Prelims Objective Practices Question

(I.) Which of the following were some of the chief characteristics of the Vijayanagara temple architecture?

1. Tall gopurams
2. Kalyanamandapam with pillars
3. Absence of sculptures on pillars

Select the correct answer code:
A.) 1, 2
B.) 1 only
C.) 2, 3
D.) 1, 2, 3
Note:- 
Characteristics of Vijaynagar Temples:-

• Large temples have tall Rayagopuram built with wood, brick and stucco in Chola style. The term Raya is added to indicate a gopura built by Vijayanagar Rayas.
• We can find ornate pillared Kalyanamantapa in Cheluva Narayana temple, Melkote.
• Temple pillars often have engravings of charging horses or hippogryphs (Yali) — horses standing on hind legs with their fore legs lifted and riders on their backs.

(II.) Consider the following statements regarding Mahayana Buddhism.

1. The Mahayana followers oppose idol or image worship of Buddha.
2. The concept of Bodhisattva is the result of Mahayana Buddhism.
3. The Mahayana scholars predominantly used Sanskrit as a language.
4. Emperor Ashoka patronised Mahayana school.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?
A.) 1, 2, 3
B.) 2, 3
C.) 2, 3, 4
D.) 1, 3, 4
Note:-
Mahayana Buddhism:-

• It means the greater vehicle.
• The school is more liberal and believes in the heavenliness of Buddha and Bodhisattvas embodying Buddha Nature. The ultimate goal under Mahayana is “spiritual upliftment”.
• The Mahayana followers believe in idol or image worship of Buddha.
• The concept of Bodhisattva is the result of Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana is also called “Bodhisattvayana”, or the “Bodhisattva Vehicle. That is to say, the followers believe in Bodhisattva concept of salvation of all conscious individual.
• In other words, they believe in universal liberation from suffering of all beings.
• A bodhisattva seeks complete enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. A bodhisattva who has accomplished this goal is called a Samyaksaṃbuddha.
• Prominent Mahayana texts include Lotus Sutra, Mahavamsa, etc.
• The Mahayana scholars predominantly used Sanskrit as a language.
• Emperor Ashoka patronised Hinayana sect as Mahayana school came into being much later.

(III.) Consider the following statements.

1. In the Mesosphere, temperature starts increasing with the increase in altitude.
2. Radio waves transmitted from the earth are reflected back to the earth by Ionosphere.
3. The International Space Station orbits in the thermosphere.

Which of the above statements is/are correct?
A.) 1, 2
B.) 2 only
C.) 2, 3
D.) 1, 3

Mains Questions:-

• Recently many Aviation accidents are happening where people are losing life. How can we improve the functioning of aviation sector and reduce the loss of life and property.

Prelims Specific Facts

1.) Centre to soften punitive steps in environment cases

• The Union Environment Ministry proposes to soften the provisions of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) by replacing a clause that provides for imprisoning violators with one that only requires them to pay a fine. This, however, does not apply to violations that cause grave injury or loss of life.
• The Act currently says that violators will be punish able with imprisonment up to five years or a fine up to *1 lakh, or both. Were violations to continue, an additional fine of up to £5,000 daily during which such failure or contravention continues after the conviction would be levied. There is al so a provision for jail terms to extend to seven years.
• The two major changes proposed are appointing an “adjudication officer” who will decide on the penalty in cases of environmental violations such as reports not being submitted or information not provided when demanded.

2.) Centre asks States to boost paddy sowing

• NFSA ranking :-
  • Odisha secured the first rank for the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh stood second and third, respectively, in the index prepared by the Centre.
  • Among the special category States, Tripura secured the first rank. Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim stood at the second and third positions.
  • “The Index de notes only the efficiency of TPDS operations, it does not reflect the level of hunger, if any, or malnutrition, or both, in a particular State or Union Territory,”

3.) Navy eyes govt. route to buy carrier – based jets

• The Navy is looking for an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with either France or the U.S. to procure new fighter jets to operate from its aircraft carriers, as the country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant is all set to be commissioned next month coinciding with 75 years of Independence, naval officials said on Tuesday.
• The Navy also has a Russian-origin carrier, INS Vikramaditya, in service.

