Epilepsy
▪ About: Epilepsy is a chronic brain disorder caused by abnormal electrical activity in the
brain, leading to seizures—brief episodes of involuntary movement and loss of consciousness.
✓ It is recognised by the WHO as a neurological disorder.
▪ Causes: The disease has no identifiable cause in nearly 50% of the cases. However, it is linked
to genetics, brain injuries, infections, stroke, tumors.
▪ Symptoms: convulsions and twitching movements.
▪ Treatment:
✓ First-line treatment for epilepsy includes anti-seizure medications, while a ketogenic diet
(high-fat) is effective for drug-resistant cases.
✓ Surgical options include removing seizure-affected brain regions or corpus callosotomy to
prevent seizure spread.
MakeGPT
▪ MakeGPT, an AI-powered platform that enables creation of Internet of Things (IoT) systems
using natural language prompts, at the IIT Madras Research Park
▪ It is a product developed by Kochadai Technology Solutions, a start-up incubated within IIT
Madras Research Park
Space
India in Space Exploration
Historical Background
▪ 1962: The Indian National Committee for Space Research was established under the leadership
of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai
▪ 1969: Renamed as Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
▪ 1963: First rocket launch from Thumba
▪ 1975: India’s first satellite Aryabhatta was launched
▪ 1980: India’s first indigenous satellite SLV-3 was successfully launched from Sriharikota under
the leadership of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Future Plans:
✓ Chandrayaan-4 (2027): Mission to collect samples from the moon and bring them back to
Earth
✓ Chandrayaan-5 (2028): Joint mission with Japan for 100-day lunar exploration
Model Indian Space Station (Bharatiya Antariksh Station)
▪ The model of India’s proposed space station was displayed at an event held on Friday at Bharat Mandapam, Delhi, in commemoration of National Space Day.
▪ India plans to launch a part of this space station, named ‘Bharatiya Space Station’, into space in 2028.
▪ India plans to establish the complete space station weighing 52,000 kg by 2035.
Space Stations of Other Countries
▪ For the first time, the Soviet Union (Russia) established the ‘Salyut-7’ space station in space in
1982. It remained operational until 1991.
▪ Secondly, the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada jointly established the
International Space Station in 1998. It has been announced that this will remain operational until 2030.
▪ Thirdly, China established the ‘Tiangong’ space station in space in 2021, which is currently
operationa
