[Mission 2024] Current Affairs Quiz , 7 July 2023

Solution: c)

The Union and State governments concurrently levy GST on commodities with 50% as Central GST (CGST) and 50% as State GST (SGST). There is an Integrated GST (IGST) on inter-State trade, so that 50% of it goes to the final destination State. The GST is a harmonised tax on commodities across the country. Individual States have little power to unilaterally change this tax. Though conceptually, the Union government could not do so either, the GST Council gives the Union government a veto to thrust its preferences on the States.

The Union government has exclusive power to levy excise duty on petroleum products, and the States have exclusive power to levy excise duty and sales tax on liquor. 

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

The Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is found in the Brahmaputra valley, parts of North Bengal, and parts of southern Nepal. It has a single black horn that can grow up to 60 cm, and a tough, grey-brown hide with skin folds, which gives the animal its characteristic armour-plated look.

The Indian rhino is listed as vulnerable (better than endangered, worse than near threatened) in the IUCN Red List; it was earlier placed in the endangered category. The WWF says the “recovery of the greater one-horned rhino is among the greatest conservation success stories in Asia”.

According to the WWF, there are around 3,700 Indian rhinos in the wild today. Assam’s Kaziranga National Park (KNP) alone has 2,613 animals, according to a census carried out in March 2022. There are more than 250 other rhinos in the Orang, Pobitora, and Manas parks.

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Asteroids are rocky, irregularly shaped remnants both smaller and larger sizes that are leftovers from when the period of the formation of the solar system. The asteroid belt is a circumstellar ring of asteroids located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Comets are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system composed of dust, rock, and ices. They range from a few miles to tens of miles wide, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet. This material forms a tail that stretches millions of miles. Comets are well spread over the entire solar system.

Solution: b)

Low-value education loans (up to Rs 7.5 lakh) constitute a bulk of the defaults in the education loan portfolio of banks.

Data on Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in education loans of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), obtained through the Right to Information Act, show that the default rate is much lower for loans disbursed to students in premier institutes as compared to those in secondary institutes.

PSBs are the largest lender in the education loan sector and have a market share of about 91 per cent – RRBs (regional rural banks) and private banks constitute the remaining 9 per cent of the market.

Solution: c)

Recombinant DNA are DNA sequences which result from bringing genetic material form different sources. The genes can be transferred between any species that is across different species of plants from animals to plants and from microorganisms to higher organisms.