Ghaghara River

• The Ghaghara originates in the glaciers of Mapchachungo, near Mansarovar Lake, Tibet.
• After collecting the waters from its tributaries – Tila, Seti, and Beri it comes out of the mountain, cutting a deep gorge at Shishapani.
• The Ghaghara or Karnali in Nepal is the longest river in Nepal.
• The total length of the Ghaghara River up to its confluence with the Ganges at Revelganj in Bihar is 1,080 kilometers (670 mi).
• It is the largest tributary of the Ganges by volume and the second-longest tributary of the Ganges by length after the Yamuna.

Critical Information Infrastructure (CII)

• The Information Technology Act of 2000 defines “Critical Information Infrastructure" as a “computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which shall have a debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety”.
• The government, under the Act, has the power to declare any data, database, IT network, or communications infrastructure as CII to protect that digital asset.
• Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system in violation of the law can be punished with a jail term of up to 10 years.
• Created in January 2014, the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) is the nodal agency for taking all measures to protect the nation’s critical information infrastructure.
• It is mandated to guard CIIs from “unauthorized access, modification, use, disclosure, disruption, incapacitation or distraction”.

Ministerial Conference (MC)

• The World Trade Organization is the only international organization that deals with the rules of trade between countries.
• Founded in 1995, the WTO is run by its 164 members, and according to its rules, all decisions are taken through consensus and any member can exercise a veto.
• Its aim is to promote free trade, which is done through trade agreements that are discussed and signed by the member states.
• The WTO also provides a forum for countries to negotiate trade rules and settle economic disputes between them.
• The Ministerial Conference is the WTO’s top decision-making body and usually meets every two years.
• All members of the WTO are involved in the MC and they can take decisions on all matters covered under any multilateral trade agreements.

Stratocumulus

• Stratocumulus clouds are low-level clumps or patches of cloud varying in color from bright white to dark grey.
• They are the most common clouds on earth recognized by their well-defined bases, with some parts often darker than others.
• They usually have gaps between them, but they can also be joined together.
• These clouds typically form at low altitudes, generally between 600 and 2,000 meters above the ground.
• Stratocumulus clouds can be present in all types of weather conditions, from dry settled weather to rainier conditions.
• Stratocumulus clouds are often mistaken for rain clouds when in reality, it is quite rare to get anything more than the lightest drizzle from them, if anything at all.

Ocean Stratification

• Due to global warming, the tropical Indian Ocean, at the surface, is warming at a faster rate as compared to the rest of the global ocean.
• The high sea surface temperatures are more susceptible to generating extreme temperature conditions that persist over days to months and are termed Marine Heatwaves (MHWs).
• This intense warming of the ocean due to MHW has severe socio-economic consequences such as fish mortality, and coral bleaching, and also has the potential to interact with and modify other extreme events such as tropical cyclones.
• The Bay of Bengal exhibits high sea surface temperatures (about 28°C) throughout the year and is more prone to tropical cyclones.
• Both marine heat waves and tropical cyclones are the extreme events of the ocean-atmosphere coupled system.
• Ocean-Atmosphere Coupling: The idea behind active ocean-atmosphere coupling is straightforward: a large-scale anomaly of sea surface temperature (SST) induces diabetic heating or cooling of the atmosphere, which alters atmospheric circulation and hence the wind stress and heat fluxes at the ocean surface.