Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Recently, Brahmaputra Pushkaram - a 12-day mega river festival was celebrated in the state of Assam starting from November 5 to November 16, 2019.
• It is a festival of rivers and it pertains to the 12 important rivers in India, namely Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada, Chambal, Kaveri, Beas, Tapti, Godavari, Chenab, Krishna and Saraswati.
• This festival occurs once every 12 years for each river. Earlier, Brahmaputra Pushkaram was held in 2007.
  It is the second biggest river festival celebrated in Assam after Namami Brahmaputra.
• It is believed that Pushkarudu, also known as Pushkar God, who is powerful enough to make any river holy, will travel with Jupiter during this time, as Jupiter travels from one zodiac sign to another.

Explanation :

• The ‘Council of States’ which is also known as Rajya Sabha, a nomenclature that was announced by the chair in the House on the 23rd August, 1954 has its own distinctive features. The origin of the second Chamber can be traced to the Montague-Chelmsford Report of 1918. The Government of India Act, 1919 provided for the creation of a ‘Council of State’ as a second chamber of the then legislature with a restricted franchise which actually came into existence in 1921.
• The Vice President of India is the ex-officio chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
• Article 80 of the Constitution lays down the maximum strength of Rajya Sabha as 250, out of which 12 members are nominated by the President and 238 are representatives of the States and of the two Union Territories.The present strength of Rajya Sabha, however, is 245, out of which 233 are representatives of the States and Union territories of Delhi and Puducherry and 12 are nominated by the President. The members nominated by the President are persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as literature, science, art and social service.
• The Fourth Schedule to the Constitution provides for allocation of seats to the States and Union Territories in Rajya Sabha. The allocation of seats is made on the basis of the population of each State.

Explanation :

• On 16^th November, 2019, Ministry for Health and Family Welfare launched Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS), a campaign aimed at reducing child mortality due to pneumonia, which contributes to around 15% deaths annually of children under the age of five.
• The government aims to achieve a target of reducing pneumonia deaths among children to less than three per 1,000 live births by 2025.

Objective

• To mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia, and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.

About SAANS

• Under the campaign, a child suffering from pneumonia can be treated with pre-referral dose of anti-biotic amoxicillin by ASHA workers, and health and wellness centres can use pulse oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) to identify low oxygen levels in the blood of a child, and if required, treat him by use of oxygen cylinders.
• A mass awareness campaign will also be launched about the effective solutions for pneumonia prevention like breast feeding, and age appropriate complementary feeding.

Explanation :

• Geochemical Baseline Atlas of India has been developed by CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Hyderabad for use by policy makers to assess environmental damage.
• This is the third map among the series of maps published by NGRI. Earlier, The Gravity map of India and Seismic map of India were released by the research institute.
• The geochemical data presented in these maps will be a part of the Global Map to be prepared by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGC).
• The atlas consisting 45 maps of metals, oxides and elements present in top and bottom soils across India will serve as a reference against which future generations of the country would be able to assess the chemical compositional changes on Earth’s surface.
• To develop the maps, the globe was divided into 5,000 cells of 160 km by 160 km each. Of it, India has 122 cells.
• The map trace elements from top soil i.e. top 25 cm depth and bottom soil at 100 cm depth from the year 2006 to 2011. Across India, over 545 samples were collected.

Significance

• It will help the country to assess the presence of toxic chemicals in soil and how it varies from place to place.
• It also helps in identifying how soil pollution is contributing to groundwater contamination.
• The map will also support in choosing the right soil that’s rich in certain micronutrient elements required for each plant growth.
• It will help to plan the land use in different parts of the country.
• It helps in finding out future contamination caused by industries or other bodies which cause pollution.

Explanation :

• The Olive Ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) is the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles, growing up to 70 cm and weighing 45 kg, on average.
• It gets its name from its olive green coloured carapace, which is heart-shaped. Males and females grow to the same size; however, females have a slightly more rounded carapace.
• It inhabits tropical and subtropical waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Though mainly pelagic, yet they have been found to inhabit coastal areas, including bays and estuaries.
• The species is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List, Appendix 1 in CITES, and Schedule 1 in Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
• It use three different strategies to nest: arribadas, solitary nests and mixed strategy. (An arribada is a mass-nesting event when thousands of turtles come ashore at the same time to lay eggs on the same beach.)

Ecological Significance

• Olive Ridley turtles feed on invertebrates and may play important roles in both open ocean and coastal ecosystems.

