UPSC 2024: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Apr 13 - Apr 19

• Statement 1 is correct, 1G was launched in the 1980s and worked on analogue radio signals and supported only voice calls.
• Statement 2 is correct, 2G was launched in the 1990s which uses digital radio signals and supports both voice and data transmission with a bandwidth of 64 Kbps.
• Statement 3 is correct, 3G was launched in the 2000s with a speed of 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps and it has the ability to transmit telephone signals including digitised voice, video calls and conferencing.

• Black Cotton soil is often referred to as “regur”.
• The black cotton soil of India has been formed due to the weathering of fissure volcanic rock.
• Volcanic rocks that developed in the Deccan Plateau are the parent material for the majority of the black soil (Rajmahal trap and Deccan).

• Statement 1 is correct, CBM is an unconventional form of natural gas found in coal deposits or coal seams.
  • It is a primary clean energy source of natural gas.
• Statement 2 is correct, The extraction of CNG reduces explosion hazards in underground coal mines as large amounts of methane (CH4) are often associated with some of the coal seams.
• Statement 3 is not correct, CBM has almost no hydrogen sulphide. Hence, it is known as “sweet gas”.
  • A natural gas with a high concentration of hydrogen sulphide is called “sour gas”.

• Statement 1 is not correct, Under PMFBY Scheme, farmers will have to pay a uniform premium of:
  • 2% for Kharif food and oilseeds crops
  • 1.5% for Rabi food and oilseeds crops
  • 5% for annual commercial/horticultural crops
• Statement 2 is not correct, The Scheme covers calamities leading to loss of yield like floods, dry spells, droughts, Pest infestation, etc.
  • Burglary/housebreaking/theft are not covered under PMFBY.

• Statement 1 is not correct, Seeko Aur Kamao Scheme aims to upgrade the skills of minority youth in the age group of 14-45 years in various modern courses depending upon their qualification.
• Statement 2 is correct, Upgrading the Skills and Training in Traditional Arts/Crafts for Development (USTTAD) scheme was launched in 2015 to preserve the rich heritage of traditional arts/crafts of minorities.
• Statement 3 is correct, The Naya Savera scheme (Free Coaching and Allied scheme) assists students/candidates belonging to the six notified minority communities by way of special coaching for qualifying examinations for admission in technical/professional courses and competitive examinations.

• Statement 1 is not correct, India has banned the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified single-use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential.
• Statement 2 is correct, The ban will be monitored by the CPCB from the Centre, and by the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) that will report to the Centre regularly.
• Statement 3 is correct, The penalty for violating the ban is as per provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. This can be a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh, or imprisonment of up to 5 years, or both.

• Pair 1 is not correct, Kapildhara Falls is situated in the Amarkantak district of Madhya Pradesh.
  • Kapildhara is the waterfall of River Narmada.
• Pair 2 is correct, Jog Falls is a waterfall on the Sharavati River located in Karnataka.
• Pair 3 is correct, Shivanasamudra is a popular waterfall on River Kaveri, located in Karnataka.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, The Polluter-Pays Principle (PPP) was adopted by OECD in 1972 as an economic principle for allocating the costs of pollution control.
• Statement 02 is correct, Maharashtra and Kerala have three wetlands which are deemed to be of “international importance” under the Ramsar Convention.
  • Kerala – Ashtamudi Wetland; Vembanad-Kol Wetland; Sasthamkotta Lake.
  • Maharashtra – Nandur Madhameshwar; Thane Creek; Lonar Lake.

• Statement 01 is incorrect,  No alteration in the boundaries of a tiger reserve shall be made except on a recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority and the approval of the National Board for Wild Life.
• Statement 02 is correct, Project Tiger was launched in November 1973 by the Government of India during Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s tenure.
• Statement 03 is correct, Project Tiger is an ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change providing central assistance to the tiger States for tiger conservation in designated tiger reserves.

The Abel Prize is awarded every year to facilitate outstanding mathematicians. It is named after Niels Henrik Abel who is considered Norway’s greatest mathematician. It was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2002, on the occasion of the 200th birth anniversary of Niels Henrik Abel.

The Abel Prize is given by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, on behalf of the Ministry of Education of the Norwegian Parliament.

Tehri Dam is a multi-purpose rock and earth-fill embankment dam on the Bhagirathi River in Uttarakhand.

• The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) started ‘Earth Hour’  in 2007.
• It is held every year on the last Saturday of March.
• The initiative began in 2007 in Sydney, Australia and later became a global event.
• Earth Hour’s goal is to raise awareness for sustainable energy use and create a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle.
• This day encourages citizens, communities, businesses and organisations to switch the lights off from 8:30 pm local time for an hour to highlight the plight of the planet.

• Statement 01 is correct, AI can help reduce the possibility of credit card fraud. AI is able to analyse huge numbers of transactions in order to uncover fraud patterns, and eventually use them to detect fraud in real-time and even prevent it.
• Statement 02 is correct, Machine learning informs AI when it scans incoming emails. It looks for emails that signal red flags and filter out spam emails.
• Statement 03 is correct, Artificial intelligence can assist providers in a variety of patient care and intelligent health systems. Artificial intelligence techniques ranging from machine learning to deep learning are prevalent in healthcare for disease diagnosis, drug discovery, and patient risk identification.
• Statement 04 is correct, The AI deep learning application aids the growth of flora pattern analysis in agriculture. The AI-driven software tools support our understanding of soil imperfections, plant pests, and diseases. Farmers use AI to control weeds using computer vision, robotics, and Machine learning.
• Statement 05 is correct, AI can be used to detect vulnerabilities in software, detecting data overflow in a buffer.

