Daily Quiz 10th June 2024

Explanation:
• On May 30, 2024, we celebrated the 300th birth anniversary of the Maratha queen Ahilya Bai Holkar – a great administrator and visionary with a spiritual inclination.
• Ahilyabai (1725 -1795) was one of the women rulers of Medieval India who belongs to the Holkar dynasty of the Maratha Empire.
• She was married Khanderao Holkar in 1733 at the tender age of 8. Her husband was killed in the battle of Kumbher in 1754.
• Ahilyabai is famous for having built numerous forts and roads in the Malwa region, sponsoring festivals and offering donations to many Hindu temples. Her philanthropy was reflected in the construction of several temples, ghats, wells, tanks and rest houses stretching across the length of the country.
• She welcomed stalwarts such as Marathi poet Moropant, Shahir Ananta Gandhi, and Sanskrit scholar Khushali Ram into her capital.
• John Keay, the British historian, gave the queen the title of ‘The Philosopher Queen’. She had been an acute observer of the wider political scene.

Explanation:
• The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) balance sheet grew 11.07 per cent to Rs 70.47 lakh crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2024 compared to Rs 63.44 lakh crore in the fiscal 2022-23.
• During the fiscal 2023-24, the RBI’s income grew 17.04 per cent while provision towards contingency fund (CF) declined 67 per cent, leading to a record high surplus transfer of Rs 2.11 lakh crore to the government in the fiscal.
• The balance sheet of the RBI plays a critical role in the functioning of the country’s economy largely reflecting the activities carried out in pursuance of its currency issue function as well as monetary policy and reserve management objectives. In FY24, increase on assets side was due to a rise in foreign investments, gold, and loans and advances by 13.9 per cent, 18.26 per cent and 30.05 per cent, respectively, the RBI said in the annual report for 2023-24.
• Statement 1, 2 and 3 are the source of RBI’s income.
• Statement 4 and 5 are the expenditure of RBI.
Reserve Bank of India’s Sources of Income
Source of Income • Interest from Government Securities
• Open Market Operations (OMOs)
• Foreign Exchange Operations
• Interest on Loans and Advances
• Income from LAF
Expenditure • Operating Expenses
• Interest Paid on Deposits and Borrowings
• Currency Issue Expenses
• Provisioning for Contingencies and Reserves
Surplus • Net income derived from the total income (sources of income) minus total expenditure (expenses).
• Reserve funds and contingency provisions for financial stability and emergencies.

Explanation:
• Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched 3 major initiatives:
• PRAVAAH (Platform for Regulatory Application, VAlidation and AutHorisation) Portal: A secure and centralised online platform (web-based portal) for individuals and entities to apply for various regulatory approvals from the RBI.
o This streamlines the process by offering a single point of contact and aims to improve the efficiency of RBI’s regulatory approvals.
• Retail Direct Mobile App: Provides retail investors with convenient access to the Retail Direct platform for easy investment in government securities (G-Secs) directly from their smartphones.
• FinTech Repository: A web-based database containing comprehensive data on Indian FinTech firms, facilitating better understanding of the FinTech landscape for regulatory purposes.
• Additionally, the RBI launched the EmTech Repository, focusing on the adoption of emerging technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, etc.) by RBI-regulated entities like banks and NBFCs.
• Both FinTech and EmTech repositories are secure web applications managed by the RBIH (Reserve Bank Innovation Hub).

Explanation:
• Statement 1 is correct: IOD or Indian Nino: IOD, sometimes referred to as the Indian Nino, is similar to the El Nino phenomenon, occurring in the relatively smaller area of the Indian Ocean between the Indonesian and Malaysian coastline in the east and the African coastline near Somalia in the west.
o The El Nino is the warmer-than-normal phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, during which there are generally warmer temperatures and less rainfall than normal in many regions of the world, including India.
o One side of the ocean, along the equator, gets warmer than the other.
o IOD is said to be positive when the western side of the Indian Ocean, near the Somalia coast, becomes warmer than the eastern Indian Ocean.
o It is negative when the western Indian Ocean is cooler.
• La Nina means the Little Girl in Spanish. It is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Nino, or simply “a cold event.”
o Statement 2 is incorrect: La Nina events represent periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across the east-central Equatorial Pacific.
o It is indicated by sea-surface temperature decreased by more than 0.9℉ for at least five successive three-month seasons.
o La Nina event is observed when the water temperature in the Eastern Pacific gets comparatively colder than normal, as a consequence of which, there is a strong high pressure over the eastern equatorial Pacific.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: El Nino is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
o It is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
o It occurs more frequently than La Nina.

Explanation:
• Statement 1 is correct: The right to vote and the right to be elected are ‘statutory rights’
o In 1975, the Supreme Court in Indira Gandhi v Raj Narain recognized free and fair elections as part of the Constitution’s basic structure, allowing laws violating this principle to be struck down.
o However, the Apex Court has held that the rights to elect and be elected do not enjoy the same status.
o In 2006, a five-judge Bench in Kuldip Nayar v. Union of India ruled that voting is a statutory right, not a fundamental right, and can be regulated by laws enacted by Parliament.
o The same was held for the right to be elected by the Bench.
• Statement 2 is correct: A candidate in jail (whether convicted or not) has the ‘Right to be elected to Parliament’ but has no ‘Right to vote’.
o Sub-clause (5) of Section 62 of the RPA stipulates that individuals confined in prison or in lawful police custody cannot vote in elections, with an exception for those in preventive detention.
o This effectively bars individuals with criminal charges from voting unless they are released on bail or acquitted.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (RPA) mandates disqualification from contesting elections to Parliament or state Assemblies upon conviction for certain offences.
o This disqualification starts from the date of conviction and lasts for six years after the end of the sentence.
o However, this bar applies only after a person is convicted, not if they are merely charged with criminal offences.
o Section 8 of the RPA has faced challenges in the Supreme Court:
 In 2011, the Public Interest Foundation petitioned to disqualify persons with framed criminal charges or false affidavits about their criminal history, but the SC ruled that only the legislature could amend the RPA.
 In 2016, advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay sought permanent disqualification for convicted persons. This case is ongoing, and in November 2023, the SC, noting delays in criminal cases against MPs and MLAs, directed the Chief Justices of all High Courts to expedite these cases.