Prelims Objective Practices Question

(I.) Chin ethnic group, recently seen in news, belongs to which of the following countries?
A.) Sri Lanka
B.) Myanmar
C.) China
D.) Cambodia

(II.) Which of the following statements are correct regarding bond yield?
A.) In case the price of bond increases, the bond yield will fall.
B.) In case the price of bond increases, the bond yield will increase.
C.) In case the price of bond increases, the bond yield will not be affected.
D.) Inversion of the yield curve essentially suggests that investors expect future growth to be stronger.

(III.) Namsai Declaration which was seen in news recently, was signed between which of the following states?
A.) Assam and Manipur
B.) Kerala and Karnataka
C.) Maharashtra and Gujarat
D.) Assam and Arunachal Pradesh

Note:-
*// Assam and Arunachal Pradesh have signed the “Namsai Declaration” to resolve border disputes. The declaration marks the resolution of the principle of disputes regarding 37 locations out of 123 disputed villages along the borders between the two states. – Now disputes regarding the remaining 86 border locations will be assessed by the regional committees of both states and a final resolution will be arrived at based on the reports of these committees.

Question of the Day

Ques. What were the Drawbacks of the Continental drift theory? Why was it rejected?

Prelims Specific Facts

NEWS-1 Core sector output expands by 12.7%

• Coal, cement, electricity and refinery products rose 15% or more, compared with the June 2021 output levels, while natural gas (1.2%), steel (3.3%) and fertilizers (8.2%) grew at a milder pace.
• Crude oil output dropped 1.7%from a year earlier.

NEWS-2 Teach law, medicine in regional languages: Shah

• The 95% received primary education in their mother tongue.
• He said law, medicine and engineering should be taught in Indian Languages. Research and development could only be done when one think in his own language.
• He was speaking on the second anniversary of the second anniversary of the launch of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP).
• NEP 2020 was a counter to the Macaulay education system that was brought by the British to colonise the minds of India.
• The National Education Policy (NEP) approved by the Union Cabinet on July 29, 2020, says that wherever possible the medium of instruction in schools until Grade V — preferably until Grade VIII — should be the mother tongue or the local or regional language.
• The idea of using the mother tongue as the medium of instruction in primary school is not new to the Indian education system. Article 350A of the Constitution states that every state and local authority should endeavour to provide “adequate facilities for instruction in the mother-tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups”.
• The report of the Kothari Commission on education and national development (1964-66) suggested that in tribal areas, for the first two years of school, the medium of instruction and books should be in the local tribal language. The regional language should be taught separately and should become the medium of instruction by the third year.
• The Right to Education Act, 2009, also said that as far as possible, the medium of instruction in school should be the child’s mother tongue.
• Macaulay’s vision to create a class of brown sahibs was opposed not just by Orientalists, but also by those who spoke for the native languages.
• Macaulay circulated Minute on Education, a treatise that offered definitive reasons for why the East India Company and the British government should spend money on the provision of English language education, as well as the promotion of European learning, especially the sciences, in India.
• While The Minute acknowledged the historic role of Sanskrit and Arabic literature in the Subcontinent, it also contended that they had limitations. “A single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia,”
• A month after its circulation, the Minute became policy, when William Bentinck, the governor general of India, signed the resolution. For Macaulay, this was a victory. He had won against his detractors, especially the Orientalists – East India Company officials, scholars, translators and collectors – who supported study and instruction in India in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian languages.
• From 1820 to his retirement in 1833, it was English Orientalist Horace Hayman Wilson who made key educational decisions on behalf of the Company. Wilson is credited with a much-referenced, albeit free-wheeling, translation of Kalidasa’s Sanskrit poem, Meghaduta, and with the first glossary of words in Sanskrit and other Indian languages used in revenue and the judicial services.
• Macaulay’s Minute clearly stated these intentions: education was to “form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”.

NEWS-3 New warning on all tobacco product soon

• Tobacco is presently an important cash crop grown on 0.4 million hectares in the country and accounts for approximately 0.27% of the net cultivated area. The annual production is around 700 million kg and the country ranks second in the world in production after China.
• Meenakshi (CR), a caterpillar resistant variety for Chewing tobacco in Tamil Nadu and VT- 1158, a FCV variety resistant to TMV are the recently released resistant varieties.
• Tobacco is an excellent source of phytochemicals viz., solanesol, nicotine, proteins, tobacco seed oil and organic acids (malic and citric) which have pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial uses. Tobacco seed contains 35% oil and the oil is classified as linoleic oil, as linoloeic acid is the major aid (66-76%), comparable to safflower oil and sunflower oil. It has been established that tobacco seed oil is free from toxic substances. Refined tobacco seed oil is widely used as edible oil in countries like Bulgaria, Turkey, Tunisia and Greece, where tobacco is grown.
• Tobacco causes painful death.

NEWS-4

• An idea to utilise the municipality’s parks and the waste lying in its junkyards to create a public recreation space, has become a significant course of revenue for the cash-strapped Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
• The MCD’s first ‘Waste-to-Art’ park came up in Sarai Kale Khan as the ‘Waste to Wonder Park’. The park was built at a cost of Rs. 7.5 crore and inaugurated in February 2019 before being shut due to COVID-19. Till June 12 this year, the park garnered a revenue of Rs. 10.58 crore.
• The civic body’s second such park – Bharat Darshan Park in west Delhi is also gaining popularity among outstation tourists and city dwellers as a must visit spot.
• The third such theme park in ITO, whose foundation stone was laid by Lieutenant Governer Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday, has been named ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Park’ and is being set up on the theme of the country’s freedom struggle.

NEWS-5

• The Kerla government has sought Central assistance to distribute ragi powder and chick pea instead of wheat atta in at least three districts where anaemia cases and lifestyle related diseases are high.
• Finger Millet, also known as Ragi is an important millet grown extensively in various regions of India and Africa. Its scientific name is Eleusine coracana. It ranks sixth in production after wheat, rice, maize, sorghum and bajra in India. In India, ragi (finger millet) is mostly grown and consumed in Karnataka, and to a limited extent in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Goa.
• It has different names in local languages. In India finger millet is commonly called by various names like ragi (in Kannada, Telugu and Hindi), also Mandua/Mangal in Hindi, Kodra (Himachal Pradesh), Mandia (Oriya), Taidalu (in Telangana region), Kezhvaragu in Tamil etc.
• Nutritive value of Ragi
  • Finger millet is considered one of the most nutritious cereals. Finger millet contains about 5–8% protein, 1–2% ether extractives, 65–75% carbohydrates, 15–20% dietary fiber and 2.5–3.5% minerals. Of all the cereals and millets, finger millet has the highest amount of calcium (344mg%) and potassium (408mg%). The cereal has low fat content (1.3%) and contains mainly unsaturated fat. 100 grams of Finger millet has roughly on an average of 336 KCal of energy in them.
• However, the millet also contains phytates (0.48%), polyphenols, tannins (0.61%), trypsin inhibitory factors, and dietary fiber, which were once considered as “anti nutrients” due to their metal chelating and enzyme inhibition activities (Thompson 1993) but nowadays they are termed as neutraceuticals