PRELIMS CURRENT

AFFAIRS
30th OCTOBER 2018
✤ Sri Aurobindo

✤ Third Pole

✤ Currency Swap Agreement

✤ Air
Pollution and Child Health
Report
History & Culture
Sri Aurobindo
✤ He studied for Indian Civil Service at King’s College, Cambridge
and took up civil service works under maharaja of Baroda

✤ Got involved in nascent revolutionary movement in Bengal

✤ Developed Integral Yoga (self perfection)

✤ Founded Sri Aurobindo Ashram in collaboration with Mirra

Alfassa in 1926

✤ Literary Works

✤ The Life Divine

✤ Nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature and for Nobel Peace Prize
Geography
Third Pole
✤ Asia High Mountain region or Hindu Kush-
Karakoram-Himalayan regions spans 10 countries

✤ Stores more snow and ice than anywhere else in the

world outside polar regions

✤ It directly and indirectly supports around one fourth

of world’s population

✤ Rate of warming in third pole is higher than global

average and is higher at higher altitude
 POLITY &
INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
Nuclear Suppliers Group
✤ Grouping of nuclear supplier countries that seek to
contribute to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons
through implementation of guidelines for nuclear
exports and nuclear-related exports

✤ It is not a treaty based, but voluntary, non-legally

binding association, and has 48 participating
governments which takes decisions by consensus

✤ It is not a formal intergovernmental organisation. Japan,

through its Permanent Mission to International
Organisations based in Vienna, acts as Point of Contact,
carrying out practical support function
✤ Scandalises or tends to lower authority of court

✤ Prejudicies or interferes with due course of

judicial proceedings

✤ Obstruct administration of justice

ECONOMY
Currency Swap Agreement
✤ Involves the exchange of interest and sometimes of principle in different
currencies

✤ The purpose is to hedge exposure to exchange rate risk or reduce cost of

borrowing a foreign currency

✤ Interest payments are exchanged at fixed dates through the life of the contract

✤ Benefits

✤ Improve confidence in Indian market — enable capital inflow

✤ Bring down cost of capital for Indian entities while accessing foreign
capital market

✤ Aid in bringing greater stability to foreign exchange and capital markets in

India
ENVIRONMENT
Air Pollution and Child Health Report
✤ Released by WHO

✤ About 93% of world’s children under age of 15 breathe

polluted air that puts their health and development at
serious risk

✤ When pregnant women are exposed to polluted air, more

chances of premature birth

✤ Air pollution impacts neuro-development and cognitive

ability — can trigger asthma, childhood cancer

✤ Exposure to high levels of air pollution increases risk of

cardiovascular disease for children
✤ Children more vulnerable to air pollution because
they breathe more rapidly than adults and thus
absorb more pollutants

✤ If family is burning fuels like wood and kerosene

for cooking, heating and lighting, they would be
exposed to higher levels of pollution