UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Aug 19 - Aug 25

• Statement 1 is correct, Dugong, also known as ‘Sea Cow’ is one of the four surviving species in the Order Sirenia. It is the only existing species of herbivorous mammal that lives exclusively in the sea.
• Statement 02 is incorrect, They are found in over 30 countries and in India are seen in the Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kutch, Palk Bay, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Statement 03 is incorrect, They are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and are protected in India under Schedule I of the Wild (Life) Protection Act, 1972.

• Statement 01 is correct, The NIA is the central counter-terrorism law enforcement agency in the country. It was created in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attack the same year to deal with the investigation of terror-related crimes across states without special permission from the states.
• Statement 02 is incorrect, The agency is headquartered in New Delhi and has 8 regional offices across India. It is headed by a Director-General (an IPS officer).
• Statement 03 is correct, Recent amendments in the NIA Act and UAPA Act have empowered NIA to declare organizations as well as individuals as terrorists.

• Ethanol is one of the principal biofuels, which is naturally produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts or via petrochemical processes such as ethylene hydration. It has medical applications as an antiseptic and disinfectant. It is used as a chemical solvent and in the synthesis of organic compounds, apart from being an alternative fuel source.
• Calorific value of Ethanol fuel is lower compared to petrol.
• Ethanol–gasoline blends (EGBs) can easily absorb large amounts of water because of the presence of ethanol and the resulting fuel is becoming more corrosive.

Read more on Ethanol Blended Program.

• Statement 01 is incorrect. Once appointed, the Chief Justice of India  can hold office until the complete 65 years. They cannot be removed during their tenure except on proved misbehavior or incapacity.
• Statement 02 is incorrect.  A distinguished jurist  in the opinion of the President can also be appointed as a Supreme Court Judge.

Read more on Appointment and Removal of Supreme Court Judges.

• Statement 01 is correct, Under Article 176(1) of the Indian Constitution, As per the legislative powers of the Governor he can address a state legislature at the commencement of the first session after each general election and first session of each year.
• Statement 02 is correct,  As per Rules of procedure given in Article 208 of the Indian Constitution
  • A House of the State Legislature  may make rules for regulating subject to the provisions of this Constitution, its procedure and the conduct of its business.
  • State legislature follows Lok Sabha rules if it does not have a rule on a particular matter.

• Ex Hand in Hand is a joint military exercise between India and China.
• The exercise takes place between the armies of both countries.
• The aim of the Hand in Hand exercise is to enhance interoperability between the two armies to counter terrorism.

List of Joint Military Exercises of the Indian Army 

• The Lion Tailed Macaque (Macaca silenus) is an old-world monkey native to the western ghats of Southern India.
• It is a good climber, spending most of its time in the upper reaches of a tropical rainforest. Its habitats consist of rainforest regions of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

• Statement 01 is correct, Special Police Establishment Act of 1946 mandates CBI to attain State Government’s consent for investigation of any crime in that state.
• Statement 02  is correct, State Government consent can be either general or case-specific. The state provides its general consent for an impeccable CBI investigation of corruption cases against central government employees in its territory.
• Statement 03 is correct, Withdrawal of general consent disables CBI to file any new case against any Central Government employee or private person without the State’s permission.The CBI must ask for case-specific consent before taking each action, even the smallest ones.

• Stephan’s Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies of which four form the first compact galaxy group ever discovered.
• The group, visible in the constellation Pegasus.
• It was discovered by Édouard Stephan in 1877 at the Marseille Observatory.
• The group is the most studied of all the compact galaxy groups.

• Wearable technology includes devices such as fitness trackers to monitor our fitness levels, smartwatches, heart rate monitors, sleep monitoring of a person and GPS tracking devices to identify the location of a person. Wearable technology also assists hearing-impaired persons.

• Statement 1 is correct, Treaties are in place to regulate the conduct of actors on the high seas but a treaty dedicated to protecting ocean health does not exist currently.
• Statement 2 is correct, The UNCLOS led to the establishment of territorial sea boundaries 22 km offshore, deciding the region up to which countries could claim full sovereign territorial rights, and the 200 nautical miles EEZ limit.
  • It also led to the creation of the International Seabed Authority and other conflict-resolution mechanisms.
• Statement 3 is correct. The High Ambition Coalition, which at present has over 100 countries as members including India, the US, and the UK, put the focus on “30×30” goals which aim to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.

• Statement 1 is correct, With the Artemis’s missions, NASA plans to land humans on the moon by 2024 along with landing the first woman and the first person of colour on the Moon.
• Statement 2 is correct, Artemis I is an uncrewed space mission where the spacecraft will launch on SLS (Space Launch System) which is said to be the most powerful rocket in the world.
• Statement 3 is not correct, in 1959, the Soviet Union’s uncrewed Luna 1 and 2 became the first rover to visit the Moon.

• Statement 1 is correct, The parties to the NPT, which came into force in 1970, undertake a review of the treaty’s implementation every five years.
  • The Tenth Review Conference, scheduled for 2020 which was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, took place recently.
• Statement 2 is correct, India is not a signatory to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
  • CTBT bans all nuclear test explosions anywhere in the world.
• Statement 3 is correct, India is a member of the Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT).
  • PTBT requires all party members to prohibit, prevent, and abstain from carrying out nuclear weapons tests or any other nuclear explosions in the atmosphere, in outer space, underwater, or in any other environment.

