[Mission 2023] Current Affairs Quiz , 2 March 2023

Solution: c)

Survey of India, The National Mapping Agency of the country under the Department of Science & Technology.

The Survey of India (SoI), India’s 250-year-old map maker, while no longer having a monopoly on making high resolution maps, will remain the arbiter of maps that deal with State borders and national boundaries. They will also maintain and provide reference stations that are vital to cartographers to prepare higher resolution maps.

In December 2022, the Centre officially released the National Geospatial Policy of India that allows any private agency to make high resolution maps. Before this, the Survey of India made various categories of maps that, while available for nominal charges, were relatively hard to access. Moreover, maps made for “civilian purposes” were coarser than the “defence series maps” that were more detailed but only accessible to the Defence Ministry.

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Solution: b)

What are Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS)?

PACS are village level cooperative credit societies that serve as the last link in a three-tier cooperative credit structure headed by the State Cooperative Banks (SCB) at the state level. Credit from the SCBs is transferred to the district central cooperative banks, or DCCBs, that operate at the district level. The DCCBs work with PACS, which deal directly with farmers.

Since these are cooperative bodies, individual farmers are members of the PACS, and office-bearers are elected from within them. A village can have multiple PACS.

PACS are involved in short term lending — or what is known as crop loan. At the start of the cropping cycle, farmers avail credit to finance their requirement of seeds, fertilisers etc.

The attraction of the PACS lies in the last mile connectivity they offer. For farmers, timely access to capital is necessary at the start of their agricultural activities. PACS have the capacity to extend credit with minimal paperwork within a short time.

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Solution: c)

Appointments of DGPs are now made on the basis of the Supreme Court judgment on police reforms in Prakash Singh vs Union of India 17 years ago. According to the SC’s guidelines on the appointment of police chiefs, the DGP is to be selected by the state government from among the three senior most officers who have been empanelled for promotion to that rank by the UPSC “on the basis of their length of service, very good record and range of experience for heading the police force”.

The DGP should have a fixed tenure of two years in the post, irrespective of the date of retirement. A DGP can be removed only in exceptional circumstances.

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Solution: a)

The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, says that child marriages are illegal, they are voidable at the option of the minor party, in the scenario that the minor petitions the court to declare the marriage void. The Act stipulates 18 years as the minimum marriageable age for women, while for men it is 21 years. The Act punishes child marriage with “rigorous imprisonment which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees or with both.”

The punishment also extends to anyone who performs, conducts, directs, or abets any child marriage and includes rigorous imprisonment of up to two years and a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees unless proven that he had reasons to believe that the marriage was not a child marriage.

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Solution: d)

A V-shaped recovery is characterised by quick and effective recovery in measures of economic performance after an acute decline in the economy. 

A K-shaped recovery occurs when, following a recession, different parts of the economy recover at different rates, times, or magnitudes.