PRELIMS CURRENT

AFFAIRS
19TH OCTOBER 2018
✤ Time Zones

✤ Currency Watch List

✤ Uterus Transplant

✤ Kamikaze Drones
GEOGRAPHY
Time Zones

✤ Greenwich Mean Time, now known as Universal

Coordinated Time (UTC) : maintained by Bureau of
Weights and Measures (BIPM) in France

✤ Legal Time : The time zone demarcated by the political

boundaries and as defined by a country’s law

✤ Indian Standard Time is maintained by CSIR-NPL :

Based on longitude that passes through Mirzapur in
UP (82°33’E)
Polity and International
Relations
H-1B Visa

✤ Work visa for professional workers in speciality

occupations

✤ 70% of these were given to Indians last year

ECONOMY
Currency Watch List
✤ List of countries, maintained by US Treasury
Department, with potentially questionable foreign
exchange policies

✤ India was included for the first time along with China,
Germany, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland
Interoperability in e-wallets
✤ Enables payment systems to be used in conjunction
with other payment systems

✤ Once PPI is implemented users will be able to transfer

funds between wallets and also from wallets to bank
accounts

✤ Also if a merchant has signed up for one wallet he

needn’t sign up for others
HEALTH
Uterus Transplant
✤ Usually, women related to the recipient are potential donors

✤ may be either living or deceased

✤ Chosen from among women upto age 60

✤ Peculiarities

✤ Intended to be removed after the woman has gone through one or two
childbirths

✤ Normal reproduction is not possible with it — childbirth happens through

surgical intervention (no labour pain)

✤ First successful implant in Saudi Arabia in 2002 but didn’t result in pregnancy

✤ First birth after transplant in 2014 in Sweden

✤ Uterus

✤ Major female hormone-

responsive secondary sex
organ of the reproductive
system

✤ Function : to nourish the

developing foetus prior to birth

✤ Ovaries produce eggs — once egg

leaves the ovary it can be
fertilised and implant itself in the
lining of uterus
Internal Security
Military Exercise

✤ Dharma Guardian : first ever joint land military

exercise between Japan and India

✤ Vajra Prahar : Combat drills between Special Forces of

India and US
Kamikaze Drone
✤ A.k.a suicide drone or loitering munition

✤ A UAV designed to self-destruct after serving its

purpose

✤ Can be effective in room intervention during counter-

terrorism operations

✤ Acquired by NSG

✤ Kettering Bug : WWI-era drone designed to deliver an

explosive