Current Affairs Question - 04 August 2020

Explanation :

• China has completed its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System constellation, coming up with a product that can potentially rival the US Global Positioning System (GPS).
• China initiated BeiDou in 1994 with aims to integrate its application in different sectors, including fishery, agriculture, special care, mass-market applications, forestry and public security.
• The name BeiDou comes from Chinese word for the Big Dipper or Plough constellation.
• It consists of 27 satellites in medium Earth orbit, five in geostationary orbit and three more in inclined geosynchronous orbits.
• The navigation satellite system was completed in three steps: BDS-1 which provided services to China, BDS- 2 to provide services to the Asia-Pacific region and BDS-3 which provides services worldwide.
• China’s navigation system uses a network of satellites and can provide positional accuracies of under ten meters (GPS provides positioning accuracies of under 2.2 meters).
• BeiDou offers services including accurate positioning, navigation and timing as well as short message communication.

Other Countries’ Navigation Systems

• The GPS is owned by the US government and operated by the US Air Force.
• Apart from this, Russia has its navigation system called GLONASS, the European Union (EU) has Galileo, while India’s is called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC).

Explanation :

• A whip is an official of a political party who acts as the party's 'enforcer' inside the Legislative Assembly or House of Parliament.
• Parties appoint a senior member from among their House contingents to issue whips — this member is called a Chief Whip, and he/she is assisted by additional Whips.
• India inherited the concept of the whip from the British parliamentary system.

Role

• They try to ensure that their fellow political party legislators attend voting sessions and vote according to their party’s official policy.

What happens if a ‘whip’ is disobeyed?

• A legislator may face disqualification proceedings if she/he disobeys the whip of the party unless the number of lawmakers defying the whip is 2/3rds of the party’s strength in the house.
• Disqualification is decided by the Speaker of the house.

Limitations

• There are some cases such as Presidential elections where whips cannot direct a Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) to vote in a particular fashion.

Types

• One-line whip: Issued to inform members of a party about a vote. It allows a member to abstain in case they decide not to follow the party line.
• Two-line whip: Issued to direct the members to be present in the House at the time of voting.
• Three-line whip: Issued to members directing them to vote as per the party line.