UPSC CSE Prelims Paper 1 (GS) Mock Test - 19 - UPSC MCQ

• Taxila became famous as a place of learning due to its teachers’ expertise. Students came to Taxila from Kashi, Kosala, Magadha and also from other countries in spite of the long and arduous journey they had to undertake.

• Taxila’s famous researchers and students include:
  (i) Panini (the great grammarian of Sanskrit, to whom Prof. Noam Chomsky of MIT attributes the origin of linguistics);
  (ii) Kautilya, also known as Chanakya (king-maker, astute political advisor, and author of Arthashastra, c. 300 BCE, deemed by social and economic historian Max Weber as one of the greatest political state-craft books of the ancient world);
  (iii) Charaka (the distinguished physician, whose research on the region’s flora and fauna described in his Charaka Samhita strengthened the development of Ayurveda); and (iv) Jivaka (the great physician to Gautama Buddha and his followers).

• Aryabhatta studied at the University of Nalanda.

• Hence only options 1 and 2 are correct.

• Shah Jahan was considered the most competent of Emperor Jahangir's four sons. He put to death all of his rivals for the throne and crowned himself emperor in January 1628 in Agra under the regnal title "Shah Jahan" (which was originally given to him as a princely title)

• In 1602, the United East India Company of the Netherlands was formed and given permission by the Dutch government to trade in the East Indies including India. The Dutch founded their first factory in Masaulipatam in Andhra Pradesh in 1605.

• The Battle of Talikota or Bannihati (1565) was a decisive battle in the history of the Vijayanagara empire. The battle was fought in a range of 40 km. This battle was fought between the villages of Rakkasagi and Tangadagi, near Talikota. Hence it was called the battle of Talikota or Rakkasa-Tangadi. Some scholars believe that the decisive battle was fought at Krishna-Bannihatti. Hence it is also called the Battle of Bannihatti. Aliya Ramaraya was the leader of the Vijayanagara troops. On the opposite side was the coalition army of Shahi Sultans of Deccan. This grand army comprised of the troops Adil Shahis of Bijapur, Nizam Shahis of Ahmadnagar, Qutub Shahis of Golconda, and Barid Shahis of Bidar.

• Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• The concept of liquidity trap was first developed by economists J.M Keynes and J.H. Hicks in 1937, as an economic condition first observed after the Great Depression of the 1930s.

• In a standard economy, a reduction in interest rates encourages both borrowing and spending levels on part of both producers and consumers and this leads to an improvement in the aggregate demand levels of an economy, thereby leading to a corresponding rise in the GDP of the country.

• However, an expansionary monetary policy through lowering borrowing rates are ineffective when the interest rates are already close to zero, as any further reduction has no effect on the borrowing patterns of individuals. Due to prevailing depressed demand and production levels, individuals prefer to hoard capital rather than investing.

• This situation is known as the liquidity trap and the expansionary monetary policy (increase in the money supply) of Central bank becomes ineffective to boost economic growth. The liquidity trap is the inability of a central bank to stimulate economic growth through interest rate cuts. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• If low-interest rates can’t stimulate people to spend enough to keep the workforce at full employment, the risk is that a liquidity trap will set off a deflationary spiral in which prices fall, causing people to delay spending, which makes prices fall even more, and so on down. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Starting in the 1990s, Japan faced a liquidity trap. Interest rates continued to fall and yet there was a little incentive in buying investments. Japan faced deflation through the 1990s, and of 2019 still has a negative interest rate of -0.1%.

• Composition of Panchayats is provided under Article 243C of the Constitution.

• All the members of panchayats at the village, intermediate and district levels shall be elected directly by the people. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• The chairperson of a panchayat at the village level shall be elected in such manner as the state legislature determines. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• Further, the chairperson of panchayats at the intermediate and district levels shall be elected indirectly— by and from amongst the elected members thereof. Hence statement 3 is correct.

• A guild (or ecological guild) is any group of species that exploit the same resources, or that exploit different resources in related ways. Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• Guilds are defined according to the locations, attributes, or activities of their component species. For example, the mode of acquiring nutrients, the mobility, and the habitat zones that the species occupy or exploit can be used to define a guild. The number of guilds occupying an ecosystem is termed its disparity. It is not necessary that the species within a guild occupy the same, or even similar, ecological niches which is the role an organism plays in its community, i.e. decomposer, primary producer, etc.

