Daily Quiz 24 August 2024

Answer: B

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is incorrect: UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is a regional airport development and “Regional Connectivity Scheme” (RCS) under the Civil Aviation Ministry of the Union Government. Its objective is to connect small and medium cities with big cities through air service. The scheme provides connectivity to the country’s unserved and under-served airports by reviving existing air-strips and airports. The scheme is jointly funded by the central government and state governments (centrally sponsored).
• Statement 2 is correct: Under the scheme, airlines have to cap airfares for 50% of the total seats at Rs. 2,500 per hour of flight. This is achieved through;
• Viability Gap Funding (VGF) – A government grant provided to the airlines to bridge the gap between the cost of operations and expected revenue.
• Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF) was created to meet the viability gap funding requirements under the scheme.

Thus, The scheme aims to make air travel affordable for the common man by capping airfares on specific routes. A certain number of seats on every flight are sold at a subsidized fare, making it accessible to a larger population.

Answer: A

Explanation:

Option (a) is correct: The Perseid meteor shower is one of the year’s premier meteor showers, known for its bright meteors and high activity levels. It peaks during mid-August each year and is considered to be among the best meteor showers. The Perseids are caused by the Earth slamming into the debris left behind by comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids shower itself doesn’t threaten the earth: most meteors burn up in the atmosphere. It is also one of the most plentiful showers with nearly 100 meteors seen per hour.The Orionids meteor shower, often shortened to the Orionids, is one of two meteor showers associated with Halley’s Comet. The Orionids are so-called because the point they appear to come from, called the radiant, lies in the constellation Orion, but they can be seen over a large area of the sky.

Answer: D

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: The Circum-Pacific belt, also known as the “Ring of Fire”, is the world’s greatest volcanic and earthquake belt, where 81 percent of recorded earthquakes occur. It is located along the rim of the Pacific Ocean along boundaries of tectonic plates, where various plates are subducting beneath another plate. Earthquakes are thus caused by slips between plates and within them. The largest instrumentally recorded earthquakes along the Circum-Pacific belt was a magnitude 9.5, Chile 1960.
• Statement 2 is correct: Following the Circum-Pacific belt is the so-calledAlpide belt. This is a geographic area located in the southern region of Eurasia, where 17 percent of the world’s largest earthquakes occur. It runs from Java to Sumatra all the way through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. Some of the most destructive earthquakes in the instrumental era along this belt were the Sumatra, 2004, magnitude 9.1 earthquake, which generated a tsunami that killed over 230.000 people

Statement 3 is correct: Nankai Trough is a 900 km long underwater subduction zone where the Eurasian Plate collides with the Philippines sea plate pushing the latter under the former and into the Earth’s mantle. This accumulates tectonic stress which can cause a megaquake — an earthquake with a magnitude larger than 8. The trough has produced large earthquakes roughly every 100 to 150 years. It lies in the Pacific Ocean. It runs from Shizuoka, west of Tokyo, to the southern tip of Kyushu Island.

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: The Union Cabinet approved the Clean Plant Programme (CPP) with a budget of ₹1,766 crore under the Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH). CPP will have 3 components: Clean Plant Centres, certification and legal framework and enhanced Infrastructure. The programme will be implemented by National Horticulture Board in association with the Indian Council of Agricultural research (ICAR)
• Statement 2 is incorrect: The program includes development of nine Clean Plant Centers (CPCs) which will provide disease diagnostics and therapeutics, create mother plants to be sent to nurseries, and quarantine all domestic and imported planting materials intended for commercial propagation and distribution and enhancement of infrastructure, including the development of large-scale nurseries to facilitate the efficient multiplication of clean planting material — the mother plants obtained from the CPCs will be multiplied in nurseries and distributed to farmers;

Statement 3 is correct: It will help farmers obtain virus-free, high-quality planting material (plants used for vegetative propagation) in order to increase crop yields and improve income opportunities. It will ensure creation of regulatory and certification process to ensure thorough accountability and traceability in the production and sale of planting material.

Answer: A

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: The CAA, 2019 aims to give citizenship to the target group of migrants even if they do not have valid travel documents as mandated in The Citizenship Act, 1955. The CAA presumes that members of these communities who entered India faced religious persecution in these countries.

Statements 2 and 3 are incorrect: Under the CAA Rules, immigrants from these countries are only supposed to prove the country of their origin, their religion, the date of their entry into India, and the knowledge of an Indian language to apply for Indian citizenship. However,  rules have been relaxed very significantly. The earlier essential requirement of a valid passport issued by Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan, along with a copy of a valid Residential Permit of India, has been virtually done away with. Any document issued by the central government/state government/any judicial or quasi judicial body in India such as land record, judicial order etc., identifying or representing that the applicant or the parents or grandparents or great grandparents had been a national of Afghanistan or Bangladesh or Pakistan is to be approved. The law has also cut the period of citizenship by naturalisation from 11 years to five. The eligibility criteria specify that migrants must have entered India on or before December 31, 2014, to be considered for expedited citizenship.