UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jun 18 - Jun 24

Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon, Bongaigaon, Tinsukia, Tezpur are the cities are located in the Brahmaputra Valley.

• The construction of Humayun’s tomb was commissioned by Bega Begum, Humayun’s Persian wife and chief consort in 1565 AD, nine years after the Emperor’s death.
• It was completed in 1572 AD under the patronage of the Mughal Emperor Akbar.
• The tomb was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
• The last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar took refuge here, during the Mutiny of 1857, before being exiled to Rangoon.

The Christchurch Call to Action Summit was a political summit started by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Paris, France, after the Christchurch mosque shootings of 15 March 2019.
The summit brings together leaders from signatory governments, tech companies, and civil society to discuss efforts to address terrorist and violent extremist content online.
The Christchurch Call to Action Summit is related to curbing online dissemination of extremist content.

Mayun island/Perim island, recently seen in news, is located near Bab-el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen.
It is a volcanic island in the Strait of Mandeb at the south entrance into the Red Sea, off the southwest coast of Yemen.
The location of the island is extremely strategic from the point of view of cargo shipments and war ammunition. It is a crucial maritime chokepoint.

• The ‘Indian Ocean Naval Symposium’ (IONS) is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime co-operation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region and enhance regional security.
• Inaugural IONS was held in India in 2008 under the chairmanship of the Indian Navy.

• The Luzon Strait is the strait between Taiwan and Luzon island of the Philippines.
• The strait connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean.
• Therefore, the Luzon Strait connects the South China Sea with the Pacific Ocean.

• India recently extended a $100 million loan to Sri Lanka to support its efforts to expand solar power coverage.
• Sri Lanka is a party to the International Solar Alliance launched by India in 2015.
• Sri Lanka owes roughly around $1 billion in debt repayment to India.

• ‘Vivad Se Vishwas’ scheme is related to direct tax dispute resolution.
• The Vivad Se Vishwas scheme was announced by Union Finance Minister during the budget speech on February 1, 2020.
• The scheme aims to end litigation and legacy disputes under the direct taxes category.
• The entities who opt for the scheme must pay a requisite tax following which all litigation against them would be closed by the tax department and penal proceedings dropped.

• Rajasthan had explored the possibility of constructing an artificial inland port to be connected to the sea by a long navigation channel.
• Both the Centre and state had explored ways to develop an artificial inland port in Jalore by channelling seawater from the Arabian Sea into Rajasthan through Gujarat.

• Bonn Challenge is a global goal to bring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
• It was launched by the Government of Germany and IUCN.
• The Bonn Challenge unites nations and regions in bringing landscapes into restoration, to halt and reverse the effects of land degradation. Also read: Desertification

• The Wood’s Despatch is considered as the ‘Magna Carta of English Education in India. In 1854, Charles Wood sent a despatch to Lord Dalhousie, the then Governor-General of India. Through the despatch, he suggested that high schools must use anglo-vernacular medium and that English should be the medium for college-level education.
• The Calcutta University Commission under the Chairmanship of the late Sir Michael Sadler was appointed in 1917. It looked into the question of secondary education.
• Sir Philip Joseph Hartog committee was appointed by the British Indian government to survey the growth of education in India. The Hartog committee on education submitted its report in 1929.
• The Fowler Committee (Indian Currency Committee) was a government committee appointed by the British Government in 1898 to examine the currency situation in India.
• MacDonnell Commission (famine commission) was appointed by Lord Curzon in 1901 to formulate the general principles of dealing with famines.

A wetland can be considered internationally important under the Ramsar Convention if it meets one of the following criteria:

1. Contains a representative, rare, or unique example of a natural or near-natural wetland type found within the appropriate biogeographic region.
2. If it supports vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species or threatened ecological communities.
3. If it supports populations of plant and/or animal species important for maintaining the biological diversity of a particular biogeographic region.
4. If it supports plant and/or animal species at a critical stage in their life cycles, or provides refuge during adverse conditions.
5. If it regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds.
6. If it regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of waterbird.
7. if it supports a significant proportion of indigenous fish subspecies, species or families, life-history stages, species interactions and/or populations that are representative of wetland benefits and/or values and thereby contributes to global biological diversity.
8. If it is an important source of food for fishes, spawning ground, nursery and/or migration path on which fish stocks, either within the wetland or elsewhere, depend.
9. If it regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of wetland-dependent non-avian animal species.

• They are grown primarily in Miyazaki – a city in Japan.
• These mangoes are rich in antioxidant and contain beta-carotene and folic acid, which is great for people that need help with tired eye.

Sumatra is the closest to Great Nicobar.

• Some distinct rights are enjoyed by the legislators in a parliament or an assembly without which they cannot discharge their functions and these rights are peculiar to them and as such are not enjoyed by members of any other institution or body of individuals.
• In India, these privileges emanate from the Constitution itself with identical provisions in this regard in the form of Articles 105 and 194, which give these privileges to the Members of Parliament and members of the state legislature respectively.
• Committee of Privileges investigates the matters of breach of such privileges.
• Its function is to examine every question involving breach of privilege of the House or of the members of any Committee thereof referred to it by the House or by the Speaker.
• It has 15 Members in Lok Sabha and 10 Members in Rajya Sabha.
• It recommends suitable actions to be initiated by the house. Therefore, the functions of the committee are semi-judicial in nature.

