UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jun 04 - Jun 10

• Sedition law was inserted in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in 1870 in response to the Wahabi movement.
• Sedition is not among the 8 reasonable restrictions on citizens’ right to freedom of speech and expression under the Indian constitution. Sedition is not mentioned in Article 19(2).
• The state can impose 8 reasonable restrictions on the exercise of freedom and expression under the Indian Constitution. They are on the following grounds:

1. The sovereignty and integrity of India
2. Security of the State
3. Friendly relations with foreign nations
4. Public order
5. Decency or morality
6. Contempt of court
7. Defamation
8. Incitement to an offense

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index is intended to provide a holistic view on the social, economic and environmental status of the country and its States and UTs.
In the current edition (2020-21), 115 indicators incorporate 16 out of 17 SDGs, with a qualitative assessment on Goal 17.
NITI Aayog has the twin mandate to oversee the adoption and monitoring of the SDGs in the country, and also promote competitive and cooperative federalism among States and UTs.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) India Index was first launched in 2018.

• Black carbon (BC) deposits produced by human activity accelerate the pace of glacier and snow melt in the Himalayan region.
• BC is produced by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass and emissions.
• It is a short-lived pollutant that is the second-largest contributor to warming the planet after carbon dioxide (CO2).
• Accelerating the use of liquefied petroleum gas for cooking and through clean cookstove programmes can cut BC emissions.
• Deposition of BC decreases the surface reflectance of sunlight thereby hastening the pace of glacier melt.
• BC deposits raise the air temperature.

• India needs 25 million tonnes of edible oils to meet its requirement at current consumption level of 19 kg per person per year.
• Of the total requirement, 10.50 million tonnes are produced domestically. India’s import dependence on edible oil still remains high at about 65%.
• In 2020-21, food grain production in India is projected officially to be around 305.44 million tonnes – a massive increase of nearly 27 million tonnes over the average annual output of the previous five years (2015-16 to 2019-20).
• India’s agricultural exports grew 17.5 per cent to cross $41.8 billion in 2020-21.

Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna (PMJDY) is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, such as Banking/ Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner.

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a naming system for variants of the coronavirus that uses letters of the Greek alphabet.
• These Greek-letter labels will only be given to “variants of concern” and “variants of interest” as defined by the WHO.
• Under the new scheme, the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK, is labelled “alpha”.
• The B.1.351 variant identified in South Africa is “beta”, the P.1 variant that originated in Brazil is “gamma” and the B.1.617.2 variant first detected in India is “delta”.

• Recently, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), headed by Defence Minister has approved the issuance of a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the construction of six conventional submarines under Project-75I.
• The Project 75I-class submarine is a follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarine for the Indian Navy.
• Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature advanced air-independent propulsion systems to enable them to stay submerged for a longer duration and substantially increase their operational range.
• All six submarines are expected to be constructed in Indian shipyards.

• Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of marine topographic features which affect maritime navigation and other sea-based activities.
• India is one of the pioneers in hydrographic surveys. Indian navy and other scientific institutions possess this technology.
• India offers this technology free of cost to some of the countries such as Myanmar, Maldives, Mauritius, etc.

• Cancer immunotherapy exploits the body’s immune system to put up a fight against cancer.
• With this approach, either the immune system is given a boost, or the T cells are “trained’’ to identify recalcitrant cancer cells and kill them.
• India’s first indigenous tumour antigen SPAG9 was discovered in 1998.
• This antigen has received the trademark ‘ASPAGNII’ and is being used in dendritic cell (DC) based immunotherapy in treating cervical, ovarian cancer and breast cancer.

Read more on this topic covered in PIB Summary & Analysis for 4th June 2021.

• Most of the world’s coral reefs are in tropical waters. Coral reefs thrive in a temperature range of 22 °C to 29 °C – usually found in tropical waters.
• More than one-third of the world’s coral reefs are located in the territories of Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
• Coral reefs host far more number of animal phyla than those hosted by tropical rainforests. They are believed to have about 4 times more animal phyla as compared to tropical rainforests.
• Coral reefs are also referred to as the ‘tropical rainforests of the sea’.

• India’s five tiger landscapes are: Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains, Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, North-East Hills and Brahmaputra Plains, and the Sundarbans.
• M-STrIPES, short for Monitoring System for Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status is a software-based monitoring system launched across Indian tiger reserves by the Indian government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) in 2010.
• TraMCA is a region of high biodiversity that extends along south-eastern Bhutan and northeastern India. TraMCA stands for Transboundary Manas Conservation Area.
• The Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve is located in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra state in India. The reserve includes the Tadoba National Park and the Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary.

• Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa lying in Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region. It is bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and the Ivory Coast to the southwest.  Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso.
• The Equator does not pass through Burkino Faso.
• The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, constituting more than 40% of the population, or about 6.2 million people. Other ethnic groups include the Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo and Fulani.

Bio-medical waste:

• Bio-medical waste means “any solid and/or liquid waste including its container and any intermediate product, which is generated during the diagnosis, treatment or immunization of human beings or animals or research activities pertaining thereto or in the production or testing of biological or in health camps.

