UPSC 2024: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Feb 10 - Feb 16

2 and 3 are correct. The mission was launched in Sep 2023.

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• Pair 1 is correct, A recession is a significant and prolonged downturn in economic activity and a common rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth mean recession.
• Pair 2 is not correct, Stagflation is an economic condition when stagnant economic growth, high unemployment, and high inflation combine together.
• Pair 3 is correct, Deflation is referred to as the decrease in the price of goods and services. In such a situation the purchasing power of the population increases.
  • It is also referred to as Negative inflation.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Supreme Court in its landmark Kesavananda Bharati case 1973 judgement laid down the doctrine of the “basic structure” of the Constitution.
  • Thus, the Constitution of India does not define the term “basic structure”.
• Statement 2 is not correct, There is no direct provision in the Indian constitution that provides for “Judicial review” to safeguard the citizens’ liberties and to preserve the ideals on which the Constitution is based.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Interim Government was formed from the Constituent Assembly which was elected in August 1946.
  • The election to the Constituent Assembly was not direct and representatives were elected by the provincial assemblies.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Liaquat Ali Khan was the Finance Minister of the Interim Government.
  • Ghazanfar Ali Khan was the Health Minister.

• Statement 1 is correct, Pashmina shawls gained much prominence in the days of the Mughal Empire as objects of rank and nobility.
  • Babur first established the practice of giving khilat – giving ‘robes of honour’.
• Statement 2 is correct, There are two breeds of pashmina goats in India, Chegu and Changthangi.
  • Chegu is a unique goat breed found in the cold desert region of western Himalayas.
  • The Changthangi is a breed of cashmere goat native to the high plateaus of Ladakh in northern India
• Statement 3 is correct, Kashmiri Pashmina was accorded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2013.

• Recently, India and Bangladesh have agreed to implement 24×7 operationalisation of the Petrapole-Benapole Integrated Check Post (ICP)
• Petrapole (India) – Benapole (Bangladesh) is an important land border crossing for India-Bangladesh both in terms of trade and passenger movement.
• The commissioning of the Petrapole-Benapole Integrated Check Post (ICP) will foster greater economic integration and connectivity between India and Bangladesh.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The offences under the Act are considered to be cognizable and non-bailable.
• Statement 2 is not correct, As per the Act, Every child marriage, whether solemnised before or after the commencement of this Act, shall be voidable at the option of the contracting party who was a child at the time of the marriage:
  • Provided that a petition for annulling a child marriage by a decree of nullity may be filed in the district court only by a contracting party to the marriage who was a child at the time of the marriage.
• Statement 3 is correct, The Court of the Judicial Magistrate of the first class or the Metropolitan Magistrate may also take suo motu cognizance on the basis of any reliable report or information.

• Statement 1 is correct, According to Article 217 of the Indian Constitution, a High Court Judge in India can be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in clause ( 4 ) of Article 124 for the removal of a Judge of the Supreme Court.
  • Therefore, the mode of removal of a Judge of a High Court in India is the same as that of removal of a Judge of the Supreme Court
• Statement 2 is not correct, Article 217 of the Constitution says that “no person who has held office as a permanent Judge of a High Court shall plead or act in any court or before any authority in India except the Supreme Court and the other High Courts”.

• Pair 01 is correctly matched, Maach is a prominent folk theatre form of Madhya Pradesh and historical findings suggest that it has been an integral part of the local culture of the Malwa region since the early eighteenth century, making it a 200–250-year-old art form.
• Pair 02 is incorrectly matched, Shumang Kumhei also known as Shumang Leela (Meitei for ‘Courtyard Play’), is a Meitei traditional form of theatre, usually performed in Manipur.
• Pair 03 is correctly matched, Tamasha is a traditional form of Marathi theatre, often with singing and dancing, widely performed by local or travelling theatre groups within the state of Maharashtra.
• Pair 04 is incorrectly matched, Therukoothuis a Tamil street theatre form practised in Tamil Nadu and Tamil-speaking regions of Sri Lanka.

• Statement 01 is correct, Hazaribagh Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary in Jharkhand. The Hazaribagh National Park was established in 1955. It was demoted to the status of a wildlife sanctuary in 1976.
• Statement 02 is correct, A highly restricted human activity is allowed in wildlife sanctuaries. The hunting and poaching of animals are strictly banned as well as trees and plants cannot be cut down for agriculture or any other application. There are no clearly carved out boundaries or fencing to prohibit people from entering into wildlife sanctuaries. Individuals are allowed to walk through wildlife sanctuaries for educational, recreational, or research reasons.

Read more on Difference between National Park and Wildlife sanctuary.

• Pair 01 is incorrectly matched, The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation.
• Pair 02 is incorrectly matched, The Sukhoi Su-30 is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed in the Soviet Union by Russia’s Sukhoi Aviation Corporation.
• Pair 03 is correctly matched, The SEPECAT Jaguar is an Anglo-French jet attack aircraft originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in the close air support and nuclear strike role. It is still in service with the Indian Air Force.

• Rajasthan has the highest goat population in the country.

• With the expansion of desert in Rajasthan, numerous small and medium farmers shift from agriculture and cattle rearing to goat rearing because goats can survive in harsh environments.
  • Goat rearing is not capital intensive, hence easy to start. The partially denuded Aravali hills provide free grazing ground; that saves close to 70 per cent of the rearing cost.

