UPSC 2022: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Mar 12 - Mar 18

• The Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps), is a bustard native to the Indian subcontinent.
• Bustards are large terrestrial birds found in dry grasslands and steppe regions.
• It is among the heaviest of flying birds in existence.
• It is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.
• Great Indian bustards are omnivores.
• It is the state bird of Rajasthan.

• Deep Ocean Mission is a central sector scheme. The mission proposes to explore the deep ocean similar to the space exploration started by ISRO about 35 years ago.
• The focus of the mission will be on deep-sea mining, ocean climate change advisory services, underwater vehicles and underwater robotics-related technologies.
• Its two key projects include a desalination plant powered by tidal energy and a submersible vehicle that can explore depths of at least 6,000 metres.

• Bara-lacha La is a high mountain pass in Zanskar range.
• It connects Lahaul district in Himachal Pradesh to Leh district in Ladakh, situated along the Leh–Manali Highway.

• The Mullaperiyar Dam is a masonry gravity dam on the Periyar River in the Indian state of Kerala.
• The dam is located in Kerala on the river Periyar, but is operated and maintained by Tamil Nadu state.
• The dispute between Kerala and Tamil Nadu states is because of the control and safety of the dam and the validity and fairness of the lease agreement. The dispute began in 1998 when Tamil Nadu wanted to raise the height of the water level and Kerala opposed it.

• IFCI – 1^st DFI in India. Industrial Finance Corporation of India was established in 1948.
• The Budget 2021-22 has provided for an initial amount of ₹20,000 crore for the DFIs.
• DFIs do not accept deposits.
• The development finance institutions or development finance companies are organizations owned by the government or charitable institutions to provide funds for low-capital projects or where their borrowers are unable to get it from commercial lenders.

All the statements are correct.

The World Energy Transitions Outlook is brought out by the International Renewable Energy Agency.

• The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure is a partnership between national governments, United Nations programmes and agencies, development banks, academic institutions and the private sector.
• The objective of the coalition is to address challenges related to building resilience into infrastructure systems and associated developments.
• The CDRI was launched by Prime Minister Modi in September 2019 at the UN Climate Action Summit.
• The CDRI is a partnership between national governments and other agencies and not based on rights and obligations. It may be noted that the decisions, policies and standards of the coalition are not binding on the members.
• Its Secretariat is in New Delhi. The Secretariat functions under the direction of the international Governing Council and implements the programs of CDRI.

• The government launched the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia (INSACOG), comprising 10 labs spread across India.
• It is formed under the leadership of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
• INSACOG was launched to ascertain the status of new variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country.
• Its goal is to regularly monitor the genomic variation in SARS-CoV-2.
• It would monitor the genomic variations in the SARS-CoV-2 on a regular basis through a multi-laboratory network.
• It has a high level Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee. Also, it has a Scientific Advisory Group for scientific and technical guidance.

All the statements are correct.

• The supplementary nutrition programme and the Poshan Abhiyaan under the Women and Child Development Ministry have been merged to launch Mission Poshan 2.0 to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach, and outcome, according to the Union Budget 2021-22.
• POSHAN 2.0 is an umbrella scheme covering the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Anganwadi Services, Scheme For Adolescent Girls and National Creche Scheme.
• It does not include One-Stop Centre, Mahila Police Volunteer, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Women’s helpline and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana. These come under Mission Shakti.

• LCU L58 is the eighth and last ship of the Landing Craft Utility (LCU) Mark IV Class.
• The ship was indigenously designed and built by GRSE, Kolkata.
• The LCU 58 would be based at Port Blair and will be deployed in a variety of roles such as Beaching, Search and Rescue, Disaster Relief, Coastal Patrol and Surveillance operations along the Andaman and Nicobar Group of Islands, Bay of Bengal and in the Indian Ocean.

• Jal Jeevan Mission is envisioned to provide safe and adequate drinking water through individual household tap connections by 2024 to all households in rural India.
• The programme will also implement source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, such as recharge and reuse through greywater management, water conservation, rainwater harvesting.

• Alternative dispute resolution mechanism is a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that act as a means for disagreeing parties to come to an agreement through negotiations and discussions.
• ADR is generally classified into – arbitration, negotiation, mediation and conciliation.
• Lok Adalat system was set up through the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 to ensure that the disputes in the pre-litigation stage could be settled amicably.

