UPSC 2017-18: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Aug 13 - Aug 19

Swadesh Darshan Scheme

• Implementing agency: Ministry of Tourism.
• Completely funded by central government.
• Swadesh Darshan Scheme is based on some of tourist circuit that will be covered
• under the PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive) and Swadeshi Darshan.

PM Ujjwala Yojana

• Under the PM Ujjwala Yojana, the government aims to provide LPG connections to:
  • BPL households in the country.
  • The scheme is aimed at replacing the unclean cooking fuels mostly used in the rural
  • India with the clean and more efficient LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas).

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister, has launched a nationwide campaign “Gaj Yatra” in New Delhi to protect elephants on the occasion of World Elephant Day (WED). The campaign is planned to cover 12 elephant range states. The World Elephant Day (WED) is celebrated every year on August 12 to focus the attention of various stakeholders in supporting various conservation policies to protect elephants, including improving enforcement policies to prevent illegal poaching and trade in ivory.

• Raut Nacha is a ceremonial dance performed mainly by the tribal community of Chhattisgarh. It is performed during the “dev udhni ekadashi”, after the Diwali festival. It is mainly performed by Yaduvanshis. The dance form carries with itself sacred mythological and religious traditions.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a disease spread through mosquito bites. Symptoms usually take 5-15 days to develop and include fever, headache, vomiting, confusion, and difficulty moving. Symptoms that develop later include swelling around the brain and coma. JE is a serious disease that may cause death.

In significant changes in electoral funding norms, corporate donations to political parties will no longer face any ceiling linked to firms’ profitability and companies will no longer be obliged to inform their shareholders which party’s coffers they contribute to. These changes were introduced by the government in the amendments to the Finance act of 2017 Earlier, companies can only contribute up to 7.5% of their average net profits in the past three financial years to political parties. Moreover, they are required to disclose the amount of contributions made and the names of the political parties to which they were made, in their profit and loss accounts. The government has included an amendment to the Companies Act of 2013 to do away with the 7.5% of net profits limit set on donations and the requirement for a company to disclose the name of political parties to which they donate.

• Ghumura is an ancient folk dance that originated from Odisha. As per ancient mythological texts, Ghumura was a war dance of the Gods and Demons. Over the course of time, Ghumurawas imbibed into performing arts and entertainment in Odisha.

It is an orthomyxovirus that contains the glycoproteins haemagglutinin and neuraminidase. For this reason, they are described as H1N1, H1N2 etc. depending on the type of H or N antigens they express with metabolic synergy. Haemagglutinin causes red blood cells to clump together and binds the virus to the infected cell. Neuraminidase is a type of glycoside hydrolase enzyme which helps to move the virus particles through the infected cell and assist in budding from the host cells.

Concurrent List Entry 22 under 8th schedule of Constitution of India.

95% of global lithium production comes from Argentina, Australia, Chile and China. The Government has recently announced that only electric vehicles (EVs) will be sold in India from 2030.

Article 233: Appointment of district judges (1) Appointments of persons to be, and the posting and promotion of, district judges in any State shall be made by the Governor of the State in consultation with the High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to such State (2) A person not already in the service of the Union or of the State shall only be eligible to be appointed a district judge if he has been for not less than seven years an advocate or a pleader and is recommended by the High Court for appointment.

• The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI), also known as Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline.
• It is a natural gas pipeline being developed by the Asian Development Bank.
• The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.

• Meaning of xenotransplantation: the process of grafting or transplanting organs or tissues between members of different species.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention on Refugees and the 1967 Protocol

• The Black Sea is an inland sea located between far-southeastern Europe and the far-western edges of the continent of Asia and the country of Turkey. It’s bordered by Turkey, and by Bulgaria, Romania,Ukraine, Russia and Georgia.

Celebes crested macaque under serious threat cause of habitat loss and hunting. Indonesian law protects the macaques and some other animals at the market but trade in exotic creatures is still thriving. It has been classified as critically endangered under IUCN’s Red Data book.

IUCN Red List Categories
Species are classified by the IUCN Red List into nine groups.

1. Extinct (EX) – No known individuals remaining
2. Extinct in the wild (EW) – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range
3. Critically endangered (CR) – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild
4. Endangered (EN) – High risk of extinction in the wild.
5. Vulnerable (VU) – High risk of endangerment in the wild
6. Near threatened (NT) – Likely to become endangered in the near future
7. Least concern (LC) – Lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at-risk category.Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category
8. Data deficient (DD) – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction
9. Not evaluated (NE) – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria

Based on a set of criteria such as

• rate of decline,
• population size,
• area of geographic distribution, and
• degree of population and
• distribution fragmentation

When discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term “threatened” is a grouping of three categories: Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.

• The Nitisara of Kamandaka, also known as the Kamandakiya-Nitisara, was composed during the period of Gupta Dynasty. It was based on Kautilya’s Arthashastra.

