UPSC 2022: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jan 22 - Jan 28

All the given statements are correct.

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• Bal Kalyan Puraskar was instituted in 1979 as the “National Child Welfare Awards”.
• It was renamed in 2018 to “Bal Kalyan Puraskar”.
• This is given to individuals and/or organisations working in the field of child development, child protection and child welfare.
• This award is given in two categories – Individual and Institution. Three awards are given in each of these two categories along with cash prizes.
• The scheme is under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

All the given statements are correct.

• The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion.
• The Montreal Protocol came into force in 1989. It has 197 member parties to the protocol and become the first international treaty with complete ratification.
• It has undergone several amendments.
• Kigali amendment is the eighth amendment to this protocol.

• Indian Pangolin is native to the Indian subcontinent.
• It is an insectivorous mammal. It feeds on ants and termites.
• The meat and scales of pangolins are used for medicinal purposes in several parts of the world.
• In the IUCN Red List, Indian Pangolin is classified as Endangered and the Chinese Pangolin is classified as Critically Endangered.

• Border Security Force is one of the Central Armed Police Forces under the Ministry of Home Affairs and was raised in the wake of the 1965 War.
• As per the ‘One Border One Force’ policy, BSF is the designated border guarding force for India’s borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• It currently stands as the world’s largest border guarding force.
• It has its own air wing, marine wing, an artillery regiment, and commando units.
• Its fleet of watercraft guards the Sunderbans Delta in the Bay of Bengal and Sir Creek in the Arabian Sea.

• Manufactured sand (M-sand) is an alternative for river sand. Due to the depletion of good quality river sand for the use of construction, the use of manufactured sand has been increased.
• It is produced from hard granite stone by crushing.
• Usage of M-sand prevents dredging of river beds to get river sand which may lead to environmental disasters like groundwater depletion, water scarcity.
• It will reduce over-exploitation of river beds, it can be dust-free, etc.

• The Asian Giant Softshell Turtle is also known as Cantor’s Giant Softshell Turtle and the frog-faced softshell turtle.
• It is a species of freshwater turtle and is native to Southeast Asia.
• It is classified as endangered in the IUCN Red List.
• It has been considered to be among the largest extant freshwater turtles.
• It occurs in southern and eastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia.

All the given statements are correct.

The World Energy Outlook is the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) flagship publication. It provides a comprehensive view of how the global energy system could develop in the coming decades.

• Elephant corridors are set up between two protected areas in order to provide for stress-free migration of elephants from one habitat to another.
• These corridors also reduce the scope of human-animal conflict.

• India and Japan have signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2011, which facilitates the import of garments from India to Japan at zero duty.
• Japan is the third-largest importer of T&A in the world and India is the 6th largest exporter.
• The Textiles Committee in India ensures the quality of all textiles and textile products for domestic and export markets.
• The Textiles Committee is the only body providing for all the quality-related needs of the entire Textiles Value Chain (TVC) in an integrated format on a pan-India basis through its network of 28 offices across the country including 19 state-of-the-art laboratories accredited under relevant national and international standards.

• Lala Lajpat Rai Born was in 1865 in Moga district, Punjab.
• He was a lawyer by profession and is called ‘Punjab Kesari’.
• He was the editor of the Arya Gazette, which he had founded.
• He founded the Servants of People Society in 1921.
• He co-founded the Punjab National Bank in 1894.

• Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12.
• The scheme has been prepared with the broader goal of improving school effectiveness measured in terms of equal opportunities for schooling and equitable learning outcomes.
• It subsumes the three Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE).
• Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), launched in 2013 aiming at providing strategic funding to eligible state higher educational institutions.

All the statements are correct.

• Uniting for Consensus (UFC) group is an informal club that developed at the UN in the 1990s.
• It began as a movement nicknamed the Coffee Club. The group developed in opposition to the possible expansion of permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council.
• The group opines that any increase in permanent seats would further accentuate the disparity between the member countries.

• ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ is a monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order, started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896.
• The journal ‘Prabuddha Bharata’ has been an important medium for spreading the message of India’s ancient spiritual wisdom.
• Its publication was started from Chennai (erstwhile Madras), where it continued to be published for two years, after which it was published from Almora.
• Later, in April 1899, the place of publication of the Journal was shifted to Advaita Ashrama and it has been continuously published from there since then.

• The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance presents the Economic Survey of India in Parliament every year, just before the Union Budget.
• This document is submitted to both houses of Parliament during the Budget Session.
• The first Economic Survey of India was presented in 1950-51 as part of the Union Budget. After 1964 it was separated from the Budget and presented each year during the Budget Session before the presentation of the budget.

Changpa tribes are nomadic high-altitude pastoralists rearing the prized Pashmina goat in Ladakh for Cashmere wool. These tribes rear Changthangi and are the traditional producers of the Pashmina wool in the Ladakh region.

All the given statements are correct.

The Ekamra Kshetra has the unique cultural heritage of having Buddhist sites at Dhauli, Jain sites at Khandagiri-Udayagiri and Hindu temples in and around the Old Bhubaneswar area.

All the statements are correct.

Damara is a town located in the Central African Republic.

• India-based Neutrino Observatory is located in Theni, Tamil Nadu.
• Neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the universe after Photons.

• While Andaman and Nicobar have the highest number of Wildlife Sanctuaries for any state/Union Territory in India, with respect to National Parks it stands second. Madhya Pradesh houses the largest number of National Parks.
• With respect to PVTGs, Andaman and Nicobar house 5 PVTGs, while Odisha is home to around 13 PVTGs.

• The census exercise first began in 1872 under British Viceroy Lord Mayo, however the first complete census was taken in 1881 under the British Viceroy Ripon.
• Since then the census is undertaken every 10 years.
• The decennial Census of India has been conducted 15 times, as of 2011.
• Post 1949, the census has been conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
• All the censuses since 1951 were conducted under the 1948 Census of India Act. The last census was held in 2011, whilst the next will be held in 2021. The 2021 Census of India will be the 16th Indian Census.

Periyar National Park, also known as Periyar Tiger Reserve, is in the mountainous Western Ghats of Kerala, southern India.

• Biomethanation is a process by which organic material is microbiologically converted under anaerobic conditions to biogas.
• Microorganisms degrade organic matter via cascades of biochemical conversions to methane and carbon dioxide.

The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport project aims to connect the eastern Indian seaport of Kolkata with Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar by sea. In Myanmar, it will then link Sittwe seaport to Paletwa in Chin State via the Kaladan river boat route, and then from Paletwa by road to Mizoram state in Northeast India.

• Three orders of architectural features of the temples of Odisha are:
  • Rekhapida (Rekha Deula): Tall straight building (looking like a shikhara) covering the garbhagriha.
  • Pidhadeul: It is the mandapa, a square building where worshippers are present and also where dancing takes place.
  • Khakra (Khakra Deula): Rectangular building with a truncated pyramid-shaped roof. Temples of Shakti are usually in this type.