Answer (d)
The Constitution of India prevents Indian citizens from holding dual citizenship. As such the OCI is not actual citizenship of India according to Indian law. A person can register himself as an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Cardholder under section 7A of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Benefits to an OCI Cardholder:
o Multiple entry lifelong visa for visiting India for any purpose
o Parity with Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in respect of all facilities available to them in economic, financial, and educational fields except in matters relating to the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.
o Registered Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder shall be treated at par with Non-Resident-Indians in the matter of inter-country adoption of Indian children.
o Registered Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder shall be treated at par with resident Indian nationals in the matter of tariffs in airfares in domestic sectors in India.
o Registered Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder shall be charged the same entry fee as domestic Indian visitors to visit national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in India.
The OCI Cardholder is not entitled to:
o Vote in elections to Lok Sabha, State assemblies, panchayats, etc.
o Be a member of Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council or Parliament
o Hold Constitutional posts such as President, Vice President, Judge of Supreme Court or High Court, etc.
o Appointment to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of any State except for appointment in such services and posts as the Central Government may, by special order, in that behalf, specify.
o acquire agricultural or plantation properties in India.
Answer (b)
Statement 1 is not correct. The provisions related to grants voted by the Lok Sabha are contained in the Appropriation Bill.
Statement 2 is correct. The Finance Bill is introduced to give effect to the financial proposals of the Government of India for the following year. It is subjected to all the conditions applicable to a Money Bill. It legalizes the income side of the budget and completes the process of the enactment of the budget.
Statement 3 is correct. According to the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act of 1931, the Finance Bill must be enacted (i.e.; passed by the Parliament and assented to by the president) within 75 days.
Answer (a)
• Launched in 2015 by Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and Polish President Andrzej Duda, the initiative creates a political platform to promote connectivity among nations in Central and Eastern Europe by supporting infrastructure, energy, and digital interconnectivity projects.
• The initiative gets its name from the three seas that border the region: the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic Seas.
• The twelve states that are part of the initiative are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
• The main goal of the venture is to create a ―north-south‖ energy and infrastructure corridor in the region.
• The Three Seas Initiative is a follow-on from the ―North-South Corridor‖'s project led by the Atlantic Council.
Answer (d)
Both the statements are not correct.
• The country Bharatavarsha was eventually named after the tribe Bharata, which is first mentioned in the Rig Veda.
• The Bharata ruling clan was opposed by a host of ten chiefs, five of whom were heads of Aryan tