UPSC 2024: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jul 13 - Jul 19

• Wushu is a collection of Chinese martial arts.
• Wushu in Chinese literally means “martial technique”.
• It has a history dating back thousands of years to the Qin Dynasty. The International Wushu Federation was formed in 1990 to govern the distinct types of martial arts under the “wushu” banner.
• India recently won 10 gold medals at Moscow Star Wushu Championship 2023.

• Statement 1 is correct, The I2U2 grouping was formed in October 2021.
• Statement 2 is not correct, I2U2 is an alliance created by four countries namely –  India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States (US)
• Statement 3 is correct, The four-nation coalition is also known as the ‘International Forum for Economic Cooperation’ or the ‘West Asian Quad’.

• Statement 1 is correct, Shikharas is a common element in the many styles of Hindu temple architecture, of which the three most common are Nagara, Vesara, and Dravidian.
  • Nagara Style usually has multiple Shikharas whereas the Dravidian style typically has only one Shikhara.
• Statement 2 is correct, In the Dravidian Style of temple architecture, the most prominent element is the Gopuram.

• Israel is not a member of the Arab League.

Image Source: National Geographic

• The Standards & Labelling Programme is one of the major thrust areas of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
• A key objective of the Star Labelling Programme is to provide the consumer with an informed choice about energy saving and thereby the cost-saving potential of the relevant marketed product.
• The appliances that require mandatory energy labelling include:
  • Room Air Conditioners
  • Frost Free Refrigerators
  • Tubular Fluorescent Lamp
  • Distribution Transformer
  • Direct Cool Refrigerator
  • Colour TV
  • Electric Geysers
  • LED Lamps
  • Ceiling Fans

• Statement 1 is correct, Prime Minister of India announced Mission LiFE at the UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) – COP26 held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2021.
• Statement 2 is correct, Mission LiFE intends to democratise the battle against climate change and achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs).
• Statement 3 is not correct, Mission LiFE does not focus on biodiversity conservation directly.

• Statement 1 is correct, India has bi-annual or dual cyclone seasons namely – pre-monsoon (April-June) and post-monsoon.
• Statement 2 is correct, the Bay of Bengal experiences more frequent cyclones as compared to the Arabian Sea on account of high sea surface temperature.
• Statement 3 is correct, Cyclone Mocha will be the first cyclonic storm of the year 2023.
  • The name “Mocha” (pronounced as Mokha) was suggested by Yemen.

• Statement 1 is correct, Rabindranath Tagore, in 1913, became the first non-European to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature and the second non-European to receive a Nobel Prize after Theodore Roosevelt.
  • He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for “Gitanjali”, a collection of poetry.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Rabindranath Tagore was given a knighthood for services to Literature in 1915 by King John V and became the first Indian to receive the knighthood.
  • He, however, returned his knighthood in 1919 because of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in protest of the mass murder of the people.
• Statement 3 is correct, Manasi is a collection of poems authored by Rabindranath Tagore.

The statutory functions of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) include the enforcement of the following Acts:

• The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (FERA)
• The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA)
• The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) 
• The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA)
• The ED is also a sponsoring agency under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (COFEPOSA).

• Statement 1 is not correct, The New Development Bank (NDB) is a multilateral financial institution established by the BRICS countries, namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
• Statement 2 is correct, NDB is headquartered in Shanghai, China.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Indian LIGO comprises two 4-km-long vacuum chambers, built perpendicular to each other that constitute the most sensitive interferometers in the world.
• Statement 2 is correct, LIGO-India will be located in the Hingoli district of Maharashtra, about 450 km east of Mumbai.
  • The government has recently approved the construction of the project and it will be built by the Department of Atomic Energy and the Department of Science and Technology with the U.S. National Science Foundation and several national and international research institutions.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The LIGO in the US first detected gravitational waves in 2015, which led to a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017.

