2009.
 The essence of the CAG's argument is that the Government had the authority to allocate coal blocks by a process of
competitive bidding, but chose not to. As a result, both public sector enterprises (PSEs) and private firms paid less
than they might have otherwise.
 In its draft report, the CAG estimated that the "windfall gain" to the allocatees was ₹10,673 billion (US$170
billion)
3. GTO (geosynchronous transfer orbit)
 It is a Hohmann transfer orbit used to reach geosynchronous or geostationary orbit using high thrust chemical
engines.
 It is a highly elliptical Earth orbit
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 Geosynchronous orbits (GSO) are useful for various civilian and military purposes, but demand a great deal of Delta-
v to attain.
 single, long-duration burns can be less efficient, and there may also be limitations on a spacecraft‘s engines that
prevent them from firing for too long.
 A typical launch vehicle injects the satellite to a GTO. The satellite's low thrust engines are thrusted continuously
around the GTO in an inertial direction and finally the satellite reaches geosynchronous or geostationary orbit.
4. Cryogenic engine
 A cryogenic rocket engine is a rocket engine that uses a cryogenic fuel or oxidizer, i.e., its fuel or oxidizer (or
both) are gases liquefied and stored at very low temperatures.
 cryogenic temperatures (i.e. below −150 °C )
 Notably, these engines were one of the main factors of NASA's success in reaching the Moon by the Saturn V
rocket.
 Currently, six countries have successfully developed and deployed cryogenic rocket engines: They are USA,
Russia, France, China, India and Japan.
5. Kalibangan
 Kalibangan (literally black bangles) is located in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan.
 It was one of the main sites of the Indus Valley Civilization
 Most scholars agree that it was located on the bank of River Saraswati which dried up by 2000 BC.
 Kalibangan has given the evidence of both Pre-harappan culture in the lower layer and harappan civilization in the
upper layer.
 The most important discovery of Kalibangan is a ploughed field.
 The bricks used in Kalibangan were earthen ones and Kalibangan was not as better planned.
 There was no drainage system in Kalibangan.
 Kalibangan is also a site which has given an evidence of earliest recorded ―Earthquake‖. The earthquake is dated
back to 2600 BC and is considered to have contributed to the end of this remarkable site of the Indus Valley
Civilization.
6. M. S. Swaminathan
 Agri-scientist
 He is known as "Indian Father of Green Revolution" for his leadership and success in introducing and further
developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India.
 He is an advocate of moving India to sustainable development, especially using environmentally sustainable
agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity, which he calls an "evergreen revolution."
7. Evergreen Revolution
 Advocated by agri-scientist M. S. Swaminathan
 It means:
1. environmentally sustainable agriculture
2. sustainable food security
3. preservation of biodiversity
8. 90:90:90 strategy
 A concept introduced by the United Nation‘s programme on HIV/AIDS in 2013.
 The idea is that by 2020, 90% of people who are HIV infected will be diagnosed, 90% of people who are diagnosed
will be on antiretroviral treatment and 90% of those who receive antiretrovirals will be virally suppressed.
 Viral suppression is when a person‘s viral load – or the amount of virus in an HIV-positive person‘s blood – is
reduced to an undetectable level.
9. Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART)
 Standard antiretroviral therapy (ART) consists of the combination of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to maximally
suppress the HIV virus and stop the progression of HIV disease.
 ART is an effective way of suppressing serum viral RNA levels and increasing CD4 cell counts in a vast majority of
patients with acute and early HIV infection.
 It improves the lifespan and quality of life of those infected, and saves them from many opportunistic infections,
especially TB.
 ART also prevents onward transmission of HIV.
 WHO recommends ART for all people with HIV as soon as possible after diagnosis without any restrictions of CD4
counts.
10. Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index
 Ranking through Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study
 The HAQ Index is based on death rates from 32 ailments that could be avoided by timely medical intervention.
 India has fallen 11 places, and now ranks 154 out of 195 countries.
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 Last year, India was ranked 143 among 188 countries.
11. Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
 At Kudankulam in the Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu.
 Construction is by NPCIL and Atomstroyexport of Russia.
 Construction on the plant began on 31 March 2002, but faced several delays due to the fishermen's objection.
 The reactors are pressurised water reactor of Russian design, model VVER-1000.
 They are water-cooled, water-moderated power reactors.
 Unit 1 was synchronised with the southern power grid on 22 October 2013.
 Due to operators and suppliers requirement for insurance, the cost of units 3 & 4 is twice the cost of units 1 & 2.
12. Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
 It is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements (Australia, China,
India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand).
 RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
 The agreement is scheduled to be finalized by the end of 2017.
 RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement which
includes several Asian and American nations but excludes China and India.
13. Nano-hologram
 A team of scientists from RMIT University and the Beijing Institute of Technology have designed the 'world's
thinnest' hologram.
 It can be seen without 3D goggles and is 1,000 times thinner than human hair.
 Integrating holography into everyday electronics would make screen size irrelevant – a pop-up 3D hologram can
display a wealth of data that doesn‘t neatly fit on a phone or watch.
14. Combustible ice
 It is a frozen mixture of water and concentrated natural gas.
 Technically known as methane hydrate
 It can be lit on fire in its frozen state
 It has been found beneath seafloors and buried inside Arctic permafrost and beneath Antarctic ice.
 It is believed to comprise one of the world‘s most abundant fossil fuels.
 It was successfully mined by a drilling rig operating by China in the South China Sea.
 A drilling crew in Japan reported a similar successful operation offshore the Shima Peninsula.
21st MAY 2017

1. Ministry of Happiness
 Established in Madhya Pradesh with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as its first ―happiness minister.‖
 MP is to devise a Happiness Index for the State with help from IIT-Kharagpur (the only institute to have a
Happiness Centre)
2. Gross National Happiness
 Bhutan is the first and so far only country to have officially adopted gross national happiness instead of gross
domestic product as their main development indicator.
3. World Happiness Report
 measure of happiness published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network since 2012.
 For 2017, India ranked 122.
4. Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) base station
 To be established in Telangana for the Navy
 ELF (3 to 30 hertz) base station which will be used as a communication hub for submarines.
 India will be only the second country to use ELF for communication purposes after Russia.
5. Bergenin
 a phytochemical isolated from tender leaves of sakhua or sal tree (Shorea robusta).
 bergenin compound modulates the immune system to kill the bacteria found inside macrophages (type of white blood
cells)
 A 100-fold reduction in TB bacterial load in lungs of mice achieved after 60 days of treatment using bergenin
 tribals use the leaves of sal tree for wound-healing.
6. Mangiferin
 a compound present in the bark of all mango trees. Also found in the leaves and fruit of mango trees
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 It is known to possess several beneficial properties — antioxidant, antitumour, anticancer, antidiabetic and
antibacterial properties.
 mangiferin reduced cell death — it increased the expression of proteins which act against cell death and decreased
the proteins causing cell death.
 AIIMS doctors showed the protective effects of mangiferin on reperfusion injury in diabetic rats
 Reperfusion injury happens in heart tissues when blood supply returns after a heart attack.
7. Apoptosis
 programmed cell death
 Unlike earlier known trigger mechanisms that involve chemicals being released by the cell destined for death, recent
study found there is a physical mechanism.
 The study has found that a particular type of imperfection in the alignment of the cells appears to be correlated with
the position of the cell destined to die.
8. Monarch Butterfly
 North American butterfly, and is considered an iconic pollinator species
 notable for its annual southward late-summer/autumn migration from the northern and central United States and
southern Canada to Florida and Mexico.
 During the fall migration, monarchs cover thousands of miles, with a corresponding multi-generational return north.
9. Kuiper Belt
 It is a circumstellar disc in the Solar System beyond the (known) planets, extending from the orbit of Neptune (at
30 AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun.
 It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive.
 Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies, or remnants from the Solar System's formation.
 While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely
of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia and water.
 The Kuiper belt is home to three officially recognized dwarf planets: Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake.
10. Dwarf planet
 In August 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) demoted Pluto to a dwarf planet
 In the Solar System, a dwarf planet is a celestial body which:
1. is in orbit around the Sun,
2. has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape), and
3. has not "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.
11. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)
 diverse group of tropical infections which are especially common in low-income populations in developing regions
of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
 They are caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminths.
 These diseases are contrasted with the big three diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria), which
generally receive greater treatment and research funding.
 Seventeen neglected tropical diseases are prioritized by WHO.
 Of these 17, two were targeted for eradication (dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease) by 2015 and yaws by 2020),
and four for elimination (blinding trachoma, human African trypanosomiasis, leprosy and lymphatic filariasis by
2020).
12. Elimination of a disease
 A disease is considered ‗eliminated‘ when the prevalence rate in a regional population is less than 1 case per 10,000
population size.
13. Eradication of a disease
 It is the reduction of an infectious disease's prevalence in the global host population to zero.
14. Mycobacterium Indicus Pranii (MIP)
 It is a non-pathogenic mycobacterial species
 translational application as an immunotherapeutic
 The origin of the proposed name is a combination of the site of isolation of the bacterial species from India (indicus),
discovery by Pran Talwar (pranii) and characterization at the National Institute of Immunology, India
 A vaccine developed will be administered to people living in close contact with leprosy patients.
15. Leprosy
 Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD)
 is a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae
 Symptoms that develop include granulomas of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes.
 Contrary to popular belief, it is not highly contagious
 Leprosy is curable with a treatment known as multidrug therapy.
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 Is an NTD
 India plans to eliminate by 2018
16. Elephantiasis or lymphatic filariasis
 disease caused by parasitic worms known as filarial worms.
 The worms are spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes
 Most cases of the disease have no symptoms.
 Some people, however, develop a syndrome called elephantiasis, which is marked by severe swelling in the arms,
legs, or genitals.
 The skin may become thicker as well, and the condition may become painful.
 Is an NTD
17. Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) or Kala-Azar
 transmitted through the bite of the female sand fly.
 In India, a majority of cases are reported in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
 Rapid diagnostic tests followed by single day treatment now makes rapid cure possible.
 Sandflies breed on mud walls, so vector control by indoor spraying with insecticides and ultimately with improved
housing can result in their control.
 Is an NTD
18. Titan
 Saturn‘s largest moon
 Outside of Earth, Titan is the only other planetary body in the solar system with actively flowing rivers, though
they‘re fed by liquid methane instead of water.
 Clouds condense and rain down on the surface, feeding rivers that flow into oceans and lakes.
 Titan, like Mars but unlike Earth, has not undergone any active plate tectonics in its recent past.
19. Alzheimer‘s disease
 chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time.
 It is the cause of 60% to 70% of cases of dementia.
 The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss).
 As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting
lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioural issues.
 The disease process is associated with plaques and tangles in the brain. Clumps of a protein called amyloid plaques
form around nerve cells in the brain, tangle them, resulting in cell death.
20. Ebola virus disease
 cause a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever in humans and other mammals
 also, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea,
 spreads easily by contact with bodily fluids.
 The natural reservoir of Ebola virus is believed to be bats, particularly fruit bats
 2013–2015 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, which has resulted in at least 28,616 suspected cases and 11,310
confirmed deaths
 It spread between countries, starting in Guinea then moving across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia.
 Recent cases in in an isolated part of Democratic Republic of Congo.
21. Female Aedes aegypti mosquito
 mosquito that can spread dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever, yellow fever viruses, and other diseases.
 Only the female bites for blood, which she needs to mature her eggs.
22. Female Anophelese mosquito
 mosquito that can spread malaria, filariasis
23. Culex mosquito
 mosquito that can spread Japanese encephalitis, also filariasis, and avian malaria
24. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
 forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economies that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
 The twenty one (21) member economies are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia,
New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, United States, Chinese Taipei, People‘s Republic of China,
Hong Kong, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Chile, Peru, Russia, and Vietnam.
 It accounts for about 50% of the world‘s trade and almost 60% of global GDP.
 Among APEC‘s objectives is ensuring that goods, services, investment and people move easily across borders in the
Asia-Pacific region.
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 The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and a famous tradition, followed for
most (but not all) summits, involves the attending leaders dressing in a national costume of the host country.
25. Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
 A trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru,
Singapore, the United States (until 23 January 2017) and Vietnam.
 The finalized proposal was signed on 4 February 2016, concluding seven years of negotiations.
 It currently cannot be ratified due to U.S. withdrawal from the agreement on 23 January 2017.
 The TPP contains measures to lower both non-tariff and tariff barriers to trade, and establish an investor-state dispute
settlement (ISDS) mechanism.
22nd MAY 2017