• Members of a guild within a given ecosystem could be competing for resources, such as space or light, while cooperating in resisting wind stresses, attracting pollinators, or detecting predators, such as happens among savannah-dwelling antelope and zebra.

• A guild does not typically have strict, or even clearly defined boundaries, nor does it need to be taxonomically cohesive. A broadly defined guild will almost always have constituent guilds. For example, grazing guilds will have some species that concentrate on coarse, plentiful forage, while others concentrate on low-growing, finer plants. Each of those two sub-guilds may be regarded as guilds in appropriate contexts, and they might, in turn, have sub-guilds in more closely selective contexts.

• Due to Earth's inclined axis, the Sun is vertically overhead at the equator on two days every year. These are usually March 21 or September 21. These two days are termed as equinoxes i.e. equal night and day.

• On June 21st, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. The rays of the sun fall directly on the Tropic of Cancer. Any latitude north of that does not experience overhead midday sun. Hence option 1 is correct.

• Asa consequence, those areas receive extra heat. The areas near the poles get less heat (as the rays of the sun are slanting). The longest day of the year arrives when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer. To be more specific, right over the 23.5 degrees North latitude. It is the day when the Northern Hemisphere receives maximum sunlight. The Southern Hemisphere receives more sunlight on December 21,22, or 23.

• The winter solstice, hiemal solstice, or hibernal solstice, also known as midwinter, occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere. The places on Earth that have six months of daylight and 6 months of darkness are the places closer to the north pole and south pole. Countries near the poles and within the Arctic circle (66 1/2 °N) have 6 months of night, and six months of day, because the Earth tilts on its axis with the poles pointing toward and away from the sun. The Arctic Circle marks the southern extremity of the polar day (24-hour sunlit day, often referred to as the midnight sun) and polar night (24-hour sunless night). Therefore a place located at 50°N will not experience darkness for six months. However, it will experience marked change in the seasons owing to its high latitude. Hence option 2 is correct and option 3 is not correct.

• Recently, the Kashmir saffron (Lachha Saffron, Mongra Saffron, and Guchhi Saffron) has been granted the Geographical Indication (GI) status. Saffron has been associated with traditional Kashmiri cuisine and represents the rich cultural heritage of the region. It is a very precious and costly product and is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri saffrons have a strong aroma and are the only varieties of saffron grown at a high altitude. Hence option 1 is correct.

• Other items from Kashmir which have been granted GI (Geographical Indication) status are:
  (i) Kani Shaw
  (ii) Kashmir Walnut Wood Carving. Hence option 2 is correct.
  (iii) Kashmir papier-mache
  (iv) Pashmina

• Kashmir tea or Noon chai or pink tea although quite famous is yet to receive Geographic Indication status. Hence option 3 is not correct.

• Recently scientists onboard International Space Station conducted Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) experiments and have observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time.

• In physics, a state of matter is one of the distinct forms in which matter can exist. Four states of matter are observable in everyday life: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter (also called the fifth state of matter) exists under extreme conditions.

• The existence of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) was first predicted, generally, in 1924-1925 by Albert Einstein following and crediting a pioneering paper by Satyendra Nath Bose on the new field now known as quantum statistics. Hence statement 1 is correct.

• BECs are formed by cooling a gas of extremely low density, about one-hundred-thousandth (1/100,000) the density of normal air, to ultra-low temperatures (near aboslutte zero - 0 kelvin or -273.5 Celsius). Hence statement 2 is not correct.

• At this point, the atoms become a single entity with quantum properties, wherein each particle also functions as a wave of matter. BECs straddle the line between the macroscopic world governed by forces such as gravity and the microscopic plane, ruled by quantum mechanics. Hence statement 3 is correct. Scientists believe BECs contain vital clues to mysterious phenomena such as dark energy—the unknown energy thought to be behind the Universe's accelerating expansion. But BECs are extremely fragile. The slightest interaction with the external world is enough to warm them past their condensation threshold.

• Megasthenes was an ambassador who was sent to the court of Chandragupta (the Mauryan emperor) by the Greek ruler of West Asia named Seleucus Nicator.

• Megasthenes wrote an account about what he saw in India in his book Indica. Here is a part of his description:
  - “The occasions on which the emperor appears in public are celebrated with grand royal processions. He is carried in a golden palanquin. His guards ride elephants decorated with gold and silver. Some of the guards carry trees on which live birds, including a flock of trained parrots, circle about the head of the emperor. The king is normally surrounded by armed women. He is afraid that someone may try to kill him. He has special servants to taste the food before he eats. He never sleeps in the same bedroom for two nights.”

