UPSC Exam: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Mar 31 - Apr 06

It was launched in the Corbett National Park of Uttarakhand.

All four.

Narcondam and Barren

South Andaman and Little Andaman

All four

2,1,3,4

Statements 1, 2 and 3 are only correct.

Padma

The path of the Indus is through arid area, whereas the Ganga collects more water alone its path to the sea.

It flows through Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Mount Kosciusko is in Australia.

Sedimentary

The gayatri Mantra is addressed to Savitr, a form of the sun. It is also called the Savitri Mantra. Gayatri is the name of the meter in which the mantra is composed.

1 and 4. The rest are in Pakistan.

Zabti or Zabt

It was written in Persian.

Chalukya king Bhima II of Gujarat and Prithviraja Chauhan III of Ajmer

Balban

Lahore session held in 1929

Mahatma Gandhi

First World War

Government of India Act 1935

Article 266

Ukraine

The Act makes education a fundamental right of every child between the ages of 6 and 14 and specifies minimum norms in elementary schools. It requires all private schools (except the minority institutions) to reserve 25% of seats for the poor and other categories of children (to be reimbursed by the state as part of the public-private partnership plan)

Tawang Monastery

• Located in Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh
• It is the largest monastery in India and second largest in the world after the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.
• It is situated in the valley of the Tawang River, Arunachal Pradesh, in close proximity to the Tibetan and Bhutanese border.
• Tawang Monastery is known in Tibetan as Galden Namgey Lhatse, which translates to “celestial paradise in a clear night.“
• Of all the festivals celebrated in the monastery, Torgya is the most elaborate and colorful.

• Bidriware is a metal handicraft from Bidar.
• Developed in the 14th century C.E. during the rule of the Bahamani Sultans.
• The term ‘Bidriware’ originates from the township of Bidar, which is still the chief centre for the manufacture of the unique metalware
• Due to its striking inlay artwork, Bidriware is an important export handicraft of India and is prized as a symbol of wealth.
• The metal used is a blackened alloy of zinc(90%) and copper(10%) inlaid with thin sheets of pure silver.
• This native art form has obtained Geographical Indications (GI) registry.

General anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) is an anti-tax avoidance Rule of India. It is framed by the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance. The regulation allows tax officials to deny tax benefits, if a deal is found without any commercial purpose other than tax avoidance. It allows tax officials to target participatory notes. Under GAAR, the investor has to prove that the participatory note was not set to avoid taxes. It also allows officials to deny double taxation avoidance benefits, if deals made in tax havens like Mauritius were found to be avoiding taxes.

Swadesh Darshan Scheme:

• Implementing agency: Ministry of Tourism.
• Completely funded by central government.
• Swadesh Darshan Scheme is based on some of tourist circuit that will be covered under the PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive) and Swadeshi Darshan.

Under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, thirteen thematic circuits have been identified, for development namely: North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit.

• Celebes crested macaque under serious threat cause of habitat loss and hunting. The macaques and some other animals at the market are protected by Indonesian law but trade in exotic creatures is still thriving. It has been classified as critically endangered under IUCN’s Red Data book.

The institution, one of the two important seats of Buddhist teaching in India during the Pala dynasty rule, was established by King Dharmapala as a centre of Buddhist and Tantric learning.

The standards, based on European regulations were first introduced in 2000. Progressively stringent norms have been rolled out since then. All new vehicles manufactured after the implementation of the norms have to be compliant with the regulations. Since October 2010, Bharat Stage (BS) III norms have been enforced across the country. In 13 major cities, Bharat Stage IV emission norms have been in place since April 2010 and It’s enforced for whole country from April 2017. In 2016, the Indian government announced that the country would skip the BS-V norms altogether and adopt BS-VI norms by 2020.

New species of long legged, tree- dwelling crabs have been discovered by Scientist in Western Ghats of Kerala. First of its kind to offer a record of an arboreal crab — a species that lives in trees. The new species named Kani maranjandu after the Kani tribe in Kerala.

