UPSC Current Affairs Quiz : 19 February 2024

Solution: b)

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Subika painting style is deeply connected to the Meitei community’s cultural historythrough its six surviving manuscripts – Subika, Subika Achouba, Subika Laishaba, Subika Choudit, Subika Cheithil and Thengrakhel Subika.
• The paintings are a composition of cultural motifs created by pre-existing features and other influences. However, the Subika painting style is nearly extinct due to neglect.
• The Subika Laishaba is a composition of cultural motifs influenced by the cultural worldviews of the community.
• Its illustrations incorporate visual elements like lines, shapes, forms, colours, and patterns.
• These visual images serve as cultural motifs, creating visual effects and expressing cultural significance.
• The paintings are done on handmade paper, and the materials for manuscripts, such as handmade paper or tree bark, are prepared locally.

Source

Solution: d)

• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has launched the GHAR (GO Home and Re-Unite) Portalfor the digital monitoring and tracking of the restoration and repatriation of children as per the protocols under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.
• The portal facilitates the digital tracking and monitoring of children in the Juvenile Justice system who need to be repatriated to another country, state, or district.
• It enables the digital transfer of cases to the concerned Juvenile Justice Board/Child Welfare Committee for speedy repatriation and allows for requests for translators or interpreters if required.

Source

Solution: b)

Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity. The process is called electrolysis.

Source

Solution: d)

Many reforms can be pursued to internationalise the rupee. It must be made more freely convertible, with a goal of full convertibility by 2060 – letting financial investments move freely between India and abroad. This would allow foreign investors to easily buy and sell the rupee, enhancing its liquidity and making it more attractive. Additionally, the RBI should pursue a deeper and more liquid rupee bond market, enabling foreign investors and Indian trade partners to have more investment options in rupees, enabling its international use. Indian exporters and importers should be encouraged to invoice their transactions in rupee — optimising the trade settlement formalities for rupee import/export transactions would go a long way. Additional currency swap agreements (as with Sri Lanka) would further allow India to settle trade and investment transactions in rupees, without resorting to a reserve currency such as the dollar.

Additionally, tax incentives to foreign businesses to utilise the rupee in operations in India would also help. The RBI and the Ministry of Finance must ensure currency management stability (consistent and predictable issuance/retrieval of notes and coins) and improve the exchange rate regime.

Solution: a)

Only statement 1 is correct.

Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

• This is the legislation enacted to protect India’s forests and empowers the Central government to regulate the extraction of forest resources — from timber and bamboo to coal and minerals — by industries as well as forest-dwelling communities.
• A separate Act, the Forest Rights Act, protects the rights of tribals and forest-dwellers dependent on forests for their livelihood. From 1951-1975, about four million hectares of forest land has been diverted for various non-forestry purposes.
• From 1980 to 2023, under the purview of the Act, only a million hectares have been diverted — a sign of its impact in reducing the pace of forest appropriation.
• However, such protection was only available for areas already marked out as ‘forest’ in Central or State government records.
• A Supreme Court judgment in 1996, in the Godavarman Thirumulpad case, expanded the scope of such protection. Under it, even areas not formally notified as ‘forests’ but conforming to the ‘dictionary’ meaning of forests were protected.