UPSC Weekly Current Affairs Quiz — April 9 to April 15, 2023

Which of the following personalities is associated with the above description?

(a) Mahatma Gandhi

(b) B.R Ambedkar

(c) Jyotiba Phule

(d) Shri Narayan Guru

QUESTION 2

Consider the following statements with respect to International Monetary Fund (IMF):

1. It publishes World Economic Outlook biannually.

2. It has projected India’s retail inflation to ease from 6.7 per cent in FY23 to 4.9 per cent in FY24 which is broadly in line with the RBI projection.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

QUESTION 3

Consider the following statements about  El Nino-Southern Oscillation:

1. It is an abnormal cooling of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean waters off the coasts of Ecuador and Peru.

2. During El Niño, the trade winds weaken or reverse, instead of blowing from east to west they turn into westerlies.

Which of the above statements above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

QUESTION 4

Consider the following statements with respect to the famous Uttaramerur inscription from Parantaka I’s reign found on the walls of the Vaikunda Perumal Temple:

1. The inscription gives details of the functioning of the local sabha, i.e. the village assembly.

2. The inscription does not restrict sabha membership to any particular class and mentions true excercise of elections.

3. The inscription describes a number of important committees within the sabha with their own distinct functions whose assignments would last for 360 days after which the members would have to retire.

Which of the above statements is not correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Only 3

(d) None of the above

QUESTION 5

Consider the following statements:

1. Paclitaxel, a drug used to treat cancer is derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. 

2. The Pacific yew tree is now classified as near threatened under the IUCN Red List. 

Which of the above statements is/are true?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

QUESTION 6

With reference to maternity benefits in India, consider the following statements:

1. Women in both organised and unorganised sectors can avail the benefits of the Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Act 2017. 

2. A woman who legally adopts a child of any age or a commissioning mother shall be entitled to maternity benefit for a period of twelve weeks from the date the child is handed over to the adopting mother or the commissioning mother, as the case may be.

Which of the statements above is/are correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

QUESTION 7

Recently seen in news, Good Friday Agreement does not involve:

(a) United States of America

(b) United Kingdom

(c) Irelend

(d) Italy

QUESTION 8

With reference to space missions to Jupiter, consider the following statements:

1. NASA lauched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) Mission recently which aims to carry out a detailed exploration of the Solar System’s largest planet and its icy moons, which potentially have habitable environments.

2. Only two other spacecraft have ever examined Jupiter before.

3. By the time Juice reaches Jupiter, another spacecraft, ESA’s Europa Clipper, would already be orbiting the planet.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Only 3

(d) 1 and 2 only

QUESTION 9

With reference to Sikh history, consider the staements below:

1. After Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh guru, the guruship became hereditary. 

2. Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru founded the Khalsa.

3. Raja Jai Singh of Amer had donated land for a dharamshala where the Sikh Gurus could rest while visiting Delhi and the present-day Bangla Sahib gurdwara is built on this site.

4. On the invitation of Raja Bhim Chand of Kahlur, Guru Arjan Dev bought land at Makhowal village and renamed it Chak Nanki (now Anandpur Sahib) after his mother.

Which of the above statements are true?

(a) 1, 2, 3 and 4

(b) 1, 3 and 4 only

(c) 1, 2 and 3 only

(d) 2 and 4 only

QUESTION 10

With reference to State Energy Efficiency Index (SEEI), consider the following statements:

1. The index is developed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Ministry of Power, in association with Niti Aayog.

2. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, and Telangana have featured in the front-runner category of the index.

Which of the above statements is/are correct:

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWERS TO MCQs

1. (b)

FYI:

— Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891 at Mhow, near Indore. He was popularly known as Babasaheb Ambedkar and everyone knows that he was one of the architects of the Indian Constitution.

— He was a very well-known political leader, eminent jurist, Buddhist activist, philosopher, anthropologist, historian, orator, writer, economist, scholar and editor, too.

— Dr. Ambedkar fought to eradicate the social evils like untouchability and for the rights of the dalits and other socially backward classes throughout his life. 

— He also wrote the book “The Problem of the Rupee: Its Origin and Its Solution” for which he was awarded the degree of D.Sc. Before his departure for London he had taught at a College in Bombay.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

2. (a)

FYI:

— The World Economic Outlook is published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) twice a year. It presents analyses of global economic developments during the near and medium term. It gives an overview as well as more detailed analysis of the world economy.

— The IMF expects the world economy to slow down to 2.8 per cent in 2023, lower from 3.4 per cent in 2022.

— The IMF has also revised downwards its growth forecast for the Indian economy to 5.9 per cent in 2023-24 from its earlier assessment.

— The fresh revision in the growth forecast by the Washington-based multilateral body in its latest bi-annual World Economic Outlook is broadly in line with what other multilateral agencies and economists have projected and is sharply lower than the RBI projection of 6.5 per cent. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

3. (b)

FYI:

— El Nino is the warm phase of ENSO when ocean temperatures are warmer and precipitation is greater  than normal in the area spanning the central to eastern Pacific Ocean.

— La Nina is an abnormal cooling of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean waters off the coasts of Ecuador and Peru.

