Weekly Current Affairs – December 1st week

1. Significance of Indian Agriculture

2. Reservations in India
3. Alcohol Ban
4. Role of NGOs
5. Minimum Wages Act for domestic workers
6. Private member’s Bill
7. Citizenship Bill
8. Protection of Women from Sexual Harrassment
9. G20 summit
10. NASA’s InSight lands on Mars
11. ISRO’s imaging satellite HysIS
12. GSAT-11 ready
13. International Space Station

2018 Prelims Questions

Consider the following pairs:

Terms sometimes seen in news Context / Topic
1. Belle 2 experiment – Artificial Intelligence
2. Block chain technology – Digital Crypto currency
3. CRISPR – Cas9 – Particle Physics
Which of the pairs given above is/are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 2 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer: B

With reference to Indian history, who among the following is a future Buddha, yet to come
to save the world?
a) Avalokiteshvara
b) Lokesvara
c) Maitreya
d) Padmapani

Answer: C

“Rule of Law Index” is released by which of the following?

(a) Amnesty International
(b) International Court of Justice
(c) The Office of UN Commissioner for Human Rights
(d)World Justice Project
Answer: D

Which one of the following links all the ATMs in India?

(a) Indian Banks’ Association
(b) National Securities Depository Limit
(c) National Payments Corporation of India
(d) Reserve Bank of lndia
Answer: C

Consider the following pairs:

Craft Heritage of – Region
1. Puthukkuli shawls — Tamil Nadu
2. Sujni embroide — Maharashtra
3. Uppada Jamdani saris — Karnataka
Select the correct answer using the codes below.
a) 1 only
b) 1 and 2
c) 3 only
d) 2 and 3
Answer: A

The terms ‘WannaCry, Petya, Eternal Blue’ sometimes mentioned news recently are
related to
(a) Exoplanets
(b) Crypto currency
(c) Cyber attacks
(d) Mini satellites
Answer: C

Why is a plant called Prosopis juliflora often mentioned in news?

(a) Its extract is widely used in cosmetics.
(b) It tends to reduce the biodiversity in the area in which it grows
(c) Its extract is used in the pesticides.
(d) None of the above
Answer: B

“Momentum for Change: Climate Neutral Now” is an initiative launched by

a) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
b) The UNEP Secretariat
c) The UNFCCC Secretariat
d) The World Meteorological Organization.
Answer: C
Very recently, in which of the following countries having lakhs of people either suffered
from severe famine/acute malnutrition or died due to starvation caused by war/ethnic
conflicts?
(a) Angola and Zambia
(b) Morocco and Tunisia
(c) Venezuela and Colombia
(d) Yemen and South Sudan
Answer: D
Consider the following pairs :
Tradition State
1. Chapchar Kut festival — Mizoram
2. Khongjom Parba ballad — Manipur
3. Thang-Ta dance — Sikkim

a) 1 only
b) 1 and 2
c) 3 only
d) 2 and 3
Answer: B

The term “Two state Solution” is sometimes mentioned in the new in the context of the
affairs of
(a) China
(b) Israel
(c) Iraq
(d) Yemen

Answer: B

In which one of the following States is Pakhui Wildlife Sanctuary located?

(a) Arunachal Pradesh
(b) Manipur
(c) Meghalaya
(d) Nagaland
Answer: A

Consider the following pairs

Towns sometimes mentioned Country in news
1. Aleppo — Syria
2. Kirkuk — Yemen
3. Mosul — Palestine
4. Mazar-i-sharif — Afghanistan
Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
(a) 1 and 2
(b) 1 and 4
(c) 2 and 3
(d) 3 and 4
Answer: B

The well-known painting “BaniThani” belongs to the

a) Bundi school
b) Jaipur school
c) Kangra school
d) Kishangarh school
Answer: D

What is “Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)”, sometimes seen in the news?
(a) An Israeli radar system
(b) India’s indigenous anti-missile programme
(c) An American anti-missile system
(d) A defence collaboration between Japan and South Korea
Answer: C

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Oppn. rallies behind farmers

Context

 Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal shared
the stage, for the first time, at Friday’s Kisan Mukti March, leading a show of Opposition
unity in support of the farmers’ demands for fair prices and debt relief. Farmer leaders
welcomed the political support as a sign that the agrarian crisis is now on top of the poll
agenda in the run-up to the 2019 general election.
 Thousands of farmers from across the country took to the capital’s streets under the
banner of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), demanding
that the government pass legislation to guarantee remunerative prices and debt relief.
 Political parties spanning the Opposition spectrum turned up to express support at the
protest venue on Parliament Street.

