UPSC Exam: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Oct 13 - Oct 19

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to parliamentary devices?

1. A starred question requires an oral answer.
2. An unstarred question requires a written answer.
3. A short notice question is one that is asked by giving a notice of less than 20 days.

Who among the following can be chairman of the National Human Rights Commission?

Which of the following statements is/are correct?

1. Constitutionally, the Parliament can establish a common high court for two or more states.
2. The constitution of the high court originated in India in 1862.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to the Estimates Committee?

1. The Rajya Sabha has no representation in this committee.
2. A minister is usually the chairman of this committee.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. The Governor of a state nominates one member to the Legislative Council.
2. The Constitution has fixed the actual strength of a Legislative Council.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is a statutory body under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.
2. It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India.

RERA is a  

Which of the following places is/are listed under the Swachh Iconic Places scheme of the GOI?

1. Sabarimala Temple (Kerala)
2. Nagvasuki Temple (UP)
3. Pangong Lake (J&K)
4. Ajmer Sharif Dargah (Rajasthan)

Which of the following regarding the National Water Quality Sub Mission is/are correct?

1. The mission is aimed at providing safe drinking water to citizens.
2. It aims to take India closer to the international standards of water quality by the year 2020.
3. It targets a host of chemicals in water but focusses on arsenic and fluoride.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to M-SIPS?

1. It is a scheme that aims to provide a special incentive package to boost domestic electronic product manufacturing sector.
2. M-SIPS stands for Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme.

Which of the following is/are incorrect about the buyback of shares?

1. A buyback is a mechanism through which a listed company buys back shares from the market.
2. A buyback can be done either through open market purchases or through the tender offer route.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to Catastrophe Bonds?

1. Catastrophe bonds are issued by insurance companies which have exposure to property and calamity insurance. There is also insurance bought by U.S. State governments against calamities.
2. The cost of issuing and managing catastrophe bonds is cheaper than the cost of reinsuring these risks and does the same function of transferring risk. 
3. Insurance companies do not prefer issuing catastrophe bonds.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to NABARD?

1. It is a government board for conducting agricultural credit functions in India.
2. It was established in 1949.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to insider trading?

1.  It is the trading of a public company’s stock or other securities by individuals with access to nonpublic information about the company. 
2. In India, the first regulation to curb insider trading was the SEBI (prohibition of insider trading) Regulation 1992.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. In September 2018, the government announced the merger of three public sector banks namely, Dena Bank, Vijaya Bank and Federal Bank.
2. The merged entity will be India’s third-largest lender behind SBI and HDFC.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Peace Mission 2018 was held in Chebarkul, Russia.
2. The Peace Mission 2018 exercise was aimed at enhancing cooperation between member states to deal with the growing threat of terrorism and extremism.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to the International Court of Justice?

1. It is composed of 15 judges elected to 9-year term and is seated at The Hague.
2. There should be at least 2 judges from the United States of America in the ICJ.
3. Before becoming a UN member, Switzerland became a party to the ICJ’s statute.

Which of the following is/are incorrect?

1. S-400 is a long-range surface-to-air missile (MLR SAM) system built by Russia.
2. The mobile S-400 system can engage all types of aerial targets.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to disaster management in India?

1. For projects exclusively for the purpose of mitigation, i.e, measures aimed at reducing the risk, impact or effect of a disaster or threatening disaster situation a separate fund called National Disaster Mitigation Fund is provided.
2. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the National Disaster Management Authority takes decisions on the expenses from National Disaster Response Fund, in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the Central Government in consultation with the National Authority.

Which of the following is/are incorrect?

1. National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) is financed through the levy of a cess on certain items.
2. The requirement for funds beyond what is available under the NDRF is met through general budgetary resources.

Which of the following is/are correct regarding the peasant movements in the Indian freedom struggle?

1. Colonialism was the target for these movements.
2. Their territorial reach was limited.
3. There was no continuity of struggle for the long term.

Which one of the following first mooted the idea of a Constituent Assembly to frame a constitution for India?

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to the Round Table Conferences?

1. The First RTC was held in November 1930 and it was the first time Indians and British were meeting as ‘equals’.
2. The Congress Party participated only in the second RTC.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to the Gandhi-Irwin Pact?

1. As per the Pact, INC agreed to take part in the Second RTC.
2. As per the Pact, the government decided to withdraw all ordinances that curbed the activities of the INC.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to the Poona Pact?

