European Union Film Festival
- India is set to host 23rd European Union Film Festival this year.
- It is organized by Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
- The festival will traverse through 11 cities in India including New Delhi, Chennai, Port Blair, Pune, Puducherry, Kolkata, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Thrissur, Hyderabad and Goa.
- It will showcase movies with a selection of 24 latest European films from 23 EU Member States.
- The European Union is a political and economic union consists of 28 countries.
- It has the world's largest economy and its third largest population, after China and India.
- A monetary union has been established within union but lacks common Fiscal union.
- The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship.
- The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009.
- The Lisbon Treaty now contains a clause under Article 50, providing for a member to leave the EU.
- United Kingdom enacted the result of a membership referendum in June 2016 and is currently negotiating its withdrawal.
Monsoon and Pollution
- Monsoon plays a critical role in flushing out pollutants over Asia apart from being an essential source of water for Indian Agriculture.
- Increasing temperature over the period amplifies the seasonal heating of the Tibetan Plateau.
- This led to increased warming in the Upper Troposphere during late spring and early summer.
- It subsequently spurring enhanced monsoon rainfall over northern India during June and July.
- Scientists have pointed out, increased loading of black carbon in spring enhances the monsoon.
- But a recent study has found that increased pollution particularly from coal burning could potentially weaken this ability of the monsoon.
- Black carbon particles from coal burning may increase cloudiness and surface cooling of sea surface which can reduce the moisture flux into the monsoon convection, i.e. weaken the monsoon.
Pinaka
- Pinaka Mark I is an indigenous multi-barrel unguided rocket launch system developed by DRDO for firing of multiple warheads.
- It was used in the 1999 Kargil conflict. It has a range of 40 km.
- It was later transformed in to a short-range precision guided missile and thus renamed as Guided Pinaka – Mark II.
- It has high accuracy and equipped with a navigation, guidance and control system with a range of 70 to 80 km.
- The missile is currently undergoing trails and expected to be delivered to the Army in two years.
Multi-barrel rocket Vs Guided Missile
- A Multiple rocket launcher is a type of rocket artillery system with multiple warheads and it was launched simultaneously by an unguided system.
- Guided Missile is a self propelled and launched by a precision guided system and it has 4 components such as targeting/missile guidance, flight system, engine and warhead.
Apache Helicopters
- Apache Helicopters are developed by USA which belongs to heavy helicopter weighing more than 5 tonnes.
- India signed procurement plan of Apache helicopters with USA in 2015.
- Recently, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of six additional AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to India for the Army.
- Currently, the Army operates only smaller Cheetah and ALH (Advanced Light Helicopters) that weigh less than 5 tonnes.
- All bigger helicopters, including the Mi-35 attack helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft are operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
- Under the present procurement plan, the IAF will operate 22 Apache attack helicopters, while the Army will have 6 of them.
Source: The Hindu, PIB.
