Plutus IAS ‘Weekly Current Affairs: Quizzes, 20 to 25 February, 2023

EXPLANATION: 

• The Vishwa Brati university is founded by the first non-European Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Thākur(popularly known as Tagore) in 1921. Visva-Bharati was declared to be a central university in 1951. It is located in Birbhumi Dist of the west Bengal. Hence the statement 1 is incorrect and statement 2 is correct. 
• Sriniketan and the Shanti Niketans are the institutes of Vishwabharti University. Shri Niketan is the  Institute of Rural Reconstruction while Shantiniketan is the main campus of the university. The pattern of Gurukul has been adopted in Shantiniketan. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• Visva Bharati University in Kolkata, India, is set to make history as the world's first ‘living heritage university,’ according to UNESCO. The designation recognises the university's role in preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of India. Hence statement 4 is also correct.

EXPLANATION: 

• Unlike other renewable energy sources, biomass can be converted directly into liquid fuels, called "biofuels," to help meet transportation fuel needs. The two most common types of biofuels in use today are ethanol and biodiesel, both of which represent the first generation of biofuel technology.India, Brazil and the US, as leading biofuel producers and consumers, will work together during the next few months towards setting up a global biofuel alliance along with other interested countries. France is not in Alliance. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• The global biofuel alliance to be aimed at facilitating cooperation and intensifying the use of sustainable biofuels. These three countries are the one of the largest producer and consumer of the biofuels. Hence statement 2 is correct.

EXPLANATION: 

• The Paris Club is an informal group of official creditors whose role is to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries. As debtor countries undertake reforms to stabilize and restore their macroeconomic and financial situation, Paris Club creditors provide an appropriate debt treatment. Paris Club creditors provide debt treatments to debtor countries in the form of rescheduling, which is debt relief by postponement or, in the case of concessional rescheduling, reduction in debt service obligations during a defined period (flow treatment) or as of a set date (stock treatment). Hence statement 1 is correct. 
• The Paris Club is a group of currently 22 permanent members. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
• Paris Club is economic organisation, not a strategically or military organisation. This is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Hence statement 3 is incorrect and 5 is correct.
• IMF, World bank, OECD, UNCTAD, European commission , African bank of development, Asian Bank of development, European bank for Reconstruction and development and Inter American Bank of development are the observer of Paris club. Among those observer, IMF is the most significant observer. The Paris Club has recently decided to offer financial support to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Sri Lanka’s debt. Hence statement 4 is correct.

EXPLANATION: 

• The Smart City Mission will be operated as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) and the Central Government proposes to give financial support to the Mission to the extent of Rs. 48,000 crores over five years i.e. on an average Rs. 100 crore per city per year. An equal amount, on a matching basis, will have to be contributed by the State/ULB; therefore, nearly Rupees one lakh crore of Government/ULB funds will be available for Smart Cities development. Hence statement 1 and 2 are correct. 
• The Smart Cities Mission was launched on June 25, 2015. Hence Statement 3 is not correct. 

EXPLANATION: 

• Chatbot platforms offer developers the capability to build and publish their chatbots. NLP engines provide mainly natural language processing capabilities to developers, which they can use to create their bots. Many Companies are there in market who developed Chatboot based on artificial intelligent. Some names of the popular companies are QBurst, Contus, Peerbits, Ideas2IT. 
• Open AI, ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 family of large language models and has been fine-tuned using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the non-profit OpenAI Incorporated (OpenAI Inc.) and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Limited Partnership (OpenAI LP). Hence option (d) is Correct. 

EXPLANATION: 

• INS vikranta is the countries first indigenous aircraf carrier which is undergoing aviation trial. while the INS Vikramaditya is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier and the flagship of the Indian Navy. She entered into service in 2013. Originally built as Baku and commissioned in 1987, the carrier served with the Soviet Navy and later with the Russian Navy before being decommissioned in 1996. Hence statement 1 and statement 3 are not correct.
• INS Vikarat is constructed by the Cochin Shipyard kerala. The namesake Vikrant is a tribute to India's first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, Vikrant means "courageous" in Sanskrit. The indigenous light combat aircraft  (LCA- Navy) and MIG 29 K undertook maiden landing on the carrier in the month of Feb 2023. Hence statement 2 is correct.

