UPSC 2023: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Sep 16 - Sep 22

• Statement 1 is correct, Millets are Photo-insensitive (i.e. does not need specific photoperiod for flowering) and are resilient to climate change.
• Statement 2 is correct, The anaemia (iron deficiency), B-complex vitamin deficiency, pellagra (niacin deficiency) can be effectively tackled with the intake of millets.
• Statement 3 is not correct, Government of India approved 2018 as the National Year of Millets.
• Statement 4 is correct, Millets are hardy, resilient crops that have low carbon and water footprint, can withstand high temperatures and grow on poor soils with little or no external inputs.

• Statement 1 is correct, Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain/cryptocurrency with smart contract functionality.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Ethereum is the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency.
  • Bitcoin is the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency.
• Statement 3 is correct, Ethereum recently finalised “the Merge” which will help reduce its energy consumption by nearly 99.95%.

Image Source: BBC

• Statement 1 is correct, Red Sanders or Pterocarpus santalinus is endemic to the Eastern Ghats of India.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Aromatherapy is associated with Sandalwood (Santalum album).
  • Aromatherapy has nothing to do with Red Sanders.
• Statement 3 is correct, Red Sanders is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
• Statement 4 is correct, Red Sanders is listed under Appendix II of CITES and is banned from international trade.

• Biorock technology is being used by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) to restore damaged coral reefs.

• Statement 1 is correct,  La Nina is associated with good rainfall during the monsoon season in the Indian context.
• Statement 2 is correct, Usually, La Nina causes more rainfall in Australia and Indonesia and the tropical regions.
• Statement 3 is correct, La Nina’s cooling influence temporarily slows down the rise in global temperatures but it will not cease or reverse the long-term warming trend.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The final decision to include a tribe in the Scheduled Tribe list rests with the President’s office issuing a notification specifying the changes under powers vested in it from Article 342.
  • Article 341 deals with that of Scheduled Castes.
• Statement 2 is correct, The inclusion or exclusion comes into effect only after the President assents to a Bill that amends the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 and the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950, as is appropriate, after it is passed by both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
• Statement 3 is correct, A state government may choose to recommend certain communities for addition or subtraction from the list of SCs/STs based on its discretion.

• Statement 1 is correct, There are no specific antiviral drugs available for the treatment of lumpy skin disease.
  • There are only symptom-specific treatments available currently such as wound care sprays to treat skin lesions and the use of antibiotics to prevent secondary skin infections and pneumonia.
• Statement 2 is correct, Lumpy skin disease spreads mainly through blood-feeding insects like flies, mosquitoes and ticks.
• Statement 3 is not correct, Lumpy Skin Disease is not Zoonotic as the virus is highly host specific and does not cause disease in humans.

• Statement 1 is not correct, The Prevention of Money Laundering Act allows the ED to take cognizance of any offence under its wide-ranging schedule across the country, with or without the consent of state governments.
• Statement 2 is correct, After the amendments in 2015 and 2018, the ED has been allowed to attach properties in India equivalent to properties acquired abroad through laundered money.
• Statement 3 is correct, Under PMLA, the provision for bail stipulates that a magistrate will not grant bail to an accused unless he is convinced that prima facie no case is made out.

• The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 provide exact and elaborate criteria for the identification of sites for landfills and waste processing facilities.
• According to the rules, the landfill site shall be 100 metres away from a river, 200 metres from a pond, 200 metres away from highways, habitations, public parks and water supply wells and 20 km away from airports/airbases.
• Further, the construction of landfills on hills shall be avoided. Land for the construction of sanitary landfills in hilly areas will be identified in the plain areas, within 25 kilometres. However, transfer stations and processing facilities shall be operational in the hilly areas.

• Statement 01 is incorrect, The Supreme Court of India in its judgement in September 2018, had declared live telecast of court proceedings part of the right to access justice under Article 21 of the Constitution.
  • Currently, six high courts in the country, namely Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna, and Madhya Pradesh, live-stream their proceedings through their own channels on YouTube.
• Statement 02 is correct, On August 26, on the day of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana’s retirement, the Supreme Court streamed its proceedings live.
• Statement 03 is correct, While the US Supreme Court has rejected pleas for broadcast of its proceedings, it has since 1955 allowed audio recording and transcripts of oral arguments.

