Short Terms : April 2013

Thuraya Satellite Phone 

• Thuraya from the Arabic name Thurayya meaning Star, is an international mobile satellite services provider based in the United Arab Emirates.
• Use of Thuraya Satphones was banned in India in 2010, after the company failed to convince the Indian government that its services could not be abused by terrorists targeting India.

Armed Forces ( Special Powers) Act 

• The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), was passed on September 11, 1958, by the Parliament of India. It grants special powers to the armed forces in what the act terms as "disturbed areas" in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was later extended to Jammu and Kashmir as The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990.
• According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in an area that is proclaimed as "disturbed", an officer of the armed forces has powers to:
• 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,

• Destroy any arms dump, hide-outs, prepared or fortified position or shelter or training camp from which armed attacks are made by the armed volunteers or armed gangs or absconders wanted for any offence.

• To arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed cognizable offences or is reasonably suspected of having done so and may use force if needed for the arrest.

• To enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests, or to recover any person wrongfully restrained or any arms, ammunition or explosive substances and seize it.

• 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 over to the officer in charge of the nearest police station with the least possible delay, together with a report of the circumstances occasioning the arrest.

• 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.

• Protection of persons acting in good faith under this Act from prosecution, suit or other legal proceedings, except with the sanction of the Central Government, in exercise of the powers conferred by this Act.

United Nations Arms Trade Treaty

• U.N. passed (with 154 members voting ‘Yes’; three — Iran, Syria and North Korea — voting no; and 23, including India, abstaining )an unprecedented arms trade treaty (ATT) to better regulate the international sale in weapons.
• In addition to India, the nations that abstained included China, Egypt, Myanmar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. Pakistan voted in favour of the treaty.
• Restricting arms movement to and from areas where groups are suspected of violation of human rights. 
• India's Stance : 
• The adopted treaty text covers weapons such as tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large-calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small and light arms
• However it does not explicitly cover predator drones and grenades. 
• Ammunition exports are subject to the same criteria as the other included items, although its imports are not covered.  

Ricin

• From the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, is a highly toxic, naturally occurring protein.
•  A dose the size of a few grains of table salt can kill an adult human.
•  Oral exposure to ricin is far less toxic and a lethal dose can be up to 20–30 milligrams per kilogram. 
• Abrin is a toxin similar to ricin, but more toxic, that is found in the highly ornamental rosary pea.
•  Acting as a toxin by the inhibition of protein synthesis.
• Ricin is classified as a type 2 ribosome inactivating protein (RIP).
• Using ricins in the treatment of cancer, as a so-called "magic bullet" to destroy targeted cells

Proxy Voting

• Proxy voting is a form of voting whereby some members of a decision-making body may delegate their voting power to other members of the same body to vote in their absence, and/or to select additional representatives.
• In 2003, India's People's Representative Act was amended to allow armed forces personnel to appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf.

Mealy Bug

• Mealybugs are insects in the family Pseudococcidae, unarmored scale insects found in moist, warm climates. They are considered pests as they feed on plant juices of greenhouse plants, house plants and subtropical trees and also acts as a vector for several plant diseases.
• In April 2013 : Outbreak of these pests found in papaya, hibiscus, sorrel leaves, tomato, brinjal etc. in Tamil Nadu.

Farm Pond

• The farm ponds are constructed at the lower side of the fields and the runoff from the higher side of the fields are channelised into the pond.
• Farm ponds play big role in tiding over droughts. 

Green Field Project

• In many disciplines a greenfield is a project that lacks any constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to remodel or demolish an existing structure.
• A greenfield investment is the investment in a manufacturing, office, or other physical company-related structure or group of structures in an area where no previous facilities exist.
• In wireless engineering jargon, a greenfield is a project which lacks any constraints imposed by prior networks.

Capital Control 

• Any measure taken by a government, central bank or other regulatory body to limit the flow of foreign capital in and out of the domestic economy
• This includes taxes, tariffs, outright legislation and volume restrictions, as well as market-based forces. Capital controls can affect many asset classes such as equities, bonds and foreign exchange trades.

Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor 

• Ahmedabad-Dholera (Gujarat), Shendra-Bidkin (Maharashtra), Manesar-Bawal (Haryana), Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana (Rajasthan), Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow (Madhya Pradesh), Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and Dighi (Maharashtra). These are the first seven National Manufacturing Investment Zones (NMIZs), spanning the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). 

M-Wallet

• Mobile wallet which is also abbreviated as M-Wallet, is a an electronic account that is linked to a person’s mobile phone in which money can be electronically deposited and the same can be used as cash

Specific Absorption Rate 

• Specific absorption rate is the measure of the rate at which energy is absorbed by the body when exposed to a radio frequency (RF) in electromagnetic field.
• Power absorbed per mass of tissue and its unit is Watts per kilogram (W/kg).
• It has suggested SAR limit for mobile handsets of 1.6 watt/kg averaged over a 6 minutes period and taken over a volume containing a mass of 1 gram of human tissue.
• The electromagnetic radiation pervading the environment is now increasingly realized and this has added to the list of another pollutant in the environment i.e. electro Pollution.

