UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Nov 12 - Nov 18

• Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in the abolition of the system of ‘indentured labour’.
• In Lord Chelmsford’s War Conference in April 1918, Mahatma Gandhi in his one-sentence speech said that he supported the resolution on recruiting Indians for World War.
• Consequent upon the breaking of Salt Law by Indian people in January 1932, the Indian National Congress was declared illegal by the colonial rulers.

• The Barak Valley is located in the southern region of Assam. It is dominated by Bengali speakers unlike the Brahmaputra valley which is dominated by Assamese speakers.

• Melioidosis, also called Whitmore’s disease, is an infectious disease that can infect humans or animals.
• The disease is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei.
• It is predominately a disease of tropical climates, especially in Southeast Asia and northern Australia where it is widespread.
• It is also recognized as a bioterrorism agent.

• Hybrid immunity is acquired through natural infection and a single dose of vaccine.
• A new study has shown that a combination of natural infection with a single dose of vaccine (hybrid immunity) provides greater immunity than either natural infection without vaccination or full vaccination in infection-naïve individuals.

• The serving 48^th Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana had proposed the National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation in March, 2021 to develop judicial infrastructure in trial courts.

• The Tsugaru Strait is a strait between Honshu and Hokkaido islands in northern Japan connecting the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean.

• Bangabandhu International Conference Center formerly known as Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Center is an international conference center located in Dhaka.
• It has been funded by China.

• Melioidosis, also called Whitmore’s disease, is an infectious disease that can infect humans or animals.
• The disease is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei.
• It is predominately a disease of tropical climates, especially in Southeast Asia and northern Australia where it is widespread.
• It is also recognized as a bioterrorism agent.

• Hot Jupiters are gas giant planets closely bound to their stars.
• They are a class of gas giant exoplanets similar to Jupiter but have very short orbital periods due to their close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere temperatures.

• Munda Rebellion is one of the prominent 19th century tribal rebellions in the subcontinent. Birsa Munda led this movement in the region of south Ranchi in 1899-1900.
• Aimed at establishing Munda Raj or Munda rule in this region, revolt came to be known as The Ulgulan or “the Great Tumult”.

• GAVI is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries.
• As part of its mission, GAVI has helped vaccinate more than 888 million children in the world’s poorest countries.
• By improving access to new and under-used vaccines for millions of the most vulnerable children, the Vaccine Alliance is transforming the lives of individuals, helping to boost the economies of lower-income countries and making the world safer for everyone.

• National Fund to Control Drug Abuse was created in accordance with a provision of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
• The Act states that the fund would be used to combat illicit trafficking of narcotics, rehabilitating addicts, and preventing drug abuse.
• It had a nominal corpus of Rs.23 crore.
• The fund is overseen by Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry
• Under the NDPS Act, the sale proceeds of any property forfeited, grants made by any person and institution, and income from the investments of the fund, go towards the fund.

• Additional Judges can be appointed by the President under clause (1) of Article 224 of the Constitution. When the need for this arises, the State Government should first obtain the sanction of the Central Government for the creation of such additional posts.
• The President decides if and when there is a need to have more additional judges and hence it is the president who determines the maximum number of additional judges permitted in any High Court in India.
• Under the constitutional provisions, an additional judge can be appointed for a maximum period of two years unlike permanent judges, who are appointed till the age of 62.

• Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City) is an under-construction central business district in Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India.
• It is India’s first operational greenfield smart city and international financial services centre, which the Government of Gujarat promoted as a greenfield project.
• The city includes commercial, financial and residential complexes.

• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia.
• India is the second-largest shareholder in AIIB, with China being the largest shareholder.
• AIIB is headquartered in Beijing. The membership has grown to 97 approved members worldwide. It includes member nations outside of Asia as well. Example: Australia, New Zealand.

• The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in the field of cinema. It is presented annually at the National Film Awards ceremony by the Directorate of Film Festivals, an organisation set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The recipient is honoured for their “outstanding contribution to the growth and development of Indian cinema”.
• Presented first in 1969, the award was introduced by the Government of India to commemorate Dadasaheb Phalke’s contribution to Indian cinema. Phalke (1870–1944), who is popularly known as and often regarded as “the father of Indian cinema”, was an Indian filmmaker who directed India’s first full-length feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913).
• The first recipient of the award was actress Devika Rani.

• The National Commission for Scheduled Castes is an Indian constitutional body under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India established with a view to providing safeguards against the exploitation of Scheduled Castes and Anglo Indian communities to promote and protect their social, educational, economic and cultural interests, special provisions were made in the Constitution.
• Its functions include monitoring and investigating all issues concerning the safeguards provided for the SCs under the Constitution.
• Article 338 of the Indian Constitution deals with National Commission for Scheduled Castes. Article 338 A deals with National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.

