[Mission 2024] Current Affairs Quiz , 18 August 2023

Solution: d)

The Assam Rifles is India’s oldest paramilitary force — it was raised in 1835 with just 750 men. It has since fought in the two World Wars and the Sino-Indian war of 1962, and has been used as an anti-insurgency force against militant groups in the Northeast.

The AR was raised as the Cachar Levy, a militia that would protect tea estates and British settlements against raids by the tribal peoples of the Northeast. The force was subsequently reorganised as the Assam Frontier Force, and its role was expanded to conduct punitive operations beyond the borders of Assam. Given its contribution in opening the Northeastern region to administration and commerce, it came to be known as the “right arm of the civil and left arm of the military”.

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Solution: b)

The balance of payments divides transactions into two accounts: the current account and the capital account. The current account includes transactions in goods, services, investment income, and current transfers.

The capital account, broadly defined, includes transactions in financial instruments and central bank reserves.

The current account is included in calculations of national output, while the capital account is not. 

Solution: c)

2015 “sponge city” initiative aimed at reducing urban flood risks.

The initiative was launched to boost flood resilience in major cities and make better use of rainwater through architectural, engineering and infrastructural tweaks.

China has long sought to improve the way it handles extreme weather, and make highly populated cities less vulnerable to flooding and drought. The “sponge city” initiative was designed to make greater use of lower-impact “nature-based solutions” to better distribute water and improve drainage and storage.

Those solutions included the use of permeable asphalt, the construction of new canals and ponds and also the restoration of wetlands, which would not only ease waterlogging, but also improve the urban environment.

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Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

The Constitution refers to civil code only in its Directive Principles. It is critical to note that the Uniform Civil Code was limited to Directive Principles. Implementation of Directive Principles is not mandatory. The court may order to enforce Fundamental rights. But the Directive Principles of Article 44 of the Constitution cannot be enforced even by the courts. It is essential to understand how much thought the founders of the Constitution put into their decision.

The issue of personal laws falls in List III —the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. While subjects in the Union lists fall within the purview of the Parliament, states can legislate on subjects in the State List.

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Solution: d)

Introduced on April 1, 2016, MCLR is the minimum interest rate below which banks cannot lend. Banks calculate all operating costs as a percentage of marginal cost of funds for computing MCLR. Under the MCLR regime, banks decide on the interest rate at which they will offer to borrowers on the basis of the marginal cost at which they get funds and borrowing from the RBI.

Any change in the repo rate — the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks to meet their short-term funding needs — impacts the interest rate for borrowers. Banks review their MCLR of different maturities every month on a pre-announced date with approval from their boards.