1. India‘s renewable energy target
 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022
 100 GW of solar of which 40 GW of rooftop solar
 60 GW of wind
 10 GW of Biomass
 5 GW of Small Hydro
 unlikely that the government will meet the 175 GW target because of solar rooftops segment lagging. Every other
segment is moving on track.
2. G-Filter
 Students from IIT Jodhpur and traditional potters worked together to develop it
 The 20-litre filter receptacle looks like a flowerpot and has micro-nano pores through which water percolates
due to gravity.
 An average of eight litres of water percolates in 10 hours when the receptacle is running at full capacity.
 provides clean drinking water in poor village households at very low costs.
3. Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)
 a company that makes a part or subsystem that is used in another company's end product.
 For example, if Acme Manufacturing Co. makes power cords that are used on IBM computers, Acme is an OEM.
4. INS Vikramaditya
 modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier which entered into service with the Indian Navy in 2013
 44,500-tonne aircraft carrier; can carry over 30 aircrafts
 Originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987, the carrier served with the Soviet Navy
 later with the Russian Navy as Admiral Gorshkov before being decommissioned in 1996.
 was purchased by India on 20 January 2004 for $974 million
 after years of negotiations, a final price of $2.35 billion
 The Central Information Commission has asked the Navy to disclose the reasons for India agreeing to cost escalation
by Russia for purchase.
 Also, to disclose reasons why India chose to opt for a refurbished warship instead of buying a new one.
5. Quasar
 The term "quasar" originated as a contraction of "quasi-stellar radio source", because quasars were first identified
as sources of radio-wave emission, and in photographic images at visible wavelengths they resembled point-like
stars.
 High-resolution images of quasars, particularly from the Hubble Space Telescope, have demonstrated that quasars
occur in the centers of galaxies
 It is an active galactic nucleus of very high luminosity.
 A quasar consists of a supermassive black hole surrounded by an orbiting accretion disk of gas.
 As gas in the accretion disk falls toward the black hole, energy is released in the form of electromagnetic radiation.
 Quasars emit energy across the electromagnetic spectrum and can be observed at radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet,
and X-ray wavelengths.
 The most powerful quasars have luminosities exceeding 1041 W, thousands of times greater than the luminosity of a
large galaxy such as the Milky Way
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23rd MAY 2017
1. Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ)
 Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ) is a defined area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal to protect the monument from
pollution.
 The TTZ comprises over 40 protected monuments including three World Heritage Sites the Taj Mahal, Agra
Fort and Fatehpur Sikri.
 TTZ is so named since it is located around the Taj Mahal and is shaped like a trapezoid.
 The Supreme Court of India delivered a ruling on December 30, 1996 regarding industries covered under the TTZ,
in response to a PIL seeking to protect the Taj Mahal from environmental pollution.
 It banned the use of coal/ coke in industries located in the TTZ with a mandate for switching over from coal/ coke
to natural gas, and relocating them outside the TTZ or shutting down.
2. Canola
 It is the international trade name for mustard carrying lower levels of erucic acid — less than 2% — in oil and is
considered as one of the healthiest options.
 Canola oil is imported in India
 Agriculture scientists believe a ―yellow revolution‖ in Punjab is possible which can emerge as the canola hub of
the country.
3. H1N1 influenza or swine flu
 was the most common cause of human influenza (flu) in 2009
 In June 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new strain of swine-origin H1N1 as a pandemic.
This strain is often called swine flu by the public media.
 outbreak in several parts of Kerala recently
4. Indian Institute of Technology – Madras campus
 The 236-acre campus was once part of the Guindy National Park
 220 deer and eight blackbucks have died in last two years on the sprawling campus
 Blackbuck is a Schedule-I species under the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972, an endangered species.
5. Arisaema translucens or cobra lily
 was recently rediscovered in the western Nilgiris after 84 years.
 Featuring a distinctive translucent spathe, it was last collected by E. Barnes in 1932.
 Barely a few hundred cobra lily plants are left in the wild
 found only in a small area measuring less than 10 sq. km. in the Nilgiris.
 Toda tribals of the Nilgiris know the plant well
6. Bheem Army Ekta Mission
 established in July 2015 by Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan with the sole aim of empowering Dalits through education.
 runs almost 300 schools in Saharanpur and districts in its vicinity
 massive protest at Jantar Mantar against Dalit atrocities in Saharanpur, UP
7. Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (1916 –1968)
 He was one of the most important leaders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the present day Bharatiya
Janata Party.
 In 1951, when Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Deendayal was seconded to the party by
the RSS, tasked with moulding it into a genuine member of the Sangh Parivar.
 Upadhyaya conceived the political philosophy Integral Humanism – the guiding philosophy of the Bharatiya Janata
Party.
 The philosophy of Integral Humanism advocates the simultaneous and integrated program of the body, mind and
intellect and soul of each human being.
 His philosophy of Integral Humanism is a synthesis of the material and the spiritual, the individual and the collective.
 He visualised for India a decentralised polity and self-reliant economy with the village as the base.
 He died under unexpected circumstances and was found dead on 11 February 1968 at Mughal Sarai railway yard.
8. Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
group of nuclear supplier countries that seek to prevent nuclear proliferation by controlling the export of materials,
equipment and technology that can be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
The NSG was founded in response to the Indian nuclear test in May 1974.
India wants to be a member of NSG
Membership by consensus
NSG has 48 members including China
9. Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT)
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 international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote
cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and
general and complete disarmament.
 treaty entered into force in 1970.
 As of August 2016, 191 states have adhered to the treaty, though North Korea, which acceded in 1985 but never
came into compliance, announced its withdrawal from the NPT in 2003.
 India has not signed ; calls it discriminatory
 The treaty defines nuclear-weapon states as those that have built and tested a nuclear explosive device before 1
January 1967; these are the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China. Four other states are
known or believed to possess nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, and North Korea have openly tested and declared
that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel is deliberately ambiguous regarding its nuclear weapons status.
10. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
 It is an intergovernmental organization of 13 nations as of 2017.
 OPEC's members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (the
de facto leader), United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela, while Indonesia is a former member.
 founded in 1960 in Baghdad by the first five members (Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela)
 headquartered since 1965 in Vienna.
 As of 2015, the 13 countries accounted for an estimated 42 percent of global oil production and 73 percent of the
world's "proven" oil reserves, giving OPEC a major influence on global oil prices that were previously determined by
American-dominated multinational oil companies.
11. Apache helicopters
 attack helicopters of USA
 India has contracted 22 of these through the Foreign Military Sales programme.
12. Chinook helicopters
 heavy-lift helicopters of USA
 India has contracted 15 of these through the Foreign Military Sales programme.
13. Rudra helicopters
 Manufactured by HAL
 Inducted
 armed version of HAL Dhruv (ALH)
14. International Solar Alliance (ISA)
 India launched an International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the CoP21 Climate Conference in November 2015
 invited all countries located fully or partly between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn to join,
 to function from the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurgaon.
 to share collective ambitions to reduce the cost of finance and technology that is needed to deploy solar power
widely; generation and storage technologies would be adapted to the individual countries‘ needs.
 Among the tasks that the Alliance would pursue are, cooperation in training, building institutions, regulatory issues,
common standards, and investment including joint ventures.
 The alliance entered into an understanding with the World Bank for accelerating mobilization of finance for solar
energy.
 The Alliance, consisting of 121 countries, is led by India.
 Nauru recently became the sixth country to ratify it.
24th MAY 2017

