UPSC Weekly Current Affairs Quiz | October 01 to October 07, 2023

(a) Telangana

(b) Jharkhand

(c) Chhattisgarh

(d) Odisha

QUESTION 2

Consider the following places:

  (Place)                               (Location)

1. Lhonak Lake                 Arunachal Pradesh

2. Bijapur                           Chhattisgarh

3. Chungthang Dam        Sikkim

How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d)  None

QUESTION 3

Narges Mohammadi has been awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee:

(a) For her efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.

(b) For her resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.

(c) For her long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in Israel.

(d) For her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all.

QUESTION 4

Consider the following provisions:

1. Imposition and abolition of any tax.

2. Appropriation of money out of the Consolidated Fund of India.

3. Regulation of borrowing by the government.

4. Imposition of fines

5. Regulation of any tax by any local authority.

How many of the provisions given above are included under the Money Bill?

(a) Only two

(b) Only three

(c) Only four

(d) All five

QUESTION 5

He was born in Mughalsarai in 1904 and his youth was dedicated to India’s struggle for independence. Post-independence, he served in the UP state government and the central government. He had an eventful two-year stint at the helm of the country, he passed away suddenly in Tashkent (present-day Uzbekistan), with his death still heavily speculated upon.

The above-mentioned lines refer to:

(a) Jawaharlal Nehru

(b) Rajendra Prasad

(c) Lal Bahadur Shastri

(d) H.J Kania

QUESTION 6

Who has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 2023 for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable?

(a) Annie Ernaux

(b) Abdulrazak Gurnah

(c) Louise Gluck

(d) Jon Fosse

QUESTION 7

With reference to the Sanchi complex, consider the following statements:

1. The monuments are a reflection of Indian architecture from the Gupta era (5th century CE).

2. The Sanchi complex is famous for the Mahastupa (Great Stupa), the Ashokan pillar (with its inscriptions) and its signature ornate torans (gateways).

3. The town where the complex is located is Madhya Pradesh’s first solar-powered town.

4. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2009.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) Only three

(d) All four

QUESTION 8

Which of the following countries had inaugurated the “Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway”, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative?

(a) Singapore

(b) Vietnam

(c) Indonesia

(d) Philippines

QUESTION 9

With reference to the  wagh nakh, conisder the following statements:

1. Rajasthan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to bring back Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s legendary wagh nakh to the state.

2. It was a claw-like dagger which was used across the Indian subcontinent.

3. It was designed to either fit over the knuckles or be concealed under the palm.

How many of the statements given above are correct?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

QUESTION 10

With reference to the places in news, consider the following pairs:

  (Place in news)                             (Location)

1. Kharkiv                                         Ukraine

2. Fukushima                                  South Korea

3. Gaza Strip                                    Jordan

How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?

(a) Only one

(b) Only two

(c) All three

(d) None

ANSWERS TO THE MCQs

1. (a)

FYI:

— The Union cabinet approved a tribal university for Telangana – the Sarakka Central Tribal University, which will come up in Mulugu district at a cost of Rs 889 crore.

— Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated during a recent visit to poll-bound Telangana that the institution would be named after Sammakka-Sarakka, a mother-daughter combo venerated among the local tribal people.

— Sammakka was said to have married Pagididda Raju, a feudal lord of the Kakatiyas (a Deccan dynasty) who dominated the Warangal region. Sarakka or Saralamma, Nagulamma, and Jampanna were her two daughters and one son. Saralamma perished in the war against the local rulers in protest of the taxes, while Sammakka vanished into the hills.

— Mulugu holds a biennial festival – the Sammakka Saralamma Jatara – which is considered among the largest gatherings of tribal people in the world.

— The festival recalls the 13th-century mother-daughter duo’s struggle against local rulers in protest of the imposition of taxes on the Koya people.

— The Jatara (yatra, or pilgrimage) begins at Medaram, and the rituals are conducted by the Koya priests, in accordance with their customs and traditions.

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

2. (b)

FYI:

Place	Location
Lhonak Lake	Sikkim
Bijapur	Chhattisgarh
Chungthang Dam	Sikkim

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

3. (d)

FYI:

— The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi the 2023 Nobel Prize for Peace, “For her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all” according to its citation.

— Narges Mohammadi was born in 1972 in Iran, She is currently living in a detention facility there under the charges of “spreading anti-state propaganda” and defamation.

— Mohammadi and her family have long been involved in political protests – beginning with the Iranian Revolution. The monarchy fell at the end of the movement in 1979, leading to Iran becoming an Islamic republic.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

4. (b)

FYI:

— Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said that a seven judge bench will soon be set up to hear a batch of pleas challenging the Centre’s use of the money bill route to pass certain key legislations.

— Under Article 110(1) of the Constitution, a Bill is deemed to be a Money Bill if it contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the following matters:

(a) the imposition, abolition, remission, alteration or regulation of any tax; Hence, 1 is correct.

(b) regulation of borrowing by the government; Hence, 3 is correct.

(c) custody of the Consolidated Fund or Contingency Fund of India, and payments into or withdrawals from these Funds;

(d) appropriation of money out of the Consolidated Fund of India; Hence, 2 is correct.

