UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jul 01 - Jul 07

• Statement 1 is correct, The Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) is a United States Federal Law that was passed on 27 July 2017.
• Statement 2 is correct, CAATSA empowers the US President to impose at least five of the 12 listed sanctions on persons engaged in a “significant transaction” with Russian defence and intelligence sectors.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The US President was given the authority in 2018 to waive CAATSA sanctions on a case-by-case basis.

• Statement 1 is not correct, China, Russia and four Central Asian states – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan — were the founding members of the SCO.
  • India and Pakistan joined the grouping in 2017.
• Statement 2 is correct, Iran and Belarus are likely to be the two newest additions to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
• Statement 3 is correct, Varanasi has been selected as the SCO region’s first “Tourism and Cultural Capital”.

• DTP stands for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis.
• Diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis are serious bacterial diseases that can be prevented in adults and children with DTP Vaccines.

• Didwana, Kuchaman, Sargol and Khatu are saline lakes of Rajasthan.
• Didwana, Kuchaman, the Sargol and the Khatu lakes are playas.
  • Playas are small lakes with flat floors and undrained basins in which water collects after rains and evaporates quickly.

• Statement 1 is correct, Millet crop cultivation require very little water
• Statement 2 is correct, Millets grow on less fertile and sandy soil
• Statement 3 is correct, Millets are climate-resilient crops and have exceptional tolerance  toward diverse abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, light and heat
• Statement 4 is correct, Most Millets have a short growing season

• Statement 1 is not correct, If the President dies or resigns or is otherwise incapacitated and as a result, the Presidential office becomes vacant, the Vice- President will act as President only for a maximum period of six months
• Statement 2 is correct, If the Vice-President is not available to discharge the duties of the President and if the latter dies or resigns, the responsibilities of the office fall on the Chief Justice of India.
• Statement 3 is not correct, There have been six instances in the past when the Vice-President of India went on to become the President. This includes Dr S Radhakrishnan, Dr Zakir Hussain, V V Giri, R Venkataraman, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma, and K R Narayanan.

• The Applications Of Quantum Computing include:
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
  • Computational Chemistry
  • Drug Design and Development
  • Cybersecurity and Cryptography
  • Financial Modelling
  • Logistics Optimisation
  • Weather Forecasting

• The indo-Islamic architecture includes features such as:
  • Arcuate style (use of arches and domes) and not Trabeate style (Construction of buildings using beams and columns)
  • Use of mortar as a cementing agent
  • Use of calligraphy to depict religious art and patterns
  • Pietra-dura technique (mosaic)
  • Arabesque method for surface decorations based
  • Minar, Tombs and Sarais

• Statement 1 is correct, At present Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary is the only abode of the Asiatic lion.
• Statement 2 is not correct, The double-hump camel is a native of Gobi desert, and is found on a vast expanse of cold-desert areas across Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and parts of Afghanistan
• Statement 3 is not correct ,The Great one horned rhinoceros is commonly found in Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and in India

• In the report, it cautioned that the surging commodity prices are causing inflation risks, especially through the surging of imports.
• As per the report, Retail inflation has gone up to 6.95 per cent in March driven mainly by inflation in food and beverages.
• The report attributed war and related retaliatory sanctions as one of the main reasons for the rise in inflation.

• Pratibha Devisingh Patil served as the 14th President of India from 25 July 2007 to July 2012 and was also the first and, to date, only female president of India.
• As per article 67 of the Indian constitution, the Vice-President may leave office before the end of his term by resigning to the President, or he/she may be removed by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People.
• Hence option a is correct.

• ‘Sanda’ method of cultivation is a traditional way of paddy farming .
• In this method, the seedlings of 18-20-day-old paddy nurseries are planted densely in different field.
• As it does not require enough water and the seedlings can survive for the 20-25 days till the arrival of monsoon. Later, these seedlings are sowed in the fields.
• This method uses less water and also increases production by 30-35 per cent.

• Bonalu is a traditional festival of the Hindu Goddess Mahakali. It is celebrated annually in Telangana, especially in cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
• Losar is also known as Tibetan New Year, is a festival celebrated by Tibetan Buddhists. The holiday is a new year’s festival, celebrated on the first day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar.
• Kharchi Puja is a Hindu festival celebrated in the state of Tripura which involves the worship of the 14 gods forming the dynasty deity of the Tripuri people.
• Gangaur is a festival celebrated in the Indian state of Rajasthan and certain parts of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal.
• Hence option b is correct.

• Mahayana Buddhism considers Buddha as God rather than a leader hence they concentrate on image worship and rituals.
• Teachings of Mahayana Buddhism focuses on treading the path of Bodhisattvas.
• Hence option d is correct

Read more on Difference between Mahayan and Hinayana Buddhism

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of External Affairs should be kept informed of the proposed foreign visit, either official or private, of Chief Ministers and Ministers of State Governments/Union Territories.
  • Prior political clearance and FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) clearance are also mandatory.
• Statement 2 is correct, Since 2016, applications can be made for e-political clearance, on the portal epolclearance.gov.in.
• Statement 3 is correct,  For union ministers, after getting political clearance from the MEA, additional clearance is needed from the Prime Minister, whether the trip is official or personal.
  • Lok Sabha MPs need clearance from the Speaker and Rajya Sabha members from the Chairperson of Rajya Sabha.

