Test: January 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 2 - UPSC MCQ

• A recent study has found that termites decompose wood at a much higher rate in warmer conditions. For every 10 degrees Celsius increase in temperature, their decomposition activity goes up by almost seven times, it added.
• The study also revealed that as the Earth gets warmer, termites will rapidly spread across the world. This could, in turn, lead to a further rise in global temperatures, because these small insects while consuming deadwood release carbon into the atmosphere.
• The researcher also observed that these wood-eating termites were able to survive in warm and dry conditions, unlike microbes that need water to grow. Therefore, with “tropicalization (i.e., warming shifts to tropical climates), termite wood decay will likely increase as termites access more of Earth’s surface.”
• Although these insects are already found in colder areas, they play a limited role in the decaying of wood in comparison to fungi and bacteria.
• As a tree grows older, certain parts of it die and become dead wood, which is eventually decomposed by microbes and insects like termites. The decaying of dead wood results in the release of not only a variety of nutrients but also carbon.
• According to the study, termites release carbon from dead wood in the form of carbon dioxide and methane, two of the most important greenhouse gases. So, an increase in termite population and their faster decomposing activity can cause more greenhouse emissions, resulting in a hotter planet.

• The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR Act) regulates the preservation of monuments and archaeological sites of national importance. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture, functions under this Act. The Act protects monuments and sites that are more than 100 years old, including temples, cemeteries, inscriptions, tombs, forts, palaces, step-wells, rock-cut caves, and even objects like cannons and mile pillars that may be of historical significance.
• According to the provisions of AMASR Act, ASI officials are supposed to regularly inspect the monuments to assess their condition. Apart from various conservation and preservation operations, ASI officials can also file police complaints, issue show cause notices for the removal of encroachments, and communicate to the local administration the need for demolition of encroachments.

• United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. UNFPA is formally named the United Nations Population Fund. The organization was created in 1969, the same year the United Nations General Assembly declared “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.”
• UNFPA calls for the realization of reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.

• The incremental capital-output ratio (ICOR) is the amount of capital required to produce one unit of output. The higher the ICOR, the less efficient we are in the use of capital. 
• ICOR is determined by a variety of factors including technology, skill of manpower, managerial competence and also macroeconomic policies. Thus, delays in the completion of projects, lack of complementary investments in related sectors and the non-availability of critical inputs can all lead to a rise in ICOR.

• Coal deposits are primarily found in eastern and south-central India. Jharkhand, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh accounted for almost 70% of the total known coal reserves in India.
• India is the world’s second largest coal producer.
• Coal mines in a state can be allocated to different state for its extraction and use.

• The Reserve Bank of India performs the supervisory function under the guidance of the Board for Financial Supervision (BFS). The Board was constituted in November 1994 as a committee of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India under the Reserve Bank of India (Board for Financial Supervision) Regulations, 1994.
• The primary objective of BFS is to undertake consolidated supervision of the financial sector comprising Scheduled Commercial and Co-operative Banks, All India Financial Institutions, Local Area Banks, Small Finance Banks, Payments Banks, Credit Information Companies, Non-Banking Finance Companies and Primary Dealers.
• The Board is constituted by co-opting four Directors from the Central Board as Members and is chaired by the Governor. The Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank are ex-officio members. One Deputy Governor, traditionally, the Deputy Governor in charge of supervision, is nominated as the Vice-Chairman of the Board.

India currently has trading only in gold derivatives and Gold ETFs, unlike several other countries which have spot exchanges for physical trade in gold.

• The word ‘Lok Adalat’ means ‘People’s Court’. This system is based on Gandhian principles. It is one of the components of ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) system.
• The Lok Adalat is a forum where the cases (or disputes) which are pending in a court or which are at pre-litigation stage (not yet brought before a court) are compromised or settled in an amicable manner.
• The first Lok Adalat camp in the post-independence era was organised in Gujarat in 1982.
• The institution of Lok Adalat has been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.
• A Lok Adalat shall have jurisdiction to determine and to arrive at a compromise or settlement between the parties to a dispute in respect of:
  • any case pending before any court; or
  • any matter which is falling within the jurisdiction of any court and is not brought before such court.