• Jamdani weaving tradition is of Bengali origin.
• Jamdani is a handloom woven fabric made of cotton, which was historically referred to as muslin.
• Uppada Jamdani Silk Saree that has been accorded GI tag is from Andhra Pradesh.

• Coronaviruses cause common cold, SARS, MERS, etc.
• Filoviruses were discovered for the first time in 1967. They belong to the family Filoviridae. Two members of the family that are commonly known are the Ebola virus and the Marburg virus.
• Togaviruses cause Chikungunya.
• Paramyxoviruses cause Nipah.

The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve is a protected area in Uttar Pradesh. It shares the north-eastern boundary with Nepal.

• A teaser loan is any loan that offers a lower interest rate for a fixed amount of time as a purchase incentive.
• The teaser loans are considered to be an aspect of sub-prime lending and banks may be exposed to the risk of defaulters in future.
• In India, teaser loans are mostly given as personal loans, car loans and home loans.

The total fertility rate of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime she was to live from birth until the end of her reproductive life.

• Tax evasion, tax avoidance, smuggling and hawala transactions lead to generation of black money.
  • Tax evasion is where an entity/ a person wilfully does not pay taxes that are due to the government.
  • Tax avoidance is where an entity takes advantage of the existing loopholes in the system and avoids paying taxes. This is not illegal.
  • Hawala is an informal method of transferring money without any physical money actually moving. It is described as a “money transfer without money movement
• Tax Planning involves ensuring savings on taxes while simultaneously conforming to the legal obligations and requirements of the tax laws hence it does not amount to generation of black money.

• The Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters is a convention to facilitate the entering into bilateral tax information exchange agreements between state parties. The Convention was developed by the OECD and the Council of Europe.
• This Convention deals with administrative tax issues, such as exchange of information, assistance in the collection of taxes and dispute resolution.
• All the BRICS countries are signatories to the convention.

• Articles 370 and 371 were part of the Constitution at the time of its commencement on January 26, 1950
• The Gupkar alliance is an alliance of seven political parties in Jammu and Kashmir.
• A day before the revocation of Article 370, the J&K parties had joined hands on August 4 and signed the “Gupkar Declaration” and vowed to protect J&K’s special status.

• The Holocene extinction, otherwise referred to as the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction, is an ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch (with the more recent time sometimes called Anthropocene) as a result of human activity.
• Mankind’s over-exploitation/misuse of natural resources, fragmentation/loss of natural habitats, destruction of ecosystems, pollution and global climate change are said to be contributing to this extinction.

• The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 says that any act, conduct, omission or commission that harms or injures or has the potential to harm or injure will be considered domestic violence by the law.
• Domestic violence includes physical, financial, sexual violence, emotional abuse as well as verbal abuse.
• The law also covers children.

• Hydrogen generated entirely from renewable power sources is called green hydrogen.
• Green hydrogen can be used in industry and can be stored in existing gas pipelines to power household appliances.
• Blue Hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage technologies and is less polluting.

• The ranking of the types of coal depends on the types and amounts of carbon the coal contains and on the amount of heat energy the coal can produce.
• Anthracite is the most mature coal and thus has the highest carbon content of any type of coal.
• Lignite coal (brown coal) is the lowest grade coal with the least concentration of carbon.
• Peat is a soft, organic material consisting of partly decayed plant and mineral matter. When peat is placed under high pressure and heat, it undergoes physical and chemical changes to become coal.
• Highest to lowest ranking: Anthracite, Bituminous, Lignite, Peat (least concentration of carbon).

NISHTHA stands for National Initiative for School Heads’ and Teachers’ Holistic Advancement Programme.
NISHTHA is the world’s largest teachers’ training programme of its kind.
It is a program aimed at improving learning outcomes at the elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme.
The basic objective of this massive training programme is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage and foster critical thinking in students.
It was launched under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in 2019–20.

• Ajanta rock-cut cave monuments were built during 200 BC-650 AD by the Vakataka kings. These are Buddhist monuments.
• Mahabalipuram was built between the 7^th and the 8^th centuries by the Pallavas. It is a Hindu group of monuments.
• Both have rock-cut monuments.

• The Delimitation Commission of India is tasked with redrawing of boundaries of the various assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies based on a recent census.
• The orders of the delimitation commission set up by the Government of India cannot be challenged in any court. This is done to prevent indefinite delays in elections.
• The delimitation of Jammu and Kashmir’s Lok Sabha seats is governed by the Indian Constitution.
• Prior to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that provided a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, the delimitation of Assembly seats is governed by the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957. Currently, the delimitation of Assembly seats is governed by the Indian Constitution itself.