• Kerala is the largest rubber producing state of India (accounting for almost 90% of total rubber production in India).
• Recently, the world’s first Genetically Modified (GM) rubber plant developed by Rubber Research Institute was planted in Assam.
• Rubber Board, under the administration of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is responsible for the development of the rubber industry in the country by assisting and encouraging research, development, extension and training activities related to rubber. It is headquartered in Kottayam, Kerala.

• One of the world’s pre-eminent discoveries of relics of Gautama Buddha occurred at Piprahwa in 1898. William Claxton Peppé, a British landowner, excavated an ancient Buddhist stupa on the Birdpur estate near the border of India and Nepal.
  • The site is approximately 160 km from Kushinagar, the final resting place of Buddha, where he attained mahaparinirvana after death.
• He unearthed a large stone coffer containing gold, jewels, fragments of bone and five reliquary urns. An inscription on one of the urns identified the pieces of bone as the relics of the Lord Buddha which had been given to his own Sakya clan following his cremation.
• Some of these relics were gifted to Sri Lanka as a token of friendship and gratitude. They were kept at Waskaduwa Viharaya in Sri Lanka.

• Article 3(j) the Indian Patents Act excludes from patentability “plants and animals in whole or in any part thereof other than microorganisms but including seeds, varieties, and species, and essentially biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals”. Hence, Statement 1 is not correct. Plant varieties are not eligible to be patented in India.
• The Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) has been constituted by the Indian Government to hear and resolve the appeals against the decisions of the registrar under the Indian Trademarks Act, 1999 and the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• The National Population Register (NPR) is a Register of usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National levels under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR.
• A “usual resident” is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.
• The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.
• The Registrar General of Citizen Registration shall notify the period and duration of the enumeration in the Official Gazette.

• The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration is an Autonomous District Council for the Darjeeling and Kalimpong areas of the West Bengal state in India. It currently consists of three hill subdivisions Darjeeling, Kurseong, Mirik, some areas of Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district and the whole of Kalimpong district under its authority.
• The GTA was formed in 2012 to replace the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, which was formed in 1988 and administered the Darjeeling hills for 23 years.
• The GTA was formed as a result of the tripartite agreement between the State, Centre and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).

• The Department of Official Language brings out ‘Rajbhasha Bharati’, a quarterly magazine, dedicated to encouraging writings in the field of Official Language, literature, technology, information technology, etc., in Hindi and also to give wide publicity to the efforts being made in different Central Government Offices for the use and propagation of Official Language Hindi.
• As the evolution of dialects and languages is dynamic, influenced by socio- eco-political developments, it is difficult to fix any criterion for languages to be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
• Since 2018, members of parliament can speak in any of the 22 languages in the 8^th schedule after giving a 24-hour prior notice.

• State Bank of India (SBI) has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized Branches. No other bank can undertake these functions.

• Vishti was a form of forced labour extracted by either the state, the provincial governor or the local chief. It is also mentioned in the Gupta era copper inscriptions that enlist a variety of taxes. Junagarh inscription mentions vishti as one form of tax, which indicates that it was extracted from Gujarat and Malwa regions.
• Since it was a forced labour in lieu of tax, it was not a wage labour. Wage labour existed in ancient India but it was not called vishti. Vishti could be extracted from anyone, not in particular from the eldest son only.

• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia. It is headquartered in Beijing, China.
• The bank started operations in December 2015, after ratifications were received from 10 member states holding a total number of 50% of the initial subscriptions of the Authorized Capital Stock.
• India is the second-largest shareholder after China.

• The Solicitor General of India is subordinate to the Attorney General of India. He/she is the second law officer of the country, assists the Attorney General, and is assisted by Additional Solicitors General for India.
• The Solicitor General is not a government servant and is not debarred from private legal practice i.e, he/she is allowed to represent private clients.
• The remuneration of the Solicitor General of India is not fixed by the Constitution. He/she receives such remuneration as the President may so determine.

• China is the world’s largest aluminium producer by far, accounting for around 50% of the world’s aluminium production.
• Bauxite ore is the world’s primary source of aluminium. The ore must first be chemically processed to produce alumina (aluminium oxide). Alumina is then smelted using an electrolysis process to produce pure aluminium metal. Bauxite is typically found in topsoil located in various tropical and subtropical regions.
• Aluminium is the third most abundant element on Earth’s surface. Bauxite has been found in all the world’s continents except Antarctica.

• The Indian Parliament had in March 2021 cleared the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) Bill 2021 to support the development of long-term non-recourse infrastructure financing in India, including the development of the bonds and derivatives markets necessary for infrastructure financing.
• As per the 2021 NaBFID bill, a body constituted by the central government will recommend candidates for the post of Managing Director and Deputy Managing Directors.
• No investigation can be initiated against employees of NaBFID without the prior sanction of the central government in case of the chairperson or other directors.

Agenda 21 is a non-binding action plan of the United Nations with regard to sustainable development. It is a product of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.