• Statement 1 is correct, The term ‘De-notified Tribes’ stands for all those communities which were once notified under the Criminal Tribes Acts, enforced by the British Raj between 1871 and 1947.
• Statement 2 is correct, The four components of the SEED scheme are:
  • Educational empowerment – Free coaching to students from these communities for Civil Services, entry to professional courses like medicine, engineering, MBA, etc.
  • Health Insurance through PMJAY of the National Health Authority.
  • Livelihood support and income generation,
  • Housing through various schemes
• Statement 3 is correct, The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment decided in February 2014 to constitute a National Commission for Denotified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes for three years.

• Oilzapper technology is used to get rid of oil from a surface.
• Oil Zapping is a bio-remediation technique involving the use of ‘oil zapping’ bacteria.
• Oilzapper feeds on hydrocarbon compounds present in crude oil and the hazardous hydrocarbon waste generated by oil refineries. It converts oil sludges into harmless CO2 and water.

• PARAKH stands for Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development.
• This National Assessment Centre, PARAKH is to be set up as a standard-setting body for all recognized school boards under the National Education Policy 2020. It aims to ensure student assessment and evaluation to promote and enhance learning.
• PARAKH would also facilitate the sharing of best practices across educational institutions.

• It is El Nino that brings rain to South America and droughts to Indonesia and Australia.
• La Nina brings heavy rains to Australia and it causes drought in the South American countries of Peru and Ecuador.

• The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It seeks cooperation in the nuclear field and seeks to promote the safe, secure and peaceful use of nuclear technologies.
• The IAEA was established as an autonomous organization in 1957.
• It was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work for a safe and peaceful world.
• It is an independent international organization that reports annually to the United Nation General Assembly. When necessary, the IAEA also reports to the UN Security Council in regards to instances of members’ non-compliance with safeguards and security obligations.

• The Man of the Hole, or the Tanaru Indian, was an indigenous person who lived alone in the Amazon rainforest in Rondônia, Brazil. He was the sole inhabitant of the Tanaru Indigenous Territory, a protected indigenous territory demarcated by the Brazilian government in 2007.

• According to the National Biofuel policy raw materials allowed for biofuel production include Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, etc, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, Damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption. Hence, correct answer is 1, 2, 5 and 6 only.

• Cri-MAC is an online platform meant to share information and coordinate action among law enforcement agencies on serious criminal incidents, including human trafficking 24×7.
• It was launched in 2020 by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

• The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance (six countries) that came into effect in 2002.
• Its origin can be traced to the Collective Security Treaty, 1992 (Tashkent Treaty).
• The headquarters is located in the Russian capital of Moscow.

• Cervavac is India’s first indigenously developed quadrivalent human papillomavirus (qHPV) vaccine for the prevention of cervical cancer.
• Nearly all cases of cervical cancer can be attributed to HPV infection. Although most HPV infections clear up on their own and most pre-cancerous lesions resolve spontaneously, there is a risk for all women that HPV infection may become chronic and pre-cancerous lesions progress to invasive cervical cancer.
• It is developed by the Serum Institute of India in coordination with the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and was approved by the Drug Controller General of India in July 2022.

• Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana is a scheme for providing Physical Aids and Assisted-living Devices for Senior citizens belonging to the BPL category.
• This is a Central Sector Scheme, fully funded by the Central Government.
• The expenditure for implementation of the scheme will be met by the “Senior Citizens’ Welfare Fund”.
• The Scheme will be implemented through the sole implementing agency – Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation (ALIMCO), a PSU under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

• The Covishield vaccine by the Serum Institute of India was prepared using the viral vector platform. In the vaccine, a chimpanzee adenovirus – ChAdOx1 – has been modified to enable it to carry the COVID-19 spike protein into the cells of humans.
• Sputnik V, the world’s first registered vaccine, is based on the human adenoviral vector-based platform.
• Covaxin is an inactivated viral vaccine. It is developed with Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell-derived technology.

• Statement 1 is not correct, Lumpy skin disease (LSD) is a viral disease caused by the Capripox virus of the Poxviridae family which is also called the Neethling virus.
• Statement 2 is correct, Vaccination against LSD is covered under the Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme of India
• Statement 3 is correct, Lumpy skin disease was first reported as an epidemic in Africa (Zambia) in 1929.

• Statement 1 is correct, At present, six languages enjoy the “Classical Language” status: Tamil (declared in 2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), and Odia (2014)
• Statement 2 is not correct, In 1950, when the Constitution of India came into effect, it envisaged that English would be phased out in favour of Hindi over a period of 15 years
• Statement 3 is correct, The 8th schedule of the Indian constitution lists a total of 22 languages.

• SCO – only one common member (India)
• ASEAN – no common members
• G7 –  two common members (the U.S. and Japan)
• UNSC permanent members – only one common member (the U.S.)

• The Internet of things (IoT) is the interlinking of digital devices, people, machines, appliances, and other objects with one another through wireless networks.
• IoT allows machines and people to be connected to each other and communicate as well.

Image Source: http://www.tibco.com