1. Hyperloop
 proposed mode of passenger and freight transportation
 proposed by inventor-businessman Elon Musk of SpaceX in 2012
 The concept envisages a pod-like vehicle being propelled through an evacuated tube, under reduced pressure in
vacuum-like conditions.
2. Pod Design Competition
 2nd competition to be held in August 2017 at Hawthorne, California by the company SpaceX.
 The idea is to have a scaled-down pod prototype that can traverse a one mile long evacuated tube in a vacuum
and seat only one passenger.
3. Hyperloop India
 the only team in the country to reach the final design stage of Pod Design Competition
 It will build the OrcaPod, a prototype for speeds of up to 460 km per hour.
4. SpaceX
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 It is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company.
 It was founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and
enabling the colonization of Mars.
 SpaceX has since developed the Falcon launch vehicle family and the Dragon spacecraft family.
 It is the first privately funded company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon in 2010)
 It is the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012)
 In March 2017, SpaceX became the first to successfully re-launch and land the first stage of an orbital rocket.
5. Vizhinjam seaport project
 Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multi purpose Seaport is a greenfield port been developed at Vizhinjam in
Thiruvananthapuram, capital city of Kerala.
 CAG report highlights unfavourable conditions in the concession agreement of having gone against the interests of
the Kerala government and to the advantage of Adani Ports and SEZ Private Limited.
6. Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme
 It will offer accomplished NRI scientists the opportunity to undertake research in India for a maximum period of
three months every year, while granting them the status of adjunct faculty in an Indian institution round the year.
7. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
 ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia.
 The practice is found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East in some communities
8. khatna
 involves cutting the part of the clitoral hood or the prepuce, of girls as young as seven years.
 Dawoodi Bohra community practices it in India
9. EU-BTIA (Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement)
 has been deadlocked since 2013, despite 16 rounds of negotiations.
 Mr. Modi‘s visit to the European Commission in April 2016 failed to bring about any agreement to even resume the
talks that essentially broke down over high taxes, market access and India‘s concerns over visas for skilled workers.
10. International Space Station
 It is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit.
 The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km
 Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest man-made body in low Earth orbit
and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth.
 The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA,
and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
 The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components.
 ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and American Space Shuttles.
 The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct
experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields.
25th MAY 2017
1. Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy

 Judge of the High Court for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
 Rajya Sabha initiatied impeachment proceedings against him
 second attempt by members of the upper house to remove him, after the first one by 61 MPs on December 5, 2016
failed, as 19 signatories withdrew.
 Allegations against the judge include interfering in the judicial process in several cases, and caste slurs, including
death threats against a Dalit junior civil judge
2. Asia Africa Growth Corridor
 proposed by the Prime Ministers of India and Japan in November 2016.
 conceived as a more open and inclusive programme that will be based on more consultations and keep people as the
centre piece rather than just trade and economic ties, unlike China‘s One Belt One Road (OBOR) project.
 proposes four key elements that leverage the strengths of India and Japan.
1. enhancing capacity and skills;
2. building quality infrastructure and connecting institutions;
3. development and cooperation projects in health, farming, manufacturing and disaster management;
4. people-to-people partnerships.
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3. Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)
 The 25-year-old body to be phased out
 The decision is aimed at making India more attractive for foreign direct investment (FDI) by improving ease of doing
business and promoting the ‗Maximum Governance, Minimum Government‘ principle.
 ―Work relating to processing of applications for FDI and approval of the government‖ would now be handled by the
concerned ministries/departments in consultation with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)
Ministry of Commerce.
4. GST Network
 IT infrastructure of the GST network
 The government owns 49% and private companies own 51% stake
 The 49% government holding is divided along the lines of 24.5% Centre and 24.5% states and UTs
 The 51% is divided between five companies.
 The 24.5% of the states and the Centre have three board members each,
 51% private companies have three board members.
 Concerns of sensitive private data being used for private purposes,
26th MAY 2017
1. Grace marks policy of CBSE

• Under the moderation policy, students were given grace marks as per the difficulty level of questions in
examinations.
• In April 2017, the CBSE and 32 other boards decided to abolish the practice.
• Delhi High Court, while hearing a public interest litigation petition, directed the CBSE not to implement its
decision this year, as it would otherwise impact the prospects of Class 12 students who have already applied for
institutions abroad.
• Delhi High Court appreciated the move as it attempted to bring in uniformity in the evaluation system, however, it
said the decision should have been taken prospectively.
2. National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)
 a government regulatory agency set up in 1997 as per executive order (and thus not a statutory body) that controls the
prices of pharmaceutical drugs in India.
 It advices the Government of India in matters of drug policies and pricing. It renders advice to the Central
Government on changes/ revisions in the drug policy.
 It has powers to implement and enforce the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 1995/2013.
 It can fund studies regarding pricing of drugs.
 It also has the task to monitor drug shortages and take appropriate actions to rectify it.
 It also has to collect and maintain data regarding the import and export of drugs, market shares of pharmaceutical
companies and their profits.
 It also handles legal disputes that arise out of policies created by it.
 It recently capped the prices of coronary stent, and 31 more drugs
3. Dhola-Sadiya bridge
 India‘s longest river bridge, 9.15-km-long
 It is 3.55 km longer than Mumbai‘s Bandra-Worli Sea Link
 inaugurated in May 2017
 construction began in 2011 under the public-private-partnership
 over the Brahmaputra river
 will reduce travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh from six hours to just one hour.
 Bearing in mind the necessity for quick movement of troops and artillery to the bordering state of Arunachal, the
bridge has been designed to accommodate the movement of tanks.
 State-run Steel Authority of India Limited was the largest supplier of steel for the Dhola-Sadiya bridge.
4. In-Flight Connectivity (IFC)
 Proposed to be provided in India.
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 At present, both domestic and international passengers are unable to use in-flight Internet services over Indian
airspace.
 Even international airlines that offer such a facility to its passengers have to discontinue the service while the aircraft
is flying over the Indian airspace.
 The Centre will need to amend the Telegraph Act, 1885, as well as the related Indian Telegraphy Rules to provide
on-board Wi-Fi services.
 It promises to substantially improve safety of airlines as it enables flight tracking in respect of aircraft in near real
time reporting latitude, longitude, altitude, true heading and ground speed; streaming of flight data recorder of the
aircraft in real-time; and facilitating real time intervention for safety and security based on flight data monitoring,‖
5. Start-up definition India
 Under Start-up India scheme, a start-up is defined as:
i. an entity that is headquartered in India
ii. which was opened less than seven years ago. For the biotechnology sector, the period is up to 10 years
iii. has an annual turnover less than Rs. 25 crore
iv. is working towards innovation, development, deployment, and commercialisation of new products, processes, or
services driven by technology or intellectual property and scalability of business model with a potential for
employment generation or wealth creation.
 A Letter of Recommendation from an incubator/industry body for recognition or tax benefits no longer required
w.e.f. May 2017.
27th MAY 2017
1. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017,

