UPSC 2021: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Dec 11 - Dec 17

All the statements are correct.

All three are correct. National Highway 44 (NH 44) is the longest-running major north-south National Highway in India. It passes through the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, in addition to the states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. Uttar Pradesh has the longest network of National Highways in India.

Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in southern Sri Lanka holds the dubious tag of being the world’s emptiest airport due to the lack of flights to and from this airport.

Only 2 is correctly matched. Cyclone Burevi was named by the Maldives, Gati by India, Amphan by Thailand and Nivar by Iran.

Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary of Assam is often called ‘Mini Kaziranga’ because of the similar landscape and sizeable population of the one-horned rhino. It is a wildlife sanctuary on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra in Morigaon district in Assam.

None of the statements is incorrect. The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) aims at providing widespread and non-discriminatory access to quality ICT services at affordable prices to people in rural and remote areas. The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 gave statutory status to the USOF. Funds come from the Universal Service Levy (USL) of 5% charged from all the telecom operators on their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) which are then deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India, and require prior parliamentary approval to be dispatched.

The gaur, also known as Indian bison is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

All four are correct. Exchange-Traded Fund is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges. They offer anytime liquidity through the exchanges. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, bonds or commodities (such as gold bars). An Exchange Traded Fund is a basket of stocks that reflects the composition of an Index, like the Sensex or the Nifty.

Israeli authorities are set to unveil previously off-limits structures within King Herod’s palace-fortress Herodium. Herod’s Palace at Jerusalem was built by Herod I the Great, King of Judea.

• Kathakali has always been considered a male art form.
• History proves that though women were not welcome during the years when Kathakali made its mark as an art, it still could not stop women from being a part of it.
• Although many women were attracted to Kathakali and learned it, to perform on stage they had to create their own space.
• That resulted in women-only groups formed in different parts of Kerala. They succeeded in staging Kathakali plays and created a parallel space for Kathakali and women.

Morocco borders Algeria to the east and southeast, Western Sahara to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north. It is the only African country with coastal exposure to both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

None of the pairs is correctly matched.

• Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary- Kerala
• Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary- Assam
• Sipahijola Wildlife Sanctuary- Tripura

All the statements are correct.

2, 1, 4, 3 is the correct sequence.

• 1st Schedule: Name of States and UTs and Territorial Jurisdiction of state.
• 4th Schedule: Allocation of seats for States and Union Territories in the Rajya Sabha.
• 7th Schedule: This schedule deals with the three legislative lists: Union, State and concurrent.
• 9th Schedule: The state acts and regulations that deal with land reforms.
• 10th Schedule: Anti Defection Laws.

Read more on the Schedules in the Indian Constitution.

All the statements are correct.

• Rossby waves, also known as planetary waves, are a type of inertial wave naturally occurring in rotating fluids.
• These waves are associated with pressure systems and the jet stream. The meandering or the whirl movement of the Jet Stream is called ‘Rossby Wave’.
• Rossby waves are a natural phenomenon in the atmosphere and oceans due to rotation of the earth. In planetary atmospheres, they are due to the variation in the Coriolis effect (When temperature contrast is low, speed of the jet stream is low, and Coriolis force is weak leading to meandering) with latitude.
• The meandering jet streams are called Rossby Waves.
• Oceanic Rossby waves move along the thermocline: the boundary between the warm upper layer and the cold deeper part of the ocean.

None of the above is incorrect.

• In 1959, the Soviet Union’s uncrewed Luna 1 and 2 became the first rover to visit the Moon. Since then, seven nations have followed suit.
• The US, the European Space Agency, Japan, China, and India have sent missions to explore the Moon.
• All manned and unmanned soft landings had taken place on the near side of the Moon, until 3 January 2019 when the Chang’e 4 spacecraft made the first landing on the far side.

2 only is the correct answer.

The elusive snow leopard inhabits parts of 12 countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Sahrawi tribe are people living in the western part of the Sahara desert. It includes Western Sahara, southern Morocco, much of Mauritania and the extreme southwest of Algeria.

Kaziranga National Park in Assam is divided into four ranges: Burapahar range, Bagori range, Kohora range, Agoratoli range. Arrangement West to East: Burapahar, Bagori, Kohora, Agoratoli.

Both are correct.

• Myristica swamp treefrog is a rare arboreal species. These frogs are rare and elusive for the reason that they are arboreal and active only for a few weeks during their breeding season.
• The frog is endemic to the Western Ghats.
• They exhibit unique breeding behaviour. The breeding season, unlike for other frogs, starts in the pre-monsoon season (May) and ends before the monsoon becomes fully active in June.
• After breeding and egg-laying, they retreat back to the high canopies of the tree and remain elusive till next breeding season.

All the statements are correct.

All the statements are correct.

• Jhum cultivation, also known as the slash and burn type of agriculture, is the process of growing crops by clearing the land of trees and vegetation and then burning them before plantation.
• The burnt soil contains potash which increases the nutrient content of the soil.
• This form of cultivation has caused maximum damage to the diversity of Indian forests.

Only 1 and 2 are correct.

• Following members do not participate in the election of the President:
  1. Nominated members of both Houses of Parliament.
  2. Nominated members of the legislative assemblies of the States
  3. Nominated members of the state legislative councils (in case of the bicameral legislature) and
  4. Nominated members of the Legislative Assemblies (Delhi and Puducherry.
• The value of the vote of the member of a legislative assembly is directly proportional to the population of the state and inversely proportional to the number of elected members of the assembly.
• The President‘s election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting is done by secret ballot system.

Only 2 and 3 are correct.

• It is a health assurance scheme which aims at providing a health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to poor and vulnerable families.
• It subsumed the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY). The RSBY had a family cap of five members.
• In PM-JAY, there is no cap on family size or age of members for the beneficiaries.
• Pre-existing diseases are covered from the very first day. This means that any eligible person suffering from any medical condition before being covered by PMJAY will now be able to get treatment for all those medical conditions as well under this scheme right from the day they are enrolled.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• The Malabar Tree Toad (Pedostibes tuberculosus) is a species endemic to the Western Ghats.
• It is also called warty Asian tree toad.
• It is a small species and is found in wet tree hollows or leaf bases containing water.
• It is an arboreal species, meaning it spends much of its life on a tree. It comes to the ground only during the first monsoon showers to mate.
• It is categorised as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Rakhine State is situated on the western coast of Myanmar.
• Sittwe port is located in Rakhine State. Sittwe Port is a deepwater port constructed by India in 2016 at Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in Myanmar, on the Bay of Bengal. It is situated at the mouth of the Kaladan River.
• Rakhine state is bordered by Bangladesh to the northwest. It does not border India.

Only 2 is correct.

• Collegium system is the system of appointment and transfer of judges that has evolved through judgments of the Supreme Court, and not by an Act of Parliament or by a provision of the Constitution.
• Collegium a forum comprising of the Chief Justice of India and the four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court.
• There is no mention of the Collegium either in the original Constitution of India or in successive amendments.

All the statements are correct. The shore temple is located on the Coromandel Coast of Tamil Nadu. It overlooks the shore of the Bay of Bengal. It was built during the reign of the Pallava dynasty. The Mamallapuram monuments and temples, including the Shore Temple complex, were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1984. It has been built in the Dravidian style.