UPSC 2022: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Mar 19 - Mar 25

• The display of National Flag is governed by the provisions of two acts viz. Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950 and Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
• Further, the government issues non-statutory instructions from time to time.
• The Flag Code of India serves as a single reference point about how to properly hoist flag of India with due honour.
• The Flag Code of India itself is not an act of parliament. It is a set of laws, practices and conventions that apply to the display of the national flag of India.

• The anniversary of the day on which freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were hanged is observed as Sarvodaya Day, Martyrs’ Day or Shaheedi Diwas.
• All three of them were members of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, an organisation involved in revolutionary activities.
• When national leader Lala Lajpat Rai died of a heart attack in November 1928 after he was brutally lathi-charged on the orders of the Superintendent of Police James A. Scott, Bhagat Singh and his associates vowed to avenge his death.
• Singh and Rajguru shot and killed an Assistant Superintendent of Police of Lahore, John Saunders in a case of mistaken identity.
• The trio was ordered to be hanged on 24 March 1931 but the sentence was carried out a day earlier at the Lahore Jail. After the hanging, their mortal remains were cremated in secret.
• March 23rd is observed as ‘Martyrs’ Day’ or ‘Shaheed Diwas’ or ‘Sarvodaya Day’ in India in their honour.

The new initiatives under NHM that were introduced in 2019-20 are:

• SAANS initiative: Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) initiative was launched to accelerate action to reduce deaths due to childhood pneumonia.
• SUMAN initiative: Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative was launched to provide assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services; and all existing schemes for maternal and neonatal health have been brought under one umbrella.

Project Mausam is a cultural and economic project by the Indian Ministry of Culture and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) with the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts which aims to connect countries on the Indian Ocean.
This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’ – collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural, commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean.

• In Haripala’s “Sangeeta Sudhakara”, written in the 14th century A.D., the terms Carnatic and Hindustani are found for the first time.
• Treatise                                  Author

1. Brihaddesi               :             Matanga
2. Sangeeta Ratnakara :     Sharangadeva
3. Sangeet Sudhakara    :        Haripala
4. Swaramelakalanidhi   :    Ramamatya

• Zabarwan Mountain Range is a short 32 km long sub-mountain range between Pir Panjal Range and the Great Himalayan Range in the central part of the Kashmir Valley.
• At the foothills of the range is Asia’s Largest Tulip garden.
• Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden in the lap of the Zabarwan Mountain Range is considered the largest tulip garden of Asia spread over 12 hectares of land.

• The Human Rights Council is the principal United Nations intergovernmental body responsible for human rights.
• The Council is made of 47 Member States, which are elected by the majority of members of the General Assembly of the United Nations through direct and secret ballot.
• The Council’s Membership is based on equitable geographical distribution. Seats are distributed as follows:
  • African States: 13 seats
  • Asia-Pacific States: 13 seats
  • Latin American and Caribbean States: 8 seats
  • Western European and other States: 7 seats
  • Eastern European States: 6 seats
• Members of the council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.

• The Union Cabinet, in 2018, approved the proposal of the Department of Commerce to give focused attention to 12 identified champion services sectors for promoting their development and realising their potential.
• The 12 sectors are IT & ITES, tourism and hospitality services, medical value travel, transport and logistics services, accounting and finance services, audio visual services, legal services, communication services, construction and related engineering services, environmental services, financial services and education services.
• It is an umbrella scheme for the period 2019-20 to 2023-24.
• It is a central sector scheme of the Dept. of Commerce.

All the statements are correct.

• Development Finance Institutions are set up for providing long-term finance for such segments of the economy where the risks involved are beyond the acceptable limits of commercial banks and other ordinary financial institutions.
• Unlike banks, DFIs do not accept deposits from people.
• They source funds from the market, government, as well as multi-lateral institutions.

• National Creche Scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to provide daycare facilities to children of working mothers.
• It is an intervention towards the protection and development of children in the age group of 6 months to 6 years.
• Provides supplementary nutrition, health care inputs like immunization, polio drops, basic health monitoring, sleeping facilities, early stimulation (for children below 3 years), pre-school education for children aged between 3-6 yrs.

• Adjournment sine die means terminating a sitting of Parliament for an indefinite period.
• The power of adjournment as well as adjournment sine die lies with the presiding officer of the House.
• It indicates the final adjournment of an annual session or meeting of a legislative house.