• Statement 1 is correct, The candidate intending to contest the President’s election files the nomination with a signed list of 50 proposers and 50 seconders.
  • The rule for securing 50 proposers and seconders was implemented by the EC in 1974.
• Statement 2 is correct, An elector cannot propose or second the nomination of more than one candidate.
• Statement 3 is not correct, 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 by secret ballot.

• Statement 1 is correct, India acquired the observer status of SCO in 2005 and was inducted as a full member in 2017.
• Statement 2 is correct, The SCO currently also has four observer states — Afghanistan, Iran, Belarus and Mongolia.
  • Iran and Belarus are now moving towards full membership.
• Statement 3 is correct, The SCO secretariat has two permanent bodies — the SCO Secretariat based in Beijing and the Executive Committee of the Regional Anti­ Terrorist Structure (RATS) based in Tashkent.

• Statement 1 is correct, Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.
• Statement 2 is correct, Monkeypox is detected in various animal species such as rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice, non-human primates and other species.
• Statement 3 is correct, Monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and had primarily occurred in central and west African countries during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox.

• West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is a specific grade of crude oil and one of the main three benchmarks in oil pricing, along with Brent and Dubai Crude.
• WTI is known as a light sweet oil because it contains 0.24% sulfur, making it “sweet,” and has a low density, making it “light.” It is the underlying commodity of the New York Mercantile Exchange’s (NYMEX) oil futures contract and is considered a high-quality oil that is easily refined.

• Statement 1 is correct, When a person ceases to be a citizen of India, every minor child of his also ceases to be a citizen of India.
  • However, such a child may within one year after attaining 18 years become an Indian citizen by making a declaration of his intention to resume Indian citizen­ship.
• Statement 2 is correct, According to the Citizenship Act, 1955, the Central Gov­ernment may, by order, deprive any such citizen of Indian citi­zenship, if that citizen has, within five years after registration or naturalisation, been sentenced in any country to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years.
• Statement 3 is correct, Any citizen of India of full age and capacity can make a declaration renouncing Indian citizenship but such a declaration may not be accepted during the war.

• Statement 1 is correct, According to the latest labour indicators released by National Statistical Office, more females work part-time than males across all age groups in both rural and urban areas.
• Statement 2 is correct, The employment rate of females at an all-India level for age groups 25-49 years living in a household with at least one child under 3 years of age is less than their employment rate in a household with no child under 3 years of age during 2017-18-2019-20.
  • However, for males, the presence of a child under the age of 3 years in the households does not seem to make any difference to their employment rate.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Indian National Emblem is represented by four Asiatic lions with three lions being visible to the naked eye and the fourth one always hidden from the general view.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang has left a detailed account of Asoka’s lion pillar in his writings.
• Statement 3 is correct, Five students of renowned artist Nandalal Bose created the emblem. Among them were Jagdish Mittal, Kripal Singh Shekhawat, Gauri Bhanja and Dinanath Bhargava.

• Statement 1 is correct, The yajna rituals involved the construction of altars (vedi) and fireplaces (agni) in a variety of shapes such as isosceles triangles, symmetric trapezia, and rectangles.
• Statement 2 is correct, The sulbasutras describe steps towards the construction of these figures with prescribed sizes.
• Statement 3 is correct, Baudhayana Sulbasutra which is said to be from around 800 BCE, contains a statement of what is called the Pythagoras theorem.

• The Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI): It is a lending facility of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which provides rapid financial assistance. It is available to all member countries facing an urgent balance of payments need.
  • The RFI was created as part of a broader reform to make the IMF’s financial support more flexible to address the diverse needs of member countries.
• IMF’s Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) provides rapid concessional financial assistance to low-income countries facing an urgent balance of payments (BoP) need with no ex-post conditionality where a full-fledged economic program is neither necessary nor feasible.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Cheetah was declared extinct in India in the year 1952 and is the only wild cat to go extinct in independent India.
• Statement 2 is correct, Financial and administrative support for the cheetah reintroduction programme in India would be provided by MoEF&CC through the National Tiger Conservation Authority of India (NTCA).
• Statement 3 is correct, Cheetahs are mostly associated with grasslands, scrublands and open forest ecosystems.

• Statement 1 is correct, Santalum album, or Indian sandalwood, is a small tropical tree, and the traditional source of sandalwood oil which is native to southern India and Southeast Asia.
• Statement 2 is correct, Sandalwood is known to be semi-parasitic in nature as it prefers to absorb nutrients from the roots of nearby plants by using tube-like structures (modified roots) called haustoria.

• Statement 1 is correct, The X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is an ISRO planned space observatory to study the polarization of cosmic X-rays.
• Statement 2 is not correct, AstroSat is India’s first ever astronomical observatory in space and was launched in 2015.
  • XPoSat will be India’s second astronomical observatory in space.

• Statement 1 is not correct, With an 81% share, the Private Sector accounts for larger steel production as compared to the PSUs led by the Steel Authority of India.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Odisha accounts for the largest steel production among states in India.
• Statement 3 is correct, The share of domestic production in the consumption of finished steel has been increasing in India over the last three years.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Act ended the trade monopoly of the East India Company in India except for trade in tea and trade with China.
• Statement 2 is correct, This Act asserted the British Crown’s sovereignty over British possessions in India.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The revenues of India were controlled by the British parliament through Pitts India Act 1784.