The government fixes ceiling prices of all drugs under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) . Price fixation of these drugs is carried out by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA).

• National Child Labour Project for Rehabilitation of Child Labour scheme targets only children in the age group 5-14 years and also adolescents.
• Under the Scheme, survey of child labour engaged in hazardous occupations & processes has been conducted.
• The identified children are to be withdrawn from hazardous occupations & processes and then put into special schools in order to enable them to be mainstreamed into formal schooling system.

• New species of long legged, tree- dwelling crabs have been discovered by Scientist in Western Ghats of Kerala. First of its kind to offer a record of an arboreal crab — a species that lives in trees.
• The new species named Kani maranjandu after the Kani tribe in Kerala.

The web portal and mobile application named “Bharat ke Veer” is an IT based platform, with an objective to enable willing donors to contribute towards the family of a braveheart who sacrificed his/her life in line of duty.

Seven countries that have signed but not yet ratified The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control -Argentina, Cuba, Haiti, Morocco, Mozambique, Switzerland, and the United States.

More aerosol in atmosphere results in heavier rainfall

What’s in news?

• Earlier belief: pre-monsoon aerosol loading results in decrease in seasonal rainfall due to aerosol-solar radiation interactions.
• New Findings:
• Long-term (2002-2013) satellite observational study and model-based analysis by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has found that higher aerosol loading results in delayed but more rainfall over Central and Northern India.
• Higher aerosol loading changes cloud properties in terms of size (both height and width) and microphysics, which results in more rainfall.
• When aerosol particles are higher, the number of nucleation sites increases resulting in far too many number of droplets. Under such circumstances, it takes time for the droplets to grow in size through condensation.

• Hemoglobin in humans has a very high affinity for carbon monoxide, forming carboxyhemoglobin which is a very bright red in color. Carbon monoxide is thus problematic for humans because it has affinity higher than that of oxygen.

Uttarayan Festival

• International Kite festival held at Ahmadabad, Gujarat.
• It is the sign for farmers that the sun is back and that harvest season is approaching which is called Makara Sankranti.
• The idea of flying kites to celebrate Uttrayan was introduced by Muslims from
• Persia, today regardless of background or beliefs, everyone are welcomed to fly kite in Gujarat in January.

The Grizzled Squirrel Wildlife Sanctuary (GSWS) is located in Virudhunagar and Madurai districts of Tamil Nadu and covers an area 485.2 sq Kms. Over 240+ species of birds are seen in this sanctuary including 14 species of birds endemic to the Western Ghats, such as the critically endangered Oriental white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture. In addition to grizzled giant squirrels, the sanctuary is home to numerous animals such as barking deer, bonnet macaque, common langur, elephants, flying squirrels, gaur, Indian giant squirrel, leopard, lion-tailed macaques, mouse deer, Nilgiri langur and Nilgiri Tahrs. There are over 220 species of butterflies including many rare and endemic species. Some of the rare butterflies spotted here include Eversheds ace , Silver royal , Orange awlet , Hampsons hedge blue , etc.

Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) are also called white scavenger vulture or pharaoh’s chicken and are the smallest among all vultures. They are a globally endangered species on the IUCN Red List.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations for coordinating the economic, social and environmental issues, as well as for implementing internationally agreed development goals. Recently, it is in news because India has been re-elected to the United Nations ECOSOC for another 3-year term. India was among 18 nations to win election to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). India obtained 183 votes, the second highest after Japan in the Asia Pacific category. The elected members of ECOSOC for a three-year term beginning 1 January, 2018 are Belarus, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Spain, Sudan, Togo, Turkey and Uruguay. The headquarters of the ECOSOC is located in New York, Unites States.

• India recently signed International Expedited Traveler Initiative Programme with the United States. Also called as Global Entry Programme, this scheme will allow expedited entry into the US to low-risk travellers from India., with India making a formal entry into an American initiative.
• The move would facilitate closer business and educational ties between the citizens of India and the U.S.

Joint sitting is summoned by the President to settle a deadlock between the two Houses on a bill. The bill is passed by a simple majority i.e. majority of the number of members present and voting.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is a quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates issues relating to companies in India. The NCLT was established under the Companies Act 2013 and was constituted on 1 June 2016.

Ramman is a religious festival and ritual theatre of the Garhwal region, Uttarkhand. It is a festival of the Hindu community in the Saloor Dungra village in the Chamoli district of Uttarkhand. The festival and the eponymous art form are conducted as an offering to the village deity, Bhumiyal Devta.

The 2,230-kg satellite was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and has 12 Ku-band transponders. It is cuboid in shape and built around a central cylinder.

It has a mission life of over 12 years.

It will be launched from on the Geostationary Launch Vehicle Mk-II.