4.) Sweden, Finland sign protocol to join NATO, await ratification

• NATO’s 30 allies signed an accession protocol for Fin land and Sweden on Tues day to allow them to join the nuclear-armed alliance once allied Parliaments ratify the decision, the most significant expansion of the alliance since the mid-1990s. Separately, the bloc’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said that NATO has no current plans to send troops to Sweden and Finland.

5.)China backs Pak in opposing G-20 meeting in Kashmir

“India’s objective in doing so is clearly to force the international community to recognise India’s control and even ‘sovereignty’ over Jammu Kashmir.

6.) Women mathematician form Ukraine wins Fields Medal

• Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska was named on Tuesday as one of four recipients of the prestigious Fields Medal, which is often described as the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
• The International Mathematical Union said Ms. Viazovska, who holds the chair in number theory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, was being honoured for her work on the densest packing of identical spheres in eight dimensions.

Editorial of the Day

Handcuffing, a judicial tap, and the long arm of the law

• Recently, the Karnataka High Court passed a verdict on handcuffing, which is significant. In Suprit Ishwar Divatevs The State of Karnataka, while awarding two lakh rupees as compensation for handcuffing an accused, without recording the reasons in the police case diary, it gave liberty to the state to recover the amount from the delinquent police officer.
• Principles of handcuffing :-
  • The High Court held that an accused, in normal circumstances, need not be handcuffed on arrest. It is only under exceptional circumstances (such as the possibility of escape and or the possibility of causing harm to himself or others), that handcuffing an accused can be resorted to. Further, when there is such handcuffing, the arresting officer must record the reasons, which then would have to stand judicial/court scrutiny.
  • There can be three occasions when a person can be (legally) handcuffed, i.e., an accused on his arrest and before he is produced before the magistrate; an under trial prisoner during transit from jail to the court and back; and a convict being transported from jail to the court and back.
  • The law with regard to handcuffing was settled in 1980 when the Supreme Court of India, in Prem Shankar Shukla vs Delhi Administration, held that ‘the only circumstance which validates incapacitation by irons – an extreme measure – is that otherwise there is no other reasonable way of preventing his escape’. It said that where an arrestee or a convict can be prevented from escape by increasing security, such an increase is to be a norm rather than handcuffing.
• Thus, irrespective of whether the person to be hand cuffed is an accused or an under trial prisoner or a convict, the principles governing handcuffing remain the same. However, if such a person is under the judicial custody of the court, the court’s permission is required for handcuffing except under emergent circumstances.
• The next point is about who should pay compensation. It is an established principle that the relief of monetary compensation for an established infringement of the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution is a remedy available in public law, which is based on the strict liability for contravention of the guaranteed basic and indefeasible rights of the citizens’. The constitutional courts are empowered to grant such relief ‘against the state or its servants in the purported exercise of their powers’.
• Possible solutions :-
  • However, the High Court rightly said that it is the state’s responsibility to equip all police stations with adequate and necessary police personnel to discharge their obligations. Therefore, in absence of the required infrastructure, the blame of non-compliance cannot be shifted only to the police officer.
  • Nonetheless, if any malice is found behind the use of hand cuffs, it needs to be dealt with strongly by the department. Similarly, there cannot be a justifiable excuse for not mentioning the reasons for handcuffing in the case diary.

