January-2018 (Current Topics for Prelim-2018)

All important relevant topics covered from standard sources like, TH/PIB/IE/Downtoearth/Economic Times. Contents National & International Importance 1. MARPOL & SOLAS 2. ‘Trans-pacific pact could hurt India’ 3. India and Vietnam 4. Delhi Declaration 5. India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway 6. India admitted to Australia Group 7. Budapest Convention 8. What is Global Entry Programme? 9. Haj subsidy 10. New Delhi International Arbitration Centre 11. Bangladesh lifts ban on hilsa exports 12. What is consular access? 13. VAT introduced for the first time by Saudi Arabia, UAE 14. Iceland and Unequal Pay Based On Gender

POLITY ISSUES 1. Office of Profit 2. Should euthanasia be allowed? 3. Dual duty: on the twin responsibilities of States 4. Members of Parliament: Qualifications and Disqualification 5. Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir (J and K) 6. Laws in the Indian Constitution against Animal-Killing 7. The Malimath Committee 8. Joseph Shine v. Union of India 9. Inserting new Section in IPC was discussed

ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & GOVERNMENT SCHEMES 1. Litecoin: Whаt It Iѕ & Hоw It Wоrkѕ 2. NITI Aayog initiates the first course on Sustainable Urban Planning 3. Forced labour highest in India: Report 4. Pulse Polio Programme for 2018 5. Govt. announces 4 new schemes to promote young scientists 6. Centre determined to stabilise population growth 7. Recalculating ease of doing business 8. INSPIRE 9. Inclusive Development Index 2018 10. Unknown facts about Adhaar 11. Left behind: on the right to free, compulsory education 12. Operation Digital Board 13. What is Composition Scheme under GST? 14. Saksham-2018 15. What is Virtual ID, and how is it different from Aadhaar? 16. T.N. children severely malnourished: report 17. Taxable savings bonds 18. Zero Budget Natural Farming 19. The age of crypto-economics 20. How single-origin coffees in India disappeare 21. Food poisoning, a common outbreak in 2017 22. Three cryptocurrencies you need to know about 23. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India 24. Gross Value Added, GDP & Base Effect 25. Jal Mahotsav 26. Jal Marg Vikas Project 27. What is the Ghogha-Dahej ro-ro ferry? 28. What is the term ‘Channel Stuffing’ in Business? 29. What does the term ‘Time correction’ mean in Finance? 30. What is an electoral bond and how do we get one? 31. Online Portal ‘NARI’ 32. Ujh Project 33. What is Zojila tunnel in J&K? 34. Photovoltaic road tested in China 35. Electoral Bonds for political donations 36. Ministry of Railway launches SFOORTI Application 37. Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) 38. Schemes for Children Born With Low Birth Weight 39. Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan 40. Under-Five Child Mortality

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUES 1. Black Hole Eclipse 2. The many things that Lamin B2 can do 3. Blue Moon 4. Bacteria at war 5. Bone morphogenetic proteins 6. Adverse Events Following Immunisation 7. Blue Moon, Super Moon and Blood Moon 8. Rare ‘super blood blue moon’ 9. Mosquitoes can recall hosts’ smells, swats 10. Yttria-Stabilised Zirconia 11. HPV vaccine gets immunisation nod 12. First India-designed vaccine passes WHO test 13. Secrets of longevity protein revealed 14. Seasonal affective disorder 15. Calcium Sensor Protein (STIM1) 16. Meltdown and Spectre explaine 17. Building blocks of life seen in meteorites that fell in 1998 18. National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme 19. A pioneer in biotechnology 20. Why were prime numbers in the news recently? 21. What are Mersenne primes? 22. India unveils Pratyush 23. Expanding the donor pool 24. Unknown microbes identifiied in space 25. What does ‘learned non-use’ mean in the field of medicine? 26. What is tetanus? 27. Vitamin C improves the efficacy of TB drugs

ENVIRONMENT, ECOLOGY & GEOGRAPHICAL ISSUES 1. Oil moratorium at Belize Barrier Reef 2. The langurs south of Assam’s Aie 3. Red alert on the green index 4. A new type of virus found in our oceans 5. Mysterious ‘hot Jupiter’ 6. Environmental Performance Index 7. A turtle recovery plan 8. North-East India (Excluding-Brahmputra) Rivers Profile 9. Don’t judge a snake by its colour 10. CAC adopts Codex norms for three spices 11. A quiz on plants and all things green 12. Researchers unravel floral biodiversity 13. Sustainable farming and Hydroponics 14. A new weapon in the carbon fight 15. Chinese ‘rainbow dinosaur’ 16. State prepares ground for nesting of Olive Ridley 17. Elephants are irreplaceable seed dispersers 18. Goa bird festival 19. Sahara Desert 20. Mankidia denied habitat in Simlipal 21. India jumps to fourth place in computing capacity for weather forecasting 22. What is ‘bomb cyclone’ and why is it freezing USA? 23. Barren island 24. What are bosons and how did they get their name? 25. What are asteroids and how are they grouped? 26. Tabby’s star 27. ‘Lucy’ walked upright 28. Albania is losing its national bird to rampant poaching 29. Come July, label mandatory for food certified as ‘organic’ 30. Agasthyarkoodam trek 31. Nilambur teak and Geographical Indication (GI) tag 32. WHO okays Bharat Bio typhoid shot 33. Arunachal declared open defecation-free State 34. Humpback whale in Kerala 35. Warming may turn quarter of Earth arid 36. Malabar sanctuary home to new night frog species 37. New species of reptile found in Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary 38. Three nests of rare vulture species spotted in Cambodia 39. New endemic ants from the Andamans 40. Two new Ginger species found in the northeast

OTHER PRELIMS RELATED ISSUES 1. Lala Lajpat Rai 2. Scorpene-class submarine Karanj 3. Stone tools offer insights into history of human evolution 4. What is the ‘moving sofa problem’? 5. First Slaughter of Chittorgarh by Allauddin Khilji in 1303 6. Archaeological foundation unearths Chola era temple 7. Who built the Indus Valley civilisation? 8. Tamil Sangam poetry 9. Rogan art in Kutch 10. Vikrant 11. Agni-5 ballistic missile 12. Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav-2018 13. World’s biggest flooded cave found in Mexico 14. Historians oppose Monuments Bill 15. Dharma-Dhamma Traditions 16. ISRO successfully launches 42nd PSLV with Cartosat-2 17. Cartosat-2 satellite launched 18. Akash missile 19. INS Arihant 20. Zuma mission 21. Hwasong-15, North Korea’s latest missile 22. What is SOFIA? NASA’s eye in the sky 23. Bilateral Defence Exercise 24. NASA to launch two missions to explore nearest space 25. The Konyaks 26. T.N.’s role in Quit India movement 27. P-8I long range maritime patrol aircraft 28. In democracy, what is ‘primary goods’? 29. What is the ‘Sarick effect’ in Psychology? 30. NCST Protection of Jarawa Tribes 31. How a British war memorial became a symbol of Dalit pride 32. Defence Acquisition Council 33. Mission to ‘touch’ sun on NASA’s 2018 list 34. UNESCO enters Turkey's endangered 'bird language' in Intangible Cultural Heritage list