UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jul 23 - Jul 29

• Radiation from the sun heats up Earth’s landmasses and oceans.
  • The heating and cooling differences of land and water affect the temperature and movement of air masses above the land and water.
  • Because water has a much higher heat capacity, or specific heat, than sands, soils or other materials, for a given amount of solar irradiation (insolation), water temperature will increase less than land temperature.

• In this act, ‘dowry’ means any property or valuable security given or agreed to be given either directly or indirectly:
  • by one party to a marriage to the other party to the marriage; or
  • by the parents of either party to a marriage or by any other person, to either party to the marriage or to any other person; at or before or any time after the marriage in connection with the marriage of said parties but does not include dower or mahr in the case of persons to whom the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) applies.
• The Dowry Prohibition Act prohibits the giving or taking of the dowry.

• The Delhi High Court has clarified that the office of the attorney general would not be a public authority within the ambit of the Right to Information Act (RTI).
• “Public authority” means any authority or body or institution of self-government established or constituted—
  • by or under the Constitution;
  • by any other law made by Parliament;
  • by any other law made by State Legislature;
  • by notification issued or order made by the appropriate Government, and includes any—
    • body owned, controlled or substantially financed;
    • non-Government organisation substantially financed,
• directly or indirectly by funds provided by the appropriate Government;
• Therefore only those NGOs substantially financed by the Government come under the ambit of Public Authority, not all.

• Lok Sabha members are elected directly by the voters, Rajya Sabha members are elected indirectly by the people, that is, by the MLAs.
  • Every Rajya Sabha MP has a tenure of six years.
• The election held to fill a vacancy arising otherwise than by retirement of a member on the expiration of his term of office is called ‘Bye-election’. A member elected in a bye-election remains member for the remainder of the term of the member who had resigned or died or disqualified to be member of the House under the Tenth Schedule.
• Article 80(4) of the Constitution of India provides that members of Rajya Sabha shall be elected by the elected members of State Legislative Assemblies through the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.

Bio-toilets in Railways

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

• Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a process that separates single gases from a gas mixture through a non-cryogenic air separation process.
• It takes place at near ambient temperatures.
• It is mostly used in the chemical industry and the petrochemical industry.

• The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was established in 2002.
• The fund comes from the Universal Service Levy (USL) charged from all the telecom operators on their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) and is deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India.
• USOF is funding the BharatNet project.

• The Salma Dam (Afghan-India Friendship Dam) inaugurated in 2016 was built in partnership with India.
• Shahtoot dam is another major dam being built by India in Afghanistan.

• While the cores of Venus and Earth are about one-third of their mass Mercury’s core is 85 percent by volume.
• Both Mercury and Venus do not have a moon. Both the planets do not have rings because the powerful solar wind blasts destroy icy rings around the planets.
• Despite being further from the Sun than Mercury, Venus experiences higher temperatures. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system.

An expansionary monetary policy results in increased money supply in the economy resulting in stronger dollar. Such a policy might lead to a fall in the value of Indian Rupee.

• Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan’s father took the help of the French to set up an arms factory at Dindigul.
• The Third Anglo-Mysore War fought by Tipu ended with the Treaty of Seringapatnam.

• Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system located in the Coral Sea on the North-Eastern side of Australia.
• Indonesia is the world’s largest coral reef nation.

• The moon wobble is a regular swaying/cyclical shift in the moon’s orbit. It was first documented in 1728.
• This wobble takes over an 18.6-year period to complete and continues to occur in a cyclic fashion.
• One half of the 18.6-year cycle suppresses the tides, which means that the high tides get lower, while the low tides get higher than normal. Once this cycle completes, the situation flips with high tides getting higher and low tides, lower.

The mind of the makers of the Constitution is reflected in the Preamble.  It contains a summary or the essence of the Constitution. The Preamble to the Constitution of India comprises the aims and vision of the Constituent Assembly as well as makes a mention of the source of authority of the Constitution.