Significance of Agriculture

 Though agriculture now accounts for less than 15% of gross domestic product (GDP), it
is still the main source of livelihood for nearly half of our population.
 Agriculture is still the core of our food security.
 With rising population and increasing needs, imports will not solve these problems for
ever.
Problems in Agriculture

 There is an intense pressure of population on land resulting in low land- man ratio in rural
areas.
 The landlessness and presence of marginal farming households are the consequences of
decades of land fragmentation.
 The landless or marginal farmers lack the resources to either buy or lease more land or
invest in farm infrastructure to compensate for the scarcity of land.
 Government procurement at the minimum support price is supposed to protect these
farmers but it mainly benefits the large traders.
 Small farmers typically do not have enough marketable surplus to justify the cost of
transporting the crop to government corporations in the towns.
 Uncertainty with the price of the produce is a cause of concern. Many farmers continue to
be at the mercy of the trader.
 Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) are also unfavourable because
farmers have to sell their produce through auctions in regulated markets controlled by
cartels of licensed traders.
 These cartels fix low purchase prices, extract large commissions, delay payments, etc.
 Despite subsidies on power, fertilizers, etc., input costs have been rising faster than sale
prices, squeezing the meagre income of the small farmers and driving them into debt.
 Other risks include weather, a weak monsoon or even a delayed monsoon, weak soil
fertility, pests and plant diseases, perishability of crops, etc

Assembly approves 16% reservation for Marathas

Context

 The Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a Bill proposing 16%

reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education. With this, 85% of the State’s
population will be entitled to constitutional benefits under Article 15(4), 16 (4) of the
Constitution.
 The approval of the Bill will also see the reservation limit go up from the current 52%to
68%, thus crossing the 50% ceiling set by Supreme Court. “This is a compelling
extraordinary situation demanding extraordinary solutions within the constitutional
framework,” the draft Bill says while suggesting it “expedient” to provide for 16%
reservation to the Marathas.

Some facts about Reservation policy in India

 When the Indian Constitution was ratified in 1950, it included a provision to reserve up to
22.5% of enrolment of marginalized group – 15% for Scheduled Castes and 7.5% for
Scheduled tribes. This was based on Census 1950.
  Articles 340, 341 and 342 of the constitution of India detail the classification and
reservation to be made in favour of members of Scheduled castes or scheduled tribes.
 In 1992 in the Indira Sawhney vs Union of India and others, the Supreme Court of India
in its judgement laid down that the total reservation cannot exceed 50% under the state.
 The reservation policy was intended to redress caste-based inequalities. It was thought to
be reviewed every ten years and removed when social justice for all was achieved.
However, the reservation system has been expanded to include the OBCs.
 In 1979, The Backwards classes Commission (popularly known as the Mandal
commission formed by the Janata Party in power) identified 3,743 communities which
comprised 52% of the Indian population as belonging to ‘socially and educationally
backward classes”. It recommended that 27% of seats be reserved for OBCS in addition
to existing 22.5% of seats reserved for SCs and STs. The recommendations were rejected
by Indira Gandhi led Government in 1980.
 1990-Mandal commission recommendations were implemented in Government Jobs by
Vishwanath Pratap Singh in the Janata Party led Government.
 The list of OBCs maintained by the Indian Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
is dynamic, with castes and communities being added or removed depending on social,
educational and economic factors. Further, every state has its own reservation norms
based on demographics, and maintains its own list of Other Backward Class (OBC).
 Reservation in Tamil Nadu has been included in the 9th schedule of the constitution of
India, which cannot be challenged in a court of law, for violation of fundamental rights
against Article 14 and 15.

Heroin seizures rise in Mizoram after ban on opioid painkillers

Context

 The quantity of heroin seized in Mizoram has increased steadily since 2014 when the
State government replaced total prohibition with controlled prohibition.

