What is Chandrayaan 2?

Chandrayaan 2 is India’s second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan

1. If the launch goes as planned, India will be the first country ever to have
ventured to the south pole of the moon! Now that would be incredible,
wouldn’t it? 
The launch took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on
22 July 2019 at 2:43 p.m. The initial launch date was 15 July 2019, but it was
put on hold after a technical snag was detected in the launch vehicle system.
The latest moon mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),
consist of features that are more advanced than those of the Chandrayaan 1
mission. The mission involves a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
Mark III (GSLV Mk III), a launch vehicle that will carry the payload. The
payload, in turn, will include an orbiter, a lander and a rover with each one
playing a specific and important role. Let's find out what they are!
1. The orbiter is a box-shaped craft that communicates with the
Indian Deep Space Network and the lander. The orbiter will carry
the lander and the rover and will be placed in a circular lunar
orbit, at an altitude of 100km above the lunar surface.
2. The lander of Chandrayaan 2 communicates directly with the
Indian Deep Space Network, the orbiter and the lander. The
lander, also called Vikram, will carry a set of instruments to
conduct scientific experiments on the moon.
3. The rover communicates with the lander. It will be carried
aboard the lander and deployed onto the lunar surface. It will
also carry its own set of instruments.
Made indigenously in India, the satellite weighs a whopping 3.8 tons
(3447.3 kilograms) and carries a suite of 14 scientific experiments
(eight for the orbiter, four for the lander and two for the rover). The
Vikram lander is expected to land near the south pole of the moon on
September 2019. Subsequently, the rover will roll out and carry out
the intended experiments on the lunar surface.

The Samjhauta Express commonly called the Friendship Express, is a bi-weekly train—

Thursday and Monday—that runs between Delhi and Attari in India andLahore in Pakistan.
The word Samjhauta means "agreement", "accord" and "compromise" in
both Hindi and Urdu.
Until the reopening of the Thar Express, this was the only rail connection between the two
countries. The train was started on 22 July 1976 following the Shimla Agreement and ran
between Amritsar and Lahore, a distance of about 52 km. Following disturbances in Punjab
in the late eighties, due to security reasons Indian Railways decided to terminate the service
at Attari, where customs and immigration clearances take place. On 14 April 2000, in an
agreement between Indian Railwaysand Pakistan Railways (PR), the distance was revised to
cover just under three km.
It was a daily train when the service started, and changed to a bi-weekly schedule in 1994.
Earlier the rakes were returned to the home country the same day but later in 2000 the rake
remained overnight at that location.
Its termini are Lahore in Pakistan and Delhi in India. The border crossing takes place
between Wagah in Pakistan and Attari in India. Originally, this was a through service with the
same rakegoing all the way between the termini; later the Pakistani rake stopped at Attari at
which point passengers had to change trains.
Now there is a train from Delhi to Attari where all passengers alight for customs and
immigration. This train does not have any commercial stops between Delhi and Attari. It is
incorrectly referred to as the Samjhauta Express and it is officially known as the Delhi-Attari
or Attari-Delhi Express. The actual Samjhauta Express runs from Attari to Lahore, although
the passengers are checked at Wagah, the first station on the Pakistani side. The train
service was set up with an agreement between Indian Railways (IR) and Pakistan
Railways (PR) to alternately use an Indian and a Pakistani rake and locomotive for the train,
six months at a time.
The train's first break of service was when it was discontinued on 1 January 2002 in the wake
of the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001. Service resumed on
15 January 2004. Service was also suspended following the 27 December
2007, assassination of Benazir Bhutto as a preventive measure to deny militants a "high-
value target" that was of great symbolic importance to both India and Pakistan.[1]
On 28 February 2019, the service was suspended following the 2019 India–Pakistan
standoff. A spokesman for the Pakistan Foreign Office said that service was suspended "in
view of the prevailing tensions between Pakistan and India" while it was reported that India
has suspended the running of the train on its side, due to "drastic decline in occupancy" and
"the suspension of services from across the border".[4][5]
On 8 August 2019, the service was suspended by Pakistan following therevocation of Article
370 in Jammu And Kashmir.[6]

