UPSC 2024: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz May 18 - May 24

• Statement 1 is not correct: It was launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizer.
• Statement 2 is correct: The Janaushadhi Kendras or dedicated outlets are opened under the scheme to provide generic medicines at affordable prices.
• Statement 3 is not correct: The procured generic medicines are sold at 50% to 90% lesser prices as compared to the market prices of branded medicines.

• Statement 1 is correct: It was launched in 2000 after the Kargil War.
• Statement 2 is not correct: Endo-atmospheric interception means the missile fired by Indian testing agencies had destroyed the incoming enemy ballistic missile within the Earth’s atmosphere. Whereas exo-atmospheric interception means outside the Earth’s atmosphere at a higher altitude.

• Statement 1 is not correct: Tamralipta or Tamralipti was a port city located on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
• Statement 2 is correct: During the Gupta dynasty, Tamralipta was the main emporium, serving as a point of departure for trade with Ceylon, Java, and China.
• Statement 3 is correct: The Chinese pilgrim Faxian visited the city in the 5th century CE, and Xuanzang visited it in the 7th century.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder causing people to obsess about weight and weigh less.

Xenon is called the stranger gas because it belongs to the noble gas group, whose elements do not react with anything to form compounds.

Anubhava Mantapa was established by Basavanna in the 12th century C.E. It is located in Basavakalyan in the Bidar district of Karnataka. It is the first religious parliament in the world.

• Statement 1 is correct: Schemes such as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), the Public Distribution System (PDS), and the  Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) are included under the NFSA Act.
• Statement 2 is correct: Under the MDM rules, schools are empowered to utilize other funds for midday meals in case MDM funds get exhausted.
• Statement 3 is correct: The place for serving meals to the children shall be school only.
• Statement 4 is not correct: Under MDM rules 2015, if children of any school don’t get food for 3 consecutive school days or 5 days in a month, the concerned state government has to fix the responsibility on a person or an agency.

• Statement 1 is not correct: The Financial Stability Board is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established after the G20 London summit in April 2009 as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum.
• Statement 2 is correct: The Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) Secretariat in the Department of Economic Affairs coordinates with the various financial sector regulators and other relevant agencies to represent India’s views with the FSB. It is an autonomous body.

Some of the features considered the basic structure of the Constitution are:

1. Supremacy of the Constitution
2. Unity and sovereignty of India
3. Democratic and republican form of government
4. Federal character of the Constitution
5. Secular character of the Constitution
6. Separation of power
7. Individual freedom
8. Harmony and balance between the Fundamental Rights and DPSP
9. Effective access to Justice, etc

It is a chemical that is mainly used in combination with other chemicals to manufacture plastics and resins. It is used for the development of food-packaging materials.

• Statement 1 is correct, India has assumed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Chairship for 2023.
• Statement 2 is not correct, The SCO currently comprises eight Member States.
  • SCO at present has eight member States namely India, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
    • On 9th June 2017, India and Pakistan became full members of SCO.
  • Iran will be the newest member of the organisation when it joins the forum in April 2023 under the chairmanship of India.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism.
  • The SCO RATS was established during a meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO Member States in June 2002, in Saint Petersburg and became active in 2004.
  • India joined the organisation only in 2017.

• Statement 1 is correct, Keeleri Kunhikannan, a martial arts and gymnastics teacher, is considered as “The Father of the Indian Circus”.
  • In 1888, he opened a one-of-a-kind ‘Circus Training Hall’ in the Thalassery suburb of Chirakkara, Kerala.
• Statement 2 is correct, The Circus Academy at Thalassery started in 2010 was the first of its kind in the country.
• Statement 3 is correct, In 1964, Gemini Circus became the first Indian troupe to attend the International Circus Festival in the USSR.

• The Logistics Performance Index (LPI) is published by the World Bank.
• It conducts the LPI Survey every two years and helps countries to identify the challenges and opportunities in their trade logistics performance by measuring logistics friendliness.

• Statement 1 is correct, In February 2021, the UAE, through its Hope Space Probe, became the first Arab country to launch an interplanetary mission.
• Statement 2 is correct, The “Hope Probe” will be the first probe to provide a complete picture of the Martian atmosphere and its layers when it reaches the red planet’s orbit in 2021.
• Statement 3 is not correct, The United Arab Emirates, though the mission became the first Arab country and the fifth country to reach Mars and the second country to successfully enter Mars’ orbit on its first try.

• Statement 1 is not correct, According to Ramsar Convention, “each Contracting Party shall promote the conservation of wetlands and waterfowl by establishing nature reserves on wetlands, whether they are included in the List or not, and provide adequately for their wardening”.
  • Thus it is not mandatory for the Government of India to protect and conserve all the wetlands in the territory of India.
• Statement 2 is not correct, The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010 was notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to ensure better conservation and management and to prevent the degradation of existing wetlands in India.
  • These rules were not drafted based on the recommendations of the Ramsar Convention.
• Statement 3 is correct, The term “wetland” according to the Rules, refer to areas such as marsh, fen, peatland, inland waters such as lakes, reservoir, tanks, backwaters, lagoon, creeks, estuaries and also include drainage area or catchment region of the wetlands as determined by the Central Wetlands Regulatory Authority.