• And about Pataliputra (modern Patna) he wrote:
  -  “This is a large and beautiful city. It is surrounded by a massive wall. It has 570 towers and 64 gates. The houses, of two and three storeys, are built of wood and mud brick. The king’s palace is also of wood, and decorated with stone carvings. It is surrounded with gardens and enclosures for keeping birds.

• Hence all the statements are correct.

• The Indian Forest Act, 1927: The Indian Forest Act, 1927 was largely based on previous Indian Forest Acts implemented under the British. The most famous one was the Indian Forest Act of 1878. Both the 1878 act and the 1927 one sought to consolidate and reserve the areas having forest cover, or significant wildlife, to regulate movement and transit of forest produce, and the duty leviable on timber and other forest produce.
  (i) It seeks to consolidate and reserve the areas having forest cover, or significant wildlife, to regulate movement and transit of forest produce, and duty leviable on timber and other forest produce. Hence option 1 is correct.
  (ii) It defines the procedure to be followed for declaring an area to be a Reserved Forest, a Protected Forest or a Village Forest.
  (iii) It defines what is a forest offence, what are the acts prohibited inside a Reserved Forest, and penalties leviable on violation of the provisions of the Act.

• Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 provide an appropriate institutional mechanism, both at the Centre and in each State and Union Territory, to ensure expeditious utilization in an efficient and transparent manner of amounts released in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose which would mitigate the impact of diversion of such forest land. Hence option 2 is not correct.

• Guidelines for establishing national parks and wildlife sanctuaries are laid down under Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972. Hence option 3 is not correct.

• Recent Context: India secured 168 rank in the 12th edition of the biennial Environment Performance Index (EPI Index 2020) — that measured the environmental performance of 180 countries — and was released by the Yale University in June, 2020. India’s rank was 177 (with a score of 30.57 out of 100) in 2018. The country scored 27.6 out of 100 in the 2020 index. The global index considered 32 indicators of environmental performance, giving a snapshot of the 10-year trends in environmental performance at the national and global levels. Overall EPI rankings indicate which countries are best addressing the environmental challenges that every nation faces.

• This biennial index has been developed by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

• Historically, the condition of the Indian economy has been greatly influenced by oil prices. In the past, a rapid rise in oil prices has precipitated an economic crisis. India imports nearly 82 per cent of its oil, a fall in prices could give its flailing economy some breathing space.

• A fall in crude price lowers both the trade deficit and, in turn, the current account deficit since India largely relies on imports for its oil demand. So, when the crude oil prices are falling the Current account deficit is most likely to reduce/shrink. Hence option 1 is not correct.

• Consumer price inflation and wholesale price inflation see a direct impact on crude oil prices. Oil is a very important commodity and it is required to meet domestic fuel needs. An increase in the price of crude oil means that it would increase the cost of producing goods. This price rise would finally be passed on to consumers resulting in inflation. However, the core inflation rate is the price change of goods and services minus food and energy. So, therefore, the fall in global crude prices would not affect the core inflation rate. Hence option 2 is not correct.

• When oil prices are high, sugar mills tend to divert cane for making ethanol (alcohol of 99%-plus purity) that is used for blending with petrol. But with oil prices tanking, mills will not find it attractive to divert cane for ethanol. Lower oil prices would lead to excess supply/ availability of sugar in the international market. With exports slowing down this could result in lower sugar prices in India. Hence option 3 is correct.

• Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) is the northernmost corner of Indian territory in Ladakh, in the area better known in Army parlance as Sub-Sector North. It has the world’s highest airstrip. This airstrip was originally built during the 1962 war. It was abandoned until 2008, when the Indian Air Force (IAF) revived it as one of its many Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) along the LAC. Recently, the Chinese build-up along the Galwan River valley region overlooks, and hence poses a direct threat to the Darbuk- Shyokh-Daulat Beg Oldie (DSDBO) road. Hence pair 1 is correctly matched.

• The Depsang Plains are located at the Line of Actual Control that separates the Indian and Chinese controlled regions. The Chinese Army occupied most of the plains in 1962. India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, whereas the eastern portion is part of the Aksai Chin region, which is controlled by China and claimed by India. Hence pair 2 is not correctly matched.

