UPSC Editorials Quiz : 22 February 2024

Solution: c)

Lanjia Saura Painting

The painting, one of the oldest tribal art forms, is also known as Idital. The artworks are famous for their beauty, aesthetics, ritualistic association and iconography.

The art form belongs to the Lanjia Saura community, a PVTG largely residing in the Rayagada district. These paintings are in the form of exterior murals painted on the mud walls of homes. White paintings figure over a crimson-maroon background.

It is believed that the Lanjia Sauras paint their walls with Idital artworks to show gratitude to their deities and forefathers, and also for the well-being of their community. Reflecting the love and affection of the primitive tribes for nature, they feature subjects like tribal humans, trees, animals, birds, the Sun and the Moon.

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Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Red Sea, a narrow body of water between Africa and Asia that links to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe through the Suez Canal, and provides a crucial trade corridor that allows ships on east-west routes to avoid the long voyage around the African continent.

Between 2000 and 2016, merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden (into which the Red Sea opens in the south through the Bab al-Mandab Strait), Guardafui Channel (at the tip of the Horn of Africa) and the Somali Sea were under constant threat from Somali pirates.

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Solution: c)

How can MSP be guaranteed?

There are two conventional ways.

The first is to force buyers to pay MSP. Sugar mills are required, by law, to pay cane growers a “fair and remunerative” or “state advised” price within 14 days of purchase. But this approach risks implementation hurdles (recurrent cane payment arrears are proof), or worse, the private trade choosing to not buy at all.

The second is for government agencies to buy the entire marketable produce of farmers offered at MSP. That is unsustainable, both physically and fiscally.

But there’s a third option: price deficiency payments (PDP). It entails the government not physically purchasing or stocking any crop, and simply paying farmers the difference between the market price and MSP, if the former is lower. Such payment would be on the quantity of crop they sell to the private trade.

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Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• India had decided to formally join the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project, an international scientific collaboration working to build the world’s largest radio telescope.
• India had already been contributing to the project for the past several years, but the full member status, which offers greater scientific opportunities to use the upcoming facility, requires countries to sign and ratify an international treaty, and also make a financial commitment. India has approved Rs 1,250 crore for the project, which includes its funding contribution for the construction phase.
• The decision to join SKA as a full member ensures India’s participation in yet another international mega science project in the most advanced areas of scientific research.

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Solution: c)

The fusion reaction happens when two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. Because the total mass of that single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei, the leftover mass is energy that is released in the process, according to the Department of Energy. In the case of the sun, its intense heat — millions of degrees Celsius — and the pressure exerted by its gravity allow atoms that would otherwise repel each other to fuse.