Article 35A of the Indian Constitution was an article that empowered

the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of
the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent
residents.[1] It was added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order,
i.e., The Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954 –
issued by the President of India on 14 May 1954, under Article 370.[2] The
state of Jammu and Kashmir defined these privileges to include the ability to
purchase land and unmovable property, ability to vote and contest elections,
seeking government employment and availing other state benefits such as
higher education and health care. Non-permanent residents of the state, even
if Indian citizens, were not entitled to these 'privileges'.
On 5 August 2019, the President of India issued a Presidential Order,
whereby all the provisions of the Indian Constitution are to apply to the State
without any special provisions. This would imply that the State's separate
Constitution stands abrogated, including the privileges allowed by the
Article 35A.[3]
Text of the Article 35A[edit]
"Saving of laws with respect to permanent residents and their rights. —
Notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution, no existing law in
force in the State of Jammu and Kashmir, and no law hereafter enacted by
the Legislature of the State:[2]
(a) defining the classes of persons who are, or shall be, permanent residents
of the State of Jammu and Kashmir; or
(b) conferring on such permanent residents any special rights and privileges
or imposing upon other persons any restrictions as respects—
(i) employment under the State Government;
(ii) acquisition of immovable property in the State;
(iii) settlement in the State; or
(iv) right to scholarships and such other forms of aid as the State
Government may provide,
shall be void on the ground that it is inconsistent with or takes
away or abridges any rights conferred on the other citizens of
India by any provision of this part."

Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to Jammu and

Kashmir—a state in India, located in the northern part of the Indian
subcontinent, and a part of the larger region ofKashmir, which has been the
subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947[1][2]—
allowing it to have a separate constitution, a state flag and autonomy over the
internal administration of the state. [3][4] The government of India revoked this
special status in August 2019 through a Presidential Order and the passage of
a resolution in Parliament.
The article was drafted in Part XXI of the Constitution: Temporary,
Transitional and Special Provisions.[5] The Constituent Assembly of Jammu
and Kashmir, after its establishment, was empowered to recommend the
articles of the Indian constitution that should be applied to the state or to
abrogate the Article 370 altogether. After consultation with the state's
Constituent Assembly, the 1954 Presidential Order was issued, specifying
the articles of the Indian constitution that applied to the state. Since the
Constituent Assembly dissolved itself without recommending the abrogation
of Article 370, the article was deemed to have become a permanent feature
of the Indian Constitution.[6][7]
This article, along with Article 35A, defined that the Jammu and Kashmir
state's residents live under a separate set of laws, including those related
to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared
to resident of other Indian states. [8] As a result of this provision, Indian
citizens from other states could not purchase land or property in Jammu &
Kashmir.[9]
On 5 August 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind issued a constitutional order
superseding the 1954 order, and making all the provisions of the Indian
constitution applicable to Jammu and Kashmir.[10][11][12] Following the
resolutions passed in both houses of the parliament, he issued a further order
on 6 August declaring all the clauses of Article 370 except clause 1 to be
inoperative.[13]
In addition, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act was passed by the
parliament, enacting the division the state of Jammu and Kashmir into
two union territories to be called Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and
Union Territory of Ladakh.[14][15][16] The reorganisation is scheduled to take
place on 31 October 2019.
NAVY

