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*Malegaon blast of 2008: explosion that killed at least six persons and wounded over a hundred in the Maharashtra town.

*It is such a case in which not only the accused but the criminal justicesystem itself is on trial.

*Special Court in Mumbai has chosen to let the evidence decide guilt or innocence.

*It has overruled the NIA’s finding that key members of a Hindu right-wing group called Abhinav Bharat were not involved.

*ATS chargesheet claims it was primarily a conspiracy hatched by Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur and Lt. Col. Prasad Purohit, among others.

*Special Court has framed charges against them for conspiracy, murder and other offences, including under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

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*Special Judge S.D. Tekale: Where two conflicting reports are on record, he ruled it is better to go through the trial and consider the evidence it brings.

*His decision is the right one and it rises above the competing narratives of the two agencies.

*Politically sensitive: ‘Hindu’ or ‘saffron’ terror and ‘Hindu Rashtra’

*September 2006 at Malegaon: an Islamist group was accused of killing 37 people

*It took nearly ten years for those initially arrested to be discharged, for want of evidence.

*These factors cast an unfortunate shadow on the trial related to the 2008 case.

*It is important that this trial, although agonisingly delayed, is nothing but fair.

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*Clinical trials involving human subjects have long been a flashpoint between bioethicists and clinical research organisations (CROs) in India.

*Landmark amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act in 2013 led to better protection of vulnerable groups such as illiterate people.

*But more regulation is needed to ensure truly ethical research.

*The big problem plaguing clinical research is an over-representation of low-income groups among trial subjects.

*The truth is that ethical science is often better science.

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*One potential solution is a national registry of trial volunteers, which will alert a CRO when someone signs up for two studies simultaneously.

*volunteer privacy cannot be compromised

*create a system that anonymises each participant’s data.

*Another option is to pay volunteers less, taking away the financial incentive to fudge their participation history.

*clinical trials are essential to drug research.

*A third, more sustainable solution is to encourage a wider cross-section of society to participate in research on human subjects.

*Society at large must realise the valuable service that clinical research subjects perform by making drugs safe for the rest of us.

*Civil society’s vigilance is vital.

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*One hundred years ago this day, on January 1, 1918, Mohandas K.

Gandhi was in Ahmedabad.

*Securing three basic necessities: “Air, water and grains.”

*In Gujarati:Hava pani ane anaj e khorakna mukhya tattvo chhe (air,

water and grains are essential to human nourishment).

*If Swaraj, he said, means self-rule, then securing these three

khorak means securing Swaraj.

*In a parallel initiative on the same day, he got the Gujarat Sabha,

of which he was president, to write to the Bombay government to

exempt in some cases and postpone in some others land revenue

assessment due to the failure of crops in Kheda district.

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Where do we stand?

*World’s largest carbon emitters, following China, the U.S. and EU.*Paris agreement: 33-35% by 2030 from 2005 levels

*Coal-based generation to renewable energy

* Increasing the annual target of forest cover

*U.S. pulling out of the treaty, the financial aid for the follow-up expected from developing countries is in jeopardy.

*For millennia India has lived from monsoon to monsoon.

*1.3 billion population

*Per capita availability of water

6,042 cubic metres: 1947

1,545 cubic metres: 2011

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*Behind the dispossession caused by the real estate mafia and corporates,

the corrosive impact of cash-cropping and shrinking of timely credit lines

is a deepening gloom over output costs and minimum support prices

(MSPs).

*The five reports of the National Commission on Farmers that M.S.

Swaminathan chaired consolidated his warnings and his

recommendations.

*“The future will belong to nations with grains, not guns.” P. Sainath

*Three other khorak: the hava of intolerance, the pani of polarisation and

the anaj of uniformity. And why? Because these distract, they divert

attention from the real life-and-death crises.

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*While Jawaharlal Nehru advised the U.S., the then Soviet Union, and other big powers to abjure force and work towards disarmament, he was himself faced with a dilemma in 1961: whether or not to use force to liberate Goa.

*It was an agonising decision for a person who adopted the Gandhian approach in international affairs.

*After Britain and France left India, it was expected that Portugal would leave too. But Portugal refused.

*It was natural that Goa, which had seen a long indigenousfreedom movement, should be a part of India.

*In the rest of India, people began demanding that Goa be liberated forcibly.

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*When the satyagrahis entered Goa, the Portuguese opened fire, killing 20

Indians.

*Nehru imposed an economic blockade, but was not prepared to go

further.

*He hoped that the popular movement in Goa and the pressure of world

public opinion would force the hands of the Goan authorities.

*It was in 1957, in a letter to Vinoba Bhave, that Nehru first hinted at the

possibility of military action.

*The Goan question came alive when Portugal paid no heed to a UN

resolution of December 1960 asking it to indicate when it would grant

independence to its colonies in Asia and Africa. In December 1961,

Portuguese soldiers in Goa fired at villagers.