• Namti Maidan is placed 7 kms away from Walong in Arunachal Pradesh. The fierce battle of 1962 was fought here by the Indian forces against Chinese aggression into the valley. A sombre war memorial stands in honour of the sacrifices of brave Indian soldiers. Hence pair 3 is not correctly matched.

• The seventh to ninth centuries saw the emergence of new religious movements, led by the Nayanars (saints devoted to Shiva) and Alvars (saints devoted to Vishnu) who came from all castes including those considered —untouchable” like the Pulaiyar and the Panars. They were sharply critical of the Buddhists and Jainas and preached ardent love of Shiva or Vishnu as the path to salvation. They drew upon the ideals of love and heroism as found in the Sangam literature (the earliest example of Tamil literature, composed during the early centuries of the Common Era), and blended them with the values of bhakti. The Nayanars and Alvars went from place to place composing exquisite poems in praise of the deities enshrined in the villages they visited and set them to music.

• There were 63 Nayanars, who belonged to different caste backgrounds such as potters, —untouchable” workers, peasants, hunters, soldiers, Brahmanas, and chiefs. The best known among them were Appar, Sambandar, Sundarar, and Manikkavasagar. There are two sets of compilations of their songs - Tevaram and Tiruvacakam.

• There were 12 Alvars, who came from equally divergent backgrounds, the best known being Periyalvar, his daughter Andal, Tondaradippodi Alvar, and Nammalvar. Their songs were compiled in the Divya Prabandham.

• The importance of the traditions of the Alvars and Nayanars was sometimes indicated by the claim that their compositions were as important as the Vedas. For instance, one of the major anthologies of compositions by the Alvars, the Nalayira Divyaprabandham, was frequently described as the Tamil Veda, thus claiming that the text was as significant as the four Vedas in Sanskrit that was cherished by the Brahmanas.

• Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

• The total tribal population in Ladakh region is more than 97 percent. The region is inhabited by following Scheduled Tribes, namely: Balti, Beda, Bot, Boto, Brokpa, Drokpa, Dard, Shin, Changpa, etc. Recently, the Chinese Army’s intrusion in Chumur and Demchok since January has left Ladakh’s nomadic herding Changpa community cut off from large parts of summer pastures.

• The People’s Liberation Army (China) has taken over 16 kanals (two acres) of cultivable land in Chumur and advanced around 15 km inside Demchok, taking over traditional grazing pastures and cultivable lowlands. This has destabilised the movement of over 2,000 members of the nomadic community. In a cascading effect, this has resulted in a sharp rise in deaths of young Pashmina goats this year in the Korzok-Chumur belt of Changthang plateau in Ladakh.

• The Changpas rear the highly pedigreed and prized Changra goats (Capra Hircus) that yield the rare Pashmina fibre (Cashmere wool). The Cashmere goats (Changra goats) are not raised for their meat but for their fibre (pashm). The pashmina fibre (Pashm in Persian) is one of the finest fibre of all goat hair. Changthangi or Pashmina goat is a breed of goat inhabiting the plateaus in Tibet and neighbouring areas of Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir, India.

• The wool comes from four distinct breeds of the Cashmere goat; namely the Changthangi or Kashmir Pashmina goat from the Changthang plateau in Kashmir region, the Malra from Kargil area in Kashmir region, the Chegu from Himachal Pradesh in northern India, and Chyangara or Nepalese Pashmina goat from Nepal.

• The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) was established by the Government of India under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act, 1985. It is an autonomous body under the administrative control of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.

• According to the provisions of APEDA act, the following functions have been assigned to the Authority:
  (i) Development of industries relating to the scheduled products for export by way of providing financial assistance or otherwise for undertaking surveys and feasibility studies, participation in inquiry capital through joint ventures and other reliefs and subsidy schemes; Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  (ii) Registration of persons as exporters of the scheduled products on payment of such fees as may be prescribed;
  (iii) Fixing of standards and specifications for the scheduled products for the purpose of exports;
  (iv) Carrying out inspection of meat and meat products in slaughterhouses, processing plants, storage premises, conveyances or other places where such products are kept or handled for the purpose of ensuring the quality of such products;
  (v) Improving the packaging of the Scheduled products;
  (vi) Improving marketing of the Scheduled products outside India;
  (vii) Promotion of export-oriented production and development of the Scheduled products

• APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility of export promotion and development of 14 agricultural and processed food product groups listed in the Schedule to the APEDA Act.
  - The scheduled products include Fruits, Vegetables and their products, Meat and Meat Products; Poultry and Poultry Products; Dairy Products; Confectionery, Biscuits and Bakery Products; Honey, Jaggery and Sugar Products; Cocoa and its products, chocolates of all kinds; Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Beverages; Cereal and Cereal Products; Groundnuts, Peanuts and Walnuts; Pickles, Papads and Chutneys; Guar Gum; Floriculture and Floriculture Products; Herbal and Medicinal Plants. In addition to this, APEDA has been entrusted with the responsibility to monitor the import of sugar as well. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

• APEDA has been actively engaged in the development of markets besides the up-gradation of infrastructure and quality to promote the export of agro products. In its endeavour to promote agro exports, APEDA, under its Plan Scheme titled ‘Agriculture Export Promotion Scheme of APEDA’ provides financial assistance to the registered exporters under sub-components of the Scheme - Market Development, Infrastructure Development, Quality Development and Transport Assistance.

• Parliamentary privileges are certain rights and immunities enjoyed by members of Parliament, individually and collectively, so that they can —effectively discharge their functions”. When any of these rights and immunities are disregarded, the offence is called a breach of privilege and is punishable under law of Parliament. Rules of Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha permit a member, with the consent of the Speaker or the Chairperson, can move privilege motion involving a breach of privilege either of a member or of the House or of a committee. The Speaker/Chair can decide on the privilege motion himself or herself or refer it to the privileges committee of Parliament.

• A judge of the Supreme Court can be removed from his office by an order of the president. The President can issue the removal order only after an address by Parliament has been presented to him/her in the same session for the removal. The Judges Enquiry Act (1968) regulates the procedure relating to the removal of a judge of the Supreme Court by the process of impeachment. A removal motion can be moved either in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha.

• Adjournment Motion is introduced in the Parliament to draw the attention of the House to a definite matter of urgent public importance and needs the support of 50 members to be admitted. As it interrupts the normal business of the House, it is regarded as an extraordinary device. It involves an element of censure against the government and hence Rajya Sabha is not permitted to make use of this device.

• In the light of the reports of the departmental standing committees, the Lok Sabha takes up voting of demands for grants. Members of Lok Sabha can also move motions to reduce any demand for a grant. Such motions are called as ‘cut motion'.

• Economy Cut Motion: It represents the economy that can be affected in the proposed expenditure. It states that the amount of the demand be reduced by a specified amount. The voting of demands for grants is the exclusive privilege of the Lok Sabha, that is, the Rajya Sabha has no power of voting the demands and hence cannot move Economy Cut motion. Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

• 15th Finance Commission (FC) proposes performance-based incentives to states based on reforms undertaken in six different areas. These broad contours are given below:

• Implementation of Agriculture Reforms: The States will be eligible for financial incentives if they enact and implement all features of:
  (i) Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare in 2017,
  (ii) Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in 2018, and
  (iii) “Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016” prepared by the NITI Aayog.

• Development of Aspirational Districts and Aspirational Blocks: The Aspirational Districts Programme (ADP), piloted by NITI Aayog, is based on three principles of competition, convergence and collaboration. On the basis of the performance evaluation of the ADP, the finance commission recommends earmarking funds to incentivise the top-performing districts to sustain these results and broaden their impact over our award period.

• Power Sector Reforms: The FC has recommended annual financial incentives for top-performing States which achieve the targets based on certain broad parameters such as:
  (i) achieving the reduction targets of AT&C losses,
  (ii) achieving the reduction targets of (ACSARR),
  (iii) open access to trade and industry to meet their power needs from sources other than the State utilities and o to implement direct cash transfers for all consumers eligible for subsidy in a State.

• Enhancing Trade including Exports: Robust logistics, user-friendly institutions and regulatory framework and adequate finance are essential ingredients of a conducive eco-system for promoting trade, including exports. The World Bank has a Logistic Performance Index and an index for measuring Trading Across Borders. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is preparing an Index of Logistics Ease Across Different States as well as a Trade Preparedness Index together with the NITI Aayog. The FC recommends performance-based incentive related to exports, including its design. We would also like to support export-related employment generating initiatives given its significance in enhancing the growth potential of States in terms of GSDP.

• Incentives for Education: In education low ratio of girls transitioning from upper-primary to the secondary level of education are areas of concern. Considering this the Fc recommended financial incentives for best performing States in terms of incremental change in a few focussed indicators like the difference between transition rate of boys and girls rate from upper primary to secondary level, Average mathematics score in Class 8 - Government and aided schools etc.

