UPSC Prelims Facts – 16 May 2024

UPSC Prelims Facts

Recently, India VIX surged above the critical threshold of 21, indicating heightened volatility in India’s stock market.

  • A measure of the amount by which an underlying Index is expected to fluctuate, in the near term (30 calendar days).
  • Higher the India VIX values, higher the expected volatility and vice-versa.
  • Based on – Index option prices of NIFTY
  • Uses computation methodology of Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE), the 1st to introduce a volatility index for US markets in 1993.

Archaeologists have found evidence of a lost landscape known as Sahul in the ancient times.

  • A supercontinent exposed on the Earth’s surface during the last ice age due to glaciation, which lowered global sea levels. 
  • Sahul was above sea levels around 70,000 years ago and connected Australia, New Guinea, and neighboring islands like the Aru Islands. 
  • It helped humans travel across continents, from Asia to Australia almost 7,000 decades ago

The seventh edition of the Indo-U.S. joint counter-terrorism exercise ‘Tarkash’ was recently held in Kolkata.

  • Held between – India’s National Security Guard (NSG) and U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF)

US State Department warned India of sanctions under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) after India-Iran deal on Chabahar port.

  • A US federal law, enacted in 2017, which aims to punish countries having deep engagements with Russia, North Korea, and Iran using economic sanction.
  • It entails economic & financial penalties for any nation that have significant transactions with Russian intelligence and military agents.
  • In 2018, US House of Representatives passed an amendment to exempt India from economic sanctions under CAATSA for purchasing S-400 missile defence system from Russia.

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