 The rules, notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on May 23
 Those who wish to sell cattle — bulls, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and camels — may do so only after they
formally state that the animals have not been ―brought to the market for sale for slaughter‖.
 Buyers of cattle at animal markets will have to verify they are agriculturalists and declare that they will not sell the
animal/s for a period of six months from the date of purchase.
 Buyers should ―follow the State cattle protection and preservation laws‖ and ―not sacrifice the animal for any
religious purpose‖.
 They also prohibit cattle purchased from animal markets being sold outside the State, without permission.
 Monitoring committees at the State and district levels will be set up to implement the rules and monitor the
functioning of animal markets.
 District Animal Market Monitoring Committee, which will be chaired by the Collector or District Magistrate, will
identify and register cattle markets; any new market that is set up will need its approval.
 To inhibit smuggling, animal markets may not function within 25 kilometres of a State border and 50 kilometres of
an international border.
 Provisions to prevent the cruel transport and treatment of animals also included.
 Prohibited practices that are cruel and harmful include sealing teats of the udder using any material such as
adhesive tapes to prevent the calf from suckling, putting any ornaments or decorative materials on animals, using
any type of muzzle to prevent animals from suckling or eating food and injecting oxytocin into milch animals.
 While individuals have not been prevented from selling cattle for slaughter, representatives from the meat and
livestock industry have expressed serious concern about the adverse impact of the notification on industry,
employment as well as the export sector.
2. TAPAS 201 or Rustom-2
 TAPAS 201 is India‘s indigenously developed long-endurance combat-capable drone.
 Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) has designed and developed TAPAS 201 with HAL-BEL as the
production partners.
 ADE is the Bengaluru-based lab of DRDO.
 The UAV weighing two tonnes accomplished the operations like take-off, bank, level flight and landing among
others.
 It has an endurance of 24 hours.
 It is fully capable of conducting Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions for the armed forces.
 It is also capable of being used as an unmanned armed combat vehicle on the lines of the US‘s Predator drone.
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3. Pratyangira
 It is 1,046-year-old stone idol of Narasimmee
 It was stolen from the Vriddhagiriswarar Temple in Vriddhachalam, Tamil Nadu, nearly 15 years ago.
 The ancient Chola temple of Vriddhagiriswarar was commissioned by Sembiyan Mahadevi, among the most
powerful queens of the Chola empire and an ardent worshipper of Lord Siva.
 The idol was bought by the Canberra-based National Gallery of Australia (NGA) from alleged idol smuggler and
antique dealer Subhash Kapoor.
 It was returned to Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, when he visited Australia in September 2016.
 The ancient Chola temple of Vriddhagiriswarar was
4. National Electronic Fund Management System (NEFMS)
 For direct and faster release of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
(MGNREGS)
5. Mann ki Baat
 a radio programme where Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about issues close to his heart directly to the
listening public
 31 episodes completed
6. Jan ki Baat (voice of the people)
 a survey on Mr. Modi‘s personal app, the Namo App, has been launched (closing June 15) with an exhaustive list of
questions and multiple choice answers ranging from very bad to excellent ratings.
 To know what exactly they think of his government‘s performance as it enters its fourth year.
 Nearly all government schemes launched by the current dispensation have been listed for rating
 More significantly, the survey seeks to find out not just where the respondent is residing but the Assembly
constituency where he/she votes before starting off with the survey.
7. Tea Board of India
 The Tea Board of India is a state agency of the Government of India established to promote the cultivation,
processing, and domestic trade as well as export of tea from India.
 It was established by the enactment of the Tea Act in 1953 with its headquarters in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).
 The Tea Board India is responsible for the assignment of certification numbers to exports of certain tea
merchants.
 This certification is intended to ensure the teas‘ origin, which in turn would reduce the amount of fraudulent
labelling on rare teas such as ones harvested in Darjeeling.
28th MAY 2017
1. Hizbul Mujahideen
 It is a Kashmiri separatist group.
 It is designated a terrorist organisation by India, the European Union and the United States,[
 Founded by Muhammad Ahsan Dar in September 1989.
 Holding a pro-Pakistan Ideology, the group is considered to be the largest indigenous militant group in Kashmir.
 Its commander Sabzar Ahmad Bhat and his associate killed in an encounter in Pulwama in May 2017.
 Bhat had taken over as the militant outfit‘s group commander after the death of Burhan Wani in July 2016.
2. eMigrate programme
 After hundreds of complaints from workers about mistreatment, the MEA‘s Overseas Affairs department (then a
separate ministry) had in July 2015 set up a database initiative called the eMigrate programme, that gathers
extensive information on emigrants as well as foreign employers, their companies and recruiting agents.
 eMigrate programme mandates inspection of premises of UAE companies
 The United Arab Emirates, one of the largest employers of Indians in the Gulf, has raised a red flag with the Ministry
of External Affairs over what it terms as ―sovereignty issues.‖
 Other Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, had also raised issues earlier.
3. Blue-collar workers
 workers in labour intensive sectors including construction, industrial sector, transport, etc.
4. Solar wind
 It consists of a plasma of electrons and protons flowing away from the sun at hypersonic speeds.
 Its existence was first inferred indirectly in the 1950s by observing the shapes of comet tails.
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5. Comets
 They are icy wanderers that travel far into space and make an appearance periodically in the skies when they pass
close to the Sun.
 Their shape is characteristic — a small rounded match-head-like halo followed by a long tail — and dictated by its
interaction with the solar wind.
 The halo and the tail consist of material that has sublimated from its icy nucleus and has been dragged out by the
solar wind.
6. Rosetta Mission
 Rosetta was a space probe built by the European Space Agency
 launched in 2004.
 Along with Philae, its lander module, Rosetta performed a detailed study of comet 67P/Churyumov–
Gerasimenko.
 In 2014, the spacecraft reached the comet, its lander module Philae performed the first successful landing on a comet,
though its battery power ran out two days later.
 Communications with Philae were briefly restored in June and July 2015, but due to diminishing solar power,
Rosetta's communications module with the lander was turned off on 27 July 2016.
 In September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by hard-landing on the comet in its Ma'at region.
7. Pliosaur
 a new species of a fossil found in Russia
 a large predatory marine reptile from the ‗age of the dinosaur‘ —
 Pliosaurs are a special kind of plesiosaur
 The plesiosaur possess an unusual body shape not seen in other marine vertebrates with four large flippers, a stiff
trunk, and a highly varying neck length.
 Pliosaurs are characterised by a 2m-long skull, enormous teeth and extremely powerful jaws, making them the top
predators of oceans during the ‗age of the dinosaurs‘.
8. Metastasis
 spread of a cancer or other disease from one organ or part of the body to another without being directly connected
with it.
9. Group of 7 (G7)
 group consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
 The European Union is also represented within the G7.
 G8 has become G7 from 2014 as Russia has been suspended due to its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
 A very high net national wealth and a very high Human Development Index are the main requirements to be a
member of this group.
10. Indian Economic Zone (IEZ) in Bangladesh
 India-Bangladesh MoU for construction of the IEZ in June 2015
 Indian investment in the Zone will be facilitated through the concessional Line of Credit (LoC) extended by the
Government of India to the Government of Bangladesh.
 aimed at increasing Indian investment in Bangladesh and giving a greater role to the private sector
 Trade balance is heavily in India‘s favour, as out of the total bilateral trade of $6.8 billion with Bangladesh in 2015-
16, India‘s exports were worth $6 billion.
 Boosting investments from India into Bangladesh is aimed at offsetting this trade imbalance.
 The move to increase investments from India also comes in the backdrop of China, in October 2016, promising
investments worth around $24 billion in Bangladesh.
11. India Emerging 20 (IE20) programme
 The initiative was introduced by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan‘s business and promotional agency, London &
Partners.
 It is on a mission to uncover some of India‘s most promising companies looking to expand on the international
stage.
 20 Indian tech start-ups have been named as the winners
 The 20 selected companies have been invited to London to help facilitate international partnerships, alliances and
business opportunities.
 They would also get insights about how to take advantage of London‘s unique position as a global business centre
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29th MAY 2017
1. Major Leetul Gogoi