EXPLANATION: 

• The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper is an unmanned aerial vehicle capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems primarily for the United States Air Force. Indian Government is going to purchase it very soon from America. HAL will provide maintenance and overhaul support for MQ-9B drone engine in India. HAL has been manufacturing and providing MRO support for TPE 331-5 engine for the past 40 years. Indian Navy also operates two MQ-9B sea Guardians taken on lease in 2020. By this year India is going to purchase 30 MQ-9Bs, 10 for search services (Army, navy and airforce) from USA. HAL and Germany based company HENSOLDT agreed for its maintenance. Hence option (a) is correct.

EXPLANATION: 

• The International Day of Zero Tolerance for female genital mutilation (FGM), observed annually on 6 February, provides an opportunity for all stakeholders involved in ending FGM to celebrate achievements, advocate for abandonment of the practice and raise awareness.
• On 2 February, WHO and HRP (Human resource Partner) hosted an event with the Government of Kenya to celebrate the country’s strong commitment to FGM abandonment by 2030. Kenya has developed an accelerated comprehensive national plan. The event brought together representatives from the Ministry of Health and other related ministries addressing FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), along with United Nations agencies, development partners, donors, health professional associations and civil society. The speakers shared their perspectives on national, regional and global efforts to end FGM, focusing on the crucial role of the health sector as part of multi-sectoral efforts.
• Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons and is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights, the health and the integrity of girls and women.
• Girls who undergo female genital mutilation face short-term complications such as severe pain, shock, excessive bleeding, infections, and difficulty in passing urine, as well as long-term consequences for their sexual and reproductive health and mental health.
• Although primarily concentrated in 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East, female genital mutilation is a universal problem and is also practiced in some countries in Asia and Latin America. Female genital mutilation continues to persist amongst immigrant populations living in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Hence option (b) is correct.

EXPLANATION: 

• • The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR )mission is a joint project between NASA and ISRO to co-develop and launch a dual-frequency synthetic aperture radar on an Earth observation satellite. Hence statement 1 is correct. 
  • The NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) Mission will measure Earth’s changing ecosystems, dynamic surfaces, and ice masses providing information about biomass, natural hazards, sea level rise, and groundwater, and will support a host of other applications. Hence statement 2 is correct. 
  • NISAR will observe Earth’s land and ice-covered surfaces globally with 12-day regularity on ascending and descending passes, sampling Earth on average every 6 days for a baseline 3-year mission. Hence statement 3 is correct.
  • In the team of programme management Sanghamitra Dutta is programme executive and Phil Barela is project manager. Hence statement 4 is also correct.

EXPLANATION:

• India found its massive lithium reserve in Jammu and Kashmir. A reserve totalling 5.9 million tonnes was discovered in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir by the Geological Survey of India (GSI). 
• Lithium is a key component in batteries, electric vehicles and other renewable energy solutions.
• Australia, Chile, and China are the three biggest producers and exporters of lithium, with Chile as the highest producer. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.
•  It is one of the most sought-after minerals globally and is often called ‘white gold’. Lithium has got the status of gold because of its usability and demand in the global energy market. Hence statement 1 is incorrect.

EXPLANATION:

• Collegium system is not mentioned in the constitution, but is rather a judicial innovation that came up in Second Judge Case. Hence statement 1 is incorrect.
• Third judge case highlighted the current structure of the collegium system
• According to the Third judge case , Collegium has to consist of the Chief Justice of India along with 4 senior most judges of the supreme court.Hence statement 2 is correct.
• The National Judicial appointment commission was constituted by the 99th constitutional amendment , but was later repealed by the Supreme Court.
• NJAC , was an attempt to reduce the stake of Judiciary in the appointment of the Judges and introduce the stake of executive in it.
• If it would have been implemented , it would have replaced the current system of Collegium in the appointment of Judges. Hence statement 3 is correct.

EXPLANATION:

• The expression  office of profit  has not been defined in the Constitution or in the Representation of People Act 1951. Its ambit has to be inferred only from the pronouncement of the courts and other competent authorities like the Election Commission and the president. The object of the provision is to secure the independence of the members of Parliament and do not contains persons who have received favors or benefits from the executive and who consequently being under an obligation to executive might be amenable to influence. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• Parliament has also enacted the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, which has been amended several times to expand the exempted list. Hence statement 2 is correct.