Categorization:

• H10N3 is a rare strain of a virus that normally infects poultry. However, China has recently confirmed the first instance of human infection from H10N3.
• H5N1 is the most common virus causing bird flu, or avian influenza. Though largely restricted to birds, and often fatal to them, it can cross over to other animals, as well as humans.

• Establishing effective District Planning Committees in all the districts allows for decentralized planning which facilitates more inclusive governance.
• Increasing the government spending on public health will help ensure universal access to healthcare facilities thus ensuring inclusive governance
• Strengthening the Mid-day Meal Scheme will help ensure nutritional security for the poor children and thus amounts to an inclusive governance measure.

• These rains are usually seen at the end of the summer season.
• Mango showers are used to describe the occurrence of pre-monsoon rainfall, they help in the early ripening of mangoes.
• These rains normally occur from March to April, although their arrival is often difficult to predict.
• Pre-monsoon showers are common, especially in Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and parts of Tamil Nadu in India.
• The mango showers occur as the result of thunderstorm development over the Bay of Bengal.

• The Arabian Sea branch of the monsoons is quite stronger than the Bay of Bengal branch.
• Tamil Nadu does not receive much rain during the southwest monsoons because of two major reasons.
  • The Bay of Bengal Branch currents flow parallel to the coast of Tamil Nadu.
  • Tamil Nadu is a rain shadow region with respect to the Arabian Sea branch.

• Performance Grading Index monitors the progress that the States and Union Territories have made in school education with regard to learning outcomes, access & equity, infrastructure & facilities, and governance & management processes.
• It is released by the Ministry of Education.

• India is a signatory to Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
• Among the export control regimes, India is a part of the Australia Group as well as the Wassenaar Arrangement.
• India is not a signatory to Convention on Cluster Munitions.

• The Executive Power of the Union of India is vested in the President.
• Cabinet Secretary is the ex officio Chairman of the Civil Services Board.

• Aravalli Mountain range passes through Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• Guru Shikhar in the Arbuda Mountains of Rajasthan is the highest peak in the Aravalli Mountain range.
• It is the oldest range of fold mountains in India. The natural history of the Aravalli Range dates back to times when the Indian Plate was separated from the Eurasian Plate by an ocean.

• According to the Juvenile Justice Act 2015, juveniles charged with heinous crimes and who are between the ages of 16-18 years would be tried as adults and processed through the adult justice system.
• Juvenile justice procedure has categorized the offence into 3 types, petty, serious and heinous.
• “Heinous Offences” include the offences for which the minimum punishment under the Indian Penal Code or any other law for the time being in force is imprisonment for seven years or more.

• The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism (LMC) was formally launched in March 2016.
• It is an initiative of China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
• India and Bangladesh are not a part of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation.

• The carbon credit system was ratified in conjunction with the Kyoto Protocol.
• Carbon credits are awarded to countries or groups that have reduced greenhouse gases below their emission quota.
• The goal of the carbon credit system is to limit the increase of carbon dioxide emission.
• Carbon credit prices are traded on an exchange. So, their prices are never fixed.

• Under Article 324(2) of the Constitution of India, the President of India (on the recommendation from the incumbent Government of India) is empowered to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner and the Election Commissioners.
• The Chief Election Commissioner can be removed from his office in the same manner and on the same grounds as a judge of the Supreme Court. However, the Constitution is silent about the procedure for removal of the two Election Commissioners. It only provides that they cannot be removed from office except on the recommendation of the CEC.
• An Election Commissioner, after his/her term is over, can become a member of the Rajya Sabha.

• Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a group of developing countries that are small island countries that tend to share similar sustainable development challenges.
• Fifty-two countries and territories are presently classified as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) by the United Nations OHRLLS.
• The SIDS were recognized as a distinct group of developing countries in June 1992, at the UN Conference on Environment and Development.
• The Barbados Programme of Action was produced in 1994 in order to assist the SIDS in their sustainable development efforts.
• The United Nations Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) represents this group of states.
• The 29th session of the World Heritage Committee in 2005 adopted the World Heritage Programme for SIDS and they have since become a point of focus for World Heritage identification and protection.
• Trinidad and Tobago, Maldives, Singapore and Bahrain are some of the members of the SIDS.

The operation codenamed “Operation Pangea XIV” was an exercise coordinated by Interpol for a global crackdown on illegal medical trade.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) standard response code and description:

Error 403 occurs when the resource is forbidden. It occurs when the web page that is trying to be opened in the web browser is a resource that is not allowed to be accessed.
Error 404 – Page Not Found error message is an HTTP standard response code, to indicate that the browser was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested. In short, it means, the requested page is not available.
Error 503 – is an HTTP status code that means that the server is unable to handle the information request. Most of the time, it occurs because the server is too busy or because there’s maintenance being performed on it.

• The Attorney General of India can take part in the proceedings of the Lok Sabha.
• He/she can be a member of a committee of the Lok Sabha.
• He/she can speak in the Lok Sabha.
• The Attorney General of India has the right to speak and to take part in the proceedings of both the Houses of Parliament or their joint sitting and any committee of the Parliament of which s/he may be named a member but without a right to vote.