Test: March 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 4 - UPSC MCQ

Bio pesticides are made of living things, come from living things, or they are found in nature. They tend to pose fewer risks than conventional chemicals. Very small quantities can be effective and they tend to break down more quickly, which means less pollution.

Types of bio pesticides:

• Microbes – These are tiny organisms like bacteria and fungi. They tend to be more targeted in their activity than conventional chemicals. For example, a certain fungus might control certain weeds, and another fungus might control certain insects. The most common microbial bio pesticide is Bacillus thuringiensis.
• Plant-Incorporated Protectants (PIPs) – These are the genes and proteins, which are introduced into plants by genetic engineering. They allow the genetically modified plant to protect itself from pests, like certain insects or viruses.
• Biopesticides are usually inherently less toxic than conventional pesticides. 

The interest coverage ratio is a debt and profitability ratio used to determine how easily a company can pay interest on its outstanding debt. The interest coverage ratio is calculated by dividing a company’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) by its interest expense during a given period.
Generally, a higher coverage ratio is better.

THAAD: USA
Iron Dome: Israel
Iron Beam: Israel
S400: Russia
Advanced Air Defence: India

• The “Right to be Forgotten” is the right to remove or erase content so that it’s not accessible to the public at large. It empowers an individual to have information in the form of news, video, or photographs deleted from internet records so it doesn’t show up through search engines, like Google in the present case.
• Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 says that organizations who possess sensitive personal data and fail to maintain appropriate security to safeguard such data, resulting in wrongful loss or wrongful gain to anyone, may be obligated to pay damages to the affected person.
• While, the IT Rules, 2021 do not include this right, they do however, lay down the procedure for filing complaints with the designated Grievance Officer so as to have content exposing personal information about a complainant removed from the internet.
• While the right is not recognized by a law or a statute in India expressly, the courts have repeatedly held it to be endemic to an individual’s Right to Privacy under Article 21 since the Apex Court’s 2017 ruling in “K.S.Puttaswamy vs Union of India”.
• The Right to be Forgotten originates from the 2014 European Court of Justice ruling in the case of “Google Spain SL, Google Inc v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, Mario Costeja González”, where it was codified for the first time following a Spanish man’s quest to make the world forget a 1998 advertisement saying “his home was being repossessed to pay off debts.”

Sursingar, a stringed musical instrument that is similar to the sarod, but which is older and produces deeper notes. The instrument is made of wood and has a gourd attached to a hollow wooden handle with a metal fingerboard. The strings of the instrument, usually four in number and made of brass or bronze, are plucked with a metal pick.

The Sursingar can be played either holding it vertically in front of the musician and supported by his left shoulder like the Veena, or holding it parallel to the ground like the Sarod, or like the Sitar, which is held at an angle of 50-60 degrees to the ground. The Sursingar (along with the Rudra Veena and the Surbahar) usually accompanies Dhrupad, the genre of Hindustani vocal music which has a low, deep, and thoughtful pitch.

• India has introduced a draft to launch a global initiative to encourage the consumption and production of millet. The draft of the proposed initiative — MIIRA — was placed during the first Agriculture Deputies Meeting under the Agriculture Working Group (AWG), G20 at Indore, Madhya Pradesh on February 13-15, 2023.
• The acronym MIIRA stands for ‘Millet International Initiative for Research and Awareness’.
• According to Agriculture Ministry sources, the MIIRA will be aimed at coordinating millet research programmes at the international level. It is in line with the UN declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets, the proposal for which was moved by India and supported by 72 countries.
• MIIRA will aim to connect millet research organisations across the world while also supporting research on these crops. 

• In parliamentary parlance, a whip may refer to both a written order to members of a party in the House to abide by a certain direction, and to a designated official of the party who is authorised to issue such a direction. The term is derived from the old British practice of “whipping in” lawmakers to follow the party line.
• A whip may require that party members be present in the House for an important vote, or that they vote only in a particular way. In India, all parties can issue whips to their members. Parties appoint a senior member from among their House contingents to issue whips — this member is called a chief whip, and he/ she is assisted by additional whips.

• Coral reefs are essentially just big limestone structures built by thousands of tiny coral creatures called polyps.
• Increased ocean temperature caused by climate change is the main cause of coral bleaching events. That’s when reefs expel the symbiotic algae responsible for their colour. If that happens over longer periods, the corals can eventually die.
• Coral reefs act like low-crested breakwaters and absorb 97% of wave energy. This substantially reduces coastal flooding and erosion.
• Coral reefs cover less than 0.5% of the earth’s surface, but they are home to about 25% of all marine species.

Once granted, FCRA registration is valid for five years. NGOs are expected to apply for renewal within six months of the date of expiry of registration. In case of failure to apply for renewal, the registration is deemed to have expired, and the NGO is no longer entitled to receive foreign funds or utilise its existing funds without permission from the ministry.

According to the MHA, NGOs failing to apply before the due date can petition the ministry with cogent reasons within four months of the expiry of registration, following which their applications can be reconsidered.

• The species covered under CITES are listed in three Appendices, according to the degree of protection they need.
• Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted rarely, only in “exceptional circumstances”, such as gorillas, and lions from India.
• Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled to ensure their survival. For example, certain kinds of foxes and Hippopotamuses.
• Appendix III contains species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade, like the Bengal fox or the Golden Jackal from India. Different procedures are given category-wise to engage in the trade of species in each of the lists.

Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary is located in Madhya Pradesh.