• Statement 01 is correct, Section 235 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) requires a judge to hear the accused after conviction on the question of sentence, and then pass the sentence on him according to law.
• Statement 02 is correct, In 1980, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment in ‘Bachan Singh v State of Punjab’ on the condition that the punishment will be awarded in the “rarest of the rare” cases. Crucially, the ruling also stressed that a separate sentencing hearing would be held, where a judge would be persuaded on why the death sentence need not be awarded.
• Statement 03 is correct, In ‘Dattaraya v State of Maharashtra’, a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds that an adequate sentencing hearing was not held.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) launched Operation Octopus, Operation Double Bull, Operation Thunderstorm and Operation Chakarbandha in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh against left-wing extremism.

• Statements 01 and 03 are correct,  The Charter of the United Nations is the founding document of the United Nations. It was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco, at the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on International Organisation, and came into force on 24 October 1945.
  • Since the UN’s founding in 1945, the mission and work of the Organisation have been guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter, which has been amended three times in 1963, 1965, and 1973.
• Statement 02 is correct, The UN Charter codifies the major principles of international relations, from sovereign equality of States to the prohibition of the use of force in international relations.
  • The United Nations can take action on a wide variety of issues due to its unique international character and the powers vested in its Charter, which is considered an international treaty.
  • As such, the UN Charter is an instrument of international law, and the UN Member States are bound by it.

• Pyrolysis is one of the technologies available to convert biomass to an intermediate liquid product that can be refined to drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, oxygenated fuel additives and petrochemical replacements. Pyrolysis is the heating of an organic material, such as biomass, in the absence of oxygen.
• Plasma gasification is an extreme thermal process using plasma which converts organic matter into syngas (synthesis gas) which is primarily made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

• Statement 01 is correct, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established with effect from February 20, 1997, by an Act of Parliament, called the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 to regulate telecom services, including fixation/revision of tariffs for telecom services which were earlier vested in the Central Government.
• Statement 02 is correct,  The TRAI Act was amended by an ordinance, effective from 24 January 2000, establishing a Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to take over the adjudicatory and disputes functions from TRAI.
• Statement 03 is correct,  TRAI consists of a  chairman, at least two full-time members and not more than two-part members, all appointed by the Union Government.
  • The members should have special knowledge of, or professional experience in telecom, industry, finance, accountancy, law, management and consumer affairs.
  • Only those senior or retired Government officers can be appointed as members who have served for at least three years as secretary/additional secretary to the Union or State Governments.

• ‘1098 helpline number’ is a 24/7/365 free, emergency phone service for children in need of aid and assistance.
• A non-governmental organisation CHILDLINE India Foundation (CIF) is the nodal agency supported by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development responsible for setting up, managing and monitoring the CHILDLINE 1098 service all over the country.

• Statement 01 is correct, Nikah halala is a Muslim personal law that requires a woman to marry and have physical relations with another man in order to return to her first husband. The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019 declares the instant divorce granted by the pronouncement of talaq three times as void and illegal. But the Act is silent on nikah halala which takes place as a consequence of triple talaq.
• Statement 02 is correct, The holy book of Islam, the Koran contains numerous verses dealing with the issues of marriage, child-rearing, divorces, marital obligations, reconciliation between estranged couples and inheritance. The Koran allows a man to divorce his wife a maximum of two times. On both occasions, separated by at least one menstrual cycle.
• Statement 03 is incorrect, In Saudi Arabia, where divorces are on the rise, no cases of halala have been reported. No case has been reported from the UAE, Kuwait and Yemen either.

• The 1997 judgement in the Vineet Narain vs Union of India case, popularly known as the Jain hawala case led to sweeping changes in the Central Bureau of Investigation.
• The Supreme Court gave directions to fix the tenure of the CBI Director for two years and statutory status to the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

• The General Data Protection Regulation is a regulation in European Union law on data protection and privacy for the citizens of the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA).
• It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.

• Statement 1 is not correct, At present only those who belong to Hindu, Sikhism & Buddhism faiths are considered as Dalits (Scheduled Castes), according to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950.
  • Individuals belonging to Jainism are not considered Scheduled Castes.
• Statement 2 is not correct, The Supreme Court has recently clarified that “a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) in a state will not be deemed to be SC or ST in another state to which he/ she migrates for the purpose of employment or education.”

