Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Mediterranean Sea, an intercontinental sea that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean on the west to Asia on the east and separates Europe from Africa.
• It has often been called the incubator of Western civilization.
• It connects to the Atlantic Ocean by the Strait of Gibraltar (known in Homer’s writings as the “Pillars of Hercules“) in the west.
• It connects to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, by the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus respectively, in the east.
• The 163 km (101 mi) long artificial Suez Canal in the southeast connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.

Explanation :

• Article 129: The Supreme Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court including the power to punish for contempt of itself.
• Article 215: Every High Court shall be a court of record and shall have all the powers of such a court including the power to punish for contempt of itself.
• Article 32 of the Indian Constitution and Article 226 of the Indian Constitution lay down the provisions for filing Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Supreme Court and High Courts respectively.

Explanation :

• Arrow 2 is an advanced missile defence system developed jointly by Israel and US.
• It is part of the multi-layered system Israel has developed to defend against both short- and mid-range rockets fired from Gaza and Lebanon, as well as Iran's long-range missiles. It includes Iron Dome, David's Sling and the Arrow-3 system - capable of defending against threats from outside the atmosphere.
• It is a two-stage missile equipped with solid propellant booster and sustainer rocket motors.
• The United States and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to co-develop and co-fund the Arrow program on May 6, 1986.
• The Arrow missiles family was designed for a theater missile defense system that would be more effective against ballistic missiles than the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile.
• Arrow 2 is able to intercept its targets above the stratosphere, high enough so that any nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons do not scatter over Israel.

Explanation :

• The Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), also known as the Asiatic elephant, is the only living species of the genus Elephas and is distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, from India in the west, Nepal in the north, Sumatra in the south, and to Borneo in the east.
• Three subspecies are recognized —E. m. maximus from Sri Lanka, E. m. indicus from mainland Asia and E. m. sumatranus from the island of Sumatra.
• Asian elephants inhabit grasslands, tropical evergreen forests, semi-evergreen forests, moist deciduous forests, dry deciduous forests and dry thorn forests, in addition to cultivated and secondary forests and scrublands.

Conservation Status

• Government of India has declared Indian elephant as National Heritage Animal in year 2010.
• Since 1986, the Asian elephant has been listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List.
• It is listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• The Asian elephant is listed on CITES Appendix I.