Current Affairs Question - 27 January 2020

Explanation :

• Shamlat is one of three categories of common land in Punjab villages. ‘Shamlat’ land is owned by the village panchayat.
• The second category, ‘Jumla Mushtraka Malkan’ is land in a common pool made with villager’s personal contributions, and is managed by the panchayat.
• The third category, ‘Gaucharan’, too belongs to the panchayat, and is for cattle grazing. Over time, however, all such lands have come to be known as Shamlat land.
• Shamlat land is mainly used for cultivation, and is allotted for this through an open auction that is conducted by the Rural Development and Panchayat Department every year.
• One-third of Punjab’s Shamlat lands are reserved for Dalits. Around 25,000 to 26,000 families in the state, mostly Dalits, depend on this land for their livelihood.
• Over half of Punjab’s Shamlat land is concentrated in the six districts of Patiala (highest at 15.5%), Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Amritsar.

Explanation :

• Hypersonic weapons refer to weapons that travel faster than Mach 5 and have the capability to maneuver during the entire flight.
• Hypersonic weapons incorporate the speed of a ballistic missile with the maneuvering capabilities of a cruise missile.
• These missiles are capable of delivering conventional or nuclear payloads at ultra-high velocities over long ranges.
• Hypersonic missiles are delivered in two ways: (1) they can be fired from the last stages of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) or Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) and skip along the top of the atmosphere using specialized jet engines to accelerate to hypersonic speeds; or (2) they can be launched independently or released from a bomber—similar to cruise missiles—before accelerating to ultra-high speeds.
• Hypersonic vehicles typically consist of a Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, or Scramjet propulsion system to enable such high speeds.