1. In the Central Legislature, 19% of the seats would be reserved for the Depressed Classes.
2. A certain sum of money from the educational grant would be allotted for the education of the Depressed Classes in all provinces.

Which of the following is/are correct regarding Buddhism?

1. Buddha gave his first sermon at Sarnath. This event is called Dharmachakra Pravartana.
2. The Triratnas of Buddhism are Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. Mahapadma Nanda was called the “first historical emperor of India.”
2. Chandragupta Maurya defeated Dhana Nanda to establish the Maurya Dynasty.

Match the following in terms of Mauryan administration:

1. Yuktas                                 A. Superintendent of tolls
2. Sulkaadhyaksha               B. Judiciary officers
3. Navadhyaksha                  C. Subordinate officers responsible for the king’s revenue
4. Vyavharika Mahamatta  D. Superintendent of ships 

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. The inscriptions on Ashoka’s rock edicts are the first tangible evidence of Buddhism.
2. The first person to decipher Ashoka’s edicts was a British colonial administrator called William Jones.

Which of the following ancient Indian scholars lived in the Pallava courts?

1. Dandin
2. Bharavi
3. Kalidasa

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to volcanoes?

1. Hawaiian shield volcanoes are eroded by streams that form deeply carved valleys with steeply sloping heads.
2. The system of streams on a dissected volcano cone is not a radial drainage pattern.

Which of the following is the cause of long-term sea-level change?

When travelling from Chennai to Kolkata by road (shortest distance), what would be the sequence of occurrence of the following rivers?

1. Krishna
2. Penneru
3. Godavari
4. Subarnarekha
5. Mahanadi

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. All planets revolve in the same direction.
2. All planets rotate in the direction of revolution.

Which of the following is the reason due to which wind in the southern hemisphere is deflected towards its left?

Dolomite powder is applied in some agricultural lands. The purpose of applying it is to:

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. Prime Meridian divides the earth into two equal halves.
2. The earth rotates 15 degrees in one hour.
3. Both 180 W and 180 E are the same line.

In India, the problem of soil erosion is associated with which of the following?

1. Terrace cultivation
2. Deforestation
3. Tropical climate

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. The earth is nearest to the sun at Perihelion, which generally occurs on Jan 3.
2. The earth is farthest away from the sun at Aphelion, which generally occurs on July 4.

In India, glacial terraces known as ‘karewas’ are found in

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. The Western Ghats is spread over 6 states.
2. UNESCO has acknowledged the Western Ghats as a biodiversity hotspot.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. Godavari, Kaveri and Krishna originate in the Western Ghats.
2. Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) was constituted by the Central Government, under the chairmanship of Madhav Gadgil.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. CAMPA Act ensures speedy utilisation of funds for forest lands that are diverted for non-forest pupose.
2. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016, and its Rules, specify the kind of projects that would be eligible under the CAF, the composition of the national and State authorities, and how decisions regarding the utilisation of these funds ought to be taken.

Which of the following is/are incorrect?

1. Innovate India Platform is a program of the Department of science.
2. Turnitin software is to detect plagiarism.

Which of the following is/are correct with respect to Bhuvan, India’s geographical information system?

1. It offers detailed imagery of Indian locations with a resolution of up to 1 metre.
2. It allows users to view 2D and 3D images along with information on terrain and water resources.
3. It acts as a platform for hosting government data and could be used as a tool for urban design and contour mapping.

Which one of the following best describes ‘INS Arihant’, which was recently seen in news?

What is/are unique about ‘BrahMos’ a joint venture between India and Russia?

1. It is a single-stage missile with only a solid propellant booster engine.
2. At present, the missile has a flight range of 600 km.
3. It operates on a ‘fire and forget principal’.

Answer as per the codes given below:

Which of the following is/are correct regarding the Bhakti saint Chaitanya?

1. He was born in Bengal.
2. He belonged to the Vaishnava school of Bhakti.
3. His biography ‘Chaitanya Charitamrit’ was written by Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami.

Which of the following is/are correct?

1. Alvars in south India were the saints devoted to Lord Vishnu during the 14th century CE.
2. The saintly devotees of Lord Shiva were called Nayanars and there were 63 in number between 6th and 8th centuries.

Match the following classical dances of India with their states of origin:

1. Sattriya                  A. Kerala
2. Mohiniyattam      B. Tamil Nadu
3. Kuchipudi             C. Assam
4. Bharathanatyam D. Andhra Pradesh