 He had tied a man to an Army jeep and used him as a ‗human shield‘ from stone throwers in April 2017,
 A video of the incident had triggered a row with many condemning it.
 Farooq Dar, who was tied to the jeep, said he was not a militant or a stone-thrower, and was only returning home
after casting his vote in the by-election when he was hauled away.
 Court of Inquiry probing into the incident
 Awarded Army Chief‘s Commendation medal
 Army Chief justifies it was to boost the morale of young officers of the force who are operating in a very difficult
environment in the militancy-infested State.
2. Indore-Rajendranagar Express derailment
 In November 2016, 14 coaches of the Patna-bound train derailed, killing at least 152 passengers and injuring
183.
 The Commission of Railway Safety (CRS), under the Civil Aviation Ministry, hasn‘t submitted its preliminary
report on the incident.
 The accident became a high-profile case after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, suspecting sabotage, had
written to Home Minister Rajnath Singh demanding a high-level investigation.
 The Home Ministry then forwarded the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe the sabotage
angle.
 NIA officials said they were yet to get a report from the Commission and a team of Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) experts to finalise their investigations.
 The initial inquiry of the CRS which was held up for submission to authorities after the National
Investigation Agency started a probe into the case had identified ‗carriage and wagon defects‘ as the prime
reason for the accident.
3. Commission of Railway Safety (CRS)
 under the Civil Aviation Ministry to ensure independence
 CRS has to submit its preliminary report to the Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety and the Indian
Railway Board Secretary within one month of the inquiry, and it has to make the report public as well.
 The CRS then submits a detailed report within six months of the inquiry to the Chief Commissioner.
4. Pokkali
 a unique saline tolerant rice variety that is cultivated in an organic way in the water-logged coastal regions in Kerala.
 The brand Pokkali has received a GI tag.
 The rice is cultivated from June to early November when the salinity level of the water in the fields is low.
 From mid-November to mid-April, when the salinity is high, prawn farming takes over.
 The prawn seedlings, which swim in from the sea and the backwaters after the rice harvest, feed on the leftovers of
the harvested crop.
 Sluice gates are used to control the water flow to the fields.
 The rice crop, which get no other fertilizer or manure, draw nutrients from the prawns‘ excrement and other
remnants.
 Since the tidal flows make the fields highly fertile, no manure or fertilizer need to be applied; the seedlings just grow
the natural way.
 The organically-grown Pokkali is famed for its peculiar taste and its high protein content.
 Farmers claim that the rice — its grains are extra large — has several medicinal properties.
 Even a DNA library has been developed by the University of Arizona, USA, for the rice.
5. Bellandur lake
 In Bengaluru
 Frothing seen
 Had caught fire earlier
 increase in froth accumulation due to rains.
6. Swachch Bharat Mission
 launched by the Narendra Modi government on October 2, 2014, t
 goal of making India clean and open defecation-free by October 2, 2019.
7. GSLV Mk- III
 Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III is the heaviest rocket ever made by India
 It is capable of placing up to 8 tonne in a low Earth orbit, enough to carry India‘s crew module.
36 | Page
 If all goes well, this rocket could be India‘s vehicle of choice to launch ―Indians into space, from Indian soil
using Indian rockets.
 ISRO has already prepared plans of hoisting a two to three human crew into space as soon as the government gives it
a sanction of about $4 billion.
 If the human venture materialises, India would become only the fourth country after Russia, the U.S. and
China to have a human space flight programme.
8. G-20
 international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.
 founded in 1999 with the aim of studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining
to the promotion of international financial stability.
 summits since 2008
 The members include 19 individual countries and along with the European Union (EU). The EU is represented by the
European Commission and by the European Central Bank. Collectively, the G20 economies account for around 85%
of the gross world product (GWP), 80% of world trade (or, if excluding EU intra-trade, 75%), and two-thirds of the
world population.
9. Project 75I
 The Project 75I-class submarine is a follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarine for the Indian navy.
 Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire 6 diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature
advanced Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) systems to enable them to stay submerged for longer duration and
substantially increase their operational range.
10. Mylopotamos
 Scientists have identified a unique gene variant in people living in isolated Greek villages in Mylopotamos in
northern Crete that protects them from heart diseases despite enjoying a high-fat diet.
 have cardioprotective qualities.
 Researchers also found a separate variant of the same gene to be associated with lower levels of triglycerides in the
Amish founder population in the U.S.
11. Transparent frog species:
 A newly identified frog species — with transparent skin through which its beating heart is visible — is under
threat of extinction.
 The frog (Hyalinobatrachium yaku), discovered in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador, has unique physical and
behavioural traits.
30th MAY 2017
1. Disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa

 Jayalalithaa was an Indian politician who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
 She was initially convicted for misusing her office during her tenure of 1991-96. Some of the allegations involved
spending on her foster son's lavish marriage in 1996 and her acquisition of properties worth more than Rs.66.65
crore, as well as jewellery, cash deposits, investments and a fleet of luxury cars. This was the first case where a
ruling chief minister had to step down on account of a court sentence.
 The trial lasted 18 years and was transferred to Bangalore from Chennai.
 A judgement on 27 September 2014 in the Special Court convicted all of the accused — namely
Jayalalithaa, Sasikala Natarajan, Ilavarasi and V. N. Sudhakaran — and sentenced them to four years simple
imprisonment.
 Jayalalithaa was fined Rs.100 crore and the other three were fined Rs.10 crore each.
 She was convicted for the third time and was forced to step down from the Chief Minister's office for a second time.
 In May 2015, the Karnataka High Court overturned the trial court's verdict, acquitting those accused of all
charges. This paved the way for Jayalalithaa's return to power as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 23 May
2015.
 On 14 February 2017, the Supreme Court of India over-ruled the Karnataka High Court. Sasikala and the other
accused were convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment, as well as being fined Rs.10
crore (US$1.6 million) each.
 The case against Jayalalithaa was abated because she had died but fines were levied on her properties.
2. Cyclonic storm ‗Mora‘
 It lay centred over the Bay of Bengal
 Triggered heavy rains in Odisha.
 It made landfall in Bangladesh in the main port city of Chittagong
37 | Page
 It moves further north-northeastward to India.
 It could trigger massive landslides and flash floods in the north eastern states in India.
3. Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SR-SAM)
 Indian Army‘s global contest for two regiments of SR-SAM cancelled. The decision was taken at a meeting of the
Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley
 The case continued for 5-6 years and trials of certain equipment were conducted.
 The DAC has now decided to go in with additional Akash systems
 The Army has a requirement for four regiments of SR-SAMs. It had earlier ordered two Akash regiments and
formally began inducting them in May 2015. Two more regiments were meant to be procured.
 Earlier it was stated that Akash would be used at static formations and a more agile SRSAM to protect advancing
troops during war
4. Akash
 Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system developed by the Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO).
 The missile system can target aircraft up to 30 km away, at altitudes up to 18,000 m.
 It has the capability to "neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles" as well as
ballistic missiles.
 It is in operational service with the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.
5. Marawi
 It is a southern city of 200,000 people in Philippines
 It is held by Islamist militant group Maute since 23 May 2017.
 Military helicopters unleashed more rockets on positions held by the rebels.
 Maute is aligned with Islamic State
6. Participatory Notes
 They are commonly known as P-Notes or PNs
 They are instruments issued by registered foreign institutional investors (FII) to overseas investors, who wish to
invest in the Indian stock markets without registering themselves with the market regulator, the Securities and
Exchange Board of India - SEBI.
 SEBI permitted foreign institutional investors to register and participate in the Indian stock market in 1992.
 Investing through P-Notes is very simple and hence very popular amongst foreign institutional investors.
 SEBI is tightening norms for PNs
 It proposes levying a regulatory fee of $1,000 on every foreign portfolio investor (FPI) that issues ODIs or PNs.
 SEBI-registered FPIs will have to pay this fee once every three years for each of their ODI subscribers, beginning
April 1, 2017.
31st MAY 2017
1. Bhupen Hazarika
 He was an Indian playback singer, lyricist, musician, singer, poet and film-maker from Assam, widely known
as Sudhakantha.
 His songs, written and sung mainly in the Assamese language by himself, are marked by humanity and
universal brotherhood and have been translated and sung in many languages, most notably in Bengali and
Hindi.
 He is also acknowledged to have introduced the culture and folk music of Assam and Northeast India to Hindi
cinema.
 Recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padmashri (1997), Padmabhushan (2001) and Padma
Vibhushan (2012, posthumously)
 Hazarika was awarded with Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1992)
2. Vibrant Gujarat Summit
 It is the name given to a biennial investors' summit held by the government of Gujarat.
 The event is aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion
makers
 The summit is advertised as a platform to understand and explore business opportunities in the State of Gujarat.
 The 8th global Summit of Vibrant Gujarat was held from 9–13 January 2017.
 It was also the time when 3 Zika virus cases were detected in the country but kept under wraps.
3. Minesweepers or Mine Counter Measure Vessels
 Minesweepers are crucial to detect mines and explosives planted by the enemy targeting our ships as they
enter or leave harbours.
38 | Page
 The Indian Navy is presently left with four ageing minesweepers which will be retired by 2018 end.
 After repeated delays and protracted negotiations, India and South Korea are set to be close to finalising the
Rs. 32,640 crore deal for 12 for the Indian Navy.
 Goa Shipyard Limited has been nominated as the yard for construction by the government.
 The ships would be manufactured in India under Transfer of Technology.
 The first ship is expected to be delivered three years after the contract is signed.
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KEYWORDS

1. SAARC Satellite - GSAT-09

1. Justice C.S. Karnan

3rd MAY 2017

8. Index of Industrial Production (IIP)

4th MAY 2017

1. Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act

5th MAY 2017

6th MAY 2017

7th MAY 2017

1. One Belt, One Road (OBOR) or Belt and Road Initiative

8th MAY 2017

13. Cold fusion

9th MAY 2017

1. Justice C. S. Karnan contempt of court case

10th MAY 2017

11th MAY 2017

1. Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) 1976

12th MAY 2017

1. The Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act of 1939

13th MAY 2017

1. The National Herald

14th MAY 2017

1. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT— In)

15th MAY 2017

16th MAY 2017

17th MAY 2017

18th MAY 2017

19th MAY 2017

4. National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

20th MAY 2017

21st MAY 2017

22nd MAY 2017

24th MAY 2017

25th MAY 2017

1. Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy

26th MAY 2017

1. Grace marks policy of CBSE

27th MAY 2017

1. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Markets) Rules, 2017,

28th MAY 2017

1. Major Leetul Gogoi

30th MAY 2017

1. Disproportionate assets case against Jayalalithaa

31st MAY 2017

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