"You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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2 "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." - Eleanor Roosevelt

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6 *The meeting in Islamabad should have been a sign that India and Pakistan are able to adhere to internationally accepted norms in dealing with officers accused of espionage. *Instead, meeting has led quickly to an unseemly spat, with fears that bilateral ties could now deteriorate further. *Pakistan conducted a secret military court trial *We went to International Court of Justice: To pause the process *Pakistan made a humanitarian meeting into a media circus *The answer regarding this question can only be found through reasoned diplomacy.

7 Encephalitis: inflammatory brain disease

8 *A paper in the Indian journal Current Science suggests an unexpected cause for the inflammatory brain disease encephalitis found in Malkangiri district of Odisha. *Researchers say it was likely due to the consumption of a wild bean, called Bada Chakunda, which grows freely in the region. *Anthraquinones in the bean don t harm healthy people, but cause fatal dysfunction of the liver, heart and brain in underfed children. *This is only the latest in a series of such investigations in which suspected pockets of JE turned out to be something else.

9 *An illness around for three decades in U.P. s Gorakhpur turned out, primarily, to be scrub typhus last year, while epidemics in Bihar s Muzaffarpur were linked to lychee consumption, again among emaciated children. *Why? JE was indeed the biggest cause of encephalitis in India for decades, and today the public health diagnostic machinery is built around this illness. *But as JE vaccination rates have grown, incidence has shrunk, and a host of other causes of encephalitis, like dengue, scrub typhus, herpes simplex and the West Nile virus, have emerged to the forefront.

10 *If an encephalitis case cannot be confirmed as JE, doctors tag it as Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES). *just a temporary label for different unnamed diseases *It is time for Indian investigators such as (National Centre for Disease Control and the National Institute of Virology) to update their understanding of encephalitis and look at outbreaks through a wider lens.

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12 *Anti-corruption rallies in 2011 and the brutal rape of Nirbhaya in 2012 may have brought thousands of people out on the streets of Delhi but anti-pollution activism has largely been home-based. *Significant sections of recent reportage on Delhi s air pollution have trained their guns on paddy stalk burning in Punjab and Haryana, positioning it as a key contributor to the crisis. *Some have pinned the blame on the Green Revolution

13 *India Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur report published in 2016 cites municipal solid waste burning and vehicular pollution as critical contributors of air pollution apart from crop residue burning. *The report clearly states that if municipal solid waste burning was stopped and waste management upgraded, it would improve Delhi s air quality by 100%. *Control of vehicular pollution would do the same by 50% *Stopping crop residue burning would ensure 90%. *Delhi s air remains polluted throughout the year because of municipal solid waste burning and vehicular pollution. Crop residue burning only tips the scales in favour of a catastrophe. *10 million cars, tonnes of municipal solid waste is burnt every day.

14 Segregating Waste

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16 *National Security Strategy (NSS) of USA *China a challenger and rival *India s emergence as a leading global power and stronger strategic and defence partner * Quadrilateral cooperation with Japan, Australia, and India. *India should be wary of any attempts at being pitted as a front in the U.S. s efforts to check China s rise. *While the notion of the Indo-Pacific sounds grandiose and enticing, India must not forget that its primary area of concern is the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). *Securing its position here is vital before venturing elsewhere.

17 *Rules-based world order: Beneficial for India and world. *People s Liberation Army that it is planning to explore the possibility of more foreign military outposts in Africa, West Asia and other areas. *India must consolidate its position and not expect others to do its job, for it would only mean ceding space in the long run. *There are two ways of doing this beefing up Indian capacity and securing interests and then expanding partnerships to fill voids. *While the offer of help from various countries to help expand India s network in the region looks tempting, it actually reflects India s failure to establish its primacy in the region. Ideally, it should have been the other way round: India guiding outside powers in its backyard.

18 *India and Singapore concluded an overarching bilateral agreement for naval cooperation. *Besides being only India s second bilateral logistics arrangement, it gives it access to the Changi naval base at the mouth of the Strait of Malacca. *With Singapore s assistance, India is also working out modalities for joint multilateral exercises with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). *India is also negotiating similar logistics agreements with several other countries. *These developments show the way forward for India to engage with like-minded countries in the region without getting entangled in groupings which are seen as being targeted or military in nature. *Another initiative which fits the bill is the Goa Maritime Conclave hosted by the Indian navy last month where Navy Chiefs and maritime heads of 10 Indian Ocean littoral states brainstormed on ways to improve cooperation in the region. *It is an India-led initiative where the navy has offered to share information of maritime movement in real-time.

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20 *The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill 2017, which is set to be tabled in Parliament today, is riddled with so many internal contradictions that one is left wondering what purpose it would serve. *The stated intent of the Bill is to protect the rights of married Muslim women and to prohibit divorce by pronouncing talaq-e-biddat. *August 2017 Supreme Court judgment which neutralised the legal effect of instant talaq and rendered it bad in law. In other words, the pronouncement of talaq-e-biddat does not dissolve the marriage, and this is the law of the land under Article 141.

21 *The decision by the government agency, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to remove regulations that have disallowed Internet service providers (ISPs) in the U.S. from throttling, blocking or speeding up Internet content for firms that pay for faster access for customers. *The FCC s decision was made possible by a 3-2 vote on party lines, with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Trump appointee and a Republican, clinching it.

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23 Infiltration via LoC touches 4-year high: Home Ministry *Over 300 infiltrations were reported from the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017, which was a four-year-high, according to figures available with the Home Ministry. *An official said this explained the over 230% increase in ceasefire violations along the LoC this year compared to *As per the data available with the Army, which is deployed along the LoC, at least 33 infiltration bids were foiled this year. The 740-km LoC is under the operational control of the Army and the 192-km International Boundary (IB) in Jammu is manned by the Border Security Force (BSF).

24 Shoes of Jadhav s wife sent for tests *Pakistani authorities have sent the shoes worn by Kulbhushan Jadhav s wife, Chetana, for forensic examination to determine the nature of the suspected foreign object allegedly found in them, a media report said on Wednesday. *The authorities were ascertaining whether the metallic object was a camera or a recording chip, Pakistan Today quoted Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mohammad Faisal as saying. *A report in Dawn said the FO confirmed that a metallic substance had been detected in the shoes that were retained by security officials prior to the family s meeting with the Indian death row prisoner in Islamabad. All other belongings were returned, Mr. Faisal said.

25 Indian Science Congress to be held in March *The 2018 edition of the historic Indian Science Congress will be held at Manipur University, Imphal, in March. *The event was scheduled at the Osmania University (OU), Hyderabad, in the first week of January but had to be moved out due to security problems. *This was the first time the 106-year-old ISC the largest congregation of scientists in India had to be postponed at the last minute. *Since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, the ISC was traditionally the first public function the Prime Minister addressed in the calendar year. *India-born Chemistry Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan had castigated the congress as a circus.

26 Kerala govt. app maps 1,000 festivals *Festivals have always been a popular attraction for tourists visiting God s Own Country. Now as part of a re-branding exercise, Kerala Tourism is launching a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based inventory of around 1,000 festivals in the State. *These will be promoted as tourist attractions. *The map-based search allows a user to identify the location and plan the journey. It also includes details such as the annual festivities at the various shrines, boat races, Theyyams, music and dance festivals, and sporting events.

27 Kabul-Mumbai cargo service on *India and Afghanistan on Wednesday launched an air freight corridor service connecting Kabul with Mumbai. *Afghan Vice-President Sarwar Danish flagged off the first flight of the dedicated service from Kabul, six months after a similar corridor connected the city with Delhi. * The India-Afghanistan Air Corridor expanded today! His Excellency Afghan Vice-President Sarwar Danish inaugurated the first cargo flight from Kabul to Mumbai. Real and unimpeded connectivity for Afghan traders, said Indian envoy to Kabul Manpreet Vohra on social media.

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29 10 hurt in St. Petersburg supermarket blast *A home-made bomb blast at a supermarket in the Russian city of injured 10 people on Wednesday, officials said. * According to preliminary information, an explosion of an unidentified object occurred in a store, Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. *The city was the target of a metro bombing in April, which lead to fourteen deaths and dozens of people wounded. *The bombing was claimed by a group linked to al-qaeda which said it was a message to countries engaged in war with Muslims.

30 Govt. to borrow more; fiscal deficit may widen *The Centre has decided to borrow an additional D50,000 crore in the last three months of this financial year, a move that some economists said could result in the government missing its budgeted fiscal deficit target of 3.2% of GDP. *Announcing the borrowing calendar for the fourth quarter, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday said that the additional borrowing, which would be done through government bonds, would, however, be offset by trimming T-Bills (treasury bills) from D86,203 crore to D25,006 crore. *Any slippage from the fiscal deficit target this year, could have a knockon effect on the overall fiscal consolidation efforts.

31 Answers 1. Arrange them in correct chronological order Bimbisar Mahapdmananda Kanishaka-1 Skandagupta 2. First state to be created on linguistic basis is A. Gujarat B. Andhra Pradesh C. Kerala D. Haryana

32 Questions 1. The doctrine of 3 jewels: Right belief, Right conduct and Right knowledge is the crowning glory of A. Buddhism B. Christianity C. Jainism D. None of the above 2. Nuclear reactor harnesses nuclear energy by A. Nuclear fusion B. Spontaneous fusion C. Uncontrolled chain reaction D. Controlled chain reaction 3. Inflation is caused by A. Increase in supply of goods B. Increase in cash with the government C. Decrease in money supply D. Increase in money supply

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