UPSC 2024: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jan 27 - Feb 02

• Statement 1 is not correct, PM SVANidhi scheme is a Central Sector Scheme to facilitate street vendors to access affordable working capital loans for resuming their livelihood activities, after the easing of the lockdown.
  • The target beneficiaries of the scheme include street vendors/hawkers vending in urban areas and the vendors of surrounding peri-urban and rural areas.
  • The objectives of the scheme include:
    • To facilitate working capital loan of up to Rs.10,000 at a subsidized rate of interest
    • To incentivize regular repayment of the loan
    • To reward digital transactions
• Statement 2 is not correct, PM SVANidhi scheme has helped in providing occupational recognition to street vendors by giving them Letters of Recommendation (LOR) for easy access to loans.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Prime Minister of India launched Mission LiFE.
  • India proposed the LiFE Movement to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021.
  • Mission LiFe is a global initiative by India to help the world in its fight against climate change and lead to a sustainable way of life.
• Statement 2 is correct, The vision of Mission LiFE is to promote a lifestyle that is in sync with the environment and does not hurt our planet. It sensitizes people about sustainable livelihood via Green Talks and Green Pledges.

• Statement 1 is correct, G20 Common Framework is the Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). It is endorsed by the G20 members together with the Paris Club.
• Statement 2 is correct, It was announced in November 2020 to deal with the issue of unsustainable debts faced by Low-Income Countries countries.

Army Day is celebrated on 15 January every year in India, in recognition of Field Marshal Kodandera M. Cariappa taking over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Francis Roy Bucher , the last British Commander-in-Chief of India, on 15 January 1949.

• It is celebrated every year to honour Cariappa and the defence forces.
• India celebrates its 75th annual Army day on the 15th of January 2023.

• Statement 01 is correct, Rare Earth Metals are a set of seventeen metallic elements. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table in addition to scandium and yttrium that show similar physical and chemical properties to the lanthanides.
• Statement 02 is correct, As of 2021, China produced more than half of the total global rare earth mine production. In a distant second place was the United States, accounting for a 15.5 percent share of the global rare earths production.
• Statement 03 is correct, India has the fifth-largest reserves (6% of total reserves) of rare earth minerals in the world.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, A western disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent, which extends as east as up to northern parts of Bangladesh and South eastern Nepal.
• Statement 02 is correct, During the winter months, the passage of western disturbances causes “dry, cold north-westerly winds” to blow into north and central India, causing minimum temperatures to plummet over these areas, resulting in cold-wave conditions.

Strobilanthes kunthiana, known as Neelakurinji is a shrub that is found only in the shola forests of the Western Ghats in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The purplish blue flower blossoms only once in 12 years.

• Statement 01 and 02 is correct, Large deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ are found in Arctic Tundra and under the sea floor as they have the temperature and pressure conditions suitable for the formation and stability of methane hydrate. Global warming might trigger the release of methane gas from these deposits.
  • Methane hydrate is a crystalline solid that consists of a methane molecule surrounded by a cage of interlocking water molecules. It is an “ice” that only occurs naturally in subsurface deposits where temperature and pressure conditions are favourable for its formation.
• Statement 03 is correct, Methane is relatively short-lived in the atmosphere; a molecule of methane is oxidised to water and carbon dioxide within a decade or so, mainly by reaction with other trace gases.

• The Ring of Fire, also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterised by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The majority of Earth’s volcanoes and earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire.
• Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Philippines, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Antarctica are some of the important places located in the ring of the fire.
• The Comoro Islands are located in the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean to the north-west of Madagascar.

• MV Ganga Vilas is the first indigenously made cruise vessel to be made in India. The cruise has three decks, 18 suites on board with a capacity of 36 tourists, with all the modern amenities.
• MV Ganga Vilas vessel is 62 metres in length, and 12 metres in width and comfortably sails with a draft of 1.4 metres.
• The ship follows sustainable principles at its core as it is equipped with pollution-free mechanisms and noise control technologies.
• The cruise will be managed by private operators, the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), under which the Ministry of Shipping, Ports and Waterways (MoPSW) has supported the project.
• It will explore forty historic sites on the banks of the river Ganga including, Mahabodhi temple, Hazarduari Palace, Katra Masjid, Bodh Gaya, Chandanagar church, Char Bangla Temple and more.