Details of the issue

 In 2014 the year Lal Thanhawla’s Congress government enacted the Mizoram Liquor
(Prohibition and Control) Act to end 18 years of a church-enforced ban on liquor
consumption.
 While enforcement officials attribute this trend to the 2013 countrywide ban on the sale
of painkiller capsules containing the opioid Dextropropoxyphene, the Church —
influential in Christian-dominated Mizoram — is sceptical about this “theory”.
 The heroin seizures, the Church argues, have undermined the government’s contention
that liquor helps wean people off drugs.
 Excise officials said there is no scientific evidence yet to link the seizure of drugs with
the government’s alcohol policy.
  But the church, which had in the run up to the November 28 Assembly election in the
State urged the political parties to push for prohibition, is convinced that availability of
liquor does not necessarily check drug abuse.
 “We engaged university teachers for a study on the effect of controlled prohibition,” said
Reverend B. Sangthanga, executive secretary of the Mizoram Synod of the Presbyterian
Church. “The finding was that liquor really damaged the Mizo society in terms of
depleting finances, domestic violence, increase in drug abuse and HIV/AIDS cases,” he
observed.
 The government, for its part, commissioned a study by a 27-member review and
evaluation committee, which examined the advantages and disadvantages of opening
wine shops in the State. The study, tabled in July, found that for every ₹1 of revenue
earned from alcohol, an estimated ₹2.85 was being spent on social costs.

General Facts about Alcohol Abuse

 According to NCRB data, 15 people die every day – or one every 96 minutes – from the
effects of drinking alcohol.
 Per capita consumption of alcohol in India increased 38 percent, from 1.6 litres in 2003-
05 to 2.2 litres in 2010-12.
 More than 11 percent of Indians were binge drinkers, against the global average of 16
percent.
 Maharashtra reported the most alcohol-related deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh and
Tamil Nadu.
 Major crimes and accidents are fuelled by alcohol, which also leads to sexual harassment
of women and robberies.
 Alcohol abuse is said to be the major reason behind that Tamil Nadu has the largest
number of widows under 30 years of age.
 According to the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre, quarter of all hospital admissions
and 69 percent of all crimes in Kerala are due in part to intoxication.

Effectiveness of Prohibition

 There are many examples in place which proves that previous bans in many states have
not worked according to the expectations.
 Prohibition of substances which give pleasure to people does not work.
 Prohibition is rejected by most public health scientists who know this field, even the
World Health Organisation does not recommend it.
 Both law and religion have not been successful in preventing the spread of alcoholism in
their countries.
 In Muslim countries, where the injunction against drinking is often the strongest, there
has been a steady rise in alcohol sales and consumption.
  According to a survey by Euromonitor, a research firm based in London, alcohol
consumption rose by 25 percent in West Asia and Africa between 2005 and 2010.
 Ban deprives States of an important source of revenue.
 For instance, in Tamil Nadu nearly Rs.30,000 crore, or 1/4th of its revenue in 2015-16,
came from taxes on the sale of alcohol and excise on manufacturing spirits.
 Gujarat has had a total alcohol ban since 1960, but this hasn’t stopped the sale and
consumption of alcohol in the state.
 It has been reported that its easier to get alcohol than food in Gujarat, with home-
delivered bottles.
 Haryana and Andhra Pradesh have also tried the failed experiment, only to roll back the
prohibition within few years.

Way Forward

 The history and facts clearly shows that liquor ban has not provided the governments
with the intended results, thus government must come up with measures that can change
the attitude and behavior of the citizens of India towards liquor consumption.
 This goal can be achieved only through better information and education about the evils
of alcohol consumption to the young generation.

Odisha NGO’s shelter homes to be closed

Context

 The Odisha government on Saturday ordered the closure of all shelter homes run by NGO
Good News India after inmates of its Dhenkanal home complained of sexual harassment
on the premises.

Basics of NGOs

 Non-Government Organisations are legally constituted organizations, operate

independently from the government and are generally considered to be “non-state, non-
profit oriented groups who pursue purposes of public interest”.
 The primary objective of NGOs is to provide social justice, development and human
rights. NGOs are generally funded totally or partly by governments and they maintain
their non-governmental status by excluding government representatives from
membership in the organization.
 In a democratic society, it is the state that has the ultimate responsibility for ushering
development to its citizens. In India, through the progressive interpretation of the
 Constitution and its laws and policies, the scope of development has been significantly
broadened to include not just economic progress for citizens, but also promotion of social
justice, gender equity, inclusion, citizen’s awareness, empowerment and improved
quality of life.
 To achieve this holistic vision of development, the state requires the constructive and
collaborative engagement of the civil society in its various developmental activities and
programs. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as the operational arm of the civil
society therefore have an important role in the development processes.

