SilverLine Project: The proposed 529.45-km rail line in Kerala will link Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in the north, covering 11 districts through 11 stations. Trains will be capable to run at 200km/hr. The deadline for the project, being executed by the Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL), is 2025. KRDCL, or K-Rail, is a joint venture between the Kerala government and the Union Ministry of Railways created to execute big railway projects.
IIP: The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index that shows the growth rates in different industry groups of the economy in a fixed period of time. It is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The eight core industries of India represent about 40% of the weight of items that are included in the IIP.
Bosphorus Strait: It is a natural strait connecting the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It’s length is 32 kilometers (20 miles) in the north to south direction. Bosphorus strait separates the European part from the Asian part of Istanbul. Recognising the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “war”, Turkey on Monday announced that it would implement the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits-a 1936 international treaty that regulates maritime traffic through the Black Sea. This would limit the movement of Russian warships between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.
Stockholm Peace Research Institute: Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has released its Year Book 2021. India possessed an estimated 156 nuclear warheads at the start of 2021, compared with 150 at the start of last year, while Pakistan had 165 warheads, up from 160 in 2020. Russia is the world’s second largest arms exporter, with a 20% share in the global arms trade between 2016 and 2020, behind only the US (37%), as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Top arms supplier to India in 2016-20- Russia, France, Israel, USA.
CAATSA: The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is a United States federal law that imposes sanctions against any adversities faced by USA. Till now India has evaded a potential sanction from USA after importing the 1st set of S-400.
S-400: In October 2018, India signed a $5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile systems. India had moved ahead with the deal despite a warning from the then Trump administration that going ahead with the contract may invite U.S. sanctions. The first of the five units, delivered in December 2021, has been deployed at an Indian Air Force base in Punjab. The deal has been under the threat of sanctions from the US, which has not yet decided on it; the fresh round of sanctions on Russia could sound alarm bells for the deal.
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