North to South: Paracel Islands – Scarborough Shoal – Spratly Islands – Riau Islands

West to East: Cape of Good Hope, Cape Point, Cape Hangklip, Cape Agulhas.

The Tigray Region is the northernmost region of Ethiopia.

• Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation program, better known as SVEEP, is the flagship program of the Election Commission of India for voter education, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in India.
• SVEEP’s primary goal is to build a truly participative democracy in India by encouraging all eligible citizens to vote and make an informed decision during the elections.

All the statements are correct.

The World Sustainable Development Summit is organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

• Two new species of seaweed named Hypnea indica and Hypnea bullata have been discovered by a group of marine biologists.
• While Hypnea indica was discovered Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, and Somnath Pathan and Sivrajpur in Gujarat, Hypnea bullata was discovered from Kanyakumari and Diu island of Daman and Diu.
• The seaweeds are part of the genus Hypnea or red seaweeds. The genus Hypnea consists of calcareous, erect, branched red seaweeds.
• They grow in the intertidal regions of the coast, namely the area that is submerged during the high tide and exposed during low tides.

• Bhagoriya festival is celebrated by the tribal people of the Indian states Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra. The Bhangoriya Festival is celebrated by the local tribes includes Bhil, Bhilala, Pateliya, etc.
• Bhagoriya Festival has an agricultural significance attached to it, it coincides with the end of harvesting of crops. People celebrate it to mark the completion of harvesting.

Enceladus is one of Saturn’s moon.

• Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed as the Viceroy of India in 1947 to oversee the Partition of British India into India and Pakistan.
• He oversaw the appointment of two boundary commissions under Sir Cyril Radcliffe for the partition of Bengal and Punjab.
• He served as the first Governor-General of India until June 1948.
• Lord Linlithgow is associated with the August Offer in 1940.
  • The August Offer was an offer made by Viceroy Linlithgow in 1940 promising the expansion of the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India to include more Indians, the establishment of an advisory war council, giving full weight to minority opinion, and the recognition of Indians’ right to frame their own constitution

The Pong Dam also called the Beas dam is an artificial embankment Dam constructed across the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh.
It is a Ramsar Site of International Importance.

• H5N1 and H5N8 are categorized as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), which is of major concern to those keeping birds because it often results in disease and death of fowl and causes economic havoc.
• Humans are not immune from H5N1.
• Avian Influenza is a viral infection that can infect not only birds, but also humans and other animals.

• The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve is an International Biosphere Reserve in the Western Ghats and Nilgiri Hills ranges of South India.
• Mudumalai National Park, Bandipur National Park, Silent Valley National Park, Nagarhole National Park are all a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve.

• The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) was constituted by the Central Government of India on 22 December 1953 to recommend the reorganisation of state boundaries.
• In 1955, after nearly two years of study, the Commission recommended that India’s state boundaries should be reorganised to form 14 states and 6 territories.
• States Reorganisation Commission consisted of Fazal Ali, K. M. Panikkar and H. N. Kunzru.
• Some of its recommendations were implemented in the States Reorganisation Act of 1956.

• Vajra Prahar is a bilateral exercise between the special forces of India and the US.
• The joint military exercise Vajra Prahar between India and the US started off in 2010.  Between 2012 and 2015, the exercise Vajra Prahar did not take place.
• Exercise Vajra Prahar takes place alternately between the two countries – India and the US.
• Its aim is to promote military relations between the two countries by enhancing interoperability and mutual exchange of tactics between Special Forces.

All the statements are correct.

• NDB was set up by the BRICS nations in 2014 at the 6th BRICS Summit at Fortaleza, Brazil through the Fortaleza Declaration of 2014.
• In the Fortaleza Declaration, the leaders stressed that the NDB will strengthen cooperation among BRICS and will supplement the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global development.
• It is a multilateral development bank headquartered in Shanghai, China.
• The bank is set up to foster greater financial and development cooperation among the five emerging markets.

• Personal law subjects like marriage, divorce, inheritance come under the Concurrent List.
• The term, ‘Uniform Civil Code’ is explicitly mentioned in Part 4, Article 44 of the Indian Constitution. Article 44 says, “The State shall endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”