(e) declaring of any expenditure to be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India or the increasing of the amount of any such expenditure;

(f) receipt of money on account of the Consolidated Fund of India or the public account of India or the custody or issue of such money or the audit of the accounts of the Union or of a State; or

(g) any matter incidental to any of the matters specified in sub-clauses (a) to (f).

— Imposition of fines and regulation of any tax by any local authority is not covered under the preview of Money Bill. Hence, 4 and 5 are not correct.

— The first major challenge on whether a bill qualified to be a money bill under the Constitution was in the Aadhaar case. In a 4:1 majority, the Supreme Court in 2018, had ruled in favour of the government and had cleared the Aadhaar Act as a valid money bill under Article 110 of the Constitution.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

5. (c)

FYI:

— October 2 marks the birth anniversary of two iconic Indian leaders who played a role in the freedom struggle and the early years of nation-building: the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri (1904-1966).

— Shastri was born in Mughalsarai in 1904. He came from humble origins in Uttar Pradesh, and his youth was dedicated to India’s struggle for independence. Post-independence, he served in the UP state government and the central government, before becoming Prime Minister in 1964 after the death of PM Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964).

— He had an eventful two-year stint at the helm of the country, he passed away suddenly in Tashkent (present-day Uzbekistan), with his death still heavily speculated upon.

— After independence, he became the Union Minister for Railways and Transport in 1952. After two railway accidents in Telangana and Tamil Nadu, he resigned from the cabinet. Within a year of his resignation, Shastri was back in the Union Cabinet and would go on to take the roles of the Home Minister and the Commerce and Industry Minister.

— It was then that Shastri asked Indians in a radio address in 1965, for the farmer to produce more, the trader to market supplies at fair prices, and the consumer to exercise greater restraint on consumption. “He reminded the nation that dependence on food imports undermined the country’s self-confidence and self-respect. This is when he gave the nation a new slogan—‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan (Hail the soldier, hail the farmer!)’”

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

6. (d)

FYI:

— Norwegian playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, and translator Jon Fosse was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. 

— In the citation, the Nobel committee commended Fosse’s “innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable”, and spoke of his “immense oeuvre, written in Norwegian Nynorsk and spanning a variety of genres consists of a wealth of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, children’s books and translations”.

— Fosse is one of the most widely performed playwrights in the world, he has also become increasingly recognised for his prose.

— Fosse grew up in Norway’s Strandebarm, and currently divides his time between Norway and Austria.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

7. (b)

FYI:

— Sanchi has seen many a makeover – built as a sacred site for Buddhism by Mauryan emperor Ashoka.

— It is located around 46 km from Bhopal, a town of more than 8,000 residents used to have its power needs met by hydro and thermal projects.

— The 5,572 solar panels spread over an area of 4.98 hectares ensure supply from 9 am to 4 pm – “more than adequate to cover Sanchi’s morning load of around 1.5 MW” and “reduce 13,747 tonnes of carbon emissions annually”. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— This transformation started with pilot projects in the heritage cities of Khajuraho and Sanchi, and the learnings of the project will be used to develop major cities.

— It took seven years of dedicated excavation and restoration by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) – under the supervision of Director-General John Marshall between 1912 and 1919 – to make the world realise its true splendour and importance.

— These monuments are reflective of Indian architecture from the Mauryan era (3rd century BCE) to its later medieval-era decline (around 11th century CE). Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

— The Sanchi complex is famous for the Mahastupa (Great Stupa), the Ashokan pillar (with its inscriptions) and its signature ornate torans (gateways). The style of the torans and fencing is said to mimic the bamboo craft of the surrounding areas. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1989. Hence, statement 4 is not correct.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Sanchi Stupa (Source: Sahapedia)

8. (c)

FYI:

— Indonesian President Joko Widodo inaugurated Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway as it was set to begin commercial operations, a key project under China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

— The $7.3 billion project, largely funded by China, was constructed by PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, known as PT KCIC, a joint venture between an Indonesian consortium of four state-owned companies and China Railway International Co. Ltd.

— The railway connects Jakarta with Bandung, the heavily populated capital of West Java province, and will cut travel time between the cities from the current three hours to about 40 minutes.

Therefore, option (c) is the correct answer.

9. (b)

FYI:

— Maharashtra’s Cultural Affairs Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to bring back Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s legendary wagh nakh to the state. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

— The MoU states that the antique weapon will be handed over to the Government of Maharashtra on a loan basis for a period of three years, during which it will be displayed in museums across the state.

— The wagh nakh is a medieval claw-like dagger which was used across the Indian subcontinent. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

— It was designed to either fit over the knuckles or be concealed under the palm, the weapon consisted of four or five curved blades affixed to a glove or a bar of some kind. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

— It was a weapon used for personal defence or stealth attack, and could easily slice through skin and flesh.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

10. (a)

FYI:

Place in News	Location
Kharkiv	Ukraine
Fukushima	Japan
Gaza Strip	Israel

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

Share your views, answers and suggestions in the comment box or at manas.srivastava@indianexpress.com. 

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