UPSC 2024: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Oct 07 - Oct 13

• Statement 01 is incorrect, Gambling is a state subject under Schedule 7 of the Indian Constitution. Only states in India are entitled to formulate laws for gambling activities within their respective states.
• Statement 02 is correct, India mainly puts the games into two broad categories as either a Game of Chance or a Game of Skill.
  • Game of chance: Games of chance are all those games that are played randomly. These games are based on luck. A person can play these games without prior knowledge or understanding. For instance, Teen Patti, dice games, picking a number, etc. Such games are considered illegal in India.
  • Game of skill: Games of skill are all those games that are played based on a person’s prior knowledge or experience of the game. A person will require skills such as analytical decision-making, logical thinking, capability, etc. Such games are considered legal by most of the Indian states.

• Statement 01 is correct, Basavanna was a 12th-century philosopher, statesman, Kannada poet and social reformer during the reign of the Kalachuri-dynasty king Bijjala I in Karnataka, India.
• Statement 02 is incorrect, Ankita Nama of Sri Basavanna is ‘Kudalasangamadeva’.
• Statement 03 is correct, Basavanna established the Anubhava Mantapa, which was a common forum for all to discuss the prevailing problems of socio, economic and political strata including religious and spiritual principles along with personal problems.
  • It was the first and foremost Parliament of India, where Sharanas sat together and discussed the socialistic principles of a democratic set-up.

• MFP includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin and includes bamboo, canes, fodder, leaves, gums, waxes, dyes, resins and many forms of food including nuts, wild fruits, honey, lac, tussar, etc.
• It does not include Sandalwood.

Image Source:  twinkl.com

• Statement 1 is incorrect, The first Mongol invasion of India took place in the reign of Sultan Shams-ud-din lltutmish.
• Statement 2 is correct, Mongols invaded during the reign of Ala-ud-din Khalji. The Mongols attacked and pillaged Delhi and surrounding areas.
• Statement 3 is incorrect, The next major Mongol invasion took place after the Khiljis had been replaced by the Tughlaq dynasty in the Sultanate. In 1327 the Chagatai Mongols under Tarmashirin laid siege to Delhi and he only lifted it when he was paid a huge ransom by the Tughlaqs. Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq temporarily lost portions of the northwest of his kingdom to Mongols.

• The Kerch Strait is the only connection between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and the only way to reach two important Ukrainian ports, Mariupol and Berdiansk.
• It separates the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea from the Taman Peninsula of Russia’s Krasnodar Krai.

• Van Gujjars are the forest-dwelling nomadic community inhabiting the foothills of Himalayan States such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
  • They traditionally practice buffalo husbandry and transhumance.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, The Flexible Inflation Target (FIT) was adopted in 2016. The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 was amended to provide a statutory basis for a FTI framework.
  • The amended Act provides for the inflation target to be set by the Government of India, in consultation with the RBI, once every five years.
• Statement 02 is correct, Inflation reduces a currency’s purchasing power and what that currency can buy. Loss of purchasing power has the effect of an increase in prices.
• Statement 03 is correct, During periods of rising prices, debtors gain and creditors lose.
  • When prices rise, the value of money falls. Though debtors return the same amount of money, they pay less in terms of goods and services. This is because the value of money is less than when they borrowed the money. Thus the burden of the debt is reduced and debtors gain.
  • On the other hand, creditors lose. Although they get back the same amount of money which they lent, they receive less in real terms because the value of money falls. Thus inflation brings about a redistribution of real wealth in favour of debtors at the cost of creditors.

• Statement 01 is incorrect,
  • The VVPAT machine  is placed in a transparent glass case and prints a slip containing the name of the candidate and the corresponding election symbol allowing the voter to see the vote. The voter slip is then displayed to the voter for about seven seconds and automatically drops it in a sealed box.
• Statement 02 is correct, 
• • An EVM is designed with two units: the control unit and the balloting unit.
  • These units are joined together by a cable. The control unit of the EVM is kept with the presiding officer or the polling officer. The balloting unit is kept within the voting compartment for electors to cast their votes.
  • Therefore the machines can be accessed by the polling officials and not by the voter.

• B cells and T cells are the white blood cells of the immune system that are responsible for adaptive immune response in an organism. Both the cells are made in the bone marrow. B cells mature in the bone marrow while the T cells travel to the thymus and mature there. These cells are structurally similar and are involved in adaptive immune response in an organism.

• Statement 01 is correct, Abhidhamma Day marks the end of three-month rainy retreat – Varshavaas or Vassa – for the Buddhist monks and nuns during which time they stay at one place and pray. It is mostly celebrated in countries where Buddhism is practised by the majority of the population.
• Statement 02 is correct, According to widely held belief, this is the day when Lord Buddha came back to earth from heaven.
• Statement 03 is correct, He is believed to have gone to heaven to teach Abhidhamma Pitaka (a basket of ultimate things) to his mother. The teaching took three months after which Buddha came back to Earth.

• UN Peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles:
  • Consent of the parties
  • Impartiality
  • Non-use of force except in self-defence and defence of the mandate.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, Solidity is the programming language mainly used on the blockchain platform Ethereum.
  • The language is influenced by C++, Python, and JavaScript.
  • It is also known as a ‘curly bracket language’ as it uses the flower bracket special character
• Statement 02 is incorrect, C++ is a programming language commonly associated with Bitcoin.
• Statement 03 is correct, Rust is commonly associated with the Solana blockchain, which is known for its high speeds and relatively low transaction fees.
  • The Polkadot blockchain, which helps to better connect blockchains with each other, also uses Rust.
  • Developers have complained that Rust is too difficult to learn.

• The Capitulation of Alexandria was an important event in the struggle between France and England for influence in the Middle East in the years around 1800 AD.
• The French Campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was part of Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign in the East.