Commissioned Officer Ranks

1. Admiral of the fleet: Admiral of the fleet is a military naval officer of
the highest rank in the Indian Navy. It is an honorary rank, which is
reserved for wartime or ceremonial appointments. Till now, no officer in the
Indian Navy has been bestowed with this rank.
2. Admiral: The Chief of the Naval Staff (Admiral) is the commander and
the highest-ranking officer in the Indian Navy. The position of the Chief of
the Naval Staff is held by a four-star officer in the rank of Admiral.
3. Vice Admiral: Vice Admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, senior to a
rear admiral and junior to an admiral.
4. Rear Admiral: Rear Admiral is generally regarded as the lowest of the
“admiral” ranks, sometimes referred to as “flag officers” or “flag ranks”. It
is a rank above Commodore, and below a Vice Admiral.
5. Commodore: Commodore is a naval rank, superior to a navy captain,
but below a rear admiral.
6. Captain: Captain is equal to the army rank of colonel. Any naval officer
who commands a ship is addressed by naval custom as “captain”.
7. Commander: Commander is a naval officer rank equal to a lieutenant
colonel in the Indian army. Commander is also a generic term for an officer
commanding any armed forces unit.
8. Lieutenant Commander: The Lieutenant Commander is a
commissioned officer rank in the Indian Navy. This rank is superior to a
lieutenant and subordinate to a commander.
9. Lieutenant: Lieutenant is a commissioned officer rank in the Indian
Navy. It is typically the most senior of junior officer ranks. The navy rank of
lieutenant is equivalent to an army captain.
10. Sub Lieutenant: A sub-lieutenant is a commissioned officer in the
Indian Navy, ranking below a lieutenant.
Junior Commissioned Officers Ranks
1. Master Chief Petty Officer (1st Class): Master Chief Petty Officer (1st
Class) is the senior rank of junior commissioned officer in the Indian Navy.
Although they are commissioned officers but fulfill a role similar to that of
the most senior non-commissioned officers.
2. Master Chief Petty Officer (2nd Class): A Master Chief Petty Officer
(2nd Class) is an officer in the Indian Navy who is designated as a junior
commissioned officer distinguished from the commissioned ones, and a
non-commissioned officer who is designated often by virtue of seniority.
3. Chief Petty Officer: Chief petty officer is a junior commissioned rank in
the Indian Navy. They are below commissioned ranks and above non-
commissioned ranks. A Chief Petty Officer is responsible for the training of
junior officers and leading his division of sailors and petty officers.

Non-Commissioned Officers Ranks

1. Petty Officer: A petty officer is a non-commissioned officer in the Indian
Navy. This rank is equivalent to a sergeant in the Indian Army and Indian
Air Force.
2. Leading Seaman: Leading seaman is a junior non-commissioned rank
equivalent to the army and air force rank of corporal.
3. Seaman 1 and 2: Seaman is a naval rank and is either the lowest or
one of the lowest ranks in most navies around the world.
Sushma Swaraj ( pronunciation (help·info)) (née Sharma; 14 February 1952 – 6 August 2019) was
an Indian politician and aSupreme Court lawyer. A senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party, Swaraj served
as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government (2014–2019). She was
the second woman to hold the office, after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of
Parliament and three times as aMember of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977, she
became the youngest cabinet minister of Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of
Delhi for a short duration in 1998.[3]

In the 2014 Indian general election, she won the Vidishaconstituency in Madhya Pradesh for a second
term, retaining her seat by a margin of over 400,000 votes.[4] She became the Minister of External Affairs in
the union cabinet on 26 May 2014. Swaraj was called India's "best-loved politician" by the US dailyWall
Street Journal.[5][6] She decided not to contest the 2019 Indian general election due to health reasons as
she was recovering from a kidney transplant and needed to "save herself from dust and stay safe from
infection" and hence did not join the Modi Ministry in 2019.[7][8]

According to the doctors at AIIMS New Delhi, she succumbed to a cardiac arrest following a heart attack
on the night of 6 August 2019.

Early life and education

Sushma Swaraj (née Sharma)[9] was born on 14 February 1952 atAmbala Cantt, Haryana,[10] to Hardev
Sharma and Shrimati Laxmi Devi.[11][12] Her father was a prominent Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh member. Her parents hailed from the Dharampura area ofLahore, Pakistan.  She was educated
[13]

at Sanatan Dharma College in Ambala Cantonment and earned a bachelor's degree with majors in

Sanskrit and Political Science.[14] She studied law at Panjab University, Chandigarh.[15][14][16] A state-level
competition held by the Language Department of Haryana saw her winning the best Hindi Speaker award
for three consecutive years.[11]

Career
In 1973, Swaraj started practice as an advocate in the Supreme Court of India.[15][14] She began her political
career with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in the 1970s. Her husband, Swaraj Kaushal, was closely
associated with the socialist leader George Fernandes and Sushma Swaraj became a part of George
Fernandes's legal defence team in 1975. She actively participated in Jayaprakash Narayan's Total
Revolution Movement. After theEmergency, she joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Later, she became a
national leader of the BJP.[17]

State-level politics
She was a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly from 1977 to 1982, winning the Ambala
Cantonment assembly seat at the age of 25; and then, again from 1987 to 1990.[18] In July 1977, she was
sworn in as a Cabinet Minister in the Janata PartyGovernment headed by then Chief Minister Devi Lal.
She became State President of the Janata Party (Haryana) in 1979, at the age of 27. She was Education
Minister of Haryana state in theBharatiya Janata Party–Lok Dal coalition government from 1987 to 1990.[14]

Chief Minister of Delhi

Main article: Sushma Swaraj ministry (1998)

After a tenure in national level politics, she resigned from the Union Cabinet in October 1998 to take over
as the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.[19] Swaraj resigned from the position in December the same year.
[20]

National-level politics
In April 1990, she was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha and remained there until she was elected
to the 11th Lok Sabha from South Delhi constituency in 1996.

Swaraj was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from the South Delhi constituency in the April 1996 elections.
She was Union Cabinet Minister for Information and Broadcasting during the 13-day government of
PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996.[21]

Union Minister I&B & Telecommunications

She was re-elected to the 12th Lok Sabha from South Delhi Parliamentary constituency for a second term,
in March 1998. Under the second PM Vajpayee Government, she was sworn in as Union Cabinet Minister
for Information and Broadcasting with additional charge of the Ministry of Telecommunications from 19
March 1998 to 12 October 1998.[21] Her most notable decision during this period was to declare film
production as an industry, which made the Indian film industry eligible for bank finance. She also
started community radio at universities and other institutions.[citation needed]

In September 1999, the BJP nominated Swaraj to contest against the Congress party's national
PresidentSonia Gandhi in the 13th Lok Sabha election, from the Bellary constituency in Karnataka, which
had always been retained by Congress politicians since the first Indian general election in 1951–52.
During her campaign, she addressed public meetings in the local Kannada language. She secured
358,000 votes in just 12 days of her election campaign. However, she lost the election by a 7% margin.[22]

Minister for Information and Broadcasting

She returned to Parliament in April 2000 as a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. She was
reallocated to Uttrakhand when the new state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on 9 November 2000.
[23]
 She was inducted into the Union Cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting, a position she
held from September 2000 until January 2003.[21]

Union Health Minister

She was Minister of Health, Family Welfare and Parliamentary Affairs from January 2003 until May 2004,
when the National Democratic Alliance Government lost the general election.[21]

As Union Health Minister, she set up six All India Institute of Medical

Sciences at Bhopal (MP), Bhubaneshwar(Odisha), Jodhpur (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), Raipur (Chhattisga
rh) and Rishikesh (Uttrakhand).[citation needed]

Swaraj was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha for a third term in April 2006 from Madhya Pradesh state. She
served as the Deputy leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha till April 2009.
Leader of Opposition, 15th Lok Sabha
She won the 2009 election for the 15th Lok Sabha from the Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya
Pradesh by the highest margin of over 400,000 votes. Sushma Swaraj became Leader of Opposition in
the 15th Lok Sabha in place of Lal Krishna Advani on 21 December 2009, and retained this position till
May 2014 when, in the 2014 Indian general election, her party won a major victory.[24][25][26][27]

Minister of External Affairs

Swaraj had served as the Indian Minister of External Affairs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi from May
2014 to May 2019. She was responsible for implementing the foreign policy of Narendra Modi. She was
only the second woman to hold this position after Indira Gandhi.[28][29]

While being the Minister of External Affairs of the NDA government, Swaraj issued an NOC against a
specific query raised by the UK government about the Indo-UK bilateral relationship if the UK granted
permission to Lalit Modi, an Indian fugitive in a cricket scandal who had been staying in Britain since 2010,
to attend his wife's surgery in Portugal. She conveyed to the British High Commissioner that they should
examine Modi's request as per their rules and wrote "if the British government chooses to give travel
documents to Lalit Modi -– that will not spoil our bilateral relations". [30] However, some people mentioned
this incident as Swaraj helping Lalit Modi in the travel visa process.[31][32][33]

