Consider the following statements regarding elections in India:
(1) A Voter is eligible for registration with the election commission if they turn 18 years of age on 1 Jan of that year.
(2) Paid news is an electoral offence in India. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Choose the answer from the co des given below:
1)1 only
2)2 only
3)Both
4)None
2)Consider the following statements with respect to Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC):
(1) APEC is a regional economic forum established in 1989.
(2) It has 41 members.
(3) India is not a member of APEC.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? Choose the option from the codes given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
3)Consider the following statements with respect to SAGE initiative:
(1) The SAGE initiative promotes the idea of silver economy.
(2) It is an initiative of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Choose the correct answer from the codes given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Map of the Day :-
Prelims Specific News
Why in news :- The Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter (WALOP), a vital instrument for the PASIPHAE Project, is being developed at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), India.
Polar-Areas Stellar-Imaging in Polarisation High-Accuracy Experiment (PASIPHAE) is an international collaborative sky surveying project.
About the PASIPHAE Survey:
It is an opto-polarimetric survey aiming to measure the linear polarization from millions of stars.
The survey will use two high-tech optical polarimeters to observe the northern and southern skies, simultaneously.
The survey will be conducted concurrently from the South African Astronomical Observatory in Sutherland, South Africa in the southern hemisphere, and the Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece, in the north.
It will focus on capturing starlight polarisation of very faint stars that are so far away that polarisation signals from there have not been systematically studied.
The distances to these stars will be obtained from measurements of the GAIA satellite.
2)Signed off on a joint statement (Democracies 11) by G-7 and guest countries on “open societies” that reaffirm and encourage the values of freedom of expression, both online and offline, as a freedom that safeguards democracy and helps people live free from fear and oppression.
The statement also refers to politically motivated internet shutdowns as one of the threats to freedom and democracy.
While the statement is directed at China and Russia, India has been under scrutiny over Internet curbs in Jammu and Kashmir even as the Government is locked in a face-off over its New IT rules 2021 with tech giants.
3)Govt. report flags ‘lapses’ in Nagaland bat study :- More than a year after a probe into a filovirus study of bats in Nagaland by the Bengaluru based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), the government has concluded that there had been “concerning lapses” in the conduct and protocols followed for the study, even as an inter-department row continues over where the bat samples should be stored.
Nagaland bat study on filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg) was in no way related to the coronavirus (SARS) studies at Wuhan.
4) For Onam, marigolds from a floating raft :- A small fraction of the millions of marigold flowers used during the annual Onam season to make floral carpets and decorate homes will come from a floating raft farming experiment undertaken by an enterprising young farmer in the Vembanad backwaters in Alappuzha’s Thanneermukkom panchayat.
Floating raft agriculture, with water hyacinth forming the bed, has been experimented with extensively.
5) Operation Pawan was the code name assigned to the operation by the Indian Peace Keeping Force to take control of Jaffna from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, better known as the Tamil Tigers, in late 1987 to enforce the disarmament of the LTTE as a part of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord.
Operation Brasstacks was a major combined arms military exercise of the Indian Armed Forces in Rajasthan state of India, that took place in 1986 until its execution in 1987.
Operation Brasstacks was tasked with two objectives: the initial goal was the deployment of ground troops. The other objective was to conduct a series of amphibious assault exercises by the Indian Navy near to the Pakistan naval base.
In 1986, the Chinese army reportedly crossed LAC and entered the Sumdorong Chu valley in Arunachal Pradesh and started building helipads and permanent structures. Later, the then Indian Army Chief Gen K Sundarji launched Operation Falcon.
With the help of Indian Air force (IAF) several battalions were airlifted and were dropped at the Sino-Indian border. The Indian army stood at the border eyeball-to-eyeball with Chinese troops until the PLA agreed to back off.
Operation Meghdoot was the codename for the Indian Armed Forces’ operation to seize control of the Siachen Glacier in Kashmir, precipitating the Siachen conflict. Executed in the morning of 13 April 1984 in the highest battlefield in the world, Meghdoot was the first military offensive of its kind.
6)‘China, India, Pak. expanding nuclear arsenal’ :- China is in the middle of a significant modernisation and expansion of its nuclear weapon inventory, and India and Pakistan also appear to be expanding their nuclear
arsenals, according to Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Year Book
2021.
According to the year book, India possessed an estimated 156 nuclear warheads at the start of 2021, compared with 150 at the start of last year, while Pakistan had 165 warheads, up from 160 in 2020. China’s nuclear arsenal consisted of 350 warheads, up from 320 at the start of 2020.
A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), London, in May titled ‘Nuclear Deterrence and Stability in South Asia: Perceptions and Realities’ said that chance played an important ameliorative role in the India-Pakistan crisis of February 2019 and the two countries “risk stumbling into using their nuclear weapons through miscalculation or misinterpretation in a future crisis.”