Statement 01 is incorrect, The red panda is endemic to the temperate forests of the Himalayas, and ranges from the foothills of western Nepal to China in the east. Its range includes southern Tibet, Sikkim and Assam in India, Bhutan, the northern mountains of Burma, and in south western China, in the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and the Gongshan Mountains in Yunnan.
Statement 02 is correct, in India, Slow Loris lives in the dense forests of the North East. The Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis) or northern slow loris is a strepsirrhine primate and a species of slow loris native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina.

• Statement 1 is correct: According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Western disturbances originate in the Caspian or Mediterranean Sea, and bring non-monsoonal rainfall to northwest India.
• Statement 2 is correct: They are called extra-tropical storms.

• Statement 1 is correct: There are 5 permanent members in UNSC (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and 10 non-permanent members. The non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms by the United Nations General Assembly.
• Statement 2 is correct: It recommends new members be added to UN General Assembly.
• Statement 3 is not correct: The current non-permanent members of UNSC are Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates.

• Statement 1 is correct: The Western Ghats are a mountain range running parallel along the western coast of India starting from Gujarat and ending in Tamil Nadu. They are a biodiversity hotspot.
• Statement 2 is not correct: Anamudi is the highest peak of the Western Ghats.
• Statement 3 is correct: Western Ghats play an important role in creating the main water divide in peninsular India. Due to this water divide, almost all major peninsular rivers like the Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna, and Kaveri flow eastwards and drain into the Bay of Bengal.

• Statement 1 is correct: On 9 January 1915, Father of the Nation, M K Gandhi reached Bombay sailing from South Africa, having lived there for more than two decades.
• Statement 2 is not correct: INC was started by a retired British civil servant Allan Octavian Hume along with Dadabhai Naoroji and Dinshaw Wacha. The first session of the Indian National Congress (INC) was held in Bombay on 28 December 1885.
• Statement 3 is not correct: The first Satyagraha in India by Gandhi ji was the Champaran Satyagrah of 1917.

The National Policy on Biofuels expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing the use of Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, Damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The National Commission for Women (NCW) was set up as a statutory body in 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990.
• Statement 2 is correct, The NCW is an advisory body to the government of India and it advises the government on all policy matters affecting women.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) was signed in 1960 by the then-Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then-Pakistani President Ayub Khan.
  • The treaty was brokered by the World Bank.
• Statement 2 is correct, As per the treaty, India got control over the three eastern rivers namely – Ravi, Beas and Sutlej and Pakistan got control over the three western rivers namely – Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.
  • According to this treaty, India gets only 20% of the water from the Indus River System whereas Pakistan gets the rest 80%.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The one-child policy was a program in China that limited most Chinese families to one child each and was implemented nationwide by the Chinese government in 1980.
  • The creation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was declared in 1949.
• Statement 2 is correct, The one-child policy came to an end in 2015-16.
• Statement 3 is not correct, China’s population shrank in 2022 for the first time in over six decades.

• Statement 1 is not correct, Invasive alien species are those plants, animals, pathogens and other organisms that are non-native to an ecosystem and become the dominant species of that ecosystem due to uncontrolled growth,
• Statement 2 is correct, Invasive alien species can have adverse impacts on the native biodiversity, causing decline or even extinction of native species, and negatively affecting ecosystems.

• Statement 1 is correct, Water Credit is a powerful solution and the first to put microfinance tools to work in the water and sanitation sector.
• Statement 2 is not correct, It is a global initiative launched by Water.org.
  • Water.org is a global non-profit organization working to bring water and sanitation to the world.
• Statement 3 is correct, Water Credit helps bring small loans to those who need access to affordable financing and expert resources to make household water and toilet solutions a reality.

• The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) or QUAD Group is an informal strategic forum comprising India, Japan, Australia and the USA.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The depreciation of the rupee is bad for importers because the imported goods and services would have become more expensive.
• Statement 2 is correct, If the Balance of Payment is negative, currency depreciation tends to cause inflation because imports become more expensive.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The National Security Advisor (NSA) presides over the National Security Council (NSC).
• Statement 2 is correct, India’s National Security Council (NSC) is a three-tiered structure. The three tiers are comprised of:
  • Strategic Policy Group
  • National Security Advisory Board
  • Secretariat represented by the Joint Intelligence Committee
• Statement 3 is correct, National Security Council (NSC) is an executive office within the PMO.

• The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).
• It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the UN and began work in April 1946.
• The seat of the Court is in the Hague, the Netherlands.

• Arasavalli Sun Temple is a temple located in Andhra Pradesh.
• Amarkantak temple in Madhya Pradesh is dedicated to Lord Shiva.
• Omkareshwar temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is situated in Madhya Pradesh.

Statement 1 is correct, In the Constitution, the Union Budget is termed the “Annual Financial Statement”.
Statement 2 is correct, Article 112 of the Constitution of India lays down that Annual Financial Statement is a statement of the estimated expenditure and receipts of the Government for a particular year.
Statement 3 is correct, The Union Budget is prepared by the Economic Division of the Department of Economic Affairs under the Union Finance Ministry.