Mirage 2000 Fighter Jet

• Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 fighters were used to destroy the Jaish-e-Mohammad camps at Balakot along the Line of Control.
• It is a French multirole, single-engine fourth-generation fighter jet.
• It is manufactured by Dassault Aviation.
• It gained prominence after their remarkable success rate in the 1999 Kargil war.
• It has a maximum climbing speed of 60,000 feet per minute and is designed for all weather penetration at low altitude.

Benefits of Repo Rate

• It will make the system more transparent since every borrower will know the fixed interest rate and the spread value decided by the bank.
• It will help borrowers compare loans in a better way from different banks.
• Under the new system, a bank is required to adopt a uniform external benchmark within a loan category so that there is transparency, standardisation and ease of understanding for the borrowers.
• This would mean that same bank cannot adopt multiple benchmarks within a loan category.

Repo Rate

• Technically, Repo stands for ‘Repurchasing Option’.
• It refers to the rate at which commercial banks borrow money from the RBI in case of shortage of funds. It is one of the main tools of RBI to keep inflation under control.
• When we borrow money from the bank, they charge an interest on the principal. Basically, it is cost of credit.
• Similarly, banks too can borrow money from RBI during cash crunch on which they must pay pay interest to the Central Bank. This interest rate is repo rate.

Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR)

• Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) is the minimum interest rate, below which a bank is not permitted to lend. RBI can give authorization for the same in exceptional cases.
• MCLR replaced the earlier base rate system to determine the lending rates for commercial banks.
• RBI implemented it on 1 April 2016 to determine rates of interests for loans.
• It is an internal reference rate for banks to decide what interest they can levy on loans.
• For this, they take into account the additional or incremental cost of arranging additional rupee for a prospective buyer.

Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air missiles (QRSAM)

• India has successfully test-fired two indigenously developed Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air missiles (QRSAM) from a test range off the Odisha coast.
• The trials were conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from Launch Complex 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur.
• This missile has been developed to replace the ‘Akash’ missile defence system, and has 360-degree coverage, light weight, high mobility and shorter second reaction time as compared to ‘Akash’.
• It also uses solid fuel propellant and has a stated range of strike range of 25-30 km with capability of hitting multiple targets.
• It is capable of hitting the low flying objects.
• It successfully demonstrated the robust Control, Aerodynamics, Propulsion, Structural performance and high manoeuvering capabilities thus proving the design configuration.
• Radars, Electro Optical Systems, Telemetry and other stations have tracked the Missiles and monitored through the entire flights.

Exercise Sampriti-2019

• It is an important bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and Bangladesh and this will be the eighth edition of the exercise which is hosted alternately by both countries.
• As part of the ongoing India Bangladesh defence cooperation, the joint military exercise will be conducted at Tangail, Bangladesh.
• The exercise is aimed to strengthen and broaden the aspects of interoperability and cooperation between the Indian and Bangladesh Armies.
• The exercise will involve tactical level operations in a counter insurgency and counter terrorism environment under the UN mandate.
• In addition to understanding each other in tactical level operations, emphasis will also be laid for greater cultural understanding to strengthen military trust and cooperation between the two nations.

Phen Wildlife Sanctuary

• It is a popular buffer zone of Kanha national park, Madhya Pradesh.
• It lies in Southern region of Kanha tiger reserve, close to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh state borders.
• It was declared as a wildlife sanctuary in year 1983 by Government of Madhya Pradesh.
• The Fauna at this sanctuary mainly consists of the Tiger, Leopard, Wild boar, Cheetal, Sambar etc.

Marine Clouds

• Marine clouds could break up and vanish if CO2 in the atmosphere triples.
• It protects us from hothouse Earth conditions by reflecting sunlight back into space.
• It is the stratocumulus clouds that cover about 20 % of subtropical oceans, mostly near western seaboards such as the coasts of California, Mexico and Peru.
• These clouds cool and shade the earth as they reflect the sunlight that reflects them back into space.
• Due to the rise in Carbon Dioxide it may become unstable and disappear.
• The consequence will trigger a spike in global warming.