UPSC Editorials Quiz : 30 March 2024

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

The Assam Rifles are a central armed police force.

The AR is one of the six central armed police forces (CAPFs) under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The other five forces are the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

The AR is tasked with maintaining law and order in the Northeast along with the Indian Army. It also guards the Indo-Myanmar border. The AR have a sanctioned strength of more than 63,000 personnel, organised in 46 battalions, apart from administrative and training staff.

It is the only paramilitary force with a dual control structure. While the administrative control of the force is with the MHA, its operational control is with the Indian Army, which is under the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Solution: a)

Only statement 1 is correct.

India’s most significant domestically-grown oilseed is rapeseed-mustard. Its share in the country’s production of vegetable oils has been estimated at 42.6% (more than soyabean’s 19.2%) and in that of meal at 30.3% (next to soyabean’s 38.9%).

Mustard seeds have high levels of glucosinolates, a group of sulphur and nitrogen-containing compounds contributing to the characteristic pungency of their oil and meal. While that limits the oil’s acceptability among consumers – especially those preferring cooking medium having less strong flavour and odour – the problem is even more with the meal. Rapeseed meal is unpalatable to poultry and pigs, while having to be mixed with fodder grass and water for giving to cattle and buffaloes. Besides reducing their feed intake, high glucosinolates are also known to cause goiter (swelling of neck) and internal organ abnormalities in livestock.

Solution: a)

Only statement 3 is correct.

The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that “there is no express provision which bars associations with religious connotations to register as political parties under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act-1951”.

The EC generally does not have the power to deregister political parties, something which it has proposed as an electoral reform to the government many times.

On the issue of symbols, the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 bars parties from having symbols with religious or communal connotations.

Solution: c)

India has signed several logistics agreements including all Quad countries, France, Singapore and South Korea beginning with the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. in 2016.

Logistics agreements are administrative arrangements facilitating access to military facilities for exchange of fuel and provisions on mutual agreement simplifying logistical support and increasing operational turnaround of the military when operating away from India.

Solution: d)

The first material to have been discovered to show super conductive properties was Mercury, which becomes a superconductor at close to 270 degree Celsius below zero. Most of the other materials commonly used as superconductors – Lead, Aluminum, Tin, Niobium, and several others – also become superconducting at comparable temperatures, called critical temperature.