• Statement 1 is correct, Section 144 of the CrPC empowers a district magistrate, a sub-divisional magistrate, or any other executive magistrate empowered by the state government, to issue orders to prevent and address urgent cases of apprehended danger or nuisance.
  • This law empowers the magistrate of a State or UT to pass an order prohibiting the gathering of four or more people in a specified area.
• Statement 2 is not correct, As per the order under the said section, there shall be no movement of public and all educational institutions shall also remain closed.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The Section also empowers authorities to block internet access in the region.

• In diplomacy, a “persona non grata” refers to a foreign diplomat who is asked to be recalled to their home country by their host country.
• If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplomatic mission.

• National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) is a quasi-judicial authority incorporated for dealing with corporate disputes that are of civil nature arising under the Companies Act.
• A person aggrieved by an order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCALT) may file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
• NCLAT is the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by NCLT(s) under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC).
• NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) under Section 202 and Section 211 of IBC.
• NCLAT was established under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of the National Company Law Tribunal(s) (NCLT), with effect from 1st June 2016.

• Statement 1 is correct, All plant cells consist of a hard layer outside the cell membrane called a cell wall. Animal cells lack a cell wall.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Plasma membranes are present both in plant as well as animal cells.
• Statement 3 is correct, In plants, a single, large and permanent vacuole is present.
  • In animal cells, vacuoles, if present are small and many.​

• Statement 1 is not correct, The term “Biodiversity hotspots” was coined by a British environmentalist named Norman Myers.
  • “Biodiversity hotspots” are defined as regions which are known for their high species richness and endemism.
• Statement 2 is correct, Around the world, there are currently 36 biodiversity hotspots that account for 2.5% of Earth’s land surface.
• Statement 3 is correct, There are four biodiversity hotspots in India namely – the Himalayas, Indo-Burma Region, the Western Ghats and the Sundaland.

• Pair 1 is correct, The River Rio Grande marks the boundary between Mexico and the United States.
• Pair 2 is correct, The Orange River is a river in Southern Africa that forms part of the international borders between South Africa and Namibia.
  • It also forms a boundary between South Africa and Lesotho.
• Pair 3 is correct, The Amur is the world’s tenth-longest river that forms a border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China.

• Statement 1 is correct, Reduction in or waiving of import duties helps arrest high inflation in the domestic market.
• Statement 2 is correct, Since the waiving of import duties reduces the prices of the products, the spending capacity of the citizens increases.
• Statement 3 is correct, An import duty has a perverse impact on the balance of payments hence waning import duties can disturb the country’s balance of payment.
• Statement 4 is correct, Freezing import duties and reducing duty slabs can provide a boost to domestic manufacturing industries.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Cham dance is a form of dance that is performed by Tibetan Buddhists during Buddhist festivals, such as Losar (the Tibetan New Year), and Buddha Jayanti.
• Statement 2 is not correct,  The Cham Lama dance is popular in Tibetan settlement areas of Himachal Pradesh, such as Lahaul & Spiti, Ladakh and Kinnaur.
• Statement 3 is correct, The performance involves monks in elaborate and colourful masks, headgear and costumes dancing slowly to the music played using traditional instruments such as drums and cymbals also performed by monks.

• The Pole Star’s position with respect to the rotating earth never changes and it always points in the north direction and the Pole Star is in the rotation axis of the sky.
• In ancient times, people used the position of the Pole star to determine directions during the night.
• Since the Pole star always points towards the northern direction, walking in the direction keeping the pole star to his left will help the person reach his village located in the east.

The Fisher Effect is an economic theory created by economist Irving Fisher that describes the relationship between inflation and both real and nominal interest rates. The Fisher Effect states that the real interest rate equals the nominal interest rate minus the expected inflation rate.

Section 167 CrPC says that an arrested person will be entitled to default bail after 90 days in cases where the investigation relates to an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of not less than 10 years and 60 days, where the investigation relates to any other offence. It is granted to both bailable and non-bailable offences.

