Plutus IAS ‘Weekly Current Affairs: Quizzes, 13 to 18 March, 2023

EXPLANATION:

• The International Society of Ethnopharmacology (ISE) was initiated and founded in 1990 at a conference in Strasbourg, France by Prof. Laurent Rivier, a toxicologist.
• The concept of the formation of ISE was suggested by Prof Rivier on June 20, 1986 at an editorial meeting for the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (JEP). In September 1986 an editorial entitled “Creation of the International Society for Ethnopharmacology (I.S.E.P)” was published in JEP. All responders to this editorial were considered to be founding members of ISE. The first International Congress of Ethnopharmacology was held in Strasbourg, France, on 6th June 1990. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• Namrita Lall from South Africa is  elected president of this society and Prof. Pulok K. Mukherjee is the director from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Hence Statement 2 is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• MV Ram Prasad Bismil is the longest vessel of India. It is a 90 meters long flotilla and  is 26 meters wide, loaded with a draft of 2.1 meters. It is not an aircraft. Hence Statement 1 is not correct.
• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways achieved a landmark when the MV Ram Prasad Bismil became the longest vessel ever to sail on the river Brahmaputra. Pt Ram Prasad Bismil has been the prominent freedom fighter of India. He laid the foundation of the socialist revolutionary movement. He was the planner and participant of the Kakori Train Action after which he was caught and hanged. The vessel successfully completed the pilot run of heavy cargo movement from Haldia Dock in Kolkata after it anchored at Pandu port in Guwahati. Hence statement 2 is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• Asani is the first cyclonic storm of the season. A tropical cyclone is a powerful circular storm which forms above warmer tropical marine waters and is marked by low air pressure, strong winds, and heavy downpours. The eye, a center region of bright skies, hot temperatures, and low air pressure, is a distinguishing feature of tropical cyclonic storms. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• Sri Lanka has named it. In Sinhalese, “Asani” denotes wrath. The storms are termed after the multiple nations that are devastated by them each year. There were 13 names submitted from 13 different nations. As it is Sri Lanka’s turn this time, the name Asani was chosen. Thailand will name the next storm which will impact the shores, followed by India. India’s future names include Ghurni, Probaho, Jhar, and Murasu.

EXPLANATION:

• Indian Railways is a statutory body under the ownership of the Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a total route length of 68,043 km (42,280 mi), running track length of 102,831 km (63,896 mi) and track length of 128,305 km (79,725 mi) as of 31 March 2022 as stated in Year Book 2021-22. Hence Statement 1 is correct. 
• There are 19 railway zones in India including the Metro railway and Kolkata. The 19 zones of the railway are:

• Central Railway,headquartered in Mumbai
• Konkan Railway,headquartered in Navi Mumbai
• Metro Railway in Kolkata
• Northern Railway, headquartered in Delhi
• North Central Railway, headquartered in Prayagraj
• North Eastern Railway, headquartered in Gorakhpur
• Northeast Frontier Railway, headquartered in Maligaon
• North Western Railway, headquartered in Jaipur
• Eastern Railway, headquartered in Kolkata.
• East Central Railway, headquartered in Hajipur
• East Coast Railway, headquartered in Bhubaneshwar
• Southern Railway, headquartered in Chennai Central
• South Central Railway, headquartered in Secunderabad Junction.
• South Coast Railway, headquartered in Visakhapatnam
• South Eastern Railway, headquartered in Garden Reach, Kolkata
• South East Central Railway, headquartered in Bilaspur
• South Western Railway, headquartered in Hubbali
• Western Railway, headquartered in Mumbai
• West Central Railway, headquartered in Jabalpur
  Hence statement 2 is also correct. 

• Konkan Railway has recently completed 100 percent electrification across the zone and it has set new benchmarks for sustainable development.
• The Konkan Railway has completed the electrification work on its 741 km long route between Roha in Maharashtra and Thokur in Karnataka. The cost of this electrification project is Rs 1287 crore. Hence Statement 3 is also correct. 
• Headquarter of the Kokan railway is Navi Mumbai , not in Pune. Hence Statement 4 is not correct.

EXPLANATION:

• An ordinance entitled the Armed forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance, 1958, was promulgated by the President on the 22nd May, 1958. Section 3 of the Ordinance powers the Governor of Assam and the Chief Commissioner of Manipur to declare the whole or any part of Assam or the Union territory of Manipur, as the case may be, to be a disturbed area. Hence Statement 2 is correct.
• Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Centre decided to reduce the disturbed areas under the AFSPA in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur after decades.
• Centre had constituted a high-level committee to examine the possibility of lifting AFSPA in Nagaland – after the killing of 14 civilians in an army operation in December 2021. It has extended the ambit of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh. It is not related to the Defence ministry . Hence Statement 1 is not correct.

