Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• China has completed its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System constellation, coming up with a product that can potentially rival the US Global Positioning System (GPS).
• China initiated BeiDou in 1994 with aims to integrate its application in different sectors, including fishery, agriculture, special care, mass-market applications, forestry and public security.
• The name BeiDou comes from Chinese word for the Big Dipper or Plough constellation.
• It consists of 27 satellites in medium Earth orbit, five in geostationary orbit and three more in inclined geosynchronous orbits.
• The navigation satellite system was completed in three steps: BDS-1 which provided services to China, BDS- 2 to provide services to the Asia-Pacific region and BDS-3 which provides services worldwide.
• China’s navigation system uses a network of satellites and can provide positional accuracies of under ten meters (GPS provides positioning accuracies of under 2.2 meters).
• BeiDou offers services including accurate positioning, navigation and timing as well as short message communication.

Other Countries’ Navigation Systems

• The GPS is owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force.
• Apart from this, Russia has its navigation system called GLONASS, the European Union (EU) has Galileo, while India’s is called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).

Explanation :

• A whip is an official of a political party who acts as the party's 'enforcer' inside the Legislative Assembly or House of Parliament.
• Parties appoint a senior member from among their House contingents to issue whips — this member is called a Chief Whip, and he/she is assisted by additional Whips.
• India inherited the concept of the whip from the British parliamentary system.

Role

• They try to ensure that their fellow political party legislators attend voting sessions and vote according to their party’s official policy.

What happens if a ‘whip’ is disobeyed?

• A legislator may face disqualification proceedings if she/he disobeys the whip of the party unless the number of lawmakers defying the whip is 2/3rds of the party’s strength in the house.
• Disqualification is decided by the Speaker of the house.

Limitations

• There are some cases such as Presidential elections where whips cannot direct a Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) to vote in a particular fashion.

Types

• One-line whip: Issued to inform members of a party about a vote. It allows a member to abstain in case they decide not to follow the party line.
• Two-line whip: Issued to direct the members to be present in the House at the time of voting.
• Three-line whip: Issued to members directing them to vote as per the party line.

Explanation :

• The Union government on July 28, 2020, launched the Green-Ag Project in Mizoram, to reduce emissions from agriculture and ensure sustainable agricultural practices.
• Other states where the project will be implemented include Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttarakhand.

About the Project

• It is funded by the Global Environment Facility, while the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation, and Farmers’ Welfare (DAC&FW) is the national executing agency.
• Other key players involved in its implementation are Food and Agricultre Organization (FAO) and the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
• The project seeks to integrate biodiversity, climate change and sustainable land management objectives and practices into Indian agriculture.
• The pilot project is supposed to end on March 31, 2026, in all states.

Targets to Achieve

• Achieve multiple global environmental benefits in at least 1.8 million hectares (ha) of land in five landscapes, with mixed land use systems.
• Bring at least 104,070 ha of farms under sustainable land and water management.
• Ensure 49 million Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) sequestered or reduced through sustainable land use and agricultural practices.

Explanation :

• Located in the Amaravati district of Maharashtra,Melaghat Tiger Reserve is on the southern offshoot of the Satpura Hill Range in Central India, called Gavilgarh Hill.
• The Tapti Riverand the Gawilgadh ridge of the Satpura Range forms the boundaries of the reserve.
• Melghat means 'meeting of the ghats', which describes the area as a large tract of unending hills and ravines scarred by jagged cliffs and steep climbs.
• It was declared a tiger reserve in 1974. It was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under Project Tiger.
• It was the first tiger reserve of Maharashtra.
• The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, dominated by teak (Tectonagrandis).
• The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga and Dolar. All these rivers are tributaries of river Tapti.
• The main fauna found here are Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, sloth bear, Ussuri dhole, Indian jackal, sambar, gaur, barking deer, nilgai, chital, chausingha, ratel, flying squirrel, wild boar, langur, rhesus monkey, porcupine, pangolin, mouse deer, python, otter, and blacknaped hare.

Explanation :

Tabo Monastery

• Also known as Tabo Chos-Khor Monastery, it is situated in the Spiti valley above Tabo village on the left bank of the Spiti River, Himachal Pradesh.
• It was founded in 996 CE in the Tibetan ‘year of the Fire Ape’ by the Tibetan Buddhist Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo (Mahauru Ramabhadra).
• Tabo is noted for being the oldest continuously operating Buddhist enclave in both India and the Himalayas

Nako Monastery

• Nako is a village in the Himalayas of northern India, located near the Indo-China border in the Trans-Himalayan region of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh.
• Nako Monastery is located in the village as well as several other Buddhist chortens.
• It is also known as 'Lotsava Jhakang' meaning "complex of the translator"named so in honour of Rinchen Zangpo who translated Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit to the Tibetan language.