Some facts about NGOs

 India has possibly the largest number of active non-government, non-profit organizations
in the world. There has been a sharp increase in the number of new NGOs in the past
decade in India.
 According to a government study, there were only 1.44 lakh registered societies till 1970.
The maximum increase in the number of registrations happened after 2000. A recent
study commissioned by the government showed that there are about 3.3 million NGOs in
India by the end of 2009 i.e., one NGO for less than an average of 400 Indians. Even this
staggering number may be less than the actual number of NGOs active in the country.
 This is because the study, commissioned in 2008, took into consideration only those
entities which were registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or the Mumbai
Public Trust Act and its variants in other states.
 It can be noted that a great majority of the NGOs are small and about three-fourths of all
NGOs are run entirely by volunteers. About 13 percent of the NGOs have between 2 to 5
employees; about 5 percent have between 6 to 10 employees and only about 8.5 percent
NGOs employ more than 10 people.
 According to a survey conducted by society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA),
73.4 percent of NGOs have one or no paid staff, although across the country, more than
19 million persons work as volunteers or paid staff at an NGO.
 More often NGOs are registered as trusts, societies, or as private limited non-profit
companies, under Section- 25 of Indian Companies Act, 1956. They also enjoy income
tax exemption. Foreign contributions to non-profits are governed by Foreign Contribution
Regulation Act (FCRA), 1976.

Minimum Wages Act for domestic workers

Context

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking its intervention to bring dignity to
“India’s invisible workforce in the informal sector” — the domestic workers.

Demands
  The petition asked the Supreme Court to lay down guidelines to protect the workers’
rights.
 The petition sought the recognition of domestic work under the Minimum Wages Act,
1948.
 Their work hours should be reduced to eight a day and they should be given a mandatory
weekly off as a basic right under Article 21.

Need for guidelines

 Indian homes have witnessed a 120% increase in domestic workers in the decade post
liberalisation. While the figure was 7,40,000 in 1991, it has increased to 16.6 lakh in
2001.
 However, latent classism and lack of education make domestic workers prone to violence
and abuse at the hands of their employers and placement agencies.
 Worsening their vulnerabilities are the absence of proper documentation, which also
increases their reliance on employers to access social security benefits.
 As employment is largely through word of mouth or personal referrals, employment
contracts are rarely negotiated, leaving the terms of employment to the whims of the
employer.
 Other issues include- Major incidences of violence (physical and sexual) by employers
and the lack of redressal machinery for workers in this rapidly developing domestic
services industry.

Who is a domestic worker?

 A domestic worker is a person who is involved in domestic work like cleaning, washing,
cooking etc. He/she plays an important role in the wellbeing of the family but are often
neglected and abused by the members of family and the society.

Way ahead

 If the domestic workers are taken as assets & human resource, their standard of living
will increase if minimum wage is fixed. It is also important to create awareness about the
significant role played by the domestic workers in the wellbeing of the members of
family and society as a whole, thereby imparting behavioural change.

Backgrounder- International Labour Organisation’s Convention 189 on Decent Work for

Domestic Workers:
  The ILO convention 189 on domestic workers mainly aims to provide domestic worker a
decent working condition with daily and weekly (at least 24 h) rest hours, entitlement to
minimum wage, to choose the place where they live and spend their leave and protective
measures against violence etc.

Private member’s Bill

Context

 A BJP lawmaker from Karnataka has said he will move a Private Members’ Bill during
the winter session of parliament to facilitate the construction of a Ram temple at
Ayodhya.

Who is a Private Member? Any MP who is not a Minister is referred to as a private member.

What are Government Bills? Bills introduced by Ministers are referred to as government bills.

They are backed by the government, and reflect its legislative agenda. Private member’s bills
purpose is to draw the government’s attention to what individual MPs see as issues and gaps in
the existing legal framework, which require legislative intervention.

Introduction in the House

 The admissibility of a private member’s Bill is decided by the Rajya Sabha Chairman. In
the case of Lok Sabha, it is the Speaker; the procedure is roughly the same for both
Houses.
 The Member must give at least a month’s notice before the Bill can be listed for
introduction; the House secretariat examines it for compliance with constitutional
provisions and rules on legislation before listing.
 Up to 1997, private members could introduce up to three Bills in a week. This led to a
piling up of Bills that were introduced but never discussed; Chairman K R Narayanan,
therefore, capped the number of private member’s Bills to three per session.
 While government Bills can be introduced and discussed on any day, private member’s
Bills can be introduced and discussed only on Fridays.
 Fourteen private member’s Bills — five of which were introduced in Rajya Sabha —
have become law so far.

