Headline : Hepatitis B and C major killers, but few know it Details : In News: On the World Hepatitis Day, the Union health minister pledged to join a campaign initiated by the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) to create awareness about the disease. Context of the topic: In India, more people are dying of Hepatitis B and C than HIV,
Read more• It is a chronic infective eye disease caused by infection with the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis which is transmitted through contact with eye and nose discharge of infected people, particularly young children who are most vulnerable to the infection. • It is also spread by flies which come in contact with the infected person and is most common under poor
Read more• Chandrayaan-2, the lunar mission, will be launched in April this year. • Under this mission ISRO for the first time will attempt to land a rover on the Moon’s south pole. • In Chandrayaan-1 mission, ISRO has spotted water on the moon. • Chandrayaan-2 is a further extension of the project as it also involves landing a rover on the
Read moreParagraph: DIRECTIONS for Question No. 24: The following question consists of two statements, one labelled ‘Assertion’ (A) and the other labelled ‘Reason’ (R). Examine these two statements carefully and decide if the Assertion and the Reason are individually true and if so, whether the Reason is a correct explanation of the Assertion. Select your answer using the code given below:
Read moreWhat is a missile? A missile is essentially a sophisticated bomb which after being released is governed by the laws of ballistics. The laws of ballistics means only the force of gravity acts upon it. It can be made more accurate and faster by attaching a propulsion system to the bomb and then it is called a rocket. If guided
Read moreThe global figures • The report shows that there were 5 million more malaria cases in 2016 than in 2015. • The estimated global tally of malaria deaths reached 445,000 in 2016 compared to 446,000 the previous year. • The African Region continues to bear an estimated 90% of all malaria cases and deaths worldwide. • About 80% of the
Read moreIntroduction • The national health policy had aimed at eliminating filariasis by 2015 but the deadline was extended to 2017 and now has been shifted to 2020. • But India is likely to miss the target date of stamping out elephantiasis or lymphatic filariasis. Filariasis • Filariasis, called hathipaon (elephant foot) locally, can cause limbs, usually the leg, knee downwards,
Read moreBrahmos: • It is a medium-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft or land. • It is a joint venture between the Russia’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation. • It has derived its name from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. Speed:
Read moreTRAPPIST-1: It is an ultra-cool dwarf star about 40 light years away, located in the constellation Aquarius. It is named after the telescope that discovered this system – TRAPPIST (Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescop) in Chile. The planets have sizes and masses comparable to the Earth and Venus. It is an ultra-cool star (unlike our sun). Therefore, liquid water
Read moreDhruv: Dhruv has been indigenously designed and developed by the HAL, and is powered by the Shakti engine jointly developed with Turbomeca of France. It is a twin engine, multi-role, multi-mission new generation helicopter. It is superior to the other helicopters used by the Army such as Cheetah and Chetak, both of which have single engine. It has been exported
Read moreBiofilms: A biofilm is an assemblage of microbial cells that is irreversibly associated (not removed by gentle rinsing) with a surface and enclosed in a matrix of primarily polysaccharide material. Van Leeuwenhoek, using his simple microscopes, first observed microorganisms on tooth surfaces and can be credited with the discovery of microbial biofilms. Microorganisms that form biofilms include bacteria, fungi and
Read moreSolar storms: It could refer to the following: Coronal mass ejection: Corona, the outer solar atmosphere, is structured by strong magnetic fields. Where these fields are closed, often above sunspot groups, the confined solar atmosphere can suddenly and violently release bubbles of gas and magnetic fields called coronal mass ejections. Solar flares: These are intense burst of radiations coming from the release
Read moreHow will NSG membership help India? Clean energy push: India is a growing country with massive energy needs. It has set for itself an ambitious goal of sourcing 40% of its power from non-fossil sources and here is where nuclear energy comes into play. India will need latest technology and NSG membership will come in handy. Though it got a
Read moreHyperloop: It is a system where magnetically levitating capsules are sent at high speeds through low-pressure tubes. It was entrepreneur Elon Musk who came up with the idea for a hyperloop. The Hyperloop project is being pegged as a mode of transport different from rail, mainly due to following reasons: It is said to be two-to-three times faster than the
Read moreHazardous Substance Management To promote safe management and use of hazardous substance in order to avoid damage to the health and env. International conventions Basel convention – control the transboundary mvmt of hazardous waste Non binding agreement Reduce the movement of hazardous waste between nations Prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed country USA, UK dumping e-waste in India,
Read moreCITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 35,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats
Read moreWhat is Cyberwar? Cyberwar is a form of war which takes places on computers and the Internet, through electronic means rather than physical ones. With an increasing global reliance on technology for everything from managing national electrical grids to ordering supplies for troops, cyberwar is a method of attack which many nations are vulnerable to. In cyberwar, people use technological
Read moreWhat is surrogacy? Surrogacy is where a woman becomes pregnant with the intention of handing over the child to someone else after giving birth. Generally, she carries the baby for a couple or parent who cannot conceive a child themselves – they are known as “intended parents”. There are two forms of surrogacy. In traditional surrogacy, the surrogate mother’s egg
Read moreNeutrino Very similar to electrons Second most abundant particles after photon Don’t carry any charge Are not massless Neutrinos are miniscule particles created in nuclear reactions, such as in the birth and death of sun and the stars, or in nuclear power plants. Neutrinos interact with matter via the weak force. The weakness of this force gives neutrinos the property
Read moreTo suppress wild female Aedes aegypti mosquito populations that cause dengue, chikungunya and Zika were launched in Maharashtra’s Jalna district. The technology uses genetically modified male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry a dominant lethal gene. When male GM mosquitoes mate with wild female mosquitoes the lethal gene is passed on to offspring. The lethal gene in the offspring kills the larvae before they reach adulthood.
Read moreThe Global Innovation Index (GII) aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation and provide the tools that can assist in tailoring policies to promote long-term output growth, improved productivity, and job growth. The GII helps to create an environment in which innovation factors are continually evaluated. The Global Innovation Index 2016 (GII), in its 9th edition this year, is
Read moreMeasles Measles is a deadly disease and one of the important causes of death in children. It is highly contagious and spreads through coughing and sneezing of an infected person. Measles can make a child vulnerable to life threatening complications such as pneumonia, diarrhoea and brain infection. Globally, in 2015, measles killed an estimated 1, 34,200 children—mostly under-5 years. In
Read moreWhat is Human embryo? An embryo is an early stage of development of a multicellular diploid eukaryotic organism. In general, in organisms that reproduce sexually, an embryo develops from a zygote, the single cell resulting from the fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm cell. The zygote possesses half the DNA of each of its two parents.
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Alexander Graham Bell When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us. Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. Before anything else, preparation is
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Thomas Edison I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. If
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Che Guevara The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall. Silence is argument carried out by other means. I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man. If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of
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Albert Einstein Quotes Imagination is more important than knowledge. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value. Two things are infinite: the universe and
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