Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Konark Sun temple was built by King Narasimhadeva I of the Ganga Dynasty (1238-1264AD) in the 13th century.
• It is located in Eastern Odisha near the sacred city of Puri.
• The temple is designed in the shape of a colossal chariot. It is dedicated to the Sun God.
• There are two rows of 12 wheels on each side of the Konark sun temple.
• The seven horses are said to symbolize the seven days of the week.
• The temple was used as a navigational point by European sailors. They referred to it as the ‘Black Pagoda’ due to its dark colour.
• Also called the Surya Devalaya, it is a classic illustration of the Odisha style of Architecture or Kalinga Architecture.
• Declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984, it remains a major pilgrimage site for Hindus, who gather here every year for the Chandrabhaga Mela around the month of February every year.

Explanation :

• The Chhattisgarh government will launch a scheme to ensure “minimum income availability” to farmers of the state through direct bank transfer on the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi 21^st May, 2020.
• Under the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, based on registered area and area under cultivation during Kharif crop season 2019, Rs 10,000 per acre will be deposited in the bank accounts of farmers as agriculture assistance grant for sowing crops such as paddy, maize and sugarcane.
• According to the government, at least 19 lakh farmers will benefit from the scheme, for which the state government had allocated Rs 5,756 crore in the budget 2020-21.
• The money will be given to the farmers in four instalments.
• The scheme intends to provide stimulus to the rural economy of the state which is going through a slum due to the lockdown.

Explanation :

• Mount Harriet National Park is a national park located in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands union territory of India.
• The park, established in 1969, covers about 4.62 km².
• Mount Harriet (383 metres ), which is part of the park, is the third-highest peak in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago next to Saddle Peak (732 metres (2,402 ft)) in North Andaman and Mount Thullier (568 metres (1,864 ft)) in Great Nicobar.
• The park is named in commemoration of Harriet C. Tytler, the second wife of Robert Christopher Tytler, a British army officer, an administrator, naturalist and photographer, who were appointed Superintendent of the Convict Settlement at Port Blair in the Andamans from April 1862 to February 1864.
• The park's well-known faunal species are Andaman wild pigs (an endangered species), saltwater crocodiles, turtles and robber crabs. The park is also a butterfly hotspot.
• The park has evergreen primary forests, and at Chiriyatapu the forest type is mixed deciduous, a combination of primary and secondary forests.
• The three types of forests are categorized as tropical evergreen, hilltop tropical evergreen and littoral.
• The tribal community living in the tropical forest of the park is the Negrito people, who are hunter-gatherers.

Explanation :

• Founded in 1865, the International Telecommunication Union (originally the International Telegraph Union), is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is responsible for issues that concern information and communication technologies.
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it is the oldest global international organization.

Sectors

The ITU consists of three sectors:

• Radiocommunication (ITU-R) — ensures optimal, fair and rational use of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum.
• Telecommunication Standardization (ITU-T) — formulates recommendations for standardizing telecommunication operations worldwide.
• Telecommunication Development (ITU-D) — assists countries in developing and maintaining internal communication operations.

Membership

• There are 193 Member States of the ITU, including all UN member states except the Republic of Palau, plus the Vatican City.
• Membership of ITU is open to only UN members, which may join the Union as Member States, as well as to private organizations like carriers, equipment manufacturers, funding bodies, research and development organizations and international and regional telecommunication organizations, which may join ITU as non-voting Sector Members.

Function

• The ITU sets and publishes regulations and standards relevant to electronic communication and broadcasting technologies of all kinds including radio, television, satellite, telephone and the Internet.

India and ITU

• India has been an active member of the ITU since 1869 and has been a regular member of the ITU Council since 1952.
• In November 2018, India was elected as a Member of the ITU Council for another 4-year term (2019-2022).

Explanation :

Explanation :

• The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), also known as the gavial or the fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians.
• They have a distinct boss at the end of the snout, which resembles an earthenware pot known as a ghara, hence the name "gharial".
• Gharials live in clear freshwater river systems, congregating at river bends where the water is deeper. They’re not well-suited for land so they generally only leave the water to bask in the sun or to nest.
• Once found from Pakistan to Myanmar, the reptile's range has shrunk to two countries: India, along the Chambal, Girwa, and Son Rivers; and Nepal, along the Narayani River.
• Loss of habitat because of sand mining and conversion to agriculture, depletion of fish resources and detrimental fishing methods continue to threaten the population.

Conservation

• In 1975, the Indian Crocodile Conservation Project was set up under the auspices of the Government of India, initially in Odisha's Satkosia Gorge Sanctuary. It was implemented with financial aid of the United Nations Development Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
• The gharial is listed on CITES Appendix I.
• In India, it is included in Schedule 1 under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
• In Nepal, it is fully protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act of 1973.
• It has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2007.

Explanation :

• River Nila is also known as Bharathapuzha and Ponnani.
• It is the second longest river in Kerala with a length of 209 kilometers.

Origin

• The river originates in the Annamalai hills located in the Western Ghats region in Tamil Nadu.

Course

• It flows in the west direction along with the many of its tributaries including the Tirur River through Palakkad Gap, Palakkad, Thrissur and Malappuram districts of Kerala.
• The Kannadippuzha and Kalpathippuza, the tributaries of Bharathapuzha meet at Parli and flows in the west direction as Bharathapuzha River.
• The Bharathapuzha River then surrenders itself into the Arabian Sea at Ponnani.

Main Tributaries

• Gayathripuzha River, Kannadipuzha River, Kalpathipuzha River and Thuthapuzha River are the main tributaries of the Bharathapuzha.

Explanation :

• Gopal Krishna Gokhale was born on 9 May 1866 in Kotluk village of Guhagar taluka in Ratnagiri district, in present-day Maharashtra (then part of the Bombay Presidency) in a Brahmin family.
• He became a member of the Indian National Congress in 1889, as a protege of social reformer Mahadev Govind Ranade.
• In 1893, Gokhale became the Secretary of the Bombay Provincial Conference and in 1895, he served as the Joint Secretary of the INC along with Tilak.
• He was voted to the Legislative Council of Bombay in 1899, and also to the Governor-General’s Imperial Council in 1901.
• In 1905, Gokhale established the Servants of India Society for expanding education to Indians. He wanted Indians to receive an education that would instill in them a civic and patriotic sense of duty.
• He played a major role in the Morley-Minto reforms.
• In 1908, Gokhale founded the ‘Ranade Institute of Economics’. He discouraged the untouchability and caste-system, pleaded for the liberation of women and supported the cause of female education.
• Gokhale visited Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa in 1912 on the latter’s request. He famously mentored to the father of the nation, who returned to India at Gokhale’s request.
• He launched the English weekly newspaper named The Hitavad (The people's paper) in 1911.

Explanation :

• Toda people are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the Nilgiri Mountains of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
• The Toda are most closely related to the Kota both ethnically and linguistically.
• The Toda language is a member of the Dravidian family. Linguists have classified Toda (along with its neighbour Kota) as a member of the southern subgroup of the historical family proto-South-Dravidian.
• Their sole occupation is cattle-herding and dairy-work. Holy dairies are built to store the buffalo milk.
• They live in small hamlets called munds. The Toda huts, called dogles, are of an oval, pent-shaped construction.
• Toda Embroidery: In the Toda language it is called pohor. Registrar of Geographical Indication gave GI status for this unique embroidery, a practice which has been passed on to generations.

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.