• Every employer must constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each office or branch that has 10 or more employees. Read more on the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act, 2013.

The United Kingdom financial regulator that oversees LIBOR has announced that they’ll discontinue the index by June 30, 2023.

Microbial fuel cells are bio-electrochemical systems that drive a current by using bacteria and taking away bacterial interactions from nature. These devices consist of anode and cathode compartments separated by cation specific membrane which converts chemical energy into electrical energy through a catalytic reaction of microorganisms, which makes statement 1 correct. The substrates used in such cells are organic in nature such as glucose, acetate, arabitol, carboxymethyl cellulose, corn stover biomass, etc. which makes statement 2 incorrect. Statement 3 is correct as such cells are used in the treatment of wastewater.

The Union Budget 2022-23 has proposed to establish the Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) for speedy winding- up of companies. The finance minister proposed that the C-PACE with process re-engineering, will be established to facilitate and speed up the voluntary winding-up of these companies from the currently required 2 years to less than 6 months.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, The Eastern Ganga dynasty reigned over the whole modern-day Indian state of Odisha, as well as large portions of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh And Chhattisgarh. They did not rule over Assam.
• Statement 02 is correct, The dynasty was formed by King Anantavarman Chodaganga, a descendant of the Western Anant Dynasty who flourished in the southern sections of present Karnataka state from the 4th century until the end of the 10th century and under the Chola dynasty’s dominion.
• Statement 03 is incorrect, The Jagannath Temple at Puri was rebuilt in the 11th century atop its ruins by Anantavarman Chodaganga.
• • The Sun Temple at Konark was built during the reign of Narasimha Deva I (AD 1238-1264).

Storm Shadow is a long-ranged, air-launched, conventionally armed, deep-strike missile, which is manufactured by the France-based MBDA Missile Systems.

• The missile weighs about 1,300 kilograms (2,900 lb), with a conventional warhead of 450 kilograms (990 lb) and has a range of 400 km.
• The missile is fire and forget, programmed before launch. Once launched, it cannot be controlled or commanded to self-destroy and its target information cannot be changed.

Mirza Beg Asadullah Khan (1797-1868), also known as Mirza Ghalibwas popularly known  by the pen names Ghalib and Asad. His honorific was Dabir-ul-Mulk, Najm-ud-Daula.

• Bahadur Shah Zafar II had appointed Ghalib as his tutor for poetry in 1854 and later he appointed him the tutor to his eldest son Prince Fakhr-ud Din Mirza.
• During this time, Ghalib was also appointed by the Emperor as the royal historian of the Mughal court.
• In 1850, Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar bestowed upon Mirza Ghalib the title of Dabir-ul-Mulk ( ’secretary of state’). The Emperor also added to it the additional title of Najm-ud-daula ( ’star of the state’).
• He wrote in both Urdu and Persian.

The severe depletion of the Antarctic ozone layer known as the “ozone hole” occurs because of the special atmospheric and chemical conditions that exist there and nowhere else on the globe.

• The ozone hole in the Antarctic region is primarily caused by the presence of a prominent polar front. During the winter months, the polar front gets stronger and more pronounced, causing the formation of a polar vortex, which traps cold air in the Antarctic region.
• In the Antarctic region, during the winter months, stratospheric clouds form due to the extreme cold. These clouds contain particles such as nitric acid, water, and sulfuric acid, which can react with chlorine and bromine compounds to release free radicals. These free radicals then go on to destroy ozone molecules.
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are very stable and can remain in the atmosphere for many years. When they reach the stratosphere, they are broken down by the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, releasing chlorine and bromine atoms, which can then react with ozone and destroy it.
• The formation of the ozone hole in the Antarctic region is a seasonal phenomenon. It occurs during the winter months, which last from June to August. During this time, the polar vortex becomes stronger, trapping cold air in the Antarctic region, and the stratospheric clouds form. These conditions create the ideal environment for the destruction of ozone molecules.