[Mission 2024] Current Affairs Quiz , 19 October 2023

Solution: b)

Statement 1 and 3 are correct.

New Delhi held its first political dialogue with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in Brussels on December 12, 2019.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or NATO, is a political and military alliance of 28 European countries and two countries in North America (United States and Canada).

It was set up in 1949 by the US, Canada, and several western European nations to ensure their collective security against the Soviet Union. It was the US’s first peacetime military alliance outside the western hemisphere.

Thirty countries are currently members of NATO, which is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.

Solution: b)

Statement 2 is incorrect.

The date of election of the Speaker is decided by the President who needs to go by the advice of the Union cabinet which, in fact, chooses the date. In the case of the Speaker, there is no constitutional requirement for him to wait for the advice of the Union cabinet in fixing the date of election of the Deputy Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker has the same power as the Speaker when he presides over a sitting of the House. Similarly no appeal lies to the Speaker against a ruling given by the Deputy Speaker. So the Speaker is powerless in the matter of revising or overruling a decision of the Deputy Speaker. Under Article 95(1) of the Constitution, the Deputy Speaker gets all the powers of the Speaker when the office of the Speaker is vacant, so the Deputy Speaker can also determine the petitions relating to disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution.

Although the Deputy Speaker gets to exercise these powers only in the absence of the Speaker his decisions are final and binding when he gives a ruling.

Solution: b)

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Dhokra art is non-ferrous metal casting art that uses the lost-wax casting technique. This technique has been in use for over 4,000 years in India, and is still practised by artisans in central and eastern India. It is in great demand in domestic and foreign markets because of its primitive simplicity, folk motifs and forceful form.
• One of the earliest known lost wax artefacts is the dancing girl of Mohenjodaro.
• The lost wax technique for casting of copper-based alloys has also been found in China, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, Central America, and other places.

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• As a perennial crop with good foliage and root-spread, mulberry contributes to soil conservation and provides green cover.
• Waste from silkworm rearing can be recycled as inputs to garden.
• Dried mulberry twigs and branches are used as fuel in place of firewood and therefore reduce the pressure on vegetation/forest.
• Being a labour intensive and predominantly agro-based activity, involvement of smoke-emitting machinery is minimal.
• Developmental programmes initiated for mulberry plantation are mainly in upland areas where un-used cultivable land is made productive.
• Mulberry can also be cultivated as intercrop with numerous plantations.
• Mulberry being a deep-rooted perennial plant can be raised in vacant lands, hill slopes and watershed areas.

Solution: a)

Only Statement 3 is correct.

What is the NIA?

It is a central agency mandated to investigate all the offences affecting the sovereignty, security and integrity of India, friendly relations with foreign states, and the offences under the statutory laws enacted to implement international treaties, agreements, conventions and resolutions of the United Nations, its agencies and other international organisations. These include terror acts and their possible links with crimes like smuggling of arms, drugs and fake Indian currency and infiltration from across the borders. The agency has the power to search, seize, arrest and prosecute those involved in such offences.

NIA came into being in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. The Agency came into existence with the enactment of the National Investigation Agency Act 2008, and started its functioning in 2009.

How wide is NIA’s jurisdiction?

The law under which the agency operates extends to the whole of India and also applies to Indian citizens outside the country; persons in the service of the government wherever they are posted; persons on ships and aircraft registered in India wherever they may be; persons who commit a scheduled offence beyond India against the Indian citizen or affecting the interest of India.