Prelims Practices Questions

1) Karatoya river is located in –
A.) India
B.)Pakistan
Myanmar
Bangladesh

2) With reference to DART Mission, consider the following statements:-
1. It is the first technology demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique on Asteroid.
2. The target of the spacecraft is a moonlet called Didymos..
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A.) 1 only
B.) .2 only
C.) Both 1 and 2
D.) Neither 1 nor 2

3) With reference to Dadasaheb Phalke Award, consider the following statements
1. It is India’s highest award in the field of cinema.
2. So far, the award is not awarded posthumously.
3. Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) medallion is associated with this award.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A.) 1 and 2 only
B.) 1 and 3 only
C.) 2 and 3 only
D.) 1 only

Prelims Specific Facts

1.) Centre bans PFI, 8 front bodies for five years under UAPA –

• T he Union Home Ministry on Wednesday declared the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its front organisations, including its student wing, the Campus Front of India (CFI), an “unlawful association” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The Islamist organisation has been banned for five years along with eight associates or front organisations.
• The Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) lays down the definitions and rules for designating an organisation as an “unlawful association” if it is engaged in certain types of activities.
• The government can then issue a notification designating such an organisation as a terrorist organisation, if it believes that the organisation is part of “terrorist activities. “Under section 2(o) of the UAPA, an unlawful activity in relation to an individual or association means –
  • Any action taken by such an individual or association (whether by committing an act or by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representation or otherwise)-
    • (i) which is intended, or supports any claim, to bring about, on any ground whatsoever, the cession of a part of the territory of India or the secession of a part of the territory of India from the Union, or which incites any individual or group of individuals to bring about such cession or secession; or
    • (ii) which disclaims, questions, disrupts or is intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India; or
    • (iii) which causes or is intended to cause disaffection against India
• Under the Act, therefore, ‘unlawful activity’ is not limited to terror activities relating to causing direct violence or attacks, it also includes any activities that disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, disrupts the economic stability of the country or causes disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different reli­gious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communi­ties in the country. Related and ancillary acts, including financing, support or promotion of any such activities are also “unlawful activity”.
• It has been alleged that the “PFI is involved in several criminal and terror cases and shows sheer disrespect towards the constitutional authority of the country and, with funds and ideological support from outside, it has become a major threat to the internal security of the country.”

2.) What is the News ?

• The Union government has extended the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for another three months from October 1.
• This will allow beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act to continue to get five kg of food grains per person per month till December 31.
• The scheme has been in operation since April 2020.
• Under the extended PM-GKAY each beneficiary will get additional 5 kg free ration per person per month in addition to his normal quota of food grains under the NFSA. This means that every poor household would get nearly double the normal quantity of ration.

3.) ASI finds Buddhist caves, temples in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in M.P.

• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) earlier this year discovered Buddhist caves and stupas, and Brahmi inscriptions, dating back to the 2nd century, and Hindu temples from the 9th-11th centuries, and possibly the world’s largest Varaha sculpture also dating to the same period, at the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.
• The Exploration took place 84 years after the last such effort in 1938.
• The ASI team discovered 26 mostly Buddhist caves dating back to the 2nd and 5th centuries.
• The caves and some of their remains had Chaitya doors and stone beds typical of Mahayana Buddhism sites.
• This discovery brings the total number of caves found int he Bandhavgarh reserve to 76, as 50 are already in the records since the last survey.
• Archaeological Survey of India:
  • The ASI is the premier organization for the archaeological researches and protection of the cultural heritage of the country.
  • The prime objection of ASI is to maintain the archaeological sites, ancient monuments and remains of national importance.
  • Headquarters: New Delhi.
  • Established: 1861 by Alexander Cunningham.
  • It regulates all archaeological activities as per the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
  • It functions under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture.
  • It also regulates Antiquities and Art Treasure Act, 1972.
• Chaitya is a place of worship while Vihara is the dwelling place of monks.

