Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Parliamentary committees draw their authority from Article 105 (on privileges of Parliament members) and Article 118 (on Parliament’s authority to make rules for regulating its procedure and conduct of business).

Origin

• In India, the first Public Accounts Committee was constituted in April 1950.
• The practice of regularly referring bills to committees began in 1989 after government departments started forming their own standing committees.
• Prior to that, select committees or joint committees of the houses were only set up to scrutinise in detail some very important bills, but this was few and far between.

Significance

• Committee reports are usually exhaustive and provide authentic information on matters related to governance.
• Bills that are referred to committees are returned to the House with significant value addition.
• However, Parliament is not bound by the recommendations of committees.

Explanation :

• The Bay of Bengal (BoB) plays a fundamental role in controlling the weather systems that make up the South Asian summer monsoon system.
• In particular, the southern BoB has cooler sea surface temperature (SST) that influence ocean-atmosphere interaction and impact on the monsoon.
• Compared to the southeast, the southwestern BoB is cooler, more saline, receives much less rain, and is influenced by the Summer Monsoon Current (SMC).
• To examine the impact of these features on the monsoon, the BoB Boundary Layer Experiment (BoBBLE) was jointly undertaken by India and the UK during June July 2016.
• It seeks to examine the impact of ocean processes in the BoB on the monsoon system.

Explanation :

• Chithirai Festival or Chithirai Thiruvizha is an annual celebration celebrated in the city of Madurai during the Tamil month of Chithirai.
• It lasts for one month of which the first 15 days mark the celebrations of the coronation of Goddess Meenakshi and the Marriage of Lord Sundareswara and Goddess Meenakshi, and the next 15 days mark the celebrations of the Journey of Lord Alagar from Kallazhagar temple in Alagar Koyil to Madurai.

Meenakshi Temple

• Meenakshi Temple (also referred to as Meenakshi Amman or Meenakshi-Sundareshwara Temple), is a historic Hindu temple located on the southern bank of the Vaigai River, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India.
• It is dedicated to Meenakshi, a form of Parvati, and her consort, Sundareshwar, a form of Shiva.
• The temple is at the center of the ancient temple city of Madurai mentioned in the Tamil Sangam literature, with the goddess temple mentioned in 6th century CE texts.
• It temple was built by King Kulasekara Pandya (1190-1216 CE).

Explanation :

• Iran decided to change its currency from existing ‘Rial’ to ‘Toman’.
• The Iranian lawmakers voted on May 4, 2020 to approve an amendment to Iran’s Monetary and Banking Act of Iran to make the change.
• The amendment bill will cut four zeros from Iran’s currency. Toman, the new currency is equal to 10,000 rials.
• The new currency has been introduced amid the sharp fall in the value of Iranian currency as a result of crippling sanctions imposed by the United States.

Iran

• Capital: Tehran
• Also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is a country in Western Asia.
• It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and Azerbaijan,to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq.

Its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance.

Explanation :

• Russia will launch its first Arktika-M satellite for monitoring the Arctic climate and environment at the end of the year.

Significance

• The Arktika-M is a remote-sensing and emergency communications satellite.
• It will help collect meteorological data from the polar regions of the Earth.
• The data will help improve weather forecasts and enable scientists to better study climate change.

Explanation :

• The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
• It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fortune as a newspaper publisher, and is administered by Columbia University.
• It is awarded yearly in 21 categories. Each winner receives a cash award and a certificate.
• A gold medal is awarded to the winner in Public Service Category.

Explanation :

• Bru or Reang is a community indigenous to Northeast India, living mostly in Tripura, Mizoram and Assam.
• In Tripura, they are recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group.
• They are the second most populous tribe among the indigenous Tripuris after Tripuri (Debbarma).
• They speak the Reang dialect of Kokborok language which is of Tibeto-Burmese origin and is locally referred to as Kau Bru.
• These are primarily an agrarian tribe. In the past, they mostly practised the Huk or Jhum cultivation like most other Tripuri tribes.
• Dance is an integral part of Reang life. The Hojagiri folk dance of Reang sub tribe is rather well known all over the world. 'Buisu', not 'bihu' is the most popular festival of reang tribes.

Explanation :

• Bengaluru's Bannerghatta Biological Park has come out with a programme during the lockdown period for those who want to conserve wildlife and adopt animals at the zoo.
• The animal adoption programme is an opportunity to get involved in supporting feed and veterinary care expenses for zoo animals with provision for Income Tax rebate under 80G.
• The park has released a list of animals that can be adopted: King cobra, Indian rock python, Black buck, Sambar, Emu, Golden jackal, Indian leopard, Sloth bear, Hippopotamus, Bengal tiger, Giraffe, etc

Bannerghatta Biological Park

• It was carved out of the Bannerghatta National Park (BNP) and brought under the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) in 2004.
• The valley of Champakadhama hills is inside the park.

Explanation :

• Maharashtra and Gujarat celebrated their statehood day on 1^st May, 2020.
• On May 1^st, 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into two separate states by the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960: Maharashtra for Marathi speaking people and Gujarat for Gujarati speaking people.
• Gujarat was established as the 15th state of the Indian Union.

Maharashtra

• Capital: Mumbai
• Arabian Sea guards the western boundary of Maharashtra, while Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are on the northern side. Chhattisgarh covers the eastern boundary of the State. Karnataka and Telangana are on its southern side.
• Maharashtra has two major ports, Mumbai Port and Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP) both located in Mumbai harbour.
• Bhil, Gond-Madia, Katkari, Koli, Oraonare the major tribes of Maharashtra.

Gujarat

• Capital: Gandhinagar
• The state is bounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, Pakistan and Rajasthan in the north and north-east respectively, Madhya Pradesh in the south-east and Maharashtra in the south.
• Gujarat is the first state in the nation to start a separate department of 'climate change' to tackle the issue of global warming.
• Kandla Port is the major port in Gujarat along with 41 minor ports.
• Gamit, Bhils, Dhodias, Bawcha, Kunbi are the major tribes present in the state.

Explanation :

• Petersberg Climate Dialogue has been hosted by Germany since 2010.
• The Climate Dialogue was originally an initiative of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• It is hosted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
• The Dialogue was co-chaired by Germany and the United Kingdom, the incoming Presidency of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Aim

• To provide a forum for informal high-level political discussions, focusing both on international climate negotiations and the advancement of climate action.

Recent Meeting

• The eleventh and first ever virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue was held on April 28^th 2020.
• India, along with 30 countries, deliberated over ways and means to tackle the challenge of reinvigorating economies and societies after COVID-19, while enhancing collective resilience and catalysing climate action while also supporting in particular those most vulnerable.