UPSC 2022: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz May 07 - May 13

• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) is a part of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) to help the poor fight the battle against Covid-19.
• PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person.
• The foodgrains will be allocated free-of-cost at 5 Kg per person per month to the beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) over and above NFSA foodgrains.
• It is being operated by the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
• The Government of India is bearing 100% financial burden.

• Tanjore painting is popularly known as ‘palagaipadam’ which means picture on a wooden plank as most of these pictures are etched on solid wood boards.
• They depict a liberal use of golden leaf.
• Lord Krishna and his life is a major theme of these paintings.

‘Charter of Duties’ of the Indian Coast Guard includes:

1. Safety and Protection of Artificial Islands and Offshore Terminals
2. Protection of Fishermen
3. Assistance to Fishermen in Distress at Sea
4. Preservation and Protection of Marine Environment
5. Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution
6. Assisting the Customs and other authorities in anti-smuggling operations
7. Enforcement of Maritime Laws in Force
8. Safety of Life and Property at Sea
9. Collection of Scientific Data

• Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented in partnership with States/UTs to provide safe tap water to every rural home by 2024.
• JJM is implemented to enable every rural home in the villages to have Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) by 2024.
• Andaman and Nicobar became India’s first ‘Har Ghar Jal’ UT by ensuring that every rural home in the Union Territory gets a household tap connection.
• Puducherry is the fourth state/UT after Goa, Telangana, Adaman and Nicobar Inslands to provide assured tap water supply to every rural home under the Union Government’s Jal Jeevan Mission.
• For Jal Jeevan Mission there is assured fund available under the 15th Finance Commission tied-grant to Rural Local bodies /Panchayati Raj Institutions for water & sanitation.

• Ultraviolet water purification is the most effective method for disinfecting bacteria from the water. Ultraviolet (UV) rays penetrate harmful pathogens in the water and destroy illness-causing microorganisms by attacking their genetic core (DNA).
• It does not remove undesirable odour from the water.
• It does not play any role in the sedimentation of solid particles and does not remove turbidity.

• In the first Lok Sabha, the single largest party in the opposition was the Communist Party of India.
• In the Lok Sabha, a “Leader of the Opposition” was recognised for the first time in 1969.
• The leader of the largest Opposition party having not less than one-tenth seats of the total strength of the House is recognized as the leader of the Opposition in that House. In case of Lok Sabha, it is one tenth of 545 seats.

• S&P, Moody’s and Fitch are referred to as the ‘Big three Credit rating agencies’.
• A credit rating agency assigns credit ratings that rate a debtor’s ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments as well as the likelihood of default.
• An agency may rate the creditworthiness of issuers of debt obligations, of debt instruments, and in some cases, of the servicers of the underlying debt, but not of individual consumers.

• While cyclonic activity is comparatively less intense in the Arabian Sea, high-intensity severe cyclones originate frequently in the Bay of Bengal.
• Arabian Sea cyclones are also relatively weak compared to those emerging in the Bay of Bengal.
• Bay of Bengal witnesses more cyclones in a given year as compared to the Arabian Sea. This is because:
  • The Bay of Bengal is warmer than the Arabian Sea, it is able to provide the heat energy needed to sustain the low-pressure system.
  • The Bay of Bengal receives higher rainfall and a constant inflow of fresh water from the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers. This means that the Bay’s surface water keeps getting refreshed, making it impossible for the warm water to mix with the cooler water below, making it ideal for depression.
  • The absence of a large landmass between the Pacific and the Bay, allows cyclonic winds to easily move into the Bay of Bengal.
  • Low-pressure system originating from the Pacific Ocean also travel towards the left to the Bay of Bengal.

All the statements are correct.

• Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) is an autonomous and statutory body mandated to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions.
• It is responsible for granting a ‘no objection’ certificate for all inter­-country adoptions, pursuant to India becoming a signatory to the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co­operation in Respect of Inter-country Adoptions.
• India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation founded in 1969 has 57 members, with 42 countries being Muslim majority countries. India is not a member of OIC.

• India-Africa summits started in 2008 with New Delhi as its first venue. It is the key diplomatic initiative of India to reach out to the African countries, especially the members of the African Union.
• Since then, it was decided to hold these summits every three years, alternately in India and Africa.
• The second summit was held in Addis Ababa in 2011.
• The third summit, scheduled to be held in 2014, was postponed because of the Ebola outbreak and took place in October 2015.

In 1917, leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup against the Duma’s provisional government and seized power. This is referred to as the October Revolution of Russia or the Bolshevik Revolution.

The Cauvery river basin is spread across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

• Iron Dome is a mobile all-weather air defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells.

• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to that in a chosen base period. It shows the growth rates in different industry groups of the economy in a stipulated period of time.
• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is compiled and published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO) (formerly known as Central Statistical Organization) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

• Event horizon, boundary marking the limits of a black hole. At the event horizon, the escape velocity is equal to the speed of light. Since general relativity states that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, nothing inside the event horizon can ever cross the boundary and escape beyond it, including light. Thus, nothing that enters a black hole can get out or can be observed from outside the event horizon.
• A gravitational singularity, spacetime singularity or simply singularity is a location in spacetime where the density and gravitational field of a celestial body is predicted to become infinite by general relativity.
• In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other.