• Statement 01 is incorrect,  The Brasilia Declaration was adopted at the second global high-level conference on road safety held in Brazil in 2015. It lays down recommendations on strengthening existing legislation, adopting sustainable transport, strengthening the post-crash response, etc. India is a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration.
  • The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol aims for the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by cutting their production and consumption.
• Statement 02 is correct, India signed the Brasilia Declaration at the 2nd High Level Global Conference on Traffic Safety in 2015.

• Statement 01 is correct, Khaja Abid, grandfather of the first Nizam, was born in Aliabad near Samarkand in the kingdom of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. In 1655 he visited India for the first time while on his way to Mecca and presented himself at the imperial court of the Mughals.
• Statement 02 is correct, The Nawab of Awadh was the first ruler to enter into the subsidiary alliance with the British after the Battle of Buxar. However, the Nizam of Hyderabad was the first to accept a well-framed subsidiary alliance.
• • • On 1 September 1798, the Nizam of Hyderabad, Nizam Ali Khan (Asaf Jah II) entered into a subsidiary alliance with the English East India Company, thus making Hyderabad the first princely state to officially become a British protectorate.
• Statement 03 is incorrect, Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII was the Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad at the time of Operation Polo.

• The Hokersar is a wetland conservation area in Zainakote, near Srinagar city in the Kashmir Valley. It is the largest bird reserve in the Kashmir Valley.
• Renuka lake is the largest lake in Himachal Pradesh. This lake was named after the goddess Renuka and is designated as Ramsar site since November 2005.
• Rudrasagar Lake, also known as Rudijala, is a lake located in Melaghar, Tripura.
  • The lake is designated as a Ramsar site. A lowland sedimentation reservoir in the northeast hills, fed by three perennial streams discharging to the River Gomti.
• Sasthamkotta is the largest freshwater lake in Kerala.

• Statement 1 is correct, Under the Agnipath scheme, around 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers will be recruited annually, and it is only for personnel below officer ranks (those who do not join the forces as commissioned officers).
• Statement 2 is correct, Under the “Seva Nidhi” package, which is exempt from Income Tax, Agniveers will receive about 11 lakh – 12 lakh upon the completion of the 4 years of service which includes the government’s contribution as well as interest accrued.
• Statement 3 is not correct, Agniveers will also get a Rs 48 lakhs life insurance cover for the four years and in case of death, the payout will be over Rs 1 crore, including pay for the unserved tenure.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) is the official playbook agreed upon by the government and the judiciary on the appointment of judges.
  • The MoP is a crucial document that governs the collegium system of appointing judges.
• Statement 2 is correct, Since the collegium system evolved through a series of rulings by the Supreme Court, and is not based on legislation, the MoP is the bedrock of the process of appointments
• Statement 3 is correct, The MoP was sought to be re-negotiated after the Supreme Court on October 16, 2015, struck down the constitutional amendment that had brought in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).

• Statement 1 is correct, Exoplanets are those planets beyond our solar system. Most of these Exoplanets orbit other stars and the free-floating exoplanets are called rogue planets.
• Statement 2 is correct, Discovering exoplanets is difficult and involves complex procedures as they are small and hard to spot around their bright host stars.
  • According to NASA, scientists rely on indirect methods, such as the transit method, which is “measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it”.
• Statement 3 is correct, When a planet is at the right distance from the Sun/star that enables it to have liquid water, it is said to be in the “Goldilocks zone”.
  • If an exoplanet is very close to the star, it might be too hot to sustain liquid water and if it is too far, it might only have frozen water.

• The 13th amendment of the Sri Lankan Constitution was an outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 which was signed between the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the then Sri Lankan President J R Jayewardene in an effort to put an end to the Sri Lankan civil war.
• The 13th Amendment led to the creation of Provincial Councils, assuring a power-sharing arrangement to enable all nine provinces in the country, including Sinhala majority areas, to self-govern.
• Subjects such as education, health, agriculture, housing, land and police were devolved to the provincial administrations.
• However, due to the restrictions on financial powers and overriding powers accorded to the President, the provincial administrations have failed to make much progress and especially the provisions relating to police and land have never been implemented.

• Filter feeding, in zoology, is a form of food procurement in which food particles or small organisms are randomly strained from water.
• Oysters like other shellfish have unique filter-feeding ability, in the sense, they take in water through their gills, which then filters it for nutrients like suspended fragments of plankton, while automatically draining out the rest of the water.

