Important Facts For Prelims (2nd May 2019)

• 02 May 2019

Chandrayaan-2 Mission

• India’s highly ambitious Rs 800-crore Chandrayaan-2 mission will be launched between July 9 and July 16 this year.
• The moon landing is expected to be around September 6, 2019, nearly two months after the launch.
• The second lunar mission of ISRO will have three modules — Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyan).
• The Orbiter and Lander will be interfaced mechanically, stacked together as an integrated module and accommodated inside the GSLV MK-III launch vehicle. The Rover will be housed inside the Lander.
• After the launch into the earth bound orbit, the integrated module will reach the Moon’s orbit using Orbiter propulsion module.
  • Subsequently, Lander will separate from the Orbiter and soft land at the predetermined site close to the lunar South Pole.
  • Further, the Rover will roll out for carrying out scientific experiments on the lunar surface.

GSLV MK-III

• It is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO.
• The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.
• It is designed to carry 4 ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons class of satellites to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of GSLV Mk II.

Niyamgiri Hills

• Recently, a 16-member fact-finding team (comprising members of the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations) has concluded that the villagers living near the Vedanta refinery in Lanjigarh (Kalahandi), are facing severe health problems because of dust coming from the red mud pond (waste generated by the refinery) site.
  • In 2013, the Supreme Court had rejected the plan of mining bauxite from Niyamgiri by Vedanta Ltd.
• Niyamgiri is a hill range in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of southern Odisha.
• Among the main residents of Niyamgiri are two tribes called Kutia Kondh and Dongria Kondh, who believe the hills to be home to their god Niyam Raja.
• Odisha has 700 million tonnes of known bauxite reserves, of which 88 million tonnes are estimated to be found in Niyamgiri.
  • Bauxite is the raw material for alumina and aluminum.

99942 APOPHIS

• It is a near-Earth asteroid, which will cruise by Earth in 2029, about 31,000 km above the surface.

• It is 340 m wide. At one point, it will travel more than the width of the full Moon within a minute and it will get as bright as the stars in the Little Dipper.

• Apophis is named for an Egyptian god of chaos. Though, It is not expected to harm the earth but the size of asteroid have created curiosity among scientific community.

• The asteroid will be visible to the naked eye and will look like a moving star.

Asteroids

• These are small, rocky objects that orbit the sun. Although asteroids orbit the sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets.
• Our solar system began about 4.6 billion years ago when a big cloud of gas and dust collapsed. During this, most of the material fell to the center of the cloud and formed the sun.
• Some of the condensing dust in the cloud became planets. The objects in the asteroid belt never had the chance to be incorporated into planets and hence were left over.

Labour Day

• Labour Day or Worker’s Day, celebrated around the globe on 1st May, is a day dedicated to labourers of the working class, marked with a public holiday in over 80 countries.
• The holiday originated in the U.S. city in 1886 as a protest in support of an eight-hour workday and saw thousands of labourers around the country take to the streets. The day commemorates the Haymarket affair, which took place on 4th May.
• While the day stands for different things depending on the country, the overall theme of the public holiday is celebrating the achievements of workers.
• The theme of International Labour Day 2019 is “Sustainable Pension for all: The Role of Social Partners”.
• Although the labour movement has its roots in the U.S., Labour Day there is celebrated on the first Monday of September rather than in May.

Grounds for rejection of candidature in Election

The Returning Officer of Varanasi recently rejected the nomination of a sacked BSF constable-Tej Bahadur Yadav-on grounds that he did not submit proper documents. 

• The nomination was rejected as it failed to meet Section 9 and 33(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• Under these, if a person is dismissed from government service and five years have not elapsed, then such a person shall not be nominated as a candidate unless his nomination paper is accompanied by a certificate issued by the ECI that he has not been dismissed for corruption or disloyalty to the state.

Grounds for rejection of candidature

• Nomination paper of a candidate shall be rejected if :
  • He is disqualified on the date fixed for scrutiny of nomination;
  • Nomination paper is not signed by candidate or subscribed by requisite number of proposer
  • Requisite security deposits has not been made
  • Age or complete address of candidate has not been mentioned in nomination paper
  • Nomination paper shall not be rejected on grounds of defects which is not of substantial character, like, defect in declaration relating to symbol.
  • Any wrong information or suppression of information in candidate affidavits is not defects of substantial character. However , failure to furnish affidavits is defect of substantial character entailing rejection of nomination .
• In this case, the constable had not taken permission from ECI regarding contesting polls, which needs to be taken in case a government official who has been removed or suspended wants to contest polls, thus relegating his application as a defect of substantial character.