• Promotion of Domestic and International Tourism: The FC recommends allocations of funds for rewarding the States with highest percentage increase in the aggregate number of nights spent by international tourists in that State as one of the criteria. Hence all the options are correct.

• Eco-anxiety or Climate anxiety: It refers to the "chronic fear of environmental doom” or in other words, it is the feeling of being overwhelmed by the challenges of climate change and the fear about the state of the environment.
  It is not a medical condition in itself but in certain individuals, it can exacerbate pre-existing mental health problems.

• Solastalgia: It describes a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change. It is best described as the lived experience of negatively perceived environmental change

• Ecological grief or Climate grief: It can be described as a psychological response to loss caused by environmental destruction or climate change.
  It is the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems by natural and man-made events.”

• A carbon offset refers to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and results in the generation of carbon credit from a project with clear boundaries, title, project documents and a verification plan. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• A carbon credit is an instrument that represents ownership of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide. These credits can be traded, sold, retired etc.

• Offsets are measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO₂-e). One tonne of carbon offset represents the reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide or its equivalent in other greenhouse gases.

• When anyone purchases carbon credits, they are funding the reduction, elimination, or total avoidance of 1 tonne of carbon. If anyone buy as many carbon credits equal to their carbon footprint, then they are considered to be “carbon neutral,” or balancing your emissions with an equal amount of emissions reduction.

• When they are purchased, they generate revenue. This revenue could be used for projects and activities that protect or restore forests, often supporting local communities with alternative livelihood opportunities that keep trees standing, and it helps fund programs to do so in perpetuity. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• The International Labour Organization (ILO) was created in 1919 (100 years of formation in 1919), as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• It has a total of 187 member nations including India (founding member). In 1946, the ILO became a specialized agency of the newly formed United Nations.
• It is the only organization of the UN having tripartite governing structure, representing workers, employers, and government. It sets labor standards, develops policies, and devises programs promoting decent work for all women and men. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• India has ratified two key ILO conventions on child labor: the Minimum Age Convention (No 138) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No 182). With the ratification of these two core ILO conventions, India has now ratified 6 out of 8 core ILO conventions. The other four core ILO conventions ratified by India are:
  (i) Forced labor convention (No 29)
  (ii) Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No 105) relating to the abolition of forced labor
  (iii) Equal Remuneration Convention (No 100
  (iv) Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) convention relating to removing discrimination between men and women in employment and occupation.
• Two core ILO conventions which are yet to be ratified by India are: Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention (No 87) and Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No 98)
• Flagship Reports:
  (i) The World Employment and Social Outlook (WESO) is the ILO’s flagship report on the world of work issues, focusing on a different theme each year. It undertakes an evidence-based analysis of indicators and policies that achieve high employment and balanced incomes. It is published annually in January. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
  (ii) Global Wage Report analyses the latest wage statistics and provides insights on wage policies based on research projects carried out by the ILO
  (iii) The World Social Protection Report takes a comprehensive look at how countries are investing in social security, how they are financing it, and how effective their approaches are.

• The popular types of scroll-paintings are:
  (i) ​Pattachitra or Patachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal. Pattachitra art form is known for its intricate details as well as mythological narratives and folktales inscribed in it.
  (ii) Cheriyal Scroll Painting is a stylized version of Nakashi art, rich in the local motifs peculiar to the Telangana. They are at present made only in Hyderabad, Telangana, India,
  (iii) Prasasti Patra is a sophisticated scroll painting tradition that developed in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

• Warli art is a beautiful folk art of Maharashtra, traditionally created by the tribal women. Tribals are the Warli and Malkhar Koli tribes found on the northern outskirts of Mumbai, in Western India. This art was first explored in the early seventies & from then it was named “Warli art”. Tribal people express themselves in vivid styles through paintings which they execute on the walls of their house. It is a type of wall painting. Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

• PM Street Vendor's Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) is a special micro-credit facility for street vendors launched recently by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. It is a Central Sector Scheme to facilitate street vendors to access affordable working capital loan for resuming their livelihoods activities, after easing of lockdown.

• Objectives of the Scheme:
  (i) To facilitate working capital loan upto Rs. 10,000 at a subsidized rate of interest. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
  (ii) To incentivize regular repayment of the loan; and o To reward digital transactions.