Explanation :

• The anti-defection law is contained in the 10^th Schedule of the Constitution. It was enacted by the Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act, 1985, during the Rajiv Gandhi government. It came into effect on 1^st March 1985.
• Purpose: The purpose is to curb political defection by the legislators.
• The Speaker or the Chairman of the concerned Houses (as applicable) makes decisions on defection matters. If the Chairman or the Speaker defects, the decisions shall be made by a member elected by the House.
• The law applies to both Parliament and state assemblies.

Ground of Defection

• One, if the member voluntarily gives up the membership of the party, he shall be disqualified. Voluntarily giving up the membership is not the same as resigning from a party. Even without resigning, a legislator can be disqualified if by his conduct the Speaker/Chairman of the concerned House draws a reasonable inference that the member has voluntarily given up the membership of his party.
• Second, if a legislator votes in the House against the direction of his party and his action is not condoned by his party, he can be disqualified. These are the two grounds on which a legislator can be disqualified from being a member of the House.

Exceptions

The law provides exceptions from being disqualified as a member of legislature on the following grounds:

• When political parties merge with each other entirely.
• When a political party splits into other parties, subject to not less than a third of the members splitting (as per the 93^rd Amendment to the Constitution).
• When two-thirds (or more) of members belonging to a party join another party without both their parties explicitly merging.

Amendment

• The law was amended in 2003 by which the one-third split provision which offered protection to defectors was deleted from the law.

Explanation :

• Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) was launched by the Government in april 2018, primarily aims at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging industries including MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes & academia, and provide them grants/funding and other support to carry out R&D which has good potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs.
• iDEX is funded and managed by a ‘Defence Innovation Organization (DIO)’ which has been formed as a ‘not for profit’ company as per Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 for this purpose, by the two founder members i.e. Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) - HAL & BEL.
• iDEX functions as the executive arm of DIO, carrying out all the required activities while DIO will provide high level policy guidance to iDEX.

Key Functions

• Co-Innovation/co-creation
• Piloting of candidate technologies in important platforms
• Indigenization of various defence and aerospace related platforms being manufactured in the country.

Explanation :

• Tropical forests are closed canopy forests growing within 10 degrees north or south of the equator.
• These are very wet places, receiving more than 200 cm rainfall per year, either seasonally or throughout the year.
• Temperatures are uniformly high - between 20°C and 35°C.
• The majority of tropical rainforests are found in four biogeographic realms: the Afrotropical(mainland Africa, Madagascar, and scattered islands), the Australian (Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands), the Indomalayan(India, Sri Lanka, mainland Asia, and Southeast Asia), and the Neotropical(South America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands).The heavy rains that occur in rainforests wash organic material from the soil, a process known as leaching, rendering the soil nutrient-less.
• A common feature of many tropical rainforests is the distinct buttress roots of trees. Instead of penetrating to deeper soil layers, buttress roots create a widespread root network at the surface for more efficient uptake of nutrients in a very nutrient poor and competitive environment.
• Rainforests are the most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth.

Explanation :

• SurangaBawadi was built by Adil Shah-I of Adilshahi dynasty of Bijapur in the 16th century to supply water to Vijaypura in Karnataka.
• It is an integral part of the ancient Karez System of supplying water through subterranean tunnels.

Karez System

• Karez system was built by Bahmani kings in 15th Century by the Bahmani kings in Bidar, Gulbarg and Bijapur in Karnataka and also in Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh.
• Also known as Qanat, it is a water-harnessing technology that originated in Iran/Persia.
• Karez technology basically taps into the ground tunnel to the settlement, ending in surface canal and/or pools in the village for various uses.

World Monuments Watch

• The World Monuments Watch is a global program launched in 1995 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of World Monuments Fund.
• It aims to identify imperiled cultural heritage sites and direct financial and technical support for their preservation.

Explanation :

• Dhrupad, considered the oldest style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, is said to be a form of the Gandharva Veda (the Vedic science of music, which is a branch of Sama Veda).
• The Sama Veda was chanted with the help of melody and rhythm called Samgana. Gradually this developed into other vocal styles called ‘Chhanda’ and ‘Prabandha’ with introduction of verse and meter. The fusion of these two elements led to the emergence of Dhrupad.
• A Dhrupad has at least four stanzas, called Sthayi (or Asthayi), Antara, Sancari and Abhoga.
• Like all Indian classical music, dhrupad is modal and monophonic, with a single melodic line and no chord progression.
• It performed by a solo singer or a small number of singers in unison to the beat of the pakhavaj or mridang rather than the tabla.
• The language of Dhrupad changed from Sanskrit to BrijBhashasome time between the 12th and the 16th century.
• The earliest mention in Persian texts of Dhrupad is in Ain-i-Akbari of Abu Fazl (1593).

Notable Dhrupad Singers

• Swami ShriHaridas, Surdas, Govind Swami, AshtSakha, Tansen and BaijuBawara.