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Michael Kremer formulated the O-ring theory in His article, “The O-ring Theory of Economic Development,” published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics  It presents a production function in which production consists of many tasks, all of which must be successfully completed for the product to have full value.  The O-Ring Theory owes its name to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration disaster in 1986, involving the space shuttle Challenger  The high temperature at which the shuttle was launched, which caused it to explode. The full length article is available at following link   http://upsconline.com/o-ring-theory-of-economic-development/

 Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP).  It is also called Gadgil Report on erosion in Western Ghats. Madhav Gadgil panel submitted its report in 2011. Its recommendations were as under:  Gadgil committee notified 64% of Western Ghats as ecosensitive.  The WGEEP, adopting a graded approach, recommended that Western Ghats should be classified into 3 ESZs.  ESZ1: regions of highest sensitivity or ecologically sensitive zone 1 ESZ2: regions of high sensitivity.  ESZ3: remaining regions of moderate sensitivity.  A ban on growing of single commercial crops like tea, coffee, cardamom, rubber, banana, pineapple that are causing widespread soil erosion. "A policy shift is urgently warranted curtailing the environmentally disastrous practices and switching over to a more sustainable farming approach in the Western Ghats.” Decommissioning of big projects like dams, thermal power stations that have completed their shelf life. It alleged that the EIA of the ...

 Chinese researcher He Jiankui set off a storm when he claimed that he had created the world’s first babies, a pair of twin girls, genetically edited with CRISPR-cas9. He said that the twins had genes now that protected them from HIV.  CRISPR-Cas9, a gene-editing technology that is being explored by scientists worldwide as a way of removing and replacing gene defects  CRISPR- Cas9 - Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats -discovered by Francisco Mojica (University of Alicante in Spain) -proposed that CRISPRs serve as part of the bacterial immune system, defending against invading viruses.   CRISPRs consist of repeating sequences of genetic code, interrupted by “spacer” sequences – remnants of genetic code from past invaders.  This system serves as a genetic memory that helps the cell detect and destroy invaders Since the CRISPR-Cas9 system itself is capable of cutting DNA strands, CRISPRs do not need to be paired with separate cleaving en...

 NALSA along with other Legal Services Institutions conducts Lok Adalats Lok Adalat is one of the alternative dispute redressal mechanisms, it is a forum where disputes/cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation stage are settled/ compromised amicably. Lok Adalats have been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 the award (decision) made by the Lok Adalats is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against such an award lies before any court of law. If the parties are not satisfied with the award then they are free to initiate litigation by approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction by filing a case by following the required procedure There is no court fee payable when a matter is filed in a Lok Adalat. If a matter pending in the court is referred to the Lok Adalat and is settled subsequently, the court fee originally paid in the court on the complaints/petition is also refunded b...

 In 1978, the etiologic agent of Korean Hemerologic fever was isolated from small infected field rodent Apodemus agrarius near Hantan river in South Korea. initial discovery dates back to scientific approaches that were initiated after the Korean war (1951-1953), during which more than 3000 cases of Korean hemorrhagic fever were reported among UN troops In 1981, Hantaan virus strain 76-118, isolated from Apodemus agrarius was grown in A549 cell line. Hantaviruses are negative-sense single-stranded RNA viruses that infect many species of rodents, shrews, moles and bats. Hantaviruses primarily replicate in the endothelium and might use integrins to enter cells.  Following entry, the virus synthesizes viral mRNA to produce viral proteins and replicate the genome Infection of reservoir hosts is asymptomatic, possibly owing to immunosuppression. Infection of humans causes either haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome or hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome. The three segments of vir...

 Short selling is a trading strategy that bets on a decline in the share price  Either traders borrow shares for shorting or use the derivatives market, which allows shorting without having underlying security.  A ban on short selling should be used only in extreme situations , as it often distorts the the process of fair price discovery . It provides only short term relief and cannot alter the direction of the market.  Instead of blanket ban on short selling, sebi might ban naked shorting in derivatives segment, means it will allow investors to go short only to hedge their cash positions  A similar move is in for overseas investors taking the participatory notes route  Algorithm trading & high frequency traders ( HFT) , whose influence in the domestic market increased exponentially  short-selling  is, selling shares of a company without really owning them. Short-sellers believe that prices will drop in future, hence they sell at a high price ...