• The Sharada Act (Sarda Act) which is also known as the Child Marriage Restraint Act is a legislative act passed in September 1929.
• The Act fixed the marriageable age for girls at 14 years and 18 years for boys.
• Read more about – Sharada Act.

• Statement 1 is not correct, As per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, “child” means a person who,
  • If male, has not completed twenty-one years of age
  • If female, has not completed eighteen years of age
• Statement 2 is not correct, Marriage of a minor child is considered to be void in certain circumstances, where a child, being a minor –
  • Is taken or enticed out of the keeping of the lawful guardian.
  • By force compelled, or by any deceitful means induced to go from any place.
  • Is sold for the purpose of marriage.

• India’s first avalanche-monitoring radar has been installed in the state/UT of Sikkim.
• The avalanche-monitoring radar has been installed by the Indian Army and the Defence Geoinformatics and Research Establishment (DGRE) at an altitude of 15,000 feet in North Sikkim.

• Statement 1 is correct, Pattachitra art is a form of cloth-based scroll painting.
• Statement 2 is not correct, Pattachitra art is usually associated with the eastern states of India.
  • In Odisha, Pattachitra originated as a way to paint stories of God Jagannath.
  • In West Bengal, Pattachitras were used to depict stories of Goddess Durga and other mythological stories.
• Statement 3 is correct, The materials used in the paint are from vegetable, earth, and mineral sources.
  • Black is made out of lampblack
  • Yellow from haritala stone
  • Red from shingle stone
  • White colour is prepared from crushed, boiled, and filtered shells

• Statement 1 is correct, Monazite is a source of rare earths such as cerium, lanthanum, and others.
• Statement 2 is correct, Uranium and thorium are found in monazite.
• Statement 3 is not correct, Monazite occurs naturally in the coastal sands of three districts of Tamil Nadu namely Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari.
• Statement 4 is correct, In India, only Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), a wholly owned Public Sector Undertaking of the Government of India (GOI) under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has been permitted to produce and process monazite, and handle it for domestic use as well as for export.

• Statement 01 is incorrect,  PVTGs are more vulnerable among the tribal groups. In 1973, the Dhebar Commission created Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) as a separate category, which are less developed among the tribal groups. In 2006, the Government of India renamed the PTGs as PVTGs.
• Statement 02 is correct, Odisha has the highest number of PVTGs in India while no PVTGs are found in the states of Punjab and Haryana.
  • 13 out of the 75 PVTGs are in Odisha.

• The Paris Club is an informal group of creditor nations whose objective is to find workable solutions to payment problems faced by debtor nations.
• The Paris Club has 22 permanent members.
• The Paris Club stresses the informal nature of its existence. As an informal group, it has no official statutes and no formal inception date, although its first meeting with a debtor nation was in 1956, with Argentina.
• India is an observer state of the Paris Club from 2019.

• Statement 01 is correct,  Masala Bonds are rupee-denominated bonds. It is a debt instrument issued by an Indian entity in foreign markets to raise money, in Indian currency, instead of dollars or local denomination.
  • In 2019, Kerala became the first Indian state to issue Masala Bonds worth Rs. 2,150 crore on the London Stock Exchange. State-owned Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) had issued the bonds to raise funds in the overseas market.
• Statement 02 is correct, The first Masala Bonds were issued by World Bank in 2014 to fund an infrastructure project in India
  • The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment branch of the World Bank issued a 10-year, 10 billion Indian rupee bonds in November 2014 to increase foreign investment in India and mobilise international capital markets to support infrastructure development in the country
• Statement 03 is correct, These bonds can only be issued to a resident of such a country which is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

• Pair 01 is correctly matched, Cassini–Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn as a part of Cassini mission.
• Pair 02 is correctly matched, the DAVINCI  mission is a flyby mission to Venus and explores its harsh atmosphere in 2029.
  • It will be the first mission to study Venus by means of both flybys and descent.
• Pair 03 is correctly matched, Europa Clipper is a mission by NASA to conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa and investigate whether the icy moon could have conditions suitable for life.
• Pair 04 is correctly matched,  The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission is a robotic lander designed to study the deep interior of the planet Mars. The InSight mission is part of NASA’s Discovery Program (1992).