— During El Niño, the trade winds weaken or reverse, instead of blowing from east to west they turn into westerlies. As the winds blow from the west to east, they cause the masses of warm water to move into the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

— El Nino produces increased rainfall along western Latin America, the Caribbean and US Gulf Coast, while depriving Southeast Asia, Australia and India of convective currents while La Niña is associated with good rainfall in India

— India has had four consecutive years of good monsoons and overall rainfall from 2019 to 2022.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

4. (b)

FYI:

— Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (April 14) referred to the Uttaramerur inscription in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, while discussing India’s democratic history, PTI reported.

— Uttaramerur lies in present-day Kanchipuram district, approximately 90 km southeast of Chennai. Today, it is a small town and had a population of roughly 25,000 in the census of 2011. It is known for its historic temples built during Pallava and Chola rule. The famous inscription from Parantaka I’s reign is found on the walls of the Vaikunda Perumal Temple.

— The inscription gives details of the functioning of the local sabha, i.e. the village assembly. A sabha was an assembly exclusively of brahmans and had specialised committees tasked with different things. The Uttaramerur inscription details how members were selected, the required qualifications, their roles and responsibilities, and even the circumstances in which they could be removed. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— Describing how the sabha shall be constituted, the inscription says, “There will be 30 wards. Everyone living in these 30 wards would assemble and select one representative for the village assembly.”

— It then goes on to describe what the qualifications for such a representative must be. These include ownership of a certain amount of land, having a house, being between the age of 35 and 70 and “knowing mantras and Brahmanas” (from the Vedic corpus). An exception can be made on land ownership if the person has learnt at least “one Veda and four Bhashyas”. One must also be “well-versed in business” and “virtuous”.

— The inscription then lists a number of factors which disqualify someone and their family (all the relations are systematically listed) from consideration. These include, “not having submitted accounts” while previously serving in a committee, committing any of the first four of the five ‘great sins’ (killing a brahman, drinking alcohol, theft and adultery), being associated with outcastes, and eating ‘forbidden’ dishes.

— All those eligible and willing would write their names on palm leaf tickets following which, the representative would be chosen on the basis of an elaborate draw of lots, conducted by priests in the inner hall of the building where the assembly meets.

— The inscription describes a number of important committees within the sabha with their own distinct functions. These include, the garden committee, the tank committee, the annual committee (an executive committee which required prior experience and knowledge to be a part of), the committee for supervision of justice (for supervising appointments and wrong doing), the gold committee (in charge of all the gold in the village temple) and the five-fold committee (its role is unclear in the inscription). These committee assignments would last for 360 days after which the members would have to retire. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— Anyone in the committee who was implicated in any wrongdoing, such as forgery or having ridden an donkey (i.e. being punished for a crime), was removed instantly. Also, the inscription emphasises upon the keeping of accounts – any discrepancy can also disqualify members of the sabha.

— While the Uttaramerur inscription gives details of local self-governance, on closer inspection, it is far from a truly democratic system. Not only does it restrict sabha membership to a tiny subsection of land-owning brahmans, it also does not have true elections. Rather, it chooses members from the eligible pool of candidates through a draw of lots. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

— That being said, this does not mean that this inscription should not be cited as a precedent for democratic functioning. The idea of a democracy, as understood today, is a fairly recent phenomenon.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

5. (c)

FYI:

— Natural compounds found on frogs, plants and many other species provide the basis for many of our medicines. Paclitaxel, a drug used to treat cancer, for example, is derived from the bark of the Pacific yew tree, and ziconotide, a drug that is used to treat severe pain comes from cone snails. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

— Around 70% of cancer medications are based on nature, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

— But biodiversity, which includes the plants, animals, fungi and bacteria found on Earth, are disappearing — and so, too, are the possibilities they hold.

— Around 40% of the world’s plant species are threatened with extinction, according to a report published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, which is home to one of the most diverse botanical collections in the world. Among the threatened plants are 723 species that are used medicinally. The Pacific yew tree — the source of the paclitaxel, the chemotherapy drug, is now classified as near threatened under the IUCN Red List, which tracks the status of different species. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

6. (d)

FYI:

— The Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear a petition challenging the constitutional validity of Section 5(4) of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which states that a woman who legally adopts a child below three months old will be entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave.

— The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 amended Section 5 of the erstwhile Act to allow 26 weeks of paid leave after childbirth, although only to biological mothers.

— The amendment also inserted Section 5(4) which said that adoptive or surrogate mothers legally adopting a child below three months will be entitled to a maternity benefit period of 12 weeks from the date the child is handed over to the mother.

— Further, it inserted provisions to allow women to work from home under Section 5(5) which said, “…Where the nature of work assigned to a woman is of such nature that she may work from home, the employer may allow her to do so after availing of the maternity benefit for such period and on such conditions as the employer and the woman may mutually agree.”

— Under the amended Act, Section 11 was also inserted to say that, “Every establishment having fifty or more employees shall have the facility of creche within such distance as may be prescribed, either separately or along with common facilities.” It is also mandated that the employer allows four visits a day to the creche by the woman as well as rest intervals for her.

— However, a much-received criticism of this Act is that it does not apply to the unorganised sector.

— Women in the unorganised sector cannot avail the benefits of the Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Act 2017. In 2020, a report by TeamLease – a human resource company, revealed that even three years after the amendment Act was passed, it was yet to “deliver a positive impact on job opportunities for women.” Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

7. (d)

FYI:

— US President Joe Biden is visiting Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.