• Statement 1 is correct, The University Grants Commission (UGC) has started a programme called the Institute of Eminence (IoE) to support the advancement of higher education institutions.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Under the scheme UGC has declared both Public as well as Private institutions as IoEs.
  • However, private IOEs, unlike Government institutions, don’t get any funds under the scheme.
  • The IoE tag allows private institutions freedom from regulators and greater autonomy.
• Statement 3 is not correct, A higher education institution in India requires the following characteristics to become an Institute of Eminence:
  • The organization must be placed among the top fifty institutions in its category according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).
  • State public universities, institutions of national significance, establishments governed by professional regulatory councils, and institutions that are owned by the government shall continue to operate in accordance with the current laws.
  • The deemed-to-be universities that are subject to governmental control will be given additional incentives, under UGC Rules for Institutes of Eminence.

• Zero Shadow Day refers to a celestial phenomenon when the vertical objects appear to cast no shadow as the Sun reaches exactly overhead.
• All the places whose latitude equals the angle between the Sun’s location and the equator on a specific day experience zero shadow day.
• Since Zero Shadow Day is restricted to locations between the tropics, the places north of Ranchi in India do not experience this phenomenon.
• Thus Delhi and Imphal can never experience the sun directly overhead.

Image Source: Research Gate

• Statement 1 is not correct, Quantum computers are machines that use the properties of quantum physics to store data and perform computations.
• Statement 2 is correct, “Qubits” or “quantum bits” are the units of processing by quantum computers.
  • A qubit or a quantum bit, is the counterpart in quantum computing to the binary digit or bit of classical computing.
• Statement 3 is correct, the National Quantum Mission has been approved in India and the key objective of the mission is to build a 1,000-qubit computer in the next eight years.

• The World Economic Outlook report is published by the IMF staff twice a year.
• The Ease of Moving Index is published by the Ola Mobility Institute (OMI) Foundation.
• The Global Competitiveness Report is a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum.
• The Global Gender Gap Report is also published by the World Economic Forum.

• The Tebhaga movement is one of the most important peasant movements in the history of Bengal and India.
• It was a movement of the peasants who demanded a two-thirds share of their produce for themselves and a one-third share for the landlord.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) or QUAD Group is an informal strategic forum comprising India, Japan, Australia and the U.S.
• Statement 2 is correct, India, Japan, the U.S. and Australia in November 2017, gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad.
• Statement 3 is correct, Sydney (Australia) will host the 2023 Quad Leaders’ Summit where leaders from these countries discuss ways to promote stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is a dedicated online platform where common user goods and services can be procured by various organizations and departments under the Government of India, and by the PSUs also.
• Statement 2 is not correct, The “Womaniya on GeM” initiative was launched in 2019 by Government eMarketplace (GeM).
• Statement 3 is correct, ‘Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through eTransactions’ (SWAYATT) is an initiative first launched in February 2019 to promote start-ups, women and youth to benefit through e-Transactions on Government e-Marketplace (GeM).

• Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZ) are fragile areas around protected areas declared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC).
• The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the human activities in such areas.

• Statement 1 is correct, DNA carries the genetic information that gets passed down through generations.
• Statement 2 is correct, DNA is made up of two strands with 4 types of nucleotides that are twisted around each other in the form of a helix.
• Statement 3 is correct, DNA consists of four nucleotide bases namely adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T).
  • RNA contains nitrogenous bases adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and uracil (U).
  • Thymine is usually only present in DNA and uracil is usually only present in RNA.

• Pavarana is a Buddhist holy day celebrated on the full moon (Aashvin) of the lunar month, at the end of the rainy season (Vassa).
• In ancient Indian Buddhist monasteries during Pavarana, Buddhist monks used to confess their offences committed during their stay in the monasteries.

• Statement 1 is correct, Manufactured sand (M-Sand), also known as artificial sand, is made from hard granite or quarry stones.
  • Hard stones are crushed into uneven sand-sized angular-shaped particles to produce M-Sand.
• Statement 2 is correct, M-Sand contains larger quantities of microfine particles than natural sand due to its manufacturing process.
  • The presence of microfine particles may affect the strength and workability of M-Sand.

• Statement 1 is correct, Article 105 of the Indian Constitution mentions powers, privileges and immunities of the Houses of Parliament and of the members and committees thereof.
• Statement 2 is not correct, A member of the House can raise a question involving a breach of privilege with the consent of the Speaker or the Chairperson of the House.
• Statement 3 is correct, A person found guilty of breach of privileges or contempt can be reprimanded, warned or sent to prison.

• Statement 1 is correct, Annapurna is a mountain situated in the Annapurna mountain range of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal.
• Statement 2 is correct, It is the tenth-highest mountain in the world at 8,091 metres above sea level and is known for the difficulty and danger involved in its ascent.

• The Rapid Support Forces are paramilitary forces operated by the Government of Sudan.
• Although formally established in 2013, the RSF can trace its roots to the Janjaweed militias, which is a group of Arab tribes primarily based in western Sudan.
• They were first armed and organised in the early 1980s to help the government expand its influence in neighbouring civil-war-torn Chad.

• Statement 1 is not correct, Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer was an Indian judge who reformed the Indian criminal justice system and is regarded as a pioneer of judicial activism.
  • Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer served as a Kerala High Court Judge and Supreme Court Judge. However, he has not been appointed as the Chief Justice of India.
• Statement 2 is correct, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer along with Justice P.N. Bhagwati are considered the pioneers of the concept of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Indian judicial system.
  • PIL refers to a litigation filed in a court of law, for the protection of “Public Interest”.
  • Any matter where the interest of the public at large is affected can be redressed by filing a Public Interest Litigation in a court of law such as Pollution, Terrorism, Road safety, Constructional hazards, etc.