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CURRENT AFFAIRS – 15/07/2023

India’s third lunar odyssey commences with perfect launch Ambitious mission: The rocket carrying Chandrayaan-3 lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Friday. PTI Spacecraft enters elliptic parking orbit; soft landing likely on August 23; Chandrayaan-3 testament to our scientists’ relentless dedication: Modi HEMANTH C.S.  SRIHARIKOTA India’s third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, was successfully launched onboard a Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2.35 p.m. on Friday. This is India’s second attempt at soft-landing robotic instruments on the lunar surface after the previous attempt, Chandrayaan-2, failed in 2019. Thus far, only three…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 14/07/2023

  An unacceptable verdict in the constitutional sense Kaleeswaram Raj is a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India A judgment by the Allahabad High Court recently, declining the prayer by an inter-faith couple in a live-in relationship for protection from police harassment has caught national attention. The judgment in Kiran Rawat vs State of UP negates the very idea of constitutional morality in personal relations, which the Supreme Court of India has repeatedly affirmed. The High Court in its judgment implied that the live-in relationship is a “social problem”. The case of the petitioners, a Muslim man and a Hindu woman,…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 13/07/2023

Weakening autonomy Piecemeal extensions to ED, CBI heads are a setback to their independence The Supreme Court’s verdict upholding statutory amendments made in 2021 to allow multiple extensions of service to heads of investigative agencies is a setback to the cause of protecting their institutional independence. While the part of the judgment quashing the two one-year extensions given to the Director of Enforcement, S.K. Mishra, may be welcomed, the rest of it is a free pass to the government to undermine the autonomy of these agencies. The Court has asked Mr. Mishra to step down on July 31. In 2021,…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 12/07/2023

North India’s monsoon mayhem Climate woes: A man walks through a flooded alley in New Delhi on July 11. REUTERS Why was rainfall this pre-monsoon season above normal? Is global warming the only factor influencing the unpredictable monsoon? How did the warming of the Atlantic Ocean and the Himalayas affect the patchy distribution of rainfall this monsoon? RAGHU MURTUGUDDE EXPLAINER The story so far: Every year, the entire country awaits the onset and evolution of monsoon with baited breath. Each year tends to be different, and this year has managed to produce a rather unique onset and evolution thus far. The…

Dronacharya Award

The Dronacharya Award gets its name from the epic of Mahabharata. Dronacharya was the guru of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. The Dronacharya Award came into existence in 1985 and was included by the Government of India. These sports awards are presented to the ‘gurus’ or coaches in the sports fraternity who have coached in various big sporting events like the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, etc. The first ones on the list of coaches to receive this award in 1985 were Om Prakash Bhardwaj (Boxing), O. M. Nambiar (Athletics), and Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat (Wrestling). Weightlifting coach Hansa Sharma is…

Cyclone Biparjoy

It was stationed about 850 km west of Goa and 900 km southwest of Mumbai. Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm Biparjoy is a powerful tropical cyclone that formed over the east-central Arabian Sea and is expected to make landfall along Gujarat’s Kutch coast. The cyclone is predicted to gain in strength over the next three days and develop into a very severe cyclonic storm by June 13. It would result in squally weather with wind speeds reaching 35-45 kmph along the coastline of Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra The IMD has not yet predicted any major impact on countries adjoining the Arabian…

Dark patterns

Dark patterns, also known as deceptive patterns, is a term used to describe ways or tricks implemented by websites or apps to make users do things that they didn’t intend to, or discourage behaviour that’s not beneficial for companies. The term dark patterns was coined by Harry Brignull, a London-based user experience (UX) designer, in 2010.  Think of that annoying advertisement that keeps popping up on your screen, and you can’t find the cross mark ‘X’ to make it go away because the mark is too small to notice (or to click/ tap). Worse, when you try to click/ tap…

World Population Day

World Population Day is commemorated annually on July 11th to raise awareness and educate individuals about the challenges and consequences associated with global population growth. It serves as a reminder to continuously work towards addressing these issues and improving the lives of everyone on the planet.  The observance of World Population Day aims to promote understanding and encourage collective efforts in tackling the impacts of population growth. World Population Day 2023 Theme According to United Nations, the theme for this year’s World Population Day is – Unleashing the Power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 11/07/2023

Women’s reproductive autonomy as the new catchword Andrea M. Wojnar is Representative United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) India, part of Team UN in India, and Country Director, Bhutan The theme of this year’s World Population Day, i.e., ‘Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities’, could not be more apt for India. When we unlock the full potential of women and girls, encouraging and nurturing their desires for their families and themselves, we galvanise half the leadership, ideas, innovation, and creativity available to societies. In India, the world’s most…

CURRENT AFFAIRS – 08/07/2023

The long road to finding true peace in Yemen Talmiz Ahmad is a former diplomat In April this year, just as the Saudi-led war in Yemen completed eight years, a diplomatic delegation from the kingdom reached Sanaa airport for talks with its Houthi enemies. Some details of the talks soon became public: building on the year-long ceasefire, the two sides agreed to a six-month truce, to be followed by talks over three months to agree on a two-year “transition” period when the details of the Yemeni state that would emerge after the war would be finalised. The Houthis asked that…