MGNREGA:

• The scheme was introduced as a social measure that guarantees “the right to work”.
• The key tenet of this social measure and labour law is that the local government will have to legally provide at least 100 days of wage employment in rural India to enhance their quality of life.
• Proactively ensuring social inclusion by strengthening the livelihood base of rural poor.
• Creation of durable assets in rural areas such as wells, ponds, roads and canals.
• Must be Citizen of India to seek MGNREGA benefits.
• Job seeker has completed 18 years of age at the time of application.
• The applicant must be part of a local household (i.e. application must be made with local Gram Panchayat).
• Applicants must volunteer for unskilled labour.
• The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoringthe entire implementation of this scheme in association with state governments.
• Right to get unemployment allowance in case employment is not provided within fifteen days of submitting the application or from the date when work is sought.
• Social Audit of MGNREGA works is mandatory, which lends to accountability and transparency.
• The Gram Sabha is the principal forum for wage seekers to raise their voices and make demands.
• It is the Gram Sabha and the Gram Panchayat which approves the shelf of works under MGNREGA and fix their priority.

Fiscal profligacy is opposite of fiscal prudence. It is the act of spending money or using something in a way that wastes it and is not wise. The costs of fiscal profligacy at the State level can be huge.

The various matters such as Matri-monial/Family Disputes, Criminal (Compoundable Offences) cases, Land Acquisition cases, Labour disputes, Workmen’s compensation cases, Bank Recovery cases, Pension cases etc.

Microfinance is a form of financial service which provides small loans and other financial services to poor and low-income households. 
Microcredit is delivered through a variety of institutional channels viz., (i) scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) (including small finance banks (SFBs) and regional rural banks (RRBs)) lending both directly as well as through business correspondents (BCs) and self-help groups (SHGs), (ii) cooperative banks, (iii) non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and (iv) microfinance institutions (MFIs) registered as NBFCs as well as in other forms.

• Carbon sinks are natural systems that suck up and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Earth’s land and oceans absorb about half of all carbon dioxide emissions from human activities.
• Mangroves, seagrass beds and salt marshes store at least ten times more carbon than continental forests.
• Sedimentary rocks in the Earth’s crust contain loads of carbon compounds, including the hydrocarbons we use as fossil fuels that leads to excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
• A forest is considered a carbon sink if it absorbs more carbon than it releases. Worryingly, the Amazon rainforest is now releasing instead of absorbing carbon dioxide.

• The meeting of the National Ganga Council will be held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister.
• The Council is the apex authority responsible for cleaning the river and includes the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal as members. The Council also includes several Union ministers, including the Finance Minister, Rural Development Minister and Power Minister.
• National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has proposed making urban river management plans (URMPs) and river sensitive master planning mandatory for river cities.

• Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award is the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention.
• The PSBA is conferred by the President of India as part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention on Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) or organisations established and run by NRIs or PIOs in recognition of their outstanding achievements — both in India and abroad.
• A jury-cum-awards committee, with (the) Vice President as the chairman and External Affairs Minister as the vice-chair and other distinguished members from various walks of life considered the nominations…and unanimously selected the awardees.

High Court

• In the Indian scheme of judicial system, high court works below the Supreme Court.
• The judiciary in the state consists of a high court and a hierarchy of subordinate courts.
• The institution of the High Court originated in India in 1862 when the high courts were set up at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.
• The constitution of India provides a high court for each state, however, the Parliament is authorized to declare a common high court for two or more states.
• Parliament has been empowered to extend or curtail the jurisdiction of a high court over a Union Territory.
• The number of judges in a high court, unlike the Supreme Court, is decided by the President of India rather than the parliament.