On 12 August 2015, the leader of the Indian National Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, moved an
Adjournment Motion in the lower house seeking the resignation of Sushma Swaraj due to her alleged
conduct in this regard. Initially, the motion was rejected by the Speaker, but it was accepted on Swaraj's
insistence. Intervening in the motion, Swaraj clarified that Lalit Modi's right of residency was not cancelled,
since the Enforcement Directorate did not file an extradition request. The Adjournment Motion was
subsequently rejected with a voice vote. Sushma Swaraj was heavily criticised in 2014 when she urged
Prime Minister Modi to declare theBhagavad Gita as the national book of India.[34]

As External Affairs Minister, she played a pivotal role in bringing back the then 23-year-old hearing and
speech-impaired Indian girl named Gita who was stranded in Pakistan for 15 years.[35]

Distinctions and records

In 1977, she became the youngest ever Cabinet Minister in the Government of Haryana at 25 years of
age.[36]In 1979, she became State President of Janata Party, Haryana State at the young age of 27.
Sushma Swaraj was the first female Spokesperson of a national political party in India. She has many
firsts to her credit as BJP's first female Chief Minister, Union Cabinet Minister, general secretary,
Spokesperson, Leader of Opposition and Minister of External Affairs. [citation  She is the Indian
needed]

Parliament's first and the only female MP honoured with the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award. She has
contested 11 direct elections from four states. She has served as the President of the Hindi Sahitya
Sammelan in Haryana for four years.[11]

On 19 February 2019 Swaraj accepted the prestigious Grand Cross of Order of Civil Merit, which was
conferred by the Spanish government in recognition of India's support in evacuating its citizens
from Nepal during theearthquake in 2015.[37]

Personal life
During the times of the Emergency, on 13 July 1975, Sushma Swaraj married Swaraj Kaushal, a peer and
fellow advocate at the Supreme Court of India. The Emergency movement brought together the couple,
who then teamed up for the defence of the socialist leader George Fernandes.[38][39] Swaraj Kaushal, a
senior advocate of Supreme Court of India and a criminal lawyer, also served as Governor of
Mizoram from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of parliament from 1998 to 2004.[40]

The couple have a daughter, Bansuri, who is a graduate from Oxford University and a Barrister at Law
fromInner Temple.[41][42]

Sushma Swaraj's sister Vandana Sharma is an associate professor of political science in a government
college for girls in Haryana.[43] Her brother Dr. Gulshan Sharma is an Ayurveda doctor based in Ambala.[44]

On 10 December 2016 she underwent a kidney transplant at AIIMS, Delhi with the organ being harvested
from a living unrelated donor. The surgery was successful.[45]

Death
On 6 August 2019, Sushma Swaraj reportedly suffered a heart attack in the evening after which she was
rushed to AIIMS New Delhi, where she later died of a cardiac arrest. [46][47][48] The next day, she was
cremated with full state honours at the Lodhi crematorium in Delhi.[49]

Positions held
 1977–82 Elected as Member, Haryana Legislative Assembly.[14]
 1977–79 Cabinet Minister, Labour and Employment, Government of Haryana.[14]
 1987–90 Elected as Member, Haryana Legislative Assembly.[14]
 1987–90 Cabinet Minister, Education, Food and Civil Supplies, Government of Haryana.[14]
 1996 [16 May – 1 June] – Union Cabinet Minister, Information and Broadcasting.[14]
 2000–06 Member, Rajya Sabha (4th term).[12]
 2006–09 [April 2006 -] Member, Rajya Sabha (5th term).[50]
 2009–14 [16 May 2009 – 18 May 2014] Member, 15th Lok Sabha (6th term).[14]
 2009-09 [3 June 2009 – 21 December 2009] Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.[14]
 2014–present [26 May 2014–] Member, 16th Lok Sabha (7th term).[14]
 2014–2019 [26 May 2014 – 29 May 2019] Minister of External Affairs in the Union of India.[14]