Alchi Monastery

• Alchi Monastery or Alchi Gompa is a Buddhist monastery, known more as a monastic complex of temples in Alchi village in the Leh District, under the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council of the Ladakh Union Territory.
• Dukhang or Assembly Hall and the Main Temple (gTsug-lag-khang), which is a three-storied temple called the Sumtseg (gSum-brtsegs), are built in the Kashmiri style as seen in many monasteries; the third temple is called the Manjushri Temple (Jam-dpal lHa-khang).

Explanation :

• Bal Gangadhar Tilak (23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), born as Keshav Gangadhar Tilak, was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence activist.
• He was one of the Lal-Bal-Pal triumvirate.
• He was also conferred with the title of "Lokmanya", which means "accepted by the people (as their leader).Mahatma Gandhi called him "The Maker of Modern India".
• He was one of the first advocates of Swaraj or self-rule.
• He started two weeklies, ‘Kesari’ (The Lion) in Marathi and ‘Mahratta’ in English in 1880–81 with Gopal Ganesh Agarkar as the first editor.
• Both the newspapers actively propagated the cause of national freedom and stressed on making Indians aware to be self-reliant.
• Tilak helped found the All India Home Rule League in 1916–18, with G. S. Khaparde and Annie Besant. He started his Home Rule League in Maharashtra, Central Provinces, and Karnataka and Berar region.
• In 1903, Tilak wrote the book "The Arctic Home in the Vedas". In it, he argued that the Vedas could only have been composed in the Arctics, and the Aryan bards brought them south after the onset of the last ice age.
• Later, he wrote "Shrimadh Bhagvad Gita Rahasya" in prison at Mandalay – the analysis of 'Karma Yoga' in the Bhagavad Gita, which is known to be a gift of the Vedas and the Upanishads.

Explanation :

• Recently, the government has operationalized the first Mega Food Park (MFP) of Mizoram i.e. Zoram Mega Food Park.
• It has been set up under the ‘Mega Food Park Scheme’.
• It is located in Khamrang village in Kolasib District, Mizoram.

Benefits

• It will boost the North-East Region’s potential to become an organic destination of the world due to its rich agricultural and horticultural produce.

Explanation :

• Also known as Mithila painting due to its origins in the Mithila region of India and Nepal, Madhubani is a traditional Indian folk art made on canvas, cloth or cow dung washed hand paper.
• This painting is done with a variety of tools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks and using natural dyes and pigments.
• The paintings were traditionally done on freshly plastered mud walls and floors of huts, but now they are also done on cloth, handmade paper and canvas.
• Madhubani paintings are made from the paste of powdered rice.

Style

• Madhubani art has five distinctive styles: Bharni, Kachni, Tantrik, Godna and Kohbar. In the 1960s Bharni, Kachni and Tantrik styles were mainly done by Brahman and Kayasth women.

Color

• The colors are derived mostly from plants.

Themes

• The themes of these paintings are chiefly nature and mythological events.It revolves around Hindu deities like Krishna, Shiva, Lakshmi, Durga, Rama, and Saraswati.
• The nature-related themes revolve around the Sun, the Moon, and sacred plants such as basil. There are some paintings with themes based on court scenes and social events.
• If any unfilled space is left after painting the central theme, it is filled up with the motifs of animals, birds, flowers or geometric patterns.

Explanation :

• Plea bargaining refers to a person charged with a criminal offence negotiating with the prosecution for a lesser punishment than what is provided in law by pleading guilty to a less serious offence.
• It primarily involves pre-trial negotiations between the accused and the prosecutor. It may involve bargaining on the charge or in the quantum of sentence.
• The Justice Malimath Committee2000) on reforms of the criminal justice system endorsed the various recommendations of the Law Commission with regard to plea bargaining.
• It was introduced in 2006 as part of a set of amendments to the CrPC as Chapter XXI-A, containing Sections 265A to 265L.

Circumstances in which it is allowed

• Cases for which the practice is allowed are limited.
• Only someone who has been charge-sheeted for an offence that does not attract the death sentence, life sentence or a prison term above seven years can make use of the scheme under Chapter XXI-A.
• It is also applicable to private complaints of which a criminal court has taken cognizance.
• Other categories of cases that cannot be disposed of through plea bargaining are those that involve offences affecting the “socio-economic conditions” of the country or committed against a woman or a child below 14.

Benefits

• Prolonged incarceration of undertrials without any progress and overcrowding of prisons were also other factors that may be cited in support of reducing pendency of cases and decongesting prisons.
• Moreover, it may help offenders make a fresh start in life.

Explanation :

• Dibru-Saikhowa is a National Park as well as a Biosphere Reserve situated in the south bank of the river Brahmaputra in the extreme east of Assam.
• The forest type of Dibru-Saikhowa comprises of semi-evergreen forests, deciduous forests, littoral and swamp forests and patches of wet evergreen forests.
• A modern feral horse population (Janghalighura) is found in the National Park.
• It has herd of approximately 79 bright coloured wild horses in India.