• The trees in Meghalaya not only develop the conventional rooting system but also develop aerial rooting system. Aerial roots are roots that grow on the above-ground parts of a plant. Therefore, people in the region make use of Living Root Bridges.
• A living root bridge is a type of simple suspension bridge formed of living plant roots by tree shaping. They are common in the southern part of the Northeast Indian state of Meghalaya.
• They are handmade from the aerial roots of rubber fig trees (Ficus elastica) by the Khasi and Jaintia people.

Primary sources of vegetable oil: Soybean, Rapeseed & Mustard, Groundnut, Sunflower, Safflower & Niger.
Secondary sources of vegetable oil: Oil palm, Coconut, Rice Bran, Cotton seeds & Tree Borne Oilseeds.

• A föhn or foehn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range.
• Foehn is a hot wind of local importance in the Alps. With the arrival of these winds, there is a rapid rise in temperature.
• Switzerland and Austria have a warmer climate due to the Föhn, as moist winds off the Mediterranean Sea blow over the Alps.
• Föhn is responsible for rapid temperature rise, melting snowfall and the avalanche risk.

• A twin deficit economy is one that has both fiscal and current account deficits.
• A twin deficit occurs when a nation’s government has both a trade deficit and a budget deficit.
• A trade deficit, also known as a current account deficit, occurs when a nation imports more than it exports.
• Fiscal deficit is a condition where the government is spending more money than it takes in from taxes and other revenues excluding debt.

• The First Summit of BRICS was held in Yekaterinburg in Russia in 2009.
• South Africa was the last to join the BRICS grouping.
• BRICS is the acronym coined to associate five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
• South Africa was invited to join the bloc (BRIC) in December 2010, resulting in BRICS.

• Asian Development Outlook is annually published by the Asian Development Bank.
• In ADB, the votes are distributed among the member nations in proportion to their capital subscriptions.
• The bank admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and non-regional developed countries.

e-SANTA is an electronic marketplace providing a platform connecting aqua farmers and buyers across the country.

Read more on e-SANTA – Electronic Marketplace Platform for Aqua-Farmers.

• Varkari is a religious movement within the Bhakti tradition geographically associated with Maharashtra and North Karnataka.
• Gnanadeva was the founder of the Bhakti Movement in Maharashtra in the 13th century.
• Namadeva belonged to the 13^th century. He opposed idol worship and the dominance of priests. He criticized the caste system.
• Tukaram was another Bhakti saint of Maharashtra and said to be a contemporary of Shivaji. He was a 17th-century poet-saint of the Bhakti movement.

Johads and Khadins refer to rainfed storage structures built in Rajasthan.

• The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) was launched at the G8 meeting of environment ministers in Potsdam, Germany, in 2007.
• It is a global initiative that focuses on drawing attention to the economic benefits of biodiversity.
• It presents an approach that can help decision-makers recognize, demonstrate and capture the value of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Kafala System is a system used to monitor migrant labourers, working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors in Gulf Cooperation Council member states and a few neighbouring countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The system requires all unskilled labourers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status.

• Nehru-Liaquat Pact (Delhi Pact) was a bilateral agreement signed between India and Pakistan in 1950 to resolve the issue of protection of the minorities in the backdrop of communal violence during the partition.
• It did not recognise forced conversions in the respective countries.

• Angami tribes from village Khonoma of Kohima district in Nagaland devised Alder based Jhum cultivation which is sustainable and eco-friendly.
• Alder-based Jhum cultivation is unique to Nagaland.

• Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
• Barak 8 is an Indo-Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM).
• ASTRA is an Indian all weather beyond-visual-range active radar homing air-to-air missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

• Mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the host plant’s root system. It is a symbiotic relationship between the two.
• Mycorrhizal fungi help the host plant to resist drought and increase its absorptive area, tolerate extreme levels of PH in the soil, protects it from root diseases.