Prelims Pinpointer — 27 July 2026
Black Sea
- The Black Sea is a large inland sea at Europe’s southeastern extremity, lying at the meeting point of Europe and Asia.
- It is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, covering nearly 436,000 sq km of surface area.
- It has comparatively lower salinity than the world’s oceans.
Bordering Countries
North: Ukraine · Northeast: Russia · East: Georgia · South: Turkey · West: Romania and Bulgaria.
Important Straits
Bosporus Strait (links to Sea of Marmara), Dardanelles Strait (links Aegean to Mediterranean), Kerch Strait (links to Sea of Azov).
Major Rivers & Peninsula
Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, Southern Bug and Rioni feed into the Black Sea; the Crimean Peninsula extends into its northern waters.
Islands & Coastline
Dzharylhach Island is the largest in the Black Sea; Ukraine holds the most islands. Russia has the longest coastline, followed by Turkey and Ukraine.
Commonwealth Games (CWG)
- The Commonwealth Games is a multi-sport event held every four years, open only to Commonwealth member countries.
- The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 at Hamilton, Canada.
- India hosted the 19th Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010.
Evolution of Names
1930–1950: British Empire Games · 1954–1964: British and Commonwealth Games · 1970–1974: British Commonwealth Games · Present: Commonwealth Games.
Membership
The Commonwealth presently comprises 56 member countries across five continents; Gabon and Togo became the newest members in 2022.
- Commonwealth Secretariat: established in London in 1965; serves as the central intergovernmental organisation of the Commonwealth.
- Board of Governors: includes High Commissioners representing all member governments and oversees the Secretariat’s functioning.
BitChat
- BitChat is a decentralised peer-to-peer messaging application that operates through Bluetooth mesh networks without internet connectivity.
- It requires no internet connection, phone number, or account registration, and functions without centralised servers or communication logs.
- Every connected device acts as both a client and a server; nearby devices automatically discover and connect, with messages hopping across multiple devices to extend range.
- It offers infrastructure independence, censorship resistance and surveillance resistance, remaining functional during internet outages.
Section 69A, IT Act 2000
Empowers the Union Government to block public access to information on grounds of national security, public order, or prevention of incitement to cognisable offences, following prescribed legal procedure.
Section 79(3)(b), IT Act 2000
Deals with intermediary safe harbour protection, which may cease after failure to remove unlawful material following government notification; it does not itself confer independent blocking powers.
IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2021
Prescribe obligations for digital intermediaries to remove unlawful material after valid government direction, without vitiating connected evidence.
Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR)
- An EGR represents ownership of standardised physical gold, with every EGR backed by physical gold stored in authorised vaults.
- Creation: eligible physical gold (imported or exchange-accredited domestic refinery gold) is deposited with a SEBI-registered vault manager, weighed, assayed and quality-verified before the Depository credits the EGR into the owner’s demat account.
- Trading: EGRs are traded electronically through recognised stock exchanges; ownership changes without moving physical gold from the vault, with clearing corporations ensuring settlement.
Key Features
Fungibility allows delivery of equivalent gold instead of the original deposited bar; interoperability permits collection from another eligible vault; investors may convert EGRs into physical gold.
SEBI’s Regulatory Role
SEBI regulates the EGR ecosystem through registered intermediaries; vault managers require SEBI registration, and depositories reconcile records with underlying gold through periodic inspections.
- The Hindu — Black Sea
- IT — Commonwealth Games (CWG)
- The Hindu — BitChat
- The Hindu — Electronic Gold Receipt (EGR)