Oppn. wants change in Citizenship Bill

Context
  The Opposition MPs proposed an amendment to remove specific countries and religions
from the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, at a joint parliamentary
committee meeting on Tuesday
 The Bill proposes citizenship to six persecuted minorities — Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis,
Christians and Buddhists — from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who came to
India before 2014.
 It deliberated on the amendment moved by Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy and
Congress MP Sushmita Dev to make it religion and country neutral. “I have moved an
amendment that no specific religion or country should be named. Instead of that the Bill
should say that any person who leaves his country due to religious, linguistic and ethnic
discrimination should be eligible for Indian citizenship as stipulated in the amended Bill,”
Mr. Roy told The Hindu.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016

 The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 15, 2016, seeks to amend the Citizenship
Act, 1955 to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and
Pakistan, who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction.
 However, the Act doesn’t have a provision for Muslim sects like Shias and Ahmediyas
who also face persecution in Pakistan.
 The Bill also seeks to reduce the requirement of 11 years of continuous stay in the
country to six years to obtain citizenship by naturalisation.
 According to the Citizenship Act, 1955, an illegal immigrant is one who enters India
without a valid passport or with forged documents. Or, a person who stays beyond the
visa permit.

#MeToo: GoM may review law

 The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine sexual harassment at the

workplace may consider amending the law to ensure workplace safety, according to
government sources.
 The WCD ministry has shared with the Home ministry a meeting agenda, which includes
changes to the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition
and Redressal) Act, 2013, sources in the WCD ministry said.
 “The agenda mentions lacunae in the law as well as suggests ways to improve it,” said a
senior WCD ministry official, who did not wish to be identified. He added that the
guiding principles for making the amendments would be the Vishaka guidelines.

Vishaka guidelines
  The Vishaka Guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in 1997 lays the onus on the
employer to prevent or deter acts of sexual harassment, apart from “providing resolution,
settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment.”
 The Act lays down the duties of an employer: ensuring a safe working place, displaying
penal consequences of sexual harassment, creating awareness, as well as facilitating an
internal probe.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act

2013

 This act was enacted in April 2013 as India’s first law dealing with the protection of
women against sexual harassment at workplace.

Some important features of this act are as follows

 This Act aimed to provide every woman, irrespective of her age or employment status, a
safe and secure working environment free from all forms of harassment.
 This Act covered both the organized and unorganized sectors in India. The statute applied
to all government bodies, private and public sector organizations, non-governmental
organizations, organizations carrying out commercial, vocational, educational,
entertainment, industrial, financial activities, hospitals etc.
 This Act defined ‘sexual harassment’ in line with the Supreme Court’s definition in the
Vishaka Judgment.
 The Act extended the meaning of the word sexual harassment to include “presence or
occurrence of circumstances of implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in
employment, threat of detrimental treatment in employment, threat about present or
future employment, interference with work or creating an intimidating or offensive or
hostile work environment, or humiliating treatment likely to affect the lady employee’s
health or safety could also amount to sexual harassment”.
 The Act also introduced the concept of ‘extended workplace’ since sexual harassment is
not always confined to the primary place of employment. Therefore, the Act defined
‘workplace’ to include any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the
course of employment, including transportation provided by the employer for the purpose
of commuting to and from the place of employment.
 The Act provided for the establishment of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each
and every office or branches of the organization employing 10 or more employees, in
order to provide a forum for filing complaints to facilitate fast redressal of the grievances
pertaining to sexual harassment.
 It also provided for the establishment of local complaints committee (LCC) at the district
level by the Government to investigate and redress complaints of sexual harassment of
 the unorganized sector or from those establishments where the ICC has not been
constituted for the reason being, it having less than 10 employees.

Modi meets Trump, Putin ahead of G20 summit

Context

 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit

 Dates: 30 Nov 2018 – 1 Dec 2018
 Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

India suggested that the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) be called upon
to establish international cooperation that led to timely and comprehensive exchange of
information between the authorities and financial intelligence units.

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

 The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in

1989 on the initiative of the G7.
 It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring
about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas.
 The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
 The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of
legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist
financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
 The FATF monitors the progress of its members in implementing necessary measures,
reviews money laundering and terrorist financing techniques and counter-measures, and
promotes the adoption and implementation of appropriate measures globally.
 In collaboration with other international stakeholders, the FATF works to identify
national-level vulnerabilities with the aim of protecting the international financial system
from misuse.

