UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Oct 08 - Oct 14

• K. Kasturirangan committee and Madhav Gadgil committee are related to preserving the ecology and conservation of Western Ghats.
• In November 2004, the Central government appointed a five-member committee headed by Justice B P Jeevan Reddy to review the provisions of the AFSPA in the northeastern states.
• On the eve of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in 1972, popularly called the Stockholm Conference, the Pitamber Committee was set up to make a report on the state of the environment in India.

• The Swadeshi movement was part of the Indian independence movement. After the partition of Bengal, the Swadeshi movement was formally started in August 1905 to curb foreign goods by relying on domestic production.
• It is also known as the Vande Mataram Movement.
• The movement spread to Madras under Chidambaram Pillai.
• It remained confined to the upper and middle classes and zamindars, and failed to reach masses especially the peasantry.

• Hormuz strait connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

• The Bab-el-Mandeb strait connects the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

• The Sunda Strait is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean.

• Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 made it a punishable offence for any person to send ‘grossly offensive’ or ‘menacing’ information using a computer resource or communication device.
• The Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal case struck down this section declaring it as violative of the freedom of speech guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India.

• The Surat Split was a turning point in the history of the Nationalist Movement in India. The main reason for the split in the Indian National Congress at Surat was the lack of faith that Extremists had in the capacity of the moderates to negotiate with the British Government.
• The two main demands placed by the extremists were:
  • Demand for the resolution of Swaraj
  • Lala Lajpat Rai to be made the President of the INC
• These two demands were not acceptable to the moderates. Thus, instead of Lala Lajpat Rai, the moderates supported the idea of Rash Behari Ghosh as the President.

• Particulate matter are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air.
  • PM10 is more likely to deposit on the surfaces of the larger airways of the upper region of the lung. Particles deposited on the lung surface can induce tissue damage, and lung inflammation.
  • PM2.5 (particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) can penetrate deeply into the lung, irritate and corrode the alveolar wall, and consequently impair lung function. PM2.5 can even enter the bloodstream.
• The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) set limits for SO₂, NO₂, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), Ozone, Lead, Carbon Monoxide, Ammonia, Benzene, Benzo Pyrene, Arsenic, Nickel. Notably, the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) do not meet the WHO’s existing standards.

Image Courtesy: The Hindu

• A new initiative called ‘FASTER’ or ‘Fast and Secure Transmission of Electronic Records’ was launched.
• Under the initiative, the Supreme Court will instantly transmit bail and other orders to the jail authorities, district courts and the High Courts. This will be done in a secure way electronically.

• The Arab Spring was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s.
• It began with the Tunisian Revolution.

• The Main Battle Tank Arjun Mk-1A is a new variant of the Arjun tank designed to enhance firepower, mobility and survivability.
• It involves new features and more indigenous content from the Mk-1 variant.
• The MBT Arjun Mk-1A was designed and developed by the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), along with the other laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• As of now, there are no plans to export the Arjun Mk-1A battle tanks to Vietnam.

• BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. It is a Global Partnership of Conservation Organizations.
• BirdLife International has identified 13,000 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas and is the official International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List authority for birds.
• The term ‘biodiversity hotspot’ was given by Norman Myers in 1988. He first identified 10 hotspots based on the high degree of endemism and habitat loss, i.e. the regions of richest biodiversity and most endangered.

The Mahanadi is a major river in East Central India. It rises near Sihawa in the Raipur district of Chhattisgarh. It is one of the most active silt-depositing streams in the Indian subcontinent. Mahanadi is also known for the Hirakud Dam. The river flows through the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha.

• The 97th Constitutional Amendment Act made the right to form co-operative societies a fundamental right as a part of Article 19.
• State Election Commission is not responsible for conducting elections to a co-operative society.
• The state government appoints a body for the conduct of elections to a co-operative society.
• The superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, all elections to a co-operative society shall vest in such an authority or body, as may be provided by the Legislature of a State.

• The total length of the India-Myanmar border is about 1643 km.
• Arunachal Pradesh (520 km) shares the longest border with Myanmar.
• Other Indian states that share a border with Myanmar are Mizoram (510 km), Nagaland (215 km), Manipur (510 km).

• Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or hoof-and-mouth disease (HMD) is an infectious and sometimes fatal viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, including domestic and wild bovids. It is a contagious disease.
• Humans can also be infected by the foot-and-mouth disease virus, however, the cases are very rare.
• National Animal Disease Control Programme for FMD and Brucellosis (NADCP) is a Central Sector Scheme where 100% of funds shall be provided by the Central Government to the States/UTs.