• International Kite festival held at Ahmadabad, Gujarat.
• It is the sign for farmers that the sun is back and that harvest season is approaching which is called Makara Sankranti.
• The idea of flying kites to celebrate Uttarayan was introduced by Muslims from Persia, today regardless of background or beliefs, everyone are welcomed to fly kite in Gujarat in January.

Masala bonds are bonds issued outside India but denominated in Indian Rupees.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. So, it is not an UN agency. It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as developed countries. It’s headquarters are at Paris, France.

Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) or monkey fever

• Kyasanur Forest disease (KFD) is a tick-borne viral hemorrhagic fever endemic to South Asia.
• The disease is caused by a virus
• The disease was first reported from Kyasanur Forest of Karnataka in India in March 1957. The disease first manifested as an epizootic (a disease event in a nonhuman animal population) outbreak among monkeys killing several of them in the year 1957. Hence the disease is also locally known as Monkey Disease or Monkey Fever
• Reservoir hosts for the disease: porcupines, rats, squirrels, mice and shrews.
• The vector for disease transmission is Haemaphysalis spinigera, a forest tick. Humans contract infection from the bite of the tick.

United Kingdom

Ministry of Science and Technology

The regulator will perform four primary functions:

 1) Tariff determination

2) Ensuring fair play and level playing field for stakeholder investment;

3) Setting efficiency and performance standards; and

4) Dissemination of information.

Phytorid Wastewater Treatment Technology

• CSIR-NEERI’s technology involves a constructed wetland exclusively designed for the treatment of municipal, urban, agricultural and industrial wastewater
• The system is based on the specific plants, such as Elephant grass (Pennisetumpurpurem), Cattails (Typha sp.), Reeds (Phragmitessp.), Cannas pp. and Yellow flag iris (Iris pseudocorus), normally found in natural wetlands with filtration and treatment capability. Some ornamental as well as flowering plants species such as Golden Dhuranda, Bamboo, Nerium, Colosia, etc. can also be used for treatment as well as landscaping purposes
• The phytorid technology treatment is a subsurface flow type in which wastewater is applied to cell / system filled with porous media such as crushed bricks, gravel and stones. The hydraulics is maintained in such a manner that wastewater does not rise to the surface retaining a free board at the top of the filled media
• The system consists of the following three zones: 
  (i) inlet zone comprising of crushed bricks and different sizes of stones, 
  (ii) treatment zone consisting of the same media as in inlet zone with plant species, and 
  (iii) outlet zone
• The treated effluent is useful for municipal gardens, fountains  and irrigation.

States will be ranked on innovations from 2017

NITI Aayog, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) together launched a mega initiative “India Innovation Index”.
It will rank states on Innovations through country’s first online innovation index portal that will capture data on innovation from all Indian states on innovation and regularly update it in real time.
The India Innovation Index Framework will be structured based on the best practices followed in Global Innovation Index (GII) indicators and additionally by adding India-centric parameters those truly reflect the Indian innovation ecosystem.
The Global Innovation Index (GII)

The Global Innovation Index (GII), co-published by World-Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD with CII as a Knowledge Partner since inception,has been ranking world economies including India since 2007 according to their innovation capabilities and outcomes using 82 indicators among a host of other important parameters.
It has established itself as both a leading reference on innovation and a ‘tool for action’ for policy makers.
India currently ranks 66th out of 128 countries on the Global innovation Index (GII) 2016.

• The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation, located in The Hague, Netherlands.
• The organisation promotes and verifies the adherence to the Chemical Weapons Convention which prohibits the use of chemical weapons and requires their destruction. The verification consists both of evaluation of declarations by member states and on-site inspections.
• The organisation was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
• The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty which outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. The full name of the treaty is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction and it is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

• “Despite the deficit monsoon, unseasonal rains and hailstorm in the major part of the country, the production of horticulture crops have outpaced the production of foodgrains since 2012-13…”
• NFSM includes coarse cereals as well as commercial crops.

A PIL may be introduced in a court of law by the court itself (suo motu), rather than the aggrieved party or another third party. For the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction, it is not necessary for the victim of the violation of his or her rights to personally approach the court. The member of the public may be a non-governmental organization (NGO), an institution or an individual.