About G20

 Formed in 1999, the G20 is an international forum of the governments and central bank
governors from 20 major economies.
 Collectively, the G20 economies account for around 85 percent of the Gross World
Product (GWP), 80 percent of world trade.
 To tackle the problems or the address issues that plague the world, the heads of
governments of the G20 nations periodically participate in summits. In addition to it, the
group also hosts separate meetings of the finance ministers and foreign ministers.
  The G20 has no permanent staff of its own and its chairmanship rotates annually between
nations divided into regional groupings.
 The first G20 Summit was held in Berlin in December 1999 and was hosted by the
finance ministers of Germany and Canada.
 2018 Summit will be the 13th meeting of Group of Twenty (G20) and the first G20
summit to be hosted in South America.

Member Countries

 The members of the G20 consist of 19 individual countries plus the European Union
(EU).
 The 19 member countries of the forum are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China,
France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South
Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States.
 The European Union is represented by the European Commission and by the European
Central Bank.

Objectives

 The Group was formed with an aim of studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level
discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability.
 The forum aims to pre-empt balance of payments problems and turmoil on financial
markets by improved coordination of monetary, fiscal, and financial policies.
 The forum seeks to address issues that go beyond the responsibilities of any one
organisation.

NASA’s InSight lands on Mars

Context

 Cheers and applause erupted at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory late on Monday night
as its Mars rover InSight touched down on the Red planet, capping a nearly seven-year
journey from design to launch to landing.

NASA’s Insight Rover

 NASA’s first-ever mission named as InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic

Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) dedicated to exploring the deep interior of
Mars.
  InSight is NASA’s Discovery Program mission that aims to place stationary lander
equipped with seismometer and heat transfer probe on surface of Mars to study red
planet’s early geological evolution.
 It is terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of most fundamental issues of
planetary and solar system science. It will help in understanding processes that shaped
rocky planets of inner solar system (including Earth) more than four billion years ago.
 The robotic lander will perform a radio science experiment to study internal structure of
Mars by deploying seismometer and a burrowing heat probe. It will measure Mar’s vital
signs such as pulse (seismology), temperature (heat flow probe) and reflexes (precision
tracking). It will let scientists understand how different its crust, mantle and core are from
Earth.
 Mars Insight’s goal is to listen for quakes and tremors as a way to unveil the Red Planet’s
inner mysteries, how it formed billions of years ago, and by extension, how other rocky
planets like the earth took shape.
 The unmanned spacecraft, launched nearly seven months ago, is NASA’s first to attempt
to touch down on Mars since the Curiosity rover arrived in 2012.
 More than half of 43 attempts to reach Mars with rovers, orbiters and probes by space
agencies from around the world have failed.
 NASA is the only space agency to have made it, and is invested in these missions as a
way to prepare for the first Mars-bound human explorers in the 2030s. “We never take
Mars for granted. Mars is hard,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator
for the science mission directorate.

ISRO’s imaging satellite HysIS is all set for Thursday launch

Context

 HysIS, the country's first hyperspectral imaging satellite for advanced earth observation,
is slated for launch on Thursday from Sriharikota.
 About 30 small satellites of foreign customers will be ferried on the PSLV launcher,
numbered C-43, the Indian Space Research Organisation has announced. They will go
into an orbit different from that of HysIS.

Context

 Nearly three minutes after lift-off on Thursday, India’s workhorse launch vehicle, the
PSLV, carrying 31 satellites on board soared in a trajectory crossing the path of the Sun
and sped to inject India’s Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), being dubbed ‘Sharp
Eye’, towards the launcher’s intended first orbit.
 Over the course of the next one hour, the team at Mission Control waited for the PSLV
C-43 to come up on the other side of the Equator to insert 30 small satellites from various
 countries into another orbit as requested by the customers. The 30 satellites were part of a
commercial launch.

Details of the launch

 In its 13th flight of the Core-Alone version and 45th launch of the PSLV, ISRO carried
one satellite each from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands and
Spain, and 23 satellites from the U.S. on board as co-passengers of the HysIS.
 To a question whether HysIS could be used for anti-terror operations, ISRO Chairman K.
Sivan said ISRO’s job was only to build the satellite, but did not rule out such a
possibility. “Our duty is to mainly build the satellite which can precisely identify an
object. The usage…we are not bothering. That depends on the users. Right now it is
meant for Earth Observation missions. But after seeing the results, may be…but it’s not
in our hands,” he said.