• The Congress Socialist Party was a socialist entity within the Indian National Congress.
• It was founded in 1934 by Congress members who rejected what they believed was a pacifist and anti-rational mysticism of Gandhi. They also rejected the sectarian attitude of the Communist Party of India towards the Congress.
• It was formed with Acharya Narendra Deva as President and Jay Prakash Narayan as General Secretary in 1934.
• The ideal of this party was decentralized socialism in which a there was substantial share in the economic power of co-operatives, trade unions, independent farmers, and local authorities.

• COVAX is one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which was launched in response to the COVID pandemic.
  • ACT accelerator aims at bringing together governments, global health organisations, manufacturers, scientists, private sector, civil society and philanthropy, with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
• COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access) aims to accelerate the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.
• COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and WHO, with UNICEF as a key delivery partner.
• GISAID is a global science initiative and primary source established in 2008 that provides open-access to genomic data of influenza viruses and the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary was the first bird sanctuary in Kerala.
• Salim Ali, one of the best known ornithologists, described this sanctuary as the richest bird habitat on peninsular India.
• Thattekkad literally means flat forest, and the region is an evergreen low-land forest located between the branches of the Periyar River, the longest river in Kerala.

• AH 64 Apache is being procured from the U.S., while KA-226T Utility Helicopters is being procured from Russia.
  • Apache is the most advanced multi-role heavy attack helicopter in the world. Alongside the capability to shoot fire and forget anti-tank guided missiles, air-to-air missiles, rockets and other ammunitions, it also has modern Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities to provide versatility to helicopters in a network-centric aerial warfare.
  • In 2015, India and Russia concluded an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for around 200 Ka-226T twin engine utility helicopters, with 60 helicopters to be directly imported and remaining 140 manufactured locally. The helicopters would be manufactured by India Russia Helicopters Limited (IRHL) — a joint venture between HAL and Russian Helicopters with Transfer of Technology (ToT) from Russia. The Ka-226T is meant to replace the ageing and obsolete Cheetah and Chetak fleet of the Army and Air Force.

Hamboting La is a high mountain pass located in Ladakh region.

• Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets also known as S4A Scheme was launched in 2016 by the Reserve Bank of India as an initiative to address and resolve the debt issues of the corporate sector along with strengthening the ability of the lender to deal with stressed assets.
• As per the S4A scheme, the debt of a company is bifurcated into two parts namely sustainable and unsustainable debt based on the cash flows of the company’s project. The sustainable debt of a company should not be less than 50% of the existing debt and the unsustainable debt can be converted into optionally convertible debentures.

A special high-level committee of 9 members headed by the former Justice A. K. Rajan was formed to conduct a detailed review regarding the extent to which the NEET system for admission to medical colleges in Tamil Nadu has affected the students and its impact on them and in case the students have been facing excessive hardships, the new procedure to alleviate these problems to be devised.

• PM Digital Health Mission was launched in 2021 to help strengthen India’s medical sector and health facilities of the country.
• It includes a unique health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked.
• It will enable access and exchange of longitudinal health records of citizens with their consent.

• Recently, Iceland became the first country in Europe to elect a female majority parliament.
• Unlike some other countries, Iceland does not have legal quotas on female representation in parliament, though some parties do require a minimum number of candidates to be women.
• Voters elected 33 women to the country’s Althing (national parliament of Iceland), up from 24 in the last election.
• No other country in Europe had previously surpassed the threshold of 50 per cent.
• However, Sweden and Finland have 47 per cent and 46 per cent women in parliament, respectively.

• Sarkaria Commission on inter-state relations in its report dealt with the role of Governors.
• It suggested that the Governor should be an eminent person from outside the State and should be a detached figure without intense political links or should not have taken part in politics in the recent past.

Read more on Sarkaria Commission.

• Article 30 of the Constitution of India deals with the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. It applies to both religious and linguistic minorities.
• In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court made it clear that the right of educational institutions whether run by a majority or minority community to receive government aid is not a fundamental right.
• It said that if the government made a policy call to withdraw aid, an institution cannot question the decision as a matter of right.

‘Akash Prime’ is a new version of the Akash surface-to-air missile developed by the DRDO.

• The Cauvery river dispute is a water-sharing dispute between Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
• The sharing of the waters should be as per the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal’s decision of 2007, which was modified by the Supreme Court in 2018.
• The Central Government has notified the Cauvery Water Management Scheme which constitutes the ‘Cauvery Water Management Authority’ and the ‘Cauvery Water Regulation Committee’ to give effect to the court’s decision.

The Taiwan Strait connects the South China Sea with the East China Sea.

Benzene is an organic chemical compound (C₆H₆). Benzene is formed from both natural processes and human activities. Natural sources of benzene include volcanoes and forest fires.

Following are the reasons/factors for exposure to benzene pollution:

•  Automobile exhaust
•  Tobacco smoke
•  Wood burning
•  Using varnished wooden furniture
•  Using products made of polyurethane