• Salient Features of the scheme:
  (i) Interest subsidy on timely/ early repayment @7%. Hence statement 3 is correct.
  (ii) Monthly cash-back incentive on digital transactions o Higher loan eligibility on timely repayment of the first loan.
  (iii) It covers street vendors/hawkers vending in urban areas, as on or before March 24, 2020, including the vendors of surrounding peri-urban and rural areas. Hence statement 2 is correct.
  (iv) Lending institutions that will provide credit under it: Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies, Micro-Finance Institutions and SHG Banks.
  (v) The Scheme shall be implemented up to March, 2022.
  (vi) KYC documents required (either of them): Aadhaar Card, Voter’s Identity Card, Driving Licence,

• MNREGA Card, PAN Card.
  (i) No collateral security is required to avail this loan.
  (ii) If a loanee name is in the list of surveyed vendors, but he does not have either Identity Card or Certificate of Vending then also he is can avail this scheme. A Provisional Certificate of Vending would be issued to vendors through an IT based Platform. The Banking Correspondent/ Agent will help in filling up the application and upload the documents in a mobile App/ Portal.

• The machinations of Chanakya against Chandragupta’s enemies are described in detail in the Mudrarakshasa, a play written by Vishakhadatta in the ninth century. In modern times, several plays have been based on it.

• Varahamihira’s well-known work is called the Brihatsamhita, which belongs to the sixth century A.D. Varahamihira stated that the moon rotates around the earth and the earth rotates around the sun. He utilized several Greek works to explain the movement of the planets and some other astronomical problems. Although the Greek knowledge Influenced Indian astronomy, the Indians doubtless pursued the subject further and made use of it in their observations of the planets.

• Panchatantra is perhaps the oldest collection of Indian Fables still surviving. It is written around 200BC by the great Hindu Scholar Pandit Vishnu Sharma. Panchatantra means "the five books”. It is a "Nitishastra" which means a book of wise conduct in life. The book is written in the form of simple stories and each story has a moral and philosophical theme which has stood the test of time in the modern age of atomic fear and madness. It guides us to attain success in life by understanding human nature.

• Extinction of an organism means that it no longer exists anywhere on the planet.

• There are two different types of extinction:

Background extinction

• It refers to the normal extinction rate. These are species that go extinct simply because not all life can be sustained on Earth and some species simply cannot survive.

Mass extinction

• It is a widespread event that wipes out the majority (over 50%) of living plants and animals.

• Mass extinction leads to permanent loss of a major group of organisms

• Mass extinction account for all the extinct species on earth.

• Mass extinctions can be caused by both natural and human interventions, while background extinctions are generally natural. Hence statement 1 is not correct.

• Mass extinction has a greater impact on the ecosystem than background extinction. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• Earth has experienced several mass extinctions. The most devastating, perhaps, was the Permian mass extinction 225 million years ago. About 90% of the species living at the time went extinct, including most of the dominant land vertebrates at the time.

• Extinctions occur continually, generating a "turnover" of the species living on Earth. This normal process is called background extinction. Sometimes, however, extinction rates rise suddenly for a relatively short time — an event known as a mass extinction. Mass extinctions kill off many species, but the empty niches left behind may allow other lineages to radiate into new roles, shaping the diversification of life on Earth.

• The balance of payments (BOP) is a statement of all transactions made between entities in one country and the rest of the world over a defined period of time, such as a quarter or a year. The balance of payments includes both the current account and capital account.

• The current account in the balance of payments covers all cross-border transactions relating to goods and services trade, receipt or payment of income from investments (primary income), and unilateral transfers (secondary income). Historically, India’s current account balance is largely driven by movements in the goods trade account.

• The primary income forms an important part of the current account and includes all amount payable and receivable to non-resident entities in return for providing temporary use of labour, financial resources or non-produced non-financial assets. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

• Given India’s net international financial liabilities to the rest of the world (i.e., negative net international investment position), there has been a persistent outgo from the primary income account of the balance of payments. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• In the primary income account, 93 per cent of total outgo was attributable to investment income payments. Interest payments on debt liabilities (payment of interest of FDI enterprises to their parent company abroad, FII debt holdings, external commercial borrowings (ECBs), trade credits, bank overseas borrowings, non-resident deposits) and dividend payouts on non-debt liabilities (investment in equity and investment fund shares) accounted for around three-fourth of total investment income outgo in 2018-19.

• In the case of India, secondary income mainly represents cross-border transfers (remittances) by expatriates sending a part of their income to support their families. With the world’s largest diaspora (UN Migration Report 2019), India retained its position as the top recipient of cross-border remittances in 2018. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• As India’s outbound remittance are comparatively minuscule relative to inbound remittances, there has been a persistent net surplus position in secondary income account.