• Statement 1 is correct, EVMs started being used on a larger scale in 1992 and since 2000, have been used in all Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections.
• Statement 2 is correct, The ECI along with two PSUs developed the Voter Verified Paper Trail Audit (VVPAT) machine to have a paper trail in the voting process.
  • The use of VVPATs has become universal in elections since mid-2017.
• Statement 3 is correct, The ECI sends the EVM software to two foreign chipmakers (in the U.S. and Japan) to burn into the CPU and the manufactured chips are then sent to India for assembly into machines by the two PSUs (BEL and ECIL).
  • This means that the manufacturers cannot read back the contents of the software to ensure its integrity is intact.

• Statement 1 is correct, The government of the host country holds the presidency of the COP for one year, till the conference is concluded and the host country usually names one of its ministers as the president.
• Statement 2 is correct, While the COP president does have an influential role, the final decisions are always taken by consensus. Thus the COP president or the host country cannot force or impose any decision on others.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The COP meets in Bonn, the seat of the secretariat, unless a Party offers to host the session.

• There is no official definition of recession, but generally, recession refers to a period of decline in economic activity.
• Recession can be practically defined as a situation which involves overall output in an economy for at least two consecutive quarters, along with job losses and a reduction in overall demand.

• Statement 1 is correct, Under the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), retired employees received 50% of their last drawn salary as monthly pensions.
• Statement 2 is correct, New Pension System (NPS) is mandatory for central government employees joining services on or after January 1, 2004, and almost all state governments have adopted it for their employees.
• Statement 3 is correct, NPS is regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and is a contributory pension scheme under which employees contribute 10% of their salary (Basic + Dearness Allowance).

• Fertigation involves mixing water-soluble fertilizers and delivering them through drip irrigation.
• Advantages of fertigation include:
  • Fertigation can synchronize nutrient supply and crop nutrient requirement.
  • Enhances water-use efficiency, nutrient-use efficiency, and yield.
  • Reduces nutrient losses via leaching, ammonia volatilization, denitrification and weed pressure.
• However, when an element forms a precipitate with another substance commonly found in irrigation water, it is not advisable to use this method.
  • Phosphorus and anhydrous ammonia may form a precipitate in water with high calcium and magnesium content. So they are not used in fertigation.

Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has been published by a non-governmental organisation (NGO) named Pratham, since 2005.
• Statement 2 is correct, According to ASER 2022, despite the school closures due to the pandemic, the overall enrolment figures for the six-to-14 age group, which have been above 95% for the past 15 years has further increased from 97.2% in 2018 to 98.4% in 2022.

• Pair 1 is correct, BSF guards the the Indo-Pakistan as well as Indo-Bangladesh borders
• Pair 2 is correct, ITBP guards the Indo-China border
• Pair 3 is not correct, Assam Rifles guards the Indo-Myanmar border
• Pair 4 is correct, SSB guards the Indo-Bhutan as well as Indo-Nepal borders

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Election Commission of India announces the dates for the State Assembly Elections.
• Statement 2 is correct, The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is enforced from the date of announcement of election date by the Election Commission and is operational till the process of elections are completed.

• Statement 1 is correct, The kings of the Vijayanagara kingdom followed an oppressive taxation policy and the tax rate on land in the taxation system of Krishna Deva was fixed depending on the quality of the land.
• Statement 2 is correct, The private owners of workshops paid an industries tax.

• Statement 1 is not correct, International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC)  is a corridor to increase trade between India and Russia.
  • The earlier trade route connecting India and Russia was through the Suez Canal.
  • Hence the major objective of the INSTC corridor is to reduce the time taken, costs incurred, and increase connectivity between major cities like Mumbai, Moscow, Astrakhan(located in Russia), Baku (Azerbaijan), Tehran, Bandar Abbas and Bandar Anzail (Iran).
• Statement 2 is correct, INSTC trade route is 7200 Km long and the transport of freight is through a multi-mode network of roads, ships, and railways. This route connects India and Russia through Iran and Azerbaijan.

• Statement 1 is correct, The “National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive” or the PRASAD scheme was launched by the Ministry of Tourism in the year 2014-2015.
• Statement 2 is correct, The key objective of the scheme is to focus on identifying and developing pilgrimage sites across India in an integrated manner for enriching the religious tourism experience.
• Statement 3 is correct, Under the Scheme, the Central Government provides 100% funds and for the improvement in the sustainability of the project the scheme seeks to involve Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as well.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Supreme Court in its judgement has upheld an earlier judgement that granted permanent commission and command postings to women officers in all arms and services other than combat.
• Statement 2 is correct, Following a judgment by the Supreme Court, the Army now grants Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers on a par with their male counterparts.