Defence Exercises

• Pitch black is an exercise of the Indian Air Force with Australia.
• Kakadu is an Indian Navy exercise between India and Australia.
• Jimex is an Indian Navy exercise between India and Japan.
• Samudra Shakti is a Naval Exercise of India with Indonesia.

Article 131 of the Indian Constitution

• It deals with the ‘original jurisdiction’ of the Supreme Court of India in any dispute that involves a ‘question of law or fact on which the existence of legal right depends’.
• Article 131 entrusts exclusive jurisdiction to the SC to hear and determine a dispute originating between States, or between States and the Union.
• The Indian Supreme Court is regarded as powerful due to its wide powers of judicial review.
• It has three kinds of jurisdictions — original, appellate and advisory.
• While the President has the power to seek an opinion from the top court under advisory jurisdiction, the court can hear appeals from lower courts under appellate jurisdiction.
• Original jurisdiction, meanwhile, is the power of a court to hear and adjudicate disputes from the beginning.
• A citizen can approach the High Court or the Supreme Court under Article 226 and Article 32, respectively, in case there is a violation of fundamental rights.
• A State can, meanwhile, invoke Article 131 to approach the Supreme Court in case it feels that its legal rights are under threat or have been violated by another State or the Central government.
• Under Article 131, the dispute may be:
  • between the Government of India and one or more States, or
  • between the Government of India and any State or States on one side and one or more other States on the other, or
  • between two or more States

In which cases the original jurisdiction of the SC not applicable?

• Under Article 131, original jurisprudence doesn’t extend to a dispute arising out of a treaty, agreement, covenant, or engagement which continues to be in operation.
• The exclusive original jurisdiction of the SC is not applicable to cases where another body has jurisdiction under other provisions of the Constitution.
• Examples of this include Articles 262 (inter-State water disputes), 280 (matters referred to Finance Commission) and 290 (adjustment of certain expenses and pensions between the Union and the States).

Nilgiri Sholakili

• They are very small birds with a tan belly and slaty-blue colour wings.
• It is listed as endangered by the IUCN.
• It is found in high altitudes of the Shola forests in the Nilgiris.
• It is also known by the name Nilgiri blue robin.
• The species prefers to live only in highly threatened habitats and near streams.
• Other endangered endemic bird species in the Nilgiris such as the Nilgiri laughingthrush (Montecincla cachinnans), seem to have a degree of adaptability and tolerance for anthropogenic changes to its environment.
• However, the Sholakili seems to be highly restricted to only Shola forest habitats, making it more susceptible to changes in its environment.

Internet upload and download speeds

• Internet speed has two components: download and upload.
• They both are part of the data package, but data plans offered by most internet service providers refer to download speeds only.
• The Speed test Global Index is released by network intelligence and connectivity insights provider Ookla.
• The index showed that the global median download and upload speeds on mobile networks in August hovered at 30.79 Mbps and 8.62 Mbps, respectively.
• India’s median download and upload speeds in the same period stood at 13.52 Mbps and 3.28 Mbps, respectively.
• The disparity between download and upload speeds extends to fixed broadband connections, but are not seen only in this type of connections.
• The download and upload speeds on fixed wireless broadband in India stood at 48.29 Mbps and 47.52 Mbps.
• One of the factors responsible for the difference in download and upload speeds is the network interface.
• By design, most of the network interfaces support higher download speeds than uploads.
• Therefore, irrespective of the device you use for internet services, there is always a gap in the download and upload speeds.
• This is because download speed makes up the internet experience for most users.
• In any internet activity, downloading consumes much more data than uploads.

Jaldoot

• It is a mobile application jointly developed by the Union Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
• The app monitors the underground water levels across the country.
• It will capture the water level of selected 2-3 wells in every village.
• The water levels will be monitored twice a year, pre and post monsoon.
• To ensure transparency, the officers assigned to measure have been told to upload the geotagged photographs through the app each time the measurement is done.
• This Mobile app will work in both online and offline mode.
• Water level can be captured even without internet connectivity and captured date will be stored in mobile and when mobile comes in the connectivity area, data will synchronize with the central server. 
• The regular data will be integrated with the database of National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) for further reference.