• The National Health Mission (NHM) launched in 2013 encompasses its two Sub-Missions, the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).
• It is the flagship healthcare programme for both the rural as well as urban areas.
• Both the Centre and states play a key role in the implementation of the scheme.
• The funding for NHM is in the sharing pattern of 60:40 between Centre and State for most of the states and 90:10 is some special cases.

All the statements are correct.

• Mucormycosis is a fungal infection caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes.
• Major risk factors are poor immunity, uncontrolled diabetes, steroid treatment.
• Mucormycosis is commonly referred to as Black Fungus and has been reported in patients recovering from COVID-19.

Read more on Mucormycosis.

• Charles Freer Andrews was an Anglican priest and Christian missionary, educator and social reformer, and activist for Indian independence.
• He became a close friend of Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi.
• He was instrumental in convincing Gandhi to return to India from South Africa.
• CF Andrews is known for his work in uplifting the poor and hence was given the name “Deenabandhu” by Mahatma Gandhi.

• The main purpose of the National Register of Citizens is the identification of illegal immigrants.
• The objective of the introduction and updating of the NRC in Assam was the identification of the illegal immigrants in Assam who had migrated to Assam from Bangladesh during the 1971 war with Pakistan.

• According to the data by the Ministry of Finance, External Commercial Borrowings by private entities is far higher than governmental debt. Hence, most of India’s external debt is not owed by governmental entities.
• India’s external debt is denominated in US Dollars, Euro, Special Drawing Rights of the International Monetary Fund, etc.

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a 100 per cent centrally funded scheme under which Rs 6,000 is transferred in three equal installments to eligible farmer families in a year.
• The responsibility of identifying the landholder farmer family eligible for benefit under the Scheme and uploading the data of the eligible beneficiaries on the PM-KISAN Portal is that of the States/UT Administrations.
• Under the Scheme, the States/UTs are required to set up Grievance Redressal Committees for looking into the grievances related to the implementation of the scheme. No data of grievances received/disposed of by them is, however, maintained centrally. It is maintained at the state level.

• The red-eared slider is included in the list of the world’s 100 most invasive species published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
• They have become an invasive species in many areas where they outcompete native species.
• They mature at an early age as compared to other native turtle species.
• They have higher fecundity i.e ability to reproduce abundantly.
• They have a large adult body size thereby competing with the native turtle species for food and resources.

• The trading of the red-eared slider is legal in India. They are popular as pets.
• Continuous releasing of exotic pet turtles in natural ecosystems increases the risk of parasite transmission to native species.
• The red-eared sliders found in the natural water bodies grow fast, virtually leaving nothing for the native species to eat.
• Because of their omnivorous diet and ability to adapt to various habitats, the red-eared slider has a great potential for impacting indigenous habitats.

• African Forest Elephant is categorised as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
• African Savanna Elephant and Asian Elephant have been categorised as endangered by the IUCN.

In India, if a religious sect/community is given “the status of a national minority’’:

• Under Article 30, it can establish and administer exclusive educational institutions.
• It can derive benefits from the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Programme, a program launched by the government for the welfare of minority community in 2006.
• There is no communal electoral system in India that allows the President of India to automatically nominate a representative of the community to Lok Sabha based on religion, sect or community.

• Zeolites are crystalline solids structures made of silicon, aluminum and oxygen that form a framework with cavities and channels inside them. Zeolites are basically microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts.
• They are often also referred to as molecular sieves.
• Zeolites occur naturally and are also produced industrially on a large scale. Conventional open-pit mining techniques are used to mine natural zeolites.
• The oxygen concentrator compresses air and passes it over zeolite, causing the zeolite to adsorb the nitrogen from the air. It then collects the remaining gas, which is mostly oxygen, and the nitrogen desorbs from the zeolite under the reduced pressure to be vented. Hence it is reusable.

• Oxygen concentrators use zeolites in conjunction with pressure swing adsorption to remove nitrogen from compressed air to supply oxygen for aircrews at high altitudes, as well as home and portable oxygen supplies.
• Zeolites are widely used as ion-exchange beds in domestic and commercial water purification, softening, and other applications.
• Zeolites are used to adsorb a variety of materials. This includes applications in drying, purification, and separation.
  • Zeolite controls odors by absorbing moisture from waste and adsorbing the ammonia produced by microbial activity on the liquids
  • Zeolites also absorb up to 50 percent of their weight in liquids without expansion, and individual wet grains bind into clumps. Because of these characteristics, zeolite is added to many bentonite and non-bentonite litters to provide additional odor and moisture control.

• China landed a spacecraft on Mars carrying its first Mars rover.
  • China has previously launched its first Mars mission, called Tianwen-1, carrying a lander and rover. Tianwen-1 had been in orbit and recently a lander descended successfully onto the surface of the red planet carrying a rover named Zhurong.
• This makes China the third country to achieve this feat. Only the Soviet Union and the U.S. had previously carried out a successful landing on Mars.
  • China had previously tried to launch a Mars orbiter along with Russia in 2011, but that failed to enter orbit.
• China’s first space station called the Tianhe is set to be functional by the end of next year and only the second space station after the International Space Station.
• India’s 2013, Mangalyaan mission involved only an orbiter and did not involve a rover.