Article 62 and 63 of Constitution of Pakistan

• As per Article 62(g) of Constitution of Pakistan: Qualifications for membership of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament): 62 (g): he has not, after the establishment of Pakistan, worked against the integrity of the country or opposed the ideology of Pakistan.
• As per Article 63 of Constitution of Pakistan:Disqualifications for membership of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament):
• (h)   he has been, on conviction for any offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release; or       
• (i)    he has been dismissed from the service of Pakistan or service of a corporation or office set up or, controlled, by the Federal Government, Provincial Government or a Local Government on the grounds of misconduct, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his dismissal; or       
• (j)   he has been removed or compulsorily retired from the service of Pakistan or service of a corporation or office set up or controlled by the Federal Government, Provincial Government or a Local Government on the ground of misconduct, unless a period of three years has elapsed since his removal or compulsory retirement.

VOR - VHF Omni Directional Range

• Short range radio navigation system
• Utilizes radio frequencies in the VHF band from 108 – 117.95 MHz.
• Standard air navigational system in the world
• Used for both commercial and general aviation
• VOR stations are fairly short range: the signals have a range of about 200 miles.
• Relies on the ground based transmitters which emitted signals to VOR receiver.
• VOR is used to enhance the visibleness at the time of landing and takeoff by the airplanes at the airport.  Radio signals transmitted by a network of fixed ground radio signals and receiver unit in a plane receives them and in turn assists the pilot in determining the position of the airplane and thus stays on course.

DNA Profiling

• DNA profiling (also called DNA testing, DNA typing, or genetic fingerprinting) is a technique employed by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals by their respective DNA profiles. DNA profiles are encrypted sets of numbers that reflect a person's DNA makeup, which can also be used as the person's identifier.
• DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, is found in every cell with a nucleus in all living things. DNA consists of a chain of four different chemical compounds (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) that appear in pairs known as base pairs. The unique order in which a person’s  base pair are arranged determines physical characteristic like sex and hair color, as well as other genetic traits such as predisposition to certain diseases.

Minimum Alternate Tax(MAT) And AMT

• Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) is levied on companies as per section 115JB of the Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. And Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) is levied on limited liability partnerships (LLPs) as per section 115JC.
• MAT : If the income-tax payable by a Company, on the total income as computed under this Act in respect of any previous year relevant to the assessment year commencing on or after the 1st day of April, 2011, is less than 18.5% of its book profit.

i2i

• i2i is a submarine telecommunications cable connecting India to Singapore. This cable is owned by Bharti Airtel Limited of India.
• The Cable consists of 8 fibre pairs using DWDM Multiplexing with full capacity of 8.4 Tbit/s when all 105 wavelengths are used. 

System of Rice Intensification

• The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a methodology aimed at increasing the yield of rice produced in farming
• Principles included applying a minimum quantity of water and the individual transplanting of very young seedlings in a square pattern

Direct Seeding of Rice

• In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.

Aerobic Rice

• Aerobic rice is a production system in which 
  especially developed “aerobic rice” varieties are 
  grown in well-drained, non-puddled, and non-
  saturated soils
• Target Areas : 
• Favourable Uplands
• Fields on upper slopes rainfed lowlands
• Water short irrigated lowlands.

Magnitsky Act

• The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson-Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill which was passed by the U.S. Congress in November–December 2012
• In 2009, lawyer and auditor Sergei Magnitsky died in a Moscow prison after investigating fraud involving Russian tax officials
• Intention behind Law : prohibit their entrance to the United States and use of their banking system
• Bill was sponsored by Senator : Ben Cardin
• Russian Reaction : 
• proposal to similarly deny entrance to Americans guilty of gross human rights violations.
•  On December 19, 2012, the State Duma(lower house) voted 400 to 4 to ban the international adoption of Russian children into the United States. The bill was unofficially named after Dmitri Yakovlev(Chase Harrison), a Russian toddler who died in 2008 of heat stroke after neglect from his adoptive American father
• Both passed list of 18 nationals of each other country facing ban.

Short Terms : Mar 2013

Tax Residency Certificate (TRC)

• Section [90 A (4)] intends to say is, if you produce a TRC that is a complete answer to your status as a resident. But whether you are the beneficial owner is a separate issue.
• The TRC certifies that you are a resident. It does not certify you are a beneficial owner.

Indian Depository Receipt(IDR)

• IDRs are generally instruments denominated in rupees  created by a Domestic Depository (custodian of securities registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India)  nd allow overseas companies to raise funds from the Indian market.
• So far only the UK-based banking major Standard Chartered PLC was listed as an IDR. 

Operation Red Spider

• Operation Red Spider is a sting operation of an online magazine, Cobrapost in which it released hidden video footage showing high ranking officials and some employees of top three Indian banks(ICICI , HDFC , AXIS)suggesting to an undercover reporter methods to launder money and offering safe deposit lockers to stash away the black money and offered to open accounts without adhering to Reserve Bank of India guidelines and use ‘benami’ accounts to facilitate the conversion of the black money and keep the identity of the depositor a secret.
• The editor of Cobrapost.com Mr. Aniruddha Bahal his brought these video footage into the public domain on March 14, 2013.

