Prelims Practices Questions

1.) Which of the following will be the impact of declining forex reserves on India?
A.) It will affect import of the country
B.) It will affect export of the country
C.) It will help in appreciation of rupee
D.) It will decrease inflation

2.) ACE2’ was seen in the news recently. It is related to –
A.) Bilateral agreement between India and China
B.) Sustainable farming techniques
C.) Decreasing bad loans in the banks
D.) Entering of coronavirus in the body

3.) The terms ‘proof of work’, ‘proof-of-stake’, was seen in news sometimes, is related to which of the following?
A.) Service Sector
B.) Gig workers
C.) Block chains
D.) Agriculture

Prelims Specific Facts

1) What is the News?

• The Union Minister of Skill Development has launched the SCALE (Skill Certification Assessment for Leather Employees) app.
  • What is a SCALE App?
    • Launched by: Leather Skill Sector Council
    • Purpose: The app provides a one-stop solution for the skilling, learning, assessment and employment needs of the leather industry.
  • It allows people from all age groups interested in leather craft to access online live-streamed classes from the state-of-the-art studio at its office.
  • About India’s Leather Industry
    • The Leather industry in India accounts for around 13% of the world’s leather production of hides/skins. India is the second-largest producer and consumer of footwear in the world. It accounts for 9% of the world’s footwear production.
    • The leather industry is an employment-intensive industry providing jobs to more than 4 million people.

2) What is the News?

• The World’s first Global Registry of Fossil Fuels has been launched.
  • What is the Global Registry of Fossil Fuels?
    • Launched by: Carbon Tracker and the Global Energy Monitor
    • Purpose: It is the first-of-its-kind database for tracking the world’s fossil fuel production, reserves and emissions.
  • It includes data from over 50,000 oil, gas and coal fields in 89 countries. That covers 75% of global reserves, production and emissions. This registry is available for public use.
  • What are the key analysis that can be made from this data?
    • Firstly, the United States and Russia have enough fossil fuel still underground untapped to exhaust the world’s remaining carbon budget. That’s the remaining carbon the world can afford to emit before a certain amount of warming occurs, in this case, 1.5 degrees Celsius.
    • These reserves would generate 3.5 trillion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions which is more than all of the emissions produced since the Industrial Revolution.
    • Secondly, of the 50,000 fields included, the most potent source of emissions is the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, which churns out some 525 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

3) What is the News?

• The Centre for Science and Environment(CSE) has released a roadmap for legacy waste management in a bid to support India’s garbage-free cities agenda.
  • What is Legacy Waste?
    • The term ‘legacy waste’ has not been defined in any official government document in India.
    • But it typically refers to wastes that are collected and kept for years at some barren land or a place dedicated to a Landfill (an area to dump solid waste).
    • Significance: The term ‘legacy waste’ has received close attention in the wake of Swachh Bharat Mission(SBM) 2.0 which mandates that cities in India should clear legacy waste sites, reclaim the land and prevent more waste from reaching dumpsites.

4) What is the News?

• Maharaja Kishen Pershad
  • The Tulwar (sword) was purchased in 1905 by General Sir Archibald Hunter, Commander in-Chief, Bombay Command (1903-1907), from Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad Bahadur Yamin us Sultanat, the Prime Minister of Hyderabad.

5) What is the News ?

• The linkage of some of the unauthorised Rohingya migrants with Pakistan based terror organisations, which is a “serious security concern”.
• The government said the most disturbing part is that there is an “organised influx of illegal migrants” from Myanmar through agents and touts who facilitate Rohingya into India via Benapole-Haridaspur and Hilli (West Bengal) and Sonamora (Tripura), Kolkata and Guwahati.

6) What is the News ?

• ISRO successfully tests hybrid propulsion system, to aid future technologies.
  • The hybrid motor was tested at the ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendra giri, The hybrid system is more efficient, “greener” and safer to handle, and paves the way for new propul sion technologies for future missions, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), which tested it with support from the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), said.
  • Hybrid motor used HTPB based (hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene ) sluminised solid fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) as oxidiser.
  • Conventional HTPB based solid propellant mo tors used in rockets use ammonium perchlorate as oxidiser. In rocket engines, oxidisers supply the oxygen needed for combustion.

7) What is the News ?