Statement 01 is correct, 42nd Constitutional Amendment act made the President bound by the advice of the cabinet.
Statement 02 is correct, This amendment attempted to curtail the power of judicial review of the Supreme Court and High court by excluding from their purview any matter of elections.
Statement 03 is incorrect, 47th Constitutional Amendment Act,1984 included 14 land reforms Acts of various states in the Ninth Schedule.
Statement 04 is incorrect, 50th Constitutional Amendment Act,1984 empowered the Parliament to restrict the Fundamental Rights of persons employed in intelligence organisations and telecommunication systems set up for the armed forces or intelligence organisations.

• Statement 01 is correct, In 1912, Visvesvaraya was appointed Diwan of Mysore by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV. He served as Diwan until 1918.
• Statement 02 is correct, In 1917, he founded the Century Club and served as its first president in 1917-18.
• Statement 03 is incorrect, The Almatti Dam is a dam project on the Krishna River in North Karnataka, India which began in 1963.

Moldova shares its international border with its two neighbouring countries; Romania and Ukraine.

Statement 1 is correct: OneWeb constellation operates in a Low Earth Orbit Polar Orbit.
Statement 2 is not correct: OneWeb is a global communication network powered from space. It enables connectivity for governments, businesses, and communities.

• Statement 1 is not correct: The constitutional validity of the death sentence itself had been upheld by the SC in Bachan Singh vs the State of Punjab (1982).
• Statement 2 is correct: In the 187th report in 2003, the Law Commission suggested that the mode of execution should be left to the discretion of the judge, who should hear the convict on the question before passing an order.

• Statement 1 is not correct: After the US dollar, Euro has the largest weightage in determining the value of SDR.
• Statement 2 is not correct: SDRs can be held and used by member countries, the IMF, and certain designated official entities called “prescribed holders” but they cannot be held, by private entities or individuals.
• Statement 3 is correct: The IMF reviews the SDR basket every five years, or earlier if warranted, to ensure that it reflects the relative importance of currencies in the world’s trading and financial systems.

• The Privilege of State legislature is extended to Members of the Legislative Assembly, Members of the Legislative Council, the Chairman of the Legislative Council, and the Advocate General of the State. However, it is not extended to Governor.

The Ogaden region is a source of conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia.

• Great Indian Bustards (GIB) are the largest among the four bustard species found in India.
• The other three bustard species are MacQueen’s bustard, the lesser florican and the Bengal florican.
• Sandgrouse is the common name for Pteroclididae which is a family of ground-dwelling bird species.
  • They are ground-dwelling birds restricted to treeless, open country such as plains, savannahs, and semi-deserts.
  • They are distributed across Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, India and central Asia.

• Statement 1 is correct, PARIVESH is a web-based application developed for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents for seeking Environment, Forest, Wildlife and CRZ Clearances from Central, State and district-level authorities.
• Statement 2 is not correct, The system has been designed, developed, and hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. 
• Statement 3 is correct, It offers a framework to generate economic growth and strengthens sustainable development through E-Governance.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-systems (NPCA) scheme is for the conservation and management of wetlands (including lakes) in the country.
• Statement 2 is correct, The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is implementing the centrally sponsored NPCA scheme.
  • NPCA was introduced to address pollution issues in urban and semi-urban environments through interception, diversion, treatment of pollution load entering lakes, shoreline protection, and lakefront development.

Statement 1 is not correct, In India, the current limit specified for Total Arsenic is 0.01 mg/l.
Statement 2 is not correct, The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was launched in 2019 with the aim to provide tap water to all households by 2024.
Statement 3 is correct, Prolonged ingestion of arsenic-containing drinking water is associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, skin cancer and skin lesions.

• Since the inception of underground mining, the release of methane from coal beds has been a hazard to mining safety.
• When methane combines with air, it forms a combustible mixture which has been the cause of countless mine explosions.

• Statement 1 is correct, In 2018, the Empowered Expert Committee (EEC) chaired by former Chief Election Commissioner, N. Gopalasamy recommended a list of institutions for the consideration of the “Institution of Eminence (IoE)” status.
• Statement 2 is not correct, To get the status, the institutions should be among:
  • Top 50 in the National Institution Ranking Framework (NIRF).
  • Top 500 in internationally recognised rankings.
• Statement 3 is not correct, Private institutions are also eligible for the tag.
  • Private institutions are assessed on the basis of their ranking in the QS India or NIRF, the NIRF ranking being used as a tie-breaker.

Statement 1 is correct, The National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) App was launched in 2021 by the Ministry of Rural Development.
Statement 2 is correct, NMMS App is used to capture real-time attendance of workers at Mahatma Gandhi NREGA worksites along with geo-tagged photographs.
Statement 3 is correct, The Union government has made digitally capturing MGNREGA attendance universal from January 1, 2023 through (NMMS).

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Delimitation Commission is appointed by the President of India and works in collaboration with the Election Commission of India.
• Statement 2 is not correct, After every census, the Parliament will enact a Delimitation Act, as per Article 82.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The first such exercise in 1950-51 was carried out by the President, with the help of the Election Commission.
  • Following the Delimitation Commission Act in 1952, all such exercises have been conducted by Delimitation Commissions — set up in 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002.