Under Article 1 of the Constitution, the territory of India comprises three categories of territories: (a) territories of the states; (b) union territories; and (c) territories that may be acquired by the Government of India at any time. Every union territory is administered by the President acting through an administrator appointed by him.

An administrator of a union territory is an agent of the President and not head of state like a governor. The President can specify the designation of an administrator; it may be Lieutenant Governor or Chief Commissioner or Administrator.

• The primary focus of the AUKUS arrangement between Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. is submarine technology development.
• The three AUKUS partners announced their implementation plan to equip Australia with SSN class nuclear attack submarines. Under this, Australia will receive at least three second-hand SSNs from the U.S. in the 2030s as an interim measure, while Canberra would receive five new SSNs to be designed and developed by the U.K. from the early 2040s to the late 2050s.
• On the possible conversation between the AUKUS and the Quad, diplomatic sources said the former has no implications for the latter. AUKUS is not a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for the Indo-Pacific. Rather, it is focussed on technology and it’s very specific about developing strategically important capabilities to maintain stability, a diplomatic source said. On the other hand, the Quad is a broader collaboration at the political level.

Yellowstone National Park, which celebrated its 151st anniversary, is widely considered to be the first national park in the world. Its visitors’ brochure says, “The first US national park was born, and with it, a worldwide movement to protect places for their intrinsic and recreational value.”

The Constitution of India provides for an independent office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in chapter V under Part V. The CAG is mentioned in the Constitution of India under Article 148 – 151. He is the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. He is the guardian of the public purse and controls the financial system of the country at both the levels- the centre and state. His duty is to uphold the Constitution of India and the laws of Parliament in the field of financial administration.

• Hallmark is a mark on gold jewellery which is affixed by an entity recognised by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to assure its fineness and purity. So whenever you buy any gold jewellery, make sure to check the Hallmark to avoid being cheated,” website of the Department of Consumer Affairs says.
• Almost No gold jewellery is made of 100 per cent gold, as the yellow metal in itself is very soft and has to be mixed with other metals to shape it into jewelry items. The “purer” the jewellery, i.e., the more gold a piece of jewellery has, the more expensive it will be.
• The three categories of hallmarked jewellery, according to the government website, are: “22K916 means that it is a 22 carat gold and the piece of jewellery has 91.6 percent gold. 18K750 means that it is an 18 carat gold and the piece of jewellery has 75 percent gold. 14K585 means that it is a 14 carat gold and the piece of jewellery has 58.5 percent gold.”
• A consumer cannot apply to the Assaying and Hallmarking Centre for getting a hallmark on her gold jewellery. This has to be done through a BIS-registered jeweller.
• Banks are likely to give loans on better terms if the mortgaged jewellery is hallmarked, the website says.

• The Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks (CGPDTM) is under the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce.
• The Controller General supervises the working of the Patents Act, 1970, as amended, the Designs Act, 2000 and the Trade Marks Act, 1999 and also renders advice to the Government on matters relating to these subjects.

Excise duty and VAT or Sales tax on fuel constitute an important source of revenue for both the Centre and the states. The Centre also levies additional cesses on petroleum products.

• The WTO has not defined ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries and therefore member countries are free to announce whether they are ‘developed’ or ‘developing’.
• It is WTO’s duty to review and propagate the national trade policies and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making. Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training.

• Chambal River is a tributary of the Yamuna River in central India, and thus forms part of the greater Gangetic drainage system. The river flows north-northeast through Madhya Pradesh, running for a time through Rajasthan, then forming the boundary between Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh before turning southeast to join the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh state.
• The tributaries of Chambal include Kunnu, Parvati, Kalisindh.

• The Nobel Prize for Physics 2022 was shared by three scientists for their work on quantum mechanics.
• The three conducted a series of experiments on something called entangled quantum states, where two separate particles behave like a single unit. Their pathbreaking results will have implications in the fields of quantum computers, quantum networks and secure quantum encrypted communication. Put simply, quantum computers use quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for regular computers.
• A phenomenon called quantum teleportation, which makes it possible to move a quantum state from one particle to one at a distance.”

Article 38 (1): The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.

• Millets are often considered a solution for food security in many developing economies since they can be grown on less fertile and sandy soils as compared to other grains.
• It is a hardy crop (coarse grains) that needs low rainfall and high to moderate temperature. Jowar, bajra and ragi are millets that are grown in India. The deep root systems of Millets and short life cycles make it possible for millets to grow in places even where the mean annual precipitation is low.

Parliamentary System of Government:

• There are two executives:
• The nominal executive is the head of state e.g. President, while the real executive is the Prime Minister, who is the head of government.
• In such a system, the role of president is primarily ceremonial and the Prime Minister along with the cabinet wields effective power.
• The Constitution of India provides for a parliamentary form of government, both at the Centre and in the States.
• Articles 74 and 75 deal with the parliamentary system of government at the Union level and Articles 163 and 164 contain provisions with regard to the States.
• Executive is responsible to the legislature for its policies and acts.

• Native to Africa and Asia, the lion is the most social cat, and lives in groups called prides. They prefer open forests such as scrubland, and adult males have a prominent mane. The lion is arguably the most widely recognised animal symbol in human culture — be it the Ashoka pillar in Sarnath, the main entrance to Buckingham Palace, or the 20th Century Fox and MGM logo.
• The State Emblem of India is the national emblem of the Republic of India and is used by the union government, many state governments, and other government agencies. The emblem is an adaptation of the Lion Capital of Ashoka, an ancient sculpture dating back to 280 BCE during the Maurya Empire. The statue is a three-dimensional emblem showing four lions.