• The governing body meeting of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the issue of farmers’ rights remained the focal point of discussions.
• The Union Agriculture Ministry said India stood for the creation of an option for implementation of farmers rights, and pro posed that use of Global In formation System (GIS) for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture needs capacity building among contracting parties.

Editorial of the Day

The ambit of fraternity and the wages of oblivion

• These principles of liberty equality and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy,’ said B.R. Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly, in 1949.
• It is often forgotten that ‘fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation’ is, along with Justice, Liberty and Equality, among the basic values inscribed in the Preamble of the Constitution of India whose first line asserts.
• We must begin by acknowledging the fact there is a complete absence of two things in Indian society. One of these is equality’ and as a result of it we would enter into ‘a life of contradictions’ on January 26, 1950.
  However, practical adherence to this commitment was given shape only by the Forty-Second Amendment (1976) in Article 51A (e) on Fundamental Duties.
• It makes it the duty of every citizen of India ‘to promote harmony and the spirit of common among all the people of India, transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities.
• The idea of fraternity is based on the view that people have responsibilities to each other. It was defined after the French Revolution in the following terms: ‘Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you; do constantly to others the good which you would wish to receive from them. The vagueness of the definition suggests that, despite its place in the revolutionary slogan, the idea of fraternity was not clearly understood. It is generally seen as an emotion rather than a principle.
• In a speech in the Constituent Assembly on December 22, 1952, B.R. Ambedkar dwelt on what he called ‘Conditions Precedent for the Successful Working of Democracy’. He listed these as: absence of glaring inequalities; presence of an opposition; equality of law and administration; observance of constitutional morality; avoidance of tyranny of majority over minority; a functioning of moral order in society, and public conscience.
• Where does this take fraternity? Article 51A(e) of the Constitution does not differentiate between citizens on any of the categories mentioned above and makes it an all-encompassing duty. Its ambit therefore is universal; its observance, by the same logic, has to begin at the base of the ladder of citizenship rather than the top but does not spare the leadership from the obligation to promote and practice it.

Explainer of the Day

Rules for identifying criminals

• On September 19, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notified the rules governing The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Act, 2022. The Act was passed in March by the Parliament. Until rules are notified, an Act cannot be implemented or come into force. The legislation would enable police and central investigating agencies to collect, store and analyse physical and biological samples including retina and iris scan of arrested persons.
• What is the legislation about?
  • The Act seeks to repeal the Identification of Prisoners Act, 1920, which is over 100 years-old. The old Act’s scope was limited to capturing of finger impression, foot print impressions and photographs of convicted prisoners and certain category of arrested and non-convicted persons on the orders of a Magistrate.
  • New “measurement” techniques being used in advanced countries are giving credible and reliable results and are recognised world over. It said that the 1920 Act does not provide for taking these body measurements as many of the techniques and technologies had not been developed then. The Act empowers a Magistrate to direct any person to give measurements, which till now was re served for convicts and those involved in heinous crimes. It also enables the police upto the rank of a Head Constable to take measurements of any person who resists or refuses to give measurements.
    As per the rules, “measurements” include finger-impressions, palm-print, foot print, photographs, iris and retina scan, physical, biological samples and their analysis, behavioural attributes including signatures, handwriting or any other examination referred to in Section 53 or Section 53A of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974). Though it has not been specified, analysis of biological samples could also include DNA profiling.
• The Opposition members termed it “unconstitutional” and an attack on privacy as it allowed the record of samples of even political detainees.
• The rules notified on September 19 state that samples of those detained under preventive Sections such as 107, 108, 109, 110, 144, 145 and 151 of the CrPC shall not be taken unless such person is charged or arrested in connection with any other offence punishable under any other law. It can also be taken if a person has been ordered to give security for his good behaviour for maintaining peace under Section 117 of the said Code for a proceeding under the said Sections. The rules do not mention the procedure to be adopted for convicted persons.
• he National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under MHA will be the one-stop agency for storing and preserving the data of arrested persons.
• The rules state that the NCRB will issue Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for collection of measurements which would include specifications of the equipment or devices to be used, specifications and the digital and physical format of the measurements etc.
• Uploaded in the database as per the SOP. Only authorised users could upload the measurements in the central database in an encrypted format.
• The procedure for destruction and disposal of records are yet to be specified by the NCRB. The rules state that any request for destruction of records shall be made to the Nodal Officer who is to be nominated by the respective State Government. The nodal officer will recommend the destruction after verifying that such record of measurements is not linked with any other criminal cases.