Stem cells are very young cells than can develop into specialised cells, like blood cells, bone cells and brain cells. The cells are being studied as a potential way to treat many diseases. Stem cells can be harvested from adults, but another source is umbilical cord blood stems cells from cord blood also are being sold to doctors to treat patients for conditions like pain in their joints, shoulders or back research team at Kyoto University plans to inject five million induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, which have the potential to develop into any cell in the body The iPS cells from healthy donors will be developed into dopamine-producing brain cells, which are no longer present in people with Parkinson’s disease. The clinical trials come after the researchers successfully used iPS cells to restore functioning brain cells in monkeys last year.  In a significant development, a person with HIV infection has been reported to be experiencing remission for the last 18 months after an...

 The Galwan river was named after Ghulam Rasool Galwan, a Ladakhi adventurer and explorer, who had been part of many European explorations, including two in 1890 and 1896 led by Francis Younghusband , a British explorer and Army officer, who became famous for his role in blocking Russian advances in Tibet. The valley refers to the land that sits between steep mountains that buffet the Galwan River - The river has its source in Aksai Chin, on China’s side of the LAC, and it flows from the east to Ladakh, where it meets the Shyok river on India’s side of the LAC. The valley is strategically located between Ladakh in the west and Aksai Chin in the east, which is currently controlled by China as part of its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. At its western end are the Shyok river and the Darbuk-Shyok-Daulet Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road. Its eastern mouth lies not far from China’s vital Xinjiang Tibet road, now called the G219 highway. The LAC lies east of the confluence of the Galwan and Shy...

 This refers to a phenomenon wherein the trade balance of a country worsens following the depreciation of its currency before it improves. any depreciation in the value of a currency is expected to improve the economy’s overall trade balance by encouraging exports and discouraging imports. this may not happen immediately due to some other frictions within the economy. Many importers and exporters in the country, for instance, may be locked into binding agreements that could force them to buy or sell a certain number of goods despite the unfavourable exchange rate of the currency.Several factors contribute to the J-Curve effect. First, at the time of devaluation, commodities in transit are priced at the old exchange rate If the trade balance had been deteriorating before devaluation, it will continue to deteriorate after devaluation at the time of devaluation a country could experience a rapid increase in its economic activity, leading to economic growth Since a growing economy cons...

 There are several features that distinguish elections to the Council of States, or the Upper House of Parliament, from the general elections. Only elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies can vote in a Rajya Sabha election  A batch of new members , is elected every two years for a term of six years.  Rajya Sabha is a permanent house and is not subject to dissolution.  One third of members retires from each state in every two years.  Voting is by single transferable vote, as the election is held on the principle of proportional representation.  The Delhi and Puducherry Assemblies elect members to the Rajya Sabha to represent the two Union Territories.  Candidates fielded by political parties have to be proposed by at least 10 members of the Assembly or 10% of the party’s strength in the House.  For independents, there should be 10 proposers, all of whom should be members of the Assembly. A single transferable vote means electors can vo...

 Auction theory is a branch of economics that deals with, as the name suggests, auctions. Auctions are widely used and also the most efficient mechanism to allocate scarce resources.  It deals with the various ways in which auctions can be designed to improve seller revenues, increase benefits to consumers  When potential buyers compete to purchase goods in an auction, it helps sellers discover those buyers who value the goods the most. Selling goods to the highest bidder also helps the seller maximise his or her revenues. So, both buyers and sellers benefit from auctions More sophisticated and explicit auction mechanisms are used in the allocation of capital goods such as spectrum and minerals The most common criticism is that auctions can lead buyers to overpay for resources whose value is uncertain to them. This criticism, known as the ‘winner’s curse’. A study showed how buyers who overpaid for U.S. oil leases in the 1970s earned low returns. No one auction desig...