Daily Quiz 25 September 2024

Answer: B
Explanation:
● Pair 1 is correctly matched: Indian Army’s ambitious light tank project, titled ‘Zorawar’, was envisioned in 2021. Under it, the Defence Ministry seeks to procure 350 light tanks in a phased manner. Notably, the project has been named after General Zorawar Singh Kahluria, who had served under Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu’s Dogra dynasty and played a pivotal role in expanding the Dogra territory by conquering Ladakh. Recently the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted the preliminary automotive trials of the Indian light tank, Zorawar. It will be deployed in high-altitude areas. The Zorawar is a 25-ton light tank developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Limited. It was designed for high-altitude warfare, especially in the eastern Ladakh sector near the China border
● Pair 2 is incorrectly matched: Recently OpenAI has launched its latest Artificial Intelligence model Open AI 01. It is a part of its secretive ‘Project Strawberry’. Strawberry aims to enable AI models to plan ahead, autonomously search the internet, and conduct deep research. Open AI 01 is designed to solve complex tasks in science, coding, and maths. Under Project Vaani, diverse languages used across India will be mapped by collecting speech sets of around 1 million people. Project Vaani is one of the largest datasets of Indian dialects ever to exist.
● Pair 3 is correctly matched: Project-75 (India), simply referred to as the P-75(I) program, is a military acquisition initiative affiliated to India’s Ministry of Defence, aimed at the planned procurement of diesel-electric submarines for the Indian Navy. Project-75 has the objective of indigenous construction of six Scorpene Class submarines to be commissioned into the Indian Navy.

Answer: B

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: NPS is open to all Indian citizens between the ages of 18 and 70, including self-employed people and non-resident Indians. EPF is only for salaried employees in the private sector.
• Statement 2 is correct: NPS offers market-linked returns as funds are invested in various types of investment instruments like government bonds, corporate debt and equity, shares, etc. EPF offers guaranteed tax-free returns in the form of annual interest. For the financial year 2024, it is fixed at 8.25%.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: NPS requires a minimum annual contribution of Rs 6,000 from employees for Tier-1 Accounts. For Tier-2 Accounts there is no minimum annual contribution, but a minimum balance of Rs 2,000 must be maintained at the end of each financial year. EPF requires both the employee and employer to contribute 12% of the employee’s salary.

Answer: B

Explanation:

• Option (b) is correct: After three years of preparation, two women officers from the Indian Navy will soon start a challenging sea voyage around the world called the Sagar Parikrama Expedition. Two Indian Navy women officers, Lt Cdr Roopa A and Lt Cdr Dilna K, will embark on a globe-circumnavigating expedition known as Navika Sagar Parikrama II, onboard INSV Tarini. The goal is to promote seamanship, maritime heritage and gender equality through a challenging circumnavigation of the globe.

The Great White Fleet: The first fleet to circumnavigate the world, from 1907–1909

Operation Sea Orbit: The first all-nuclear naval task force to circumnavigate the world, in 1964.

Navika Sagar Parikrama I: In 2017, the Indian Navy’s all-female crew circumnavigated the globe on the INSV Tarini. The expedition lasted 254 days and covered 21,600 nautical miles

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 allows surrogacy only for altruistic purposes. It is permitted for couples with proven infertility or disease. Commercial surrogacy is banned. The Surrogacy Act prohibits “buying or trading the services” of surrogate mothers, meaning no payment or reward is allowed apart from covering medical expenses and providing insurance.
• Statement 2 is incorrect: The Union government has amended the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules, 2022. Earlier, Donor eggs could not be used for gestational surrogacy of an intending couple. This amendment allowed allows married couples to use donor eggs/sperm for surrogacy if one partner has a medical condition preventing conception. It requires a District Magistrate Board certification for medical condition proof. This ensures at least one gamete comes from the intending couple. The amendment does not apply to single women (widows/divorced) who still need to use their own eggs.

Statement 3 is correct while Statement 4 is incorrect: The child born through surrogacy is legally recognized as the biological child of the intended parents. Any abortion of the foetus requires consent from both the surrogate mother and relevant authorities, according to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

Answer: B

Explanation: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru have created an analogous computing platform within a molecular film that mimics human brain-like functioning. It is a technology which can store and process information in a way similar to how the human brain works within a tiny electronic device.

Option (b) is correct: Neuromorphic computing is a method of computer engineering in which elements of a computer are modeled after systems in the human brain and nervous system. The term refers to the design of both hardware and software computing elements. It’s also known as brain-inspired computing. Neuromorphic computing aims to create more efficient and intelligent computing systems by mimicking the human brain’s biological synapses, which are responsible for parallelism and plasticity. Brain-computer interface (BCI) is a collaboration between a brain and a device that enables signals from the brain to direct some external activity. Neuralink is a brain-computer interface. An organ-on-a-chip (OOC) is a microfluidic device that mimics the structure and function of human organs.