Essential Facts (Prelims) – May 1 & 2 , 2019


Fani

Category: Geography

  • Fani is the first severe cyclonic storm to have formed in April in India’s oceanic neighbourhood since 1976.
  • Severe cyclones are defined as generating maximum windspeeds of 89-117 kmph.
  • While severe cyclones can form any time, they tend to be concentrated in November — after the monsoon — or around May.
  • From 1965-2017, the Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea have collectively registered 46 ‘severe cyclonic storms.’ As many as 28 of them were from October-December. Seven of them have been in May and only two — in 1966 and 1976 — were recorded in April.
  • Tropical cyclones in the Indian neighbourhood begin as ‘depressions’ or a gradual build-up of warm air and pockets of low pressure. About 35% of such formations intensify to ‘cyclones’ and only 7% intensify to ‘very severe cyclones’.
  • About 20-30 severe tropical storms occur around the world every year. The IMD ranks cyclones on a 5-point scale with the mildest at 62-88 kmph and the strongest, a ‘super cyclonic storm’, at 221 kmph.
  • Cyclone Fani graduated to an ‘extremely severe cyclonic storm’.
  • On an average, tropical cyclones form and make landfall in less than a week.

Article 239 A

Category: Polity

  • The Madras High Court pointed out the significant differences in the powers conferred on the legislatures of Puducherry and Delhi under Articles 239A and 239AA of the Constitution.
  • The Court ruled that the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) of Puducherry could not interfere with the day-to-day administration of the Union Territory when an elected government was in place.
  • Though Article 239AA imposes several restrictions on the legislature of Delhi, no such restrictions had been imposed explicitly in the case of Puducherry under Article 239A.
  • The Court also disapproved of the alleged practice of government officials being part of social media groups through which the L-G was issuing instructions to them for redress of public grievances and reminded them that as per rules, they were bound to use only authorised medium of communication when it came to issues related to administration.
  • Section 44 of the the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963 Act states that there shall be a Council of Ministers in each Union Territory to aid and advice the Administrator who shall act in his/her discretion only in so far as any special responsibilities were concerned. However, the Act does not specify the ‘special responsibilities’ in relation to which the L-G could apply his/her discretion.

Co-location

Category: Economy

  • The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred the National Stock Exchange (NSE) from accessing the securities market for six months for its failure to exercise proper due diligence while offering co-location facility thereby affecting market fairness and integrity.
  • Co-location refers to the system wherein a broker’s server is kept in the exchange premises to reduce latency, or delay in computing terms, while executing trades.

Chandrayaan-2

Category: Sc n tech

  • Chandrayaan-2’s moon landing is likely to be around September 6, 2019, nearly two months after the launch, close to the lunar South Pole.
  • The lunar South Pole is believed to contain ice and other minerals.
  • Chandrayaan-2 is a fully-indigenous mission.
  • It comprises three modules — an Orbiter, a Lander named ‘Vikram’, and a Rover named ‘Pragyan’.
  • It will be launched on board a GSLV-MkIII rocket.
  • The GSLV-MkIII is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle that has been designed to carry four-tonne class satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
  • The Chandrayaan-1 mission was launched on board a PSLV.
  • The Chandrayaan-2 weighs around 3,290 kg.
  • Once the Orbiter reaches the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander will separate from it and ISRO will carry out a controlled descent at a specific site and deploy the Rover.
  • The six-wheeled Rover will move around the landing site in semi-autonomous mode as decided by the ground commands.

Oil Suppliers

Category: International

  • Iraq has, for the second year in a row, become India’s top crude oil supplier.
  • Iraq supplied more than a fifth of the country’s oil needs in 2018-19 fiscal year.
  • Saudi Arabia has traditionally been India’s top oil source, but it was for the first time dethroned by Iraq in 2017-18 fiscal year.
  • While India stopped importing crude oil from Iran following reimposition of economic sanctions this month by the U.S., the later was the third largest crude oil supplier to India.
  • UAE topped Venezuela to become India’s fourth-largest crude supplier.
  • Nigeria was the next biggest supplier.
  • The U.S., which began selling crude oil to India in 2017, is fast becoming a major source.
  • Iran was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia till 2010-11, but western sanctions over its suspected nuclear programme relegated it to the seventh spot in subsequent years.

Varuna

Category: Defence

  • Varuna is a Indo-French joint naval exercise.
  • It will be conducted in two phases – Varuna 19.1 and 19.2.
  • The first phase will be conducted off the Goa coast.
  • It is the 17th edition of the exercise.
  • The second part, Varuna 19.2, will be held in Djibouti.
  • The bilateral naval exercise initiated in 1983 and christened as ‘Varuna’ in 2001.

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