• The. British Indian Association was founded on October 29, 1851, at Calcutta with Raja Radhakanta Deb and Debendranath Tagore as its President and Secretary respectively. Other members of the Association included Ramgopal Ghosh, Peary Chand Mitra, and Krishnadas Pal. It was created after amalgamating the Landholders Society and the British India Society which mainly served the interests of the Zamindars (landowners)

• The Indian League was started in 1875 by Sisir Kumar Ghosh with the object of —stimulating the sense of nationalism amongst the people” and of encouraging political education.

• The Indian Association of Calcutta (also known as the Indian National Association) superseded the Indian League and was founded in 1876 by younger nationalists of Bengal led by Surendranath Banerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose, who were getting discontented with the conservative and pro-landlord policies of the British Indian Association. The Indian Association was the most important of preCongress associations and aimed to -promote by every legitimate means the political, intellectual, and material advancement of the people.”

• The Madras Mahajan Sabha was founded in 1884 by M. Viraraghavachari, B. Subramaniya Aiyer, and P. Anandacharlu.

• The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan.

• Seats allocated to each British province were to be divided among the three principal communities—Muslims, Sikhs and general (all except Muslims and Sikhs), in proportion to their population.

• The elections to the Constituent Assembly were conducted under the system of the separate electorate based on the community.

• The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote.

• In the elections held to the Constituent Assembly, The Indian National Congress won 208 seats, the Muslim League 73 seats and the small groups and independents got the remaining 15 seats.

• However, the 93 seats allotted to the princely states were not filled as they decided to stay away from the Constituent Assembly. The representatives of the princely states, who had stayed away from the Constituent Assembly, gradually thereafter. After the acceptance of the Mountbatten Plan of June 3, 1947, for the partition of the country, the representatives of most of the princely states took their seats in the Assembly. Hence option (b) is not correct.

• The Indian Independence Act of 1947 made the following three changes in the position of the Assembly:
  - The Assembly was made a fully sovereign body
  - The Assembly also became a legislative body. Whenever the Assembly met as the Constituent body it was chaired by Dr. Rajendra Prasad and when it met as a legislative body, it was chaired by G.V. Mavlankar.

• On January 24, 1950, the Constituent Assembly held its final session. It, however, did not end, and continued as the provisional parliament of India from January 26, 1950, till the formation of new Parliament after the first general elections in 1951-52.

• Recent Context: The World Bank has released new Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) for the reference year 2017, under the International Comparison Program (ICP), that adjusts for differences in the cost of living across economies of the World. Globally 176 economies participated in the 2017 cycle of ICP.

• International Comparison Program (ICP) is the largest worldwide data-collection initiative, under the guidance of the UN Statistical Commission (UNSC). Its goal is of producing Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) which are vital for converting measures of economic activities to be comparable across economies. Along with the PPPs, the ICP also produces Price Level Indices (PLI) and other regionally comparable aggregates of GDP expenditure. The next ICP comparison will be conducted for the reference year 2021.

• India and the ICP:
  (i) India has participated in almost all ICP rounds since its inception in 1970.
  (ii) The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is the National Implementing Agency (NIA) for India, which has the responsibility of the planning, coordinating, and implementing national ICP activities.
  (iii) India has also been a co-Chair of the ICP Governing Board along with Statistics Austria for the ICP 2017 cycle.

• CARE Project was recently approved by The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved a $39.5 million to bolster climate action in South Asia.

• About Climate Adaptation and Resilience for South Asia (CARE) Project
  (i) The Project will build resilience to climate threats and disasters by sharing regional data and knowledge.
  (ii) It will help in developing regional standards and guidelines for infrastructure, and promoting climate resilient policies and investments.
  (iii) The project will help develop a public platform to inform climate planning and investments, and fund technology to support resilience in South Asia.
  (iv) It will fund a public domain platform known as Regional Resilience Data and Analytics Service, with information about weather hazards, climate variability, and sector-specific data to help policymakers assess climate risks.
  (v) It will also assess climate impacts in districts across Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan to support agriculture, livestock, water, and transport.
  (vi) The $39.5 million CARE project includes a $36 million grant from the International Development Association and $3.5 million from the Program for Asia Resilience to Climate Change.
  (vii) CARE will work with two regional organizations, the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System for Africa and Asia (RIMES) and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).