• Supplementary, additional or excess grants and votes on account, votes of credit and exceptional grants are mentioned in the Constitution of India.
• Supplementary grants are presented and passed by the Parliament before the end of the financial year.
• The Demand for Excess Grants is made after the actual expenditure is incurred and is presented to the Parliament after the end of the financial year in which the expenses were made.

• It was launched in 2012 with an aim to develop state-of-the-art monsoon prediction systems for short, medium and long-range monsoon forecasts.
• It is linked to the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Read more on the National Monsoon Mission.

• While the mining of major minerals come under the purview of the central governments, mining of minor minerals comes under the purview of state governments.
• River sand is considered a minor mineral.
• For minerals specified in the first schedule to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, central government approval is necessary before granting the mineral concession.
• Minerals specified under the first schedule include hydrocarbons, atomic minerals and metallic minerals such as iron ore, bauxite copper ore, lead precious stones, zinc and gold.

• The first-ever Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) was commissioned by the government in 2016 and was conducted from 2016-18, led by the Union Health Ministry, in collaboration with UNICEF. The findings were published in 2019.
• CNNS includes only nutrition data, whereas the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) encompasses overall health indicators.

• Ventilation index is a measure of the volume rate of horizontal transport of air within the mixing layer, per unit distance, normal to the wind. Units are measured in square meters per second or knot-feet.
• It is a metric that indicates how efficiently pollutants are dispersed in the atmosphere.
• The ventilation index is the product of windspeed and mixing height.
• Risks to air quality occur when ventilation index values are low and harmful pollutants are held close to the ground.
• Risks to visibility also occur when ventilation index values are low.
• It is a useful tool for air pollution management.

• Galathea National Park is a National Park located in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. It is located on the island of Great Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands, which lie in the eastern Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal).
• The total area of this park is some 110 square kilometers, and it was gazetted as a National Park of India in 1992. Galathea forms part of what has been designated as the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, which also includes the larger Campbell Bay National Park, separated from Galathea by a 12-km forest buffer zone.
• Many unique and rare species of plants and animals are found in the park, a number of which are endemic to the islands including the Nicobarese Megapode and the Nicobar Pigeon.

Asola-Bhati Wildlife Sanctuary on the Southern Delhi Ridge of Aravalli hill range on Delhi-Haryana border lies in Southern Delhi as well as northern parts of Faridabad and Gurugram districts of Haryana state.

InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a NASA Discovery Program mission that will place a single geophysical lander on Mars to study its deep interior.

• The Finance ministry has recently stated that as many as 20 States having successfully completed ease of doing business reforms. Recently, five more States namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Meghalaya and Tripura have completed the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ reforms stipulated by the Department of Expenditure.
  • The ease of doing business is an important indicator of the investment friendly business climate in the country. Improvements in the ease of doing business will enable faster future growth of the state economy.
• States completing the reforms are eligible for additional borrowing of 0.25% of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) through Open Market Borrowings.

• United Nations Refugee Convention is a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who is a refugee, and sets out the rights of individuals who are granted asylum and the responsibilities of nations that grant asylum.
• While the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 includes refugees from Europe only, the 1967 Protocol included refugees from all countries.
• India is not a signatory of both the United Nations Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol.

• Lachit Borphukan was a commander in the Ahom dynasty, located in present-day Assam.
• He showed exemplary leadership in the Battle of Saraighat (1671).
• The Battle of Saraighat was a naval battle fought between the Mughal Empire and the Ahom Kingdom.

The Muria are scheduled tribes of the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.

• Whitsun Reef is a reef in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea. It is a V-shaped reef.
• It is a part of the ongoing maritime dispute between China and the Philippines.

• The Gandhi Peace Prize is an annual award instituted by the Government of India since 1995, the 125th Birth Anniversary commemoration year of Mahatma Gandhi.
• The Award is given for Social, Economic and Political transformation through Non-violence.
• This annual award will be given to individuals, associations, institutions or organizations who have worked selflessly for peace, non-violence and amelioration of human sufferings particularly for the less-privileged sections of society contributing towards social justice and harmony.
• The award is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race, language, caste, creed or sex.

• The law was passed in 1991 by the P V Narasimha Rao-led government, the law seeks to maintain the “religious character” of places of worship as it was in 1947.
• The Act freezes the status of places of worship as it was on August 15, 1947.
• Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to the place or place of worship commonly known as Ram Janma Bhumi-Babri Masjid situated in Ayodhya in the State of Uttar Pradesh and to any suit, appeal or other proceeding relating to the said place or place of worship.

The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism.