UPSC 2017-18: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Aug 06 - Aug 12

Preamble of Indian Constitution declares India as SOVEREIGN, SOCIALIST, SECULAR and DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. The words Socialist, Secular, and Integrity were not in the original constitution and have been inserted by 42nd amendment act 1976.

• Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India and to prevent activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India. It was established on 14 October 2003.

Chairman – Ministry of Commerce and Industry released WPI data.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO is attempting to complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round, which was launched in 2001 with an explicit focus on developing countries. As of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain: the work programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and the round is still incomplete. The conflict between free trade on industrial goods and services but retention of protectionism on farm subsidies to domestic agricultural sector (requested by developed countries) and the substantiation of fair trade on agricultural products (requested by developing countries) remain the major obstacles. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round. As a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between governments. As of July 2012, there were various negotiation groups in the WTO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation which is in the condition of stalemate.

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

• As per Schedule II of the Act, an NREGA worker must be paid within 15 days of completing his allocated tasks.

• Currently, the IIP is calculated on base year of 2011-12.
• IIP is compiled and published monthly by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) six weeks after the reference month ends.

The global probiotics (or beneficial bacteria) industry has already started using certain species of bacteria as healing or curative agents. Mother Dairy, Amul, Danone Yakult, and Nestle India are among the leading producers of probiotic functional foods and beverages in India.

India’s first bio-refinery plant has been inaugurated by the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari at Rahu in Pune district, Maharashtra. The plant will produce ethanol from variety of biomass. The bio‐refinery plant is capable of producing one million litre of ethanol per annum by processing a variety of agro-residue like rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, cane trash, corn cobs with superior product yields. Biofuel is cost‐effective and pollution‐free.

• India’s first micro forest will be built in Raipur, Chattisgarh. Approximately, 19 acres of land which housed around 70 government office buildings will be converted into micro forest in order to create an oxy-zone. The micro forest will provide fresh air to Raipur which is the 7th most polluted city in the world. It will reportedly be open to the public in the next 8 months.

“For many years, scientists believed that nothing could ever escape from a black hole — not even light. However, in 1974, Stephen Hawking suggested particles, that are now called Hawking radiation, could escape black holes.” “According to him if a particle and its antimatter appeared spontaneously at the edge of a black hole, one of the pair might be pulled into the black hole while the other escaped, taking some of the energy from the black hole with it. This would explain why black holes grow smaller and eventually disappear. However, since such emissions are feeble, no one has been able to measure Hawking radiation. Researchers have instead tried to build virtual black holes in labs to test the theory.”

Base year revised: The base year for the IIP and the WPI will be 2011-12 and not the current 2004-05. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and gross value addition also have 2011-12 as the base year.

Aadhaar is a 12 digit unique-identity number issued to all Indian residents based on their biometric and demographic data. Aadhaar is not a proof of citizenship.

The first statement is factually incorrect. Legislative Council is a continuing House and one-third of the members retire in two years.

Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is a tax avoidance strategy used by multinational companies, wherein profits are shifted from jurisdictions that have high taxes (such as the United States and many Western European countries) to jurisdictions that have low (or no) taxes (so-called tax havens).

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 prohibition of cow slaughter is also one of the Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Article 48 of the Constitution. It reads, “The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.”

• The Centre is planning to build an aerotropolis in Assam and has sought 2,000 acres from the state for the purpose.
• An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion where the layout, infrastructure, and economy are centered on an airport which serves as a multimodal “airport city” commercial core.

‘Rayichapalu’ has been officially declared as one of the rarest species of fish in the world by the researchers from the Marine Living Resources Department of Andhra University. The fish is a regular catch for fishermen in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. It is a colourful fish which is around 97mm in length and lives near the reefs. The researchers stated that this fish has a unique colour pattern with spectacular diamond shaped bands. Reportedly, it is the only fifth fish in this category of size. Now, the tiny colourful fish will have the scientific name ‘Pseudathias Vizagensis’, after the city where it was first discovered.

The Navegaon National Park is located in the Gondia district of Maharashtra. It is a popular forest resort in the easternmost part of Maharashtra and was built in the 18th century. It is home to number of fishes, 209 species of birds, 9 species of reptiles and 26 species of mammals which includes Tiger, Panther, Jungle cat, Small India Civet, Palm Civet, Wolf, Jackals, Bisons, Sambars, Nilgais, Chitals, Wild boars, Sloth Bears, and Nathan Lewis.

• The “Preservation, protection and improvement of stock and prevention of animal diseases, veterinary training and practice” is Entry 15 of the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, meaning that State Legislatures have exclusive powers to legislate the prevention of slaughter and preservation of cattle.

Dhara Mustard Hybrid (DMH -11)

1. The transgenic mustard
2. Developed by a team of scientists at Delhi University led by former vice chancellor Deepak Pental under a government-funded project.
3. It uses a system of genes from soil bacterium that makes mustard — generally a self pollinating plant.

Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB) is a rare type of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, plus any fluoroquinolone and at least one of three injectable second-line drugs (i.e., amikacin, kanamycin, or capreomycin). MDR TB is caused by an organism that is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin, the two most potent TB drugs.

EVM is manufactured by two public sector undertakings, Bharat Electronic Limited and Electronics Corporation of India.

Indian manufacturers have supplied EVMs to Namibia, Nepal and Bhutan.

“US based NGOs are financing the protests KundanKullam Nuke Power Plant.”So Home ministry got in action, bank accounts of some NGOs were frozen after it was found that they were diverting money received from their donors abroad into funding protests at the Koodankulam plant.

Water in 320 of the nation’s 640 locales is defiled by chemicals like fluoride, arsenic, and substantial metals like chromium and lead.

Zonal Councils have been established via the part III of the States Reorganization Act of 1956, they are statutory bodies.

Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) is a nonprofit organisation formed to create a platform for all the concerned parties i.e. stakeholders, government, taxpayers to collaborate on a single portal. The portal will be accessible to the central government which will track down every transaction on its end while the taxpayers will be having a vast service to return file their taxes and maintain the details.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) currently recognizes five dwarf planets: Ceres; Pluto; Haumea; Makemake; and Eris.

Masala bonds are bonds issued outside India but denominated in Indian Rupees.

The Eight Core Industries comprise nearly 38 % of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). These are Electricity, steel, refinery products, crude oil, coal, cement, natural gas and fertilisers.

• The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
• So, it is not an UN agency.
• It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries.
• Its headquarter is at Paris, France.

Chairman – The Union Home Minister is the Chairman of each of these Councils.

Vice Chairman – The Chief Ministers of the States included in each zone act as Vice-Chairman of the Zonal Council for that zone by rotation, each holding office for a period of one year at a time.

• India taking part in global disaster risk reduction meet in Mexico.
• The GPDRR is a global forum for strategic advice, coordination, partnership development and review of progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) 2015-2030 which was adopted at the 3rd UN World conference on disaster risk reduction held in March 2015 in Sendai, Japan.

The Inter State Council is an Indian constitutional body set up on the basis of provisions in Article 263 of the Constitution of India.