[Mission 2024] Current Affairs Quiz , 22 July 2023

Solution: a)

Option 3 is incorrect.

Recommendations at various instances to correct the AFSPA ACT:

• BP Jeevan Reddy committeeexamining it in relation to the Northeast in 2005, and the Veerappa Moily report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission of 2007, recommended that the Act be repealed.
• The reports of the Justice Verma Committee (2013)and the Justice Hegde Commission (2013) supported need to address the abuses committed under the AFSPA and end the effective impunity enjoyed by security forces.
• Supreme Court appointed Hegde Commission (2013)found that all seven deaths in the six cases it investigated were extrajudicial executions, and also said that the AFSPA was widely abused by security forces in Manipur.

N.K. Singh is the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission. Prior to this position, he presided as Chairman of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Review Committee (FRBM).

Solution: b)

Statement 1 and 2 are correct.

Zero tillage is the process where the crop seed will be sown through drillers without prior land preparation and disturbing the soil where previous crop stubbles are present.

Zero tillage not only reduce the cost of cultivation it also reduces the soil erosion, crop duration and irrigation requirement and weed effect which is better than tillage. Zero Tillage (ZT) also called No Tillage or Nil Tillage.

Mixed farming is a type of farming which involves both the growing of crops as well as the raising of livestock.

Intercropping is a multiple cropping practice involving growing two or more crops in proximity. 

Vertical farming is the practice of growing produce in vertically stacked layers. The practice can use soil, hydroponic or aeroponic growing methods. Vertical farms attempt to produce food in challenging environments, like where arable land is rare or unavailable.

Solution: c)

One of the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) mentions that “in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.” While DPSPs are not in themselves legally enforceable, they set goals that the state should aspire towards to establish conditions under which citizens can lead a good life. Thus, alcohol is seen by the Constitution and by extension, the Indian state, as an undesirable evil that needs to be regulated.

However, according to the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, alcohol is a state subject, i.e. state legislatures have the right and responsibility to draft laws regarding it, including “the production, manufacture, possession, transport, purchase and sale of intoxicating liquors.” Thus, laws regarding alcohol differ from state to state, falling in the whole spectrum between prohibition and private sale.

Solution: b)

Statement 1 is incorrect.

All South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations are members of the Group of 77 Developing countries.

The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against terrorism, separatism and extremism.

Regional trade now makes up for more than half of global trading, and agreements such as United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR for its Spanish initials), the European Union, Eurasian Economic Union, the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are further boosting this trend.

Mercosur is a South American trade bloc.

Solution: d)

Key indicators impacting population growth, such as life expectancy (the number of years a person is expected to live on average), the Crude Death Rate (the number of deaths in a population per 1,000 people) and Total Fertility Rate or TFR (the number of children a woman, on average, is expected to bear in her lifetime).