Jhum/Jhoom Cultivation

• Tribal groups in the northeastern states of India like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, and also in the districts of Bangladesh like Khagrachari and Sylhet refer to slash and burn agriculture as "Jhum" or "Jhoom cultivation".
• This system involves clearing a piece of land by setting fire or clear felling and using the area for growing crops of agricultural importance such as upland rice, vegetables or fruits. After a few cycles, the land loses fertility and a new area is chosen.
• It is typically part of shifting cultivation agriculture.
• Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned.In shifting agriculture a plot of land is cleared and cultivated for a short period of time; then it is abandoned and allowed to revert to its natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot.
• Slash-and-char is an alternative to slash-and-burn that has a lesser effect on the environment. It is the practice of charring the biomass resulting from the slashing, instead of burning it as in the slash-and-burn practice.

Copyright Bill 2013

• The Copyright Rules, 2013 provide new rules for statutory licence for cover versions and broadcasting of literary and musical works and sound recording; compulsory licences for works withheld from public, unpublished and published works, for benefit of disabled; registration of Copyright Societies and Performer’s Right Societies; storage of transient or incidental copies of woks; making or adapting the work by organisations working for the benefit of persons with disabilities; importation of infringing copies and technological protection measures.
• The minimum fee has been increased for registration from Rs. 50/- per work to Rs. 500/- per work and the maximum fee has been increased from Rs. 600/- per work to Rs. 5,000/-.  

Short Terms : Jan 2013

Foreign Portfolio Investment

• In economics, foreign portfolio investment is the entry of funds into a country where foreigners make purchases in the country’s stock and bond markets, sometimes for speculation.
• It is a usually short term investment (sometimes less than a year, or with involvement in the management of the company), as opposed to the longer term Foreign Direct Investment partnership (possibly through joint venture), involving transfer of technology and "know-how".
• Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI): passive holdings of securities and other financial assets, which do NOT entail active management or control of the securities's issuer.

Green Haat

• Green Haat is an initiative of Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF), Govt. of India to raise awareness on the rich forest and bio diverse heritage of the country among the growing urban population often living far off from the forests.Green Haat 2013 “Brings Nature to Our Lives”.

Red October

• Termed ‘Red October’ or Rocra for short, the cyber spying campaign was launched in 2007 and is still active.
• Russia tops the list of countries with 38 detected infections, India ranks fifth with 14 infections, after Kazakhstan (21); Azerbaijan (15); and Belgium (15). The United States is also on the list with six attacks.
• The Rocra malware, called Backdoor.Win32.Sputnik, has been stealing data both from computer workstations, removable disk drives and smartphones, including iPhones, Nokia and phones running on Windows mobile.
• It is capable of regaining control of computers cured of the malware and has even stolen documents encrypted with classified software ‘Acid Cryptofiler’ used by NATO and the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 2011.

Sovereign Wealth Fund - SWF

• Pools of money derived from a country's reserves, which are set aside for investment purposes that will benefit the country's economy and citizens
• The funding for a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) comes from central bank reserves that accumulate as a result of budget and trade surpluses, and even from revenue generated from the exports of natural resources.

Endowment Fund

• An investment fund set up by an institution in which regular withdrawals from the invested capital are used for ongoing operations or other specified purposes.
• Endowment funds are often used by nonprofits, universities, hospitals and churches. They are funded by donations, which are tax deductible for donors.

Zones in Forest Area

• Successor to the controversial "no-go zone” concept, mining and other harmful non-forestry activities could soon be banned from forest areas identified as “inviolate”.
• Buffer zone :  one km around such protected area.

Most Favoured Nation

• The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatment must, nominally, receive equal trade advantages as the "most favored nation" by the country granting such treatment. (Trade advantages include low tariffs or high import quotas.)
• As MFN clauses promote non-discrimination among countries, they also tend to promote the objective of free trade in general.

Short Terms : Dec 2012

Session Initiation Protocol :

It is a signalling protocol used to create,manage and terminate sessions in an IP based n/w.A session could be a simple two-way telephone call or it could be a collaborative multi-media conference session. This makes possible to implement services like voice-enriched e-commerce, web page click-to-dial or Instant Messaging with buddy lists in an IP based environment.The SIP protocol is an Application Layer protocol designed by IEFT(Internet
Engineering Task Force).

Maritime Boundary :

A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of the Earth's water surface areas using physical and human geography.It usually includes areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources, encompassing maritime features, limits and zones. Although in some countries the term maritime boundary represent borders of a maritime nation and are recognized by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, they usually serve to identify international waters.
Maritime boundaries exist in the context of territorial waters, contiguous zones, and exclusive economic zones; however, the terminology does not encompass lake or river boundaries, which are considered within the context of land boundaries.