Government Job Preparation

  Farzad-B Gas Field It is located in the  Persian Gulf  (Iran) and the contract for exploration of the field was signed in  2002  by an Indian consortium comprising  Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) Videsh, Indian Oil Corporation,  and  Oil India. The contract  expired in 2009  after the declaration of commerciality of the field, based on the gas discovery. Since then, the consortium has been  trying to secure the contract  for the development of the field. The  major dispute  between India and Iran was  over setting up of two pipelines,  and also over  money to be quoted  on the development plan. Around 75% of the deal was finalized by  May 2018,  when the  USA unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and announced sanctions  on Iran. In  January 2020,  Iran clarified that it would develop the field on its own and would like to  involve India ap...

  Why in News? Recently,  Iran’s Port and Maritime Organisation  (PMO) has  conveyed to India a request  for locomotives and signaling equipment for the  Chabahar-Zahedan railway line. Iran has been facing  difficulty in procuring  them directly due to the  sanctions imposed by the USA. Iran has also asked India to activate the  USD 150 million credit  line which was offered to it by India during the Iranian President's visit in 2018. Chabahar Port It is located on the  Gulf of Oman  and is only  72 km away from the Gwadar port  in  Pakistan  which has been developed by China. The port serves as the  only oceanic port of Iran  and consists of  two separate ports named Shahid Beheshti and Shahid Kalantari. Points to Remember:- Background: In  May 2016,  India, Iran, and Afghanistan signed the  trilateral agreement  which entailed the establishment of  Transit ...

  Why in News? India has scored considerably low in the international  Academic Freedom Index (AFI)  with a score of 0.352. Academic freedom,  in general, refers to a scholar's freedom to express ideas without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage. Points to Remember:- About the Academic Freedom Index: It has been  published by Global Public Policy Institute  as a part of a global time-series dataset (1900-2019) in close cooperation with  Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Scholars at Risk, and the V‑Dem Institute. It  compares  levels of academic freedom worldwide and enhances the understanding of its curtailments. The AFI used  eight components  to evaluate the scores: the freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, constitutional protection of academic freedom, international...

  Tsunami These are a series of waves usually  generated by the movement of the seafloor.  These movements are  caused by different types of geophysical phenomena  such as  earthquakes ,  landslides,   and volcanic eruptions. The word tsunami is a  Japanese word,  represented by two characters: tsu, meaning, "harbor", and nami meaning, "wave". The tsunami waves behave very differently in deep water than in shallow water as their  speed is related to the water depth. They  frequently occur in the Pacific,  where dense oceanic plates slide under the lighter continental plates. When these plates fracture they provide a vertical movement of the seafloor that allows a quick and efficient transfer of energy from the solid earth to the ocean. Source:-  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/

INCOIS was  established in 1999  as an  autonomous body  under the  Ministry of Earth Sciences. INCOIS  through Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre (ITEWC) is the  nodal agency to provide tsunami advisories to India. It is coordinating with the Disaster Management Officials (DMOs) for implementation of  Tsunami Ready  programme in India. It conducts  IOWave Tsunami mock exercises biannually  to strengthen the readiness to handle emergency situations with stakeholders. INCOIS also identifies the  Potential Fishing Zones  (PFZ) for the fishermen community. It has also  made improvement in overcoming the cloud cover  through the usage of geostationary satellites and numerical modelling. INCOIS has also partnered with  Indian Space Research Organisation  (ISRO) and  Airports Authority of India  (AAI) to  develop a satellite-based message broadcasting service  through the indigenous navig...

  Why in News According to experts from the  Indian National Centre for Ocean Information System (INCOIS) , India is much safer against tsunami threats than it was in 2004, due to the establishment of a state-of-the-art tsunami early warning system at INCOIS. Key Points Indian Tsunami Early Warning System: The Indian Tsunami Early Warning System (ITEWS) was  established in 2007  and is based at & operated by INCOIS, Hyderabad. It is an  integrated effort  of different organizations including the Department of Space (DOS), Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Survey of India (SOI) and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). ITEWS comprises a  real-time network of seismic stations,  tide gauges and a  24X7 operational tsunami warning centre  to detect tsunamigenic earthquakes, to monitor tsunamis and to provide timely advisories to vulnerable communities. Indian s...

  Why in News? Recently, the  Election Commission  (EC) has found former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s  remark on a woman politician violative of the Model Code of Conduct  (MCC). Points to Remember:- The MCC is a  set of guidelines issued by the EC to regulate political parties and candidates prior to elections. It helps EC in keeping with the  mandate it has been given under Article 324  of the Constitution, which gives it the  power to supervise and conduct free and fair elections  to the Parliament and State Legislatures. The MCC is  operational from the date on which the election schedule is announced until the date of result announcement. Evolution: The origins of the MCC lie in the  Assembly elections of Kerala in 1960  when the State administration  prepared a ‘Code of Conduct’ for political actors. Subsequently, in the  Lok Sabha elections in 1962,  the ECI  circulated the code  to ...