[Mission 2023] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 24 January 2023

Solution: c)

Maghi Mela has been celebrated in the city of Sri Muktsar Sahib in Punjab for centuries in memory of 40 Sikh warriors who were killed fighting the Mughals in the Battle of Khidrana in 1705. It was after this battle that Khidrana was named Muktsar, or the pool of liberation.

Over the years, political conferences became the main attraction in this mela, and often set the political tone for the state. Since 2018, however, there have been attempts to reduce the number of conferences and de-politicise the festival.

Source

Solution: b)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that the James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first new exoplanet. Researchers have labelled the planet as LHS 475 b, and it’s roughly the same size as Earth.

Located just 41 light-years away, the planet orbits very close to a red dwarf star and completes a full orbit in just two days.

Exoplanets are planets that orbit other stars and are beyond our solar system. According to NASA, to date, more than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered. Scientists believe that there are more planets than stars as each star has at least one planet orbiting it.

Exoplanets come in a host of different sizes. They can be gas giants bigger than Jupiter or as small and rocky as Earth. They are also known to have different kinds of temperatures — boiling hot to freezing cold.

Discovering exoplanets is quite tough as they are small and hard to spot around their bright host stars. Scientists rely on indirect methods, such as the transit method, which is “measuring the dimming of a star that happens to have a planet pass in front of it”.

About ‘Lucy’ Mission:

• This is NASA’s first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
• It is a solar-powered mission.

Source

Solution: c)

The Constitution talks about the use of Census data for delimitation of constituencies and for determining the quantum of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. However, it does not say what should be the periodicity of the census. The Census Act, 1948, which predates the Constitution, provides the legal background for several activities relating to the Census without mentioning anything about its periodicity. It says, “The Central Government may, declare its intention of taking a census…, whenever it may consider it necessary or desirable so to do, and thereupon the census shall be taken”. This provision puts the onus of deciding when to conduct a Census on the executive. This is unlike the position in several countries such as the U.S. and Japan where the Constitution or the Census law mandates a Census with defined periodicity.

The Census alone can provide population data for every village and town in the country. Sample surveys can provide reliable data on social and demographic indicators only at higher geographic levels. Apart from the population count, the Census has also been providing data on population characteristics, housing and amenities.

Source

Solution: c)

The Preamble in the Constitution gives prominent importance to liberty of belief, faith and worship to all citizens.

The concepts of faith, belief and worship are the foundations of Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution of India. 

The Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution can pass any order to carry out for doing complete justice being in the public interest, while upholding the Constitution of India.

Solution: c)

The Taj Mahal incorporates characteristics of Indo-Islamic and Timurid architecture, and is often seen as a natural progression of Mughal architecture from older monuments such as Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi.

It was built between 1632 and 1648 on the orders of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan.

Floral designs made of semi-precious stones on the walls, this type of decoration was called pietra dura.

This method became more popular during the reign of Shah Jahan. The pietra dura method was used on a large scale in the Taj Mahal by Shah Jahan.