Explainer of the Day 

1.) The way to control tuberculosis

• Tuberculosis is the worst among endemic diseases, killing 1.5 million people every year (WHO).
• In India, the TB capital of the world, the disease kills some 1,400 persons every day.
• The National TB Control Programme of 1962 was a district-based one with public-private participation. However, upscaling the model proved unsuccessful and the programme failed to control TB. With that we lost self confidence and began doing what we were told to do by the WHO under the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP). WHO experts, without factoring in the differences between the TB epidemiology of poor and rich countries, used a theoretical construct of TB control to design RNTCP.
• There are obvious flaws in the RNTCP. First, for a programme that is heavily funded by the government, there is no prescribed method of monitoring the trajectory of TB control. Contrast this with the National AIDS Control Programme. Before the National AIDS Control Organization was established, the Indian Council of Medical Research-man aged AIDS Control Task Force had a unique method of monitoring the control trajectory, popularly called ‘sentinel surveillance’. Through it, we have data on infection prevalence that can be compared across years, starting from 1986 to date.
• Second, the assumption that treating pulmonary TB patients alone would control TB was epidemiologically fallacious in India. The theoretical principle is ‘source reduction’. If one patient is the proximate source of infection and disease to another in the community, early diagnosis and treatment would work as source reduction.
• Third, RNTCP has failed to elicit people’s partnership in TB control. In India’s AIDS Control Programme, public education was given high priority. Red ribbon clubs in schools and colleges are its legacy. Without people’s informed participation, stigma and delay in seeking help will continue.
• Realising that TB was not under control, WHO called for another programme revision through a World Health Assembly Resolution in 2014 to eliminate TB by 2035. Emboldened by the promise of an effective strategy, the Prime Minister announced in 2018 that India would eliminate TB by 2025.
• Elimination refers to achieving zero frequency of new cases. As we have a huge backlog of latent TB, we cannot eliminate TB, but we must aim for a high level of control (lowering from 200 per lakh per year to 50 per lakh per year) and document it with measurement.

2.) The relentless march of FPIs to the exit gate

• What are FPIs?
  • Foreign portfolio investors are those that invest funds in markets outside of their home turf. Their investments typically include equities, bonds and mutual funds. They are generally not active shareholders and do not exert any control over the companies whose shares they hold. The passive nature of their investment also allows them to enter or exit a stock at will and with ease.
• What factors spur FPI moves?
  • Promise of attractive returns on the back of economic growth draws investors including FPIs into a country’s markets.
  • FPIs also show keenness to invest in bonds when there is a favourable differential between the real interest rates on offer in the country they aim to invest in, and other markets, but more specifically, compared with the largest economy in the world, the U.S.
• Why have FPIs been selling India holdings?
  • Post-pandemic, recovery in the Indian economy has been uneven.
  • Add to this the return of pent-up demand in economies worldwide as the pandemic subsided. The pace of recovery caught suppliers off guard, contributing to supply-side shortages.
  • As the industry was grappling with this challenge, came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sunflower and wheat supplies, to name just two commodities, from these two nations were impacted, leading to a rise in global prices for these crops. As supplies in general tightened across the globe, commodity prices too rose and overall inflation accelerated.
  • Industrial production has seen a bumpy ride without giving confidence of a full and final recovery from the pandemic.
  • Add to the mix the U.S. Federal Reserve raising the benchmark interest rate starting March this year.

3.) The status of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in South Asia

• What is China’s Belt and Road Initiative?
  • In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his visits to Kazakhstan and Indonesia, expressed his vision to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, to break the “bottleneck” in Asian connectivity. This vision led to the birth of the BRI. The initiative envisioned a Chinese-led investment of over $1 trillion in partner countries by 2025. More than 60 countries have now joined BRI agreements with China, with infrastructure projects under the initiative being planned or under construction in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
  • To finance BRI projects, China offers huge loans at commercial interest rates that countries have to pay within a fixed number of years. The west has accused China of debt-trapping by extending “predatory loans” that force countries to cede key assets to China.
  • In recent years, the BRI seems to have experienced a slowing down as annual Chinese lending to countries under the initiative slimmed from its peak of $125 billion in 2015 to around $50 to 55 billion in 2021.
• Are there projects in Afghanistan?
  • Afghanistan has not comprehensively been brought into the BRI, despite a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) being signed with China in 2016. China had promised investments worth $100 million in Afghanistan which is small in comparison to what it shelled out in other South Asian countries. The projects have not materialised so far and uncertainties have deepened after the Taliban takeover last year.
• What about Bangladesh?
  • Bangladesh, which joined the BRI in 2016, has been promised the second-highest investment (about $40 billion) in South Asia after Pakistan. Multiple studies, including research by the Council on Foreign Relations, show that Bangladesh has been able to benefit from the BRI while maintaining diplomatic and strategic ties with both India and China. It has managed to not upset India by getting India to build infrastructure projects similar to BRI in the country.
  • BRI projects include China-Bangladesh Friendship Bridges, special economic zones, the $689.35 million-Karnaphuli River tunnel project, upgradation of the Chittagong port, and a rail line between the port and China’s Yunnan province. However, multiple projects have been delayed owing to the slow release of funds by China.