4.) U.P. issues timetable for madrasas, day to start with National Anthem

• The State Madrasa Education Board has is sued a new timetable for the aided and recognised madrasas in which educational activities will start with the National Anthem and prayers. The educational work in these madrasas will be held from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. Previously, the working hours were between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Just a few months ago, the board has made it compulsory for teachers and students to recite the National Anthem before the start of the class.
• “Aided / recognised ma changed to 9 a.m.-3 p.m., in the first sitting, at 9 a.m., prayer [dua] and National Anthem will take place. The teaching will start from 9.20 a.m. till 12 noon. The second sitting will start at 12.30 p.m. till 3 p.m. All aided / recognised madrasas should follow the mentioned timetable,” reads the order issued by Jagmohan Singh, Registrar, Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board.

5.) What is the News?

• The U.S. will introduce a resolution at the UN Security Council calling on member states not to recognise any change to Ukraine and obligating Russia to withdraw its troops, U.S. Greenfield said.
• Moscow-installed administrations in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine claimed on Tuesday night that 93 percent of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhia region supported annexation, as did 87 percent in the Kherson region, 98 percent in the Luhansk region and 99 percent in Donetsk.

Editorial of the Day

1. Globe – changing reverberations of the Ukraine war

• Ukraine has been massively assisted by NATO weaponry, training, communications, satellite and human intelligence, reconnaissance, information processing systems and total control over the global media. While the World Bank is slow to help devastated war-torn nations such as Yemen and Afghanistan, it rushed $4.5 billion to Ukraine, while the International Monetary Fund came up with $1.4 billion. The West fails to understand how hypocritical its sanctions appear. For example, the United States exerted much effort persuading India and others to boycott Iranian and Venezuelan oil, only to try to get those shipments back on the market after its opposition shifted to Russia.
• The war has also caused huge devastation in the most industrial parts of Ukraine, with over 10 million persons crossing to neighbouring countries and over seven million internally displaced.
• In 2020, Russia declared it would use nuclear weapons in four instances: if alarmed by an incoming missile; subjected to attack by weapons of mass destruction; suffered damage to infrastructure that housed its nuclear arsenal, or when conventional war threatened the existence of Russia. Mr. Putin now interprets the current war as an existential struggle in which Russia would make use “of all weapon systems available to us”.
• If the war drags on, it will suit the West, Just as prolonged American entanglement in Afghanistan suited its Under pressure from both domestic anti-war activists and ultra-nationalists, Mr. Putin will suffer reputational damage internationally and domestically.
• Today’s world is “shaped by raw power politics, where everything is weaponised”, as the EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell put it, when major powers are divided, the international community polarised and protectionism rampant. Rivalries during the new Cold War would be sharper than its predecessor, particularly through the menace of nuclear arms because the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons will come under huge stress to stay relevant. Elements of western coercion on a massive scale, covering energy, sanctions, finance, banking, cyberspace, digital technologies and social media, signal the weapons of the future.

2. In nature’s warning signs, a nudge to riparian states

• Flooding is still considered to be a natural phenomenon that cannot be entirely prevented. But it is compounded by the lack of transparency in the sharing of hydro logical information and also information relating to activities (such as by one riparian state) that are trans boundary in their effect (affecting other riparian states), thus serving as an obstacle in understanding the magnitude of flooding.
• In accordance with customary international law, no state has to use its territory in a manner that causes harm to another state while using a shared natural resource; this amounts to saying that there is a binding obligation on all states not to release water to cause floods in another co-sharer of the river water. This obligation gives rise to other procedural norms that support the management of floods, which include notification of planned measures, the exchange of data and information, and also public participation.
• The International Court of Justice (ICJ), in the Pulp Mills on the River Uruguay (Argentina vs Uruguay) case (2010), upheld that conducting a trans boundary environmental impact assessment (TEIA) of a planned measure or projects on the shared water course is part of customary international law.
• Closer home, there is the case of China being the upper riparian in the Brahmaputra, which spans India and Bangladesh, enjoying apparent leverage vis-à-vis lower riparian India. During the monsoon, flooding has been the recurrent feature in the last several decades in Assam. India faces other woes in the form of the construction of dams by China. China’s excessive water release, as a “dam controller”, in violation of customary international law has the potential to exacerbate flooding in Assam in future. India’s main concern is that there is no comprehensive sub-basin or all basin-level mechanism to deal with water management of Brahmaputra. Neither India or China are party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNWC) 1997 or the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes 1992 (Water Convention).
• The UNWC contains a direct reference to floods, which covers harmful conditions and emergency situations. Article 27 of the Convention says: “Watercourse States shall, individually and, where appropriate, jointly, take all appropriate measures to prevent or mitigate conditions…that may be harmful to other watercourse States, whether resulting from natural causes or human conduct, such as floods or ice conditions, water-borne diseases, siltation, erosion, salt-water intrusion, drought or
• In the absence of any mechanism, India relies on its memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China in 2013 with a view to sharing hydrological information during the flood season (June to September).
• India by becoming a party to either the UNWC and the Water Convention could lay the groundwork for a bilateral treaty on the Brahmaputra.
• Floods are also a recurrent problem in the Koshi and Gandak river basins that are shared by India and Nepal. The intensity and magnitude of flooding is rising because of heavy seasonal precipitation as well as glacial retreat due to global warming and human-induced stressors such as land use and land cover changes in the river basin area of Nepal (Terai) and Bihar. It is important that the two neighbours view the river basins as single entities, which will help in facilitating an integrated approach for improved basin and flood risk management. The India-Nepal Koshi agreement 1954 (revised in 1966) is aimed at reducing devastating flooding in the river basin. The treaty-based joint bodies have also tried to refine the early warning systems for flood forecasting. In contravention of procedural customary international law obligation, India considers data on transboundary rivers as classified information, which is one of the key challenges in developing cross-border flood warning systems.
• They must also think of becoming a party to either the UNWC or the UNECE Water convention.
• Customary international law refers to international obligations arising from established international practices, as opposed to obligations arising from formal written conventions and treaties. Customary international law results from a general and consistent practice of states that they follow from a sense of legal obligation. Two examples of customary international laws are the doctrine of non-refoulement and the granting of immunity for visiting heads of state.
• International customs and general practices of nations shall be one of the court’s sources of customary international law is one of the sources of international law.

Explainer of the Day

1. Rediscovering the Bay of Bengal

• The Bay of Bengal (the Bay) is experiencing an increase in geo-economic, geopolitical, and geo-cultural activity. It is poised to once again play a key role in shaping the maritime order in Asia. Therefore, it is noteworthy that at the fourth BIMSTEC summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the opening of the Centre for Bay of Bengal Studies (CBS) at Nalanda University. The official launch of the CBS has once again demonstrated India’s commitment to advancing constructive agendas by forging connections and setting up platforms for all those with an interest in the Bay.
• CBS will offer collaborations in areas such as geo-economics and geopolitics, ecology, trade and connectivity, maritime security, maritime law, cultural heritage, and blue economy to generate opportunities for the Bay region. This will strengthen India’s overall framework for maritime engagement, which aims to advance sustainable economic growth for all by fostering closer nautical ties.
• The region’s maritime environment has changed as a result of major powers expanding their economic and geopolitical influence. Political and cultural engagement, together with economic competition, have taken on new dimensions. More crucially, the Bay’s ecosystem is going through an unprecedented crisis brought on by widespread environmental exploitation and geopolitical unrest. Species extinction is a result of careless exploitation of the maritime environment, which has severe consequences on biodiversity.
• Problems such as population growth, altered land use, excessive resource exploitation, salinisation, sea level rise, and climate change are exerting significant strain on the Bay’s environment.
• Operational discharge from small and medium feeder ships, shipping collisions, unintentional oil spills, industrial waste, pollution, and the accumulation of non-biodegradable plastic litter are all contributing to the deterioration of the Bay.
• By founding the CBS, Nalanda University has already started its journey and given the nation a unique interdisciplinary research centre devoted to Bay-focused teaching, research, and capacity building. Additionally, scholars from many countries and academic streams are already participating in CBS’s first certificate programme on the Bay.

2. Theocracy

• Theocracy, government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In many theocracies, government leaders are members of the clergy, and the state’s legal system is based on religious law. Theocratic rule was typical of early civilizations.