• Village Defence Committee (VDC) were first formed in the erstwhile Doda district (now Kishtwar, Doda and Ramban districts) in mid 1990s as a force multiplier against militant attacks. The then Jammu and Kashmir administration decided to provide residents of remote hilly villages with weapons and give them arms training to defend themselves.
• The VDCs have now been renamed as Village Defence Guards (VDG). The new scheme to set up VDGs in vulnerable areas of J&K was approved by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in March last year. Like a VDC member, each VDG will be provided a gun and 100 rounds of ammunition.
• Both VDG and VDC is a group of civilians provided guns and ammunition to tackle militants in case of attack until the arrival of security forces.
• The VDGs, officials said, will function under the direction of the SP/SSP of the district concerned.
• A minimum of 10-15 ex-servicemen, ex-policemen and able-bodied local youth were enrolled in each VDC on a voluntary basis.
• The idea was taken from the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, when the government armed ex-servicemen and abled-bodied youth in villages along the border to guard against infiltration of Pakistani spies.

• There is disparity between the retirement ages of High Court and Supreme Court judges; High Court judges now retire at 62 and Supreme Court judges at 65.
• It is generally assumed that the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court should be the Chief Justice of India, but we may pause to consider whether this is what the law mandates, and whether it is wholly wise. As to the first, the Constitution mandates no such thing. Article 124 merely states that the President will appoint every judge of the Supreme Court, and this includes the Chief Justice, and each of these judges shall hold office until they attain the age of 65 years.

The IUCN Green Status of Species, a new Global Standard to measure how close a species is to being fully ecologically functional across its range, and how much it has recovered thanks to conservation action.

The Five Eyes alliance is an intelligence-sharing arrangement between US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It evolved during the Cold War as a mechanism for monitoring the Soviet Union and sharing classified intelligence. It is often described as the world’s most successful intelligence alliance. But recently it has suffered an embarrassing setback.

• Glaciers are the largest source of freshwater outside of the polar regions. Glaciers and snow melt in the Himalayan ecosystem are the source of water for several rivers across the subcontinent, and are responsible for maintaining the perennial supply of water in the river systems like the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra to over a billion people.
• Some models predict that an increase in global temperatures by 2°C from 1850 by 2070 would result in 45% of the medium and large glaciers (10 sq km or more) disappearing completely. Nearly 70% smaller glaciers are likely to melt away. Shrinking glaciers have led to the formation of a large number of glacial lakes all across the Himalayas. Many of these high-altitude lakes are potentially dangerous, because of their potential to cause flash floods in the event of a breach.
• A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. 

Public Account of India accounts for flows for those transactions where the government is merely acting as a banker. This fund was constituted under Article 266 (2) of the Constitution.
Examples of those are provident funds, small savings and so on. These funds do not belong to the government. They have to be paid back at some time to their rightful owners. Because of this nature of the fund, expenditures from it are not required to be approved by the Parliament.

Any case pending before the court can be referred to the Lok Adalat for settlement if:

• theparties thereof agree to settle the dispute in the Lok Adalat; or
• one of the parties thereof makes an application to the court, for referring the case to the Lok Adalat; or
• the court is satisfied that thematter is an appropriate one to be taken cognizance of by the Lok Adalat. In the case of a pre-litigation dispute, the matter can be referred to the Lok Adalat for settlement by the agency organizing the Lok Adalat, on receipt of an application from any one of the parties to the dispute.

• In simple terms, environmental enteropathy is a disorder of the intestine which prevents the proper absorption of nutrients, rendering them effectively useless.
• Since the disorder was intricately connected to the poor environmental conditions its victims lived in, it came to be called “environmental enteropathy”.
• Diarrhoeal diseases, intestinal parasite infections and environmental enteropathy together impact the normal growth and cognitive development of children, leading to anaemia, stunting, and wasting.

Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank of a country (Reserve Bank of India in case of India) lends money to commercial banks in the event of any shortfall of funds. Repo rate is used by monetary authorities to control inflation.