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*Finding that his policy of patience and adherence to international ethics

had not yielded results, Nehru decided to free Goa by force. Though

advised by American President John F. Kennedy, British Prime Minister

Harold Macmillan and UN Secretary-General U Thant to postpone action,

Nehru made up his mind.

*On December 18, after a long-drawn fight against Indian troops, the

Portuguese gave up resistance. The Governor General of Goa, Vassalo e

Silva, signed a document of unconditional surrender.

*The Western media assailed the action as a display of “Indian hypocrisy”,

which represented a breach of international law by a nation that

professed non-violence.

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Ultras target CRPF camp, kill 5 jawans

*Five CRPF jawans and two local Jaish-e-

Mohammad (JeM) militants were killed in a

pre-dawn fidayeen (suicide) attack on the

central force’s training-cum-induction centre

in Pulwama’s Lethpora area on Sunday.

*“The militants opened indiscriminate fire and

launched grenades in their attempt to enter

the premises,”

*Director-General of Police S.P. Vaid said there

were intelligence alerts about the attack.

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Did NSAs meet in Bangkok?

*India maintained silence on Sunday on reports suggesting that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met his Pakistani counterpart, Lt. Gen. Nasir Khan Janjua, in Bangkok on December 26, a day after the high drama over the “ill-treatment” of the mother and the wife of the death row prisoner KulbhushanJadhav in Islamabad.

*Diplomatic sources have indicated to The Hindu that the meeting took place in Bangkok, similar to previous such interactions.

*A Pakistani newspaper, The Tribune, reported that following his return, Lt. Gen. Janjua briefed former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a five-hour meeting. The report suggested that both sides discussed several issues including neighbourhood affairs and firing along the Line of Control.

*An Indian daily reported that Mr. Doval raised the issues of cross-border infiltration and ceasefire violations.

*The Hindu has learnt that the two NSAs have been maintaining regular contact since they first met to defuse tension in December 2015.

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Maoist incidents fewer in 2017, govt. data show

*For the first time in more than a decade, in 2017 the incidents in left-wing extremism (LWE) affected States remained below the 1,000 mark.

*A senior official of the Union Home Ministry attributed the decline to “attrition of various level cadres of Maoists” and the other to the possibility of Maoists “deliberately lying low.”

*According to Home Ministry data, 851 incidents were reported till December 15 in 2017, compared to 1016 incidents during the corresponding period last year. The total number of incidents in 2016 was 1048.

*K. Vijay Kumar, Senior Security Adviser, MHA said, “First of all, youths are no more enamoured to join the Maoists which has led to the attrition in cadres at all levels. They are not getting even 50% of the recruits they got earlier. The other reason could be strategic: to lie low.”

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Rajinikanth takes the plunge finally

*Ending two decades of speculation and uncertainty, Tamil film

superstar Rajinikanth on Sunday emphatically announced his arrival

in politics and declared that he will launch a political party in time

to contest in all 234 constituencies in Tamil Nadu in the next

Assembly elections.

*His politics, he said, would be beyond caste and religion but

“spiritual.”

*He would keep off the election to local bodies as the time is short

and take a decision about the 2019 Lok Sabha polls later.

*The term of the current Assembly in Tamil Nadu will end in 2021.

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Vacancies, MoP uncertainty stare at SC

*With six vacant posts already, the Supreme Court seems to be staring at a crisis as seven more judges will retire in 2018.

*Prolonged stalemate: Memorandum of Procedure (MoP)

*Points of difference

*The government highlighted the need for transparency, a separate secretariat, eligibility criteria and mechanism to deal with complaints.

*The Collegium rejected the idea of a government veto on names recommended by the Collegium on grounds of national security.

*There are 395 vacancies across 24 High Courts and 5,984 judicial vacancies in the subordinate judiciary.

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18 killed in attack on Afghan funeral

*Bomb went off during ceremony for a former Governor of Haska Mina

*.

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‘Participation of wilful defaulters may weaken IBC’

*The Corporate Affairs Ministry has asked stakeholders to share their

views on these issues by January 10.

*The IBC was enacted in 2016 to find a time-bound resolution for ailing

and sick firms, while protecting the interests all stakeholders, including

creditors.

*A successful completion of the resolution process was expected to help

stem the rise of bad loans in the banking system. The new amendments

are a part of the ordinance that was brought in last month.

*The Bill prohibits wilful defaulters, promoters or management of the

company, if it has an outstanding non-performing debt for over a year,

and disqualified directors from submitting a resolution plan in case of

defaults.

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1. Which volcano is known as lighthouse of Mediterranean?

A. Vesuvius

B. Stamboli

C. Etna

D. Vulcan

2. Match the following

List 1 List II

A. Kalahari 1. Angola

B. Namib 2. Sudan

C. Nubian 3. Botswana

D. Atacama 4. Chile

ABCD

A. 1234

B. 3241

C. 1324

D. 3124

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PrashantTMavani