HysIS Details

 A hyperspectral imaging camera in space can provide well-defined images that can help
identify objects on earth far more clearly than regular optical or remote sensing cameras.
 The technology will be an added advantage in watching over India from space across
sectors including defence, agriculture, land use and mineral exploration.
 The new ‘eye in the sky’ can be used to even mark out a suspect object or person on the
ground and separate it from the background with applications in transborder infiltration
etc.
 The primary goal of HysIS is to study the Earth’s surface in visible, near-infrared and
shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
 HysIS will be ISRO's first full-scale working satellite with this capability. While the
technology has been around, not many space agencies have working satellites with
hyperspectral imaging cameras as yet.

Related Concept – Basics of PSLV and GSLV

 The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite
Launch Vehicle) are two rocket launch systems developed by the Indian Space Research
Organization, or ISRO, to launch satellites into orbit.
 The PSLV is the older of the two and the GSLV even inherits some of the technologies of
the former in its design.
 The main reason behind the advent of the GSLV is the capability to lift greater loads into
space. While the PSLV can only lift slightly over a ton of payload to GTO (Geostationary
 Transfer Orbit), the GSLV is capable of lifting more than double that with a rated
capacity of 2 to 2.5 tons.
 One of the main reasons why the GSLV has such an increased load is its utilization of a
cryogenic rocket engine for its last stage. The cryogenic rocket engine provides more
thrust than conventional liquid rocket engines but the fuel and oxidizer needs to be super
cooled in order to keep them in a liquid state.
 There is also a difference between the PSLV and GSLV in terms of the rocket itself. The
PSLV has 4 stages that alternate between solid and liquid fuels while the GSLV has three
stages with the only the first stage having solid fuel.
 Both rockets have been launched multiple times but the PSLV has had more because it is
older. When you look at their track records, it is easy to see that the PSLV is more
reliable.

5.8-tonne GSAT-11 ready for launch

Context

 A team of top officials and engineers of the Indian Space Research Organisation (IISRO),
now stationed in the Guiana Space Centre, South America, is going over the last steps
before it sees off the heaviest Indian communication satellite, GSAT-11, to its space
orbit.

Details of the launch

 The 5,854 kg satellite, almost double the biggest one built or launched by ISRO to date,
will ride up on European launch vehicle Ariane 5 ECA, numbered VA246, between 2.07
a.m. and 3.23 a.m. IST, according to the schedule of Arianespace, which is providing the
launch services.
 GSAT-11 is part of ISRO’s new family of high-throughput communication satellite
(HTS) fleet that will drive the country's Internet broadband from space to untouched
areas; the broadband domain is now ruled by underground fibre and covers partial and
convenient locations.
 Already up in space are two HTSs — GSAT-29 (November 14) and GSAT-19 (June
2017) — while one more is due to join them in the near future. They are all to provide
high-speed Internet data services at the rate of 100 Gbps (Gigabits per second) to Indian
users. ISRO has earlier said this speed would be far better than what is available in the
country now.
 The HTSs will also be the backbone of pan-India digital or easy Internet-based
programmes and services — such as Digital India, Bharat Net for rural e-governance, and
commercial and public sector VSAT Net service providers.
 According to ISRO, GSAT-11’s multiple spot beam coverage — 32 in Ku band and 8 in
Ka bands — will deliver an improved service of 16 gbps over the Indian region and
 nearby islands. It said, “GSAT-11 will play a vital role in providing broadband services
across the country. It will also provide a platform to demonstrate new generation
applications.”

Three astronauts will spend the next six-and-a-half months on the space station

Context

 A Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts arrived at the
International Space Station on Monday in the first manned mission since a failed launch
in October.
 The Soyuz is the only means of reaching the ISS since the U.S. retired the space shuttle
in 2011.

International Space Station (ISS)

 The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite,
in low Earth orbit. The ISS is now the largest artificial body in orbit.
 ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets as well as
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.
 The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for
missions to the Moon and Mars.
 The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km. It completes
15.54 orbits per day.
 ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later
Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US.
 Five different space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100-billion
International Space Station. NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation for Space
Activities (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and
the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners on the
project.
 The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties
and agreements. The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment
(ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations.