Current Affairs - 2019-20

Notes:
India fulfils 85% of its crude oil requirements through imports. As of June, 2022, Iraq, Russia and Saudi Arabia are India’s largest three crude oil suppliers.

Notes:
22nd March is celebrated as the World Water Day. It is celebrated to advocate for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. A theme related to the focus is selected every year by the UN organizations. The theme for 2020 was “Water and Climate Change”.

Notes:
∠BCD = ∠DCA = 30°
∠DCE = 180°
∴ ∠ACE = 180° – 30° = 150°
AC = CE
∴ ∠CAE = ∠CEA =
Hence option [A] is the right answer.

Notes:
Night clouds or noctilucent clouds, made of crystals of water ice, re most commonly observed in the summer months at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator. They can only be observed when the Sun is below the horizon. They are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometres (47 to 53 mi). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth’s shadow. Noctilucent clouds are not fully understood and are a recently discovered meteorological phenomenon; there is no record of their observation before 1885.

Notes:
Kachuga dhonkoga is a turtle species which was in news for being on the verge of extinction because of consumption for subsistence by local populations in its distribution.

Notes:
The frequency and wavelength formulas of sound waves is given as follows:
. In the above, Greek letter lambda λ is the symbol for wavelength.

Notes:
  The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an environmental treaty that was adopted on September 16, 1987 by the international community to protect human health and the environment by phasing out a number of man-made chemicals with adverse effects on the ozone. Initially, it included refrigerants such as CFCs and halons, but the list of controlled chemicals under the Montreal Protocol today includes HCFCs, methyl bromide, and other ozone-depleting substances (ODS). The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) became an implementing agency of the Montreal Protocol in 1992. In 2010, it became the only environmental treaty which enjoys universal ratification of 197 UN member countries. Recently, in September 2017, it celebrated its 30^th anniversary.

Notes:
MESSENGER was the first orbital mission around Mercury. It was a NASA robotic spacecraft that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015. BepiColombo is a joint mission planned to be launched in October 2018. It is a joint mission by European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to the planet Mercury. The mission comprises two satellites to be launched together: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO). The mission will perform a comprehensive study on Mercury, including its magnetic field, magnetosphere, interior structure and surface. Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on November 3, 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) is a space probe developed by NASA designed to study the atmosphere of Mars. The mission was successfully launched on November 18, 2013. Mission goals include determining how the planet’s atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time. MAVEN has completed four years on 21 september, 2018.

Notes:
In January 2018, the Turkish military began an operation in the Kurdish- majority Afrin Canton and the Tel Rifaat Area of Shahba Canton in Northern Syria. Turkey code-named the operation as Operation Olive Branch.

Notes:
As per the Indian State Forest Report 2017, the correct order is Tropical Dry Deciduous (279506 sq km), Tropical Moist Deciduous Forest (144747 sq km), Tropical Semi Evergreen (98039 sq km), Himalayan Moist Temperate (29216 sq km) and Tropical Wet–Evergreen (20872 sq km).