EXPLANATION:

• USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol that is used to send text messages. USSD is similar to Short Message Service (SMS). Hence Statement 1 is correct. 
• USSD uses codes made up of the characters that are available on a mobile phone. A USSD message, which can be up to 182 characters long, establishes a real-time communication session between the phone and another device -- typically, a network or server. 
• USSD can be used for Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browsing, mobile money services, prepaid callback service, menu-based information services and location-based content services. 
• With USSD, users interact directly from their mobile phones by making selections from various menus. Unlike an SMS message, during a USSD session, a USSD message creates a real-time connection.
• This means USSD enables two-way communication of information, as long as the communication line stays open. As such, queries and answers are nearly instantaneous. Hence Statement 2 is correct.
• Recently Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has scrapped the charges levied on USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Services Data) messages.
• USSD enables financial and banking transactions in feature phones. So far, the charge was 50 paise per USSD session. A charge of 50 paise per USSD session has been deducted so far. All the services related to telephone are related with TRAI. Hence Statement 3 is not correct.

EXPLANATION:

• The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Britain’s biggest business organization CBI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a new joint commission called UK-India Business Commission, to increase cross industry collaboration and push the UK-India free trade agreement (FTA) over the line. Hence Statement 1 is correct. 
• It aims to increase cross industry collaboration and fast-track the development of UK-India free trade agreement (FTA). Trade ministers of both countries recently met on December 13, 2022, and January 27, 2023, to take stock of progress. India and the UK recorded trade “worth £34 billion to year end September 2022.” Discussions have closed on 13 chapters of the trade agreement. There are 26 chapters in the proposed FTA deal, which include goods, services, investments, and intellectual property rights. Hence Statement 2 is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the Sant Tukaram Shila Mandir in the temple town of Dehu in Pune.The Bhakti saint Sant Tukaram sat on this piece of rock referred to Shils for 13 days when challenged about the authenticity of the Abhyangs he had written. The rock has been the starting point of Wari, the annual pilgrimage for the Warkari sect in Maharashtra. He was a 17th-century Marathi Saint, was a Sant of Varkari sampradaya - that venerates the god Vitthal - in Maharashtra, India. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• One of his Abhangs has the beginning: “Good you made me a Kunbi, Otherwise I might have died an arrogant hypocrite”, and is an attack on Brahmin hypocrisy. Tukaram was part of the egalitarian, personalized Varkari devotionalism tradition. Hence Statement 2 is correct.
• An emerging Dalit critique argues that Vithoba was seen as a Bodhisattva and Sant Tukaram saw him as one. Sant Tukaram has explored the traditions of meditation although this is not a Varkari (Vithoba-worshiping) tradition. His life and writings are intensely debated. Tukaram’s poetry is widely recognized as the climactic point of the Bhagawat tradition which began with Namdev. His religious activities antagonized the Brahmin, who persecuted him. Hence Statement 3 is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• Banaras Hindu University (BHU) researchers claimed to have found north India’s first stone stupa, built during the  period of Asoka in the  Firozpur village of Chandauli district, Uttar Pradesh. Recently, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) discovered a 1,300-year-old stupa right in the middle of a mining site in Odisha’s Jajpur district at a Khondalite mining site. 
• The Buddhist stupa discovered in Chandauli district of UP describes the work of the Asoka on Buddhism. Apart from the Buddhist stupa, many rock paintings and scripts are also found. This rock painting is similar to the rock paintings of the Bhimbetka. Hence Option A is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) campus, Bengaluru. The Centre has been set up at a cost of Rs 280 crore. It is developed as the first research facility which focuses on conducting vital research to provide evidence-based public health interventions to manage age-related brain disorders. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• CBR also spearheads the GenomeIndia project that is funded by the Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India.  In this project, we have brought together 20 Institutions with the goal to carry out  whole genome sequencing in order to catalog the genetic diversity of this country. GenomeIndia is a step towards integrating genetic information into healthcare practice, leading to India specific precision medicine.  Hence Statement 2 is also correct.
• It is not situated in Chennai. Instead, it is situated in Bangalore, Karnataka. Hence statement 3 is not correct.

EXPLANATION:

• The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set-up to promote and facilitate an environment that accelerates innovation across the financial sector.  Recently RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das inaugurated the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) in Bengaluru. It has been set up to encourage and nurture financial innovation, with an initial capital contribution of Rs 100 crore. Hence Statement 1 is correct. 
• It serves as a focal point to position India as a global innovation hub for a network of financial services providers, fintech innovation hubs, policymakers, technologists, academia, and the investor community. The network will ideate, incubate new capabilities, and create innovative and viable financial products and services for 1.3 billion Indians to help shape the future of the Indian financial sector. It will  identify challenges in the Indian financial system by building applied research and extensive stakeholder consultation. Furthermore, we aim to address these challenges by ideating and piloting collaborative solutions that leverage the power of technology. Hence Statement 2 is correct.
• Mr. Rajesh Bansal is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Mr. Gopal Natarajan is Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).
• And Ms. Aditi Namdeo is Chief Partnership Officer (CPO) while senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan is the first Chairperson of RBIH. Hence Statement 3 is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• Whiteshield, a global strategy and public policy advisory firm, released its Global Labour Resilience Index (GLRI) 2023 during the World Government Summit.
• The index is a first-of-its-kind measurement tool that assesses the capacity of an economy to limit fluctuations in employment and quickly rebound from setbacks. The report found the labor market resilience is highest in Western and Northern Europe. Countries in Europe and Asia are becoming more resilient, whereas resilience in North America is stagnating. Hence Statement 1 is correct.
• Denmark is in First Position and Switzerland is in second Position. Hence Statement 2 is also correct.