• Levant historically, the region along the eastern Mediterranean shores, roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and certain adjacent areas.

• The 38th parallel which is a popular name given to latitude 38° N in East Asia roughly demarcates North Korea and South Korea.

• Statement 1 is not correct, SVAMITVA (Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas) scheme is an initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
• Statement 2 is correct, It uses drone technology to map the land in rural areas.

• “Manesar Anti-terror 2022” is under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS).

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Sustainable Mountain Development Summit is a flagship annual event of the Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) which is a civil society-led forum working across the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) that comprises 10 mountain states, two union territories and four hill districts.
• Statement 2 is correct, ‘Carbon Neutral Ladakh’ is an objective of the summit.
• Statement 3 is not correct, Integrated Mountain Initiative (IMI) comprises 10 mountain states.

• The National Policy on Biofuels expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing the use of sugarcane juice, sugar-containing materials like sugar beet, sweet sorghum, starch-containing materials like corn, cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, rotten potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.

• Statement 1 is correct, The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognise political parties and allot symbols.
  • As per the provisions of the order, EC can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol.
• Statement 2 is correct, Both Bahujan Samaj Party, as well as Asom Gana Parishad, have ‘Elephant’ as their party symbol.
  • The Bahujan Samaj Party cannot use its Elephant symbol in Assam, since the regional Asom Gana Parishad was allocated the Elephant symbol much before the BSP got recognised as a national party.
• Statement 3 is correct, Where the party is either vertically divided or it is not possible to say with certainty which group has a majority, the EC may freeze the party’s symbol and allow the groups to register themselves with new names or add prefixes or suffixes to the party’s existing names.

• The Supreme Court collegium is headed by the CJI and comprises four other senior-most judges of the court.
• This collegium makes recommendations to the government for the appointment of judges to the SC and of Chief Justices of High Courts, and the transfers of HC judges.
• Usually, one of the four senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court would succeed the CJI, but if the situation should be such that the successor CJI is not one of the four senior-most Judges, he must invariably be made part of the collegium.
  • Hence a ‘5+1’ collegium arises when a potential CJI candidate is not a part of the 5-member collegium.

• Statement 1 is correct, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar while converting to Buddhism on October 15, 1956, at Deeksha Bhoomi in Nagpur along with his followers recited the 22 vows, which is now a part of the ritual.
• Statement 2 is correct, On October 13, 1935, Dr. Ambedkar, as president of the ‘Yeola Conversion Conference’ near Nasik, announced his decision to renounce Hinduism, as a path to contest the Hindu caste order.
• Statement 3 is correct, Under the presence of monk Chandramani, Dr. Ambedkar and his wife took the Buddhist vows.
  • He then recited the three jewels (Trisharan), five precepts (Panchsheel), pronounced the self-crafted 22 vows for the assembled people and renounced Hinduism.
  • The event is marked as the renaissance of Buddhism in India.

• World Economic Outlook is a flagship report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

• Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9) is a special protein which is regarded as a “genetic scissor” used in targeted gene editing under the CRISPR technology.
• The Cas9 protein is responsible for locating and cleaving target DNA, both in natural and in artificial CRISPR-Cas9 systems.

PM Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE) has been launched for the development of infrastructure and social development projects in the North East part of India with an initial allocation of Rs 1500 Crore. The Scheme will be implemented through the North-East Council.

• Statement 01 is correct. There has been a 69 per cent decline in the wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish, across the globe in the last 50 years from 1970 to 2018, according to the latest Living Planet Report by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released on October 13, 2022.
  • The highest decline (94 percent) was in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
  • Africa recorded a 66 per cent fall in its wildlife populations from 1970-2018 and the Asia Pacific 55 per cent.
• Statement 02 is correct,  Cycads, a group of prehistoric palm-like plants commonly used in dryland landscaping, are the world’s oldest seed-bearing plants and are the most threatened species as per IUCN Red List.
• Statement 03 is correct, WWF has identified five major threats to nature. Across the board, changes in land and sea use account for the largest portion of the loss, making up 50% of recorded threats to biodiversity on average.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, The Dart Mission was launched by a SpaceX rocket in November 2021.
• Statement 02 is correct, The Dart spacecraft crashed into the asteroid and succeeded in nudging the rocky moonlet from its natural path into a faster orbit, marking the first time humanity has altered the motion of a celestial body.
• Statement 03 is incorrect, The Dimorphos is an egg-shaped asteroid, roughly the size of a football stadium, that was orbiting a parent asteroid about five times bigger called Didymos once every 11 hours, 55 minutes. It is one of 27,500 known near-Earth asteroids of all sizes tracked by NASA. None of these asteroids is known to pose a foreseeable hazard to humankind.

• Statement 01 is correct,  The Committee of Parliament on Official Language was set up in 1976 under Section 4 of The Official Languages Act, 1963.
  • Section 4 of the Act says “there shall be constituted a Committee on Official language, on a resolution to that effect being moved in either House of Parliament with the previous sanction of the President and passed by both Houses”.
• Statement 02 is incorrect, The Committee is chaired by the Union Home Minister, and has, in accordance with the provisions of the 1963 Act, 30 members — 20 MPs from Lok Sabha and 10 MPs from Rajya Sabha.
• Statement 03 is correct, Unlike the other Parliamentary panels, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language is constituted by the Home Ministry, and it does not, like the Committees of Parliament, submit its report to Parliament.
  • Under the provisions of the 1963 Act, the panel submits its report to the President, who “shall cause the report to be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to all the State Governments”.

• The Quit India movement was largely supported by the labour class as they agitated through bandhs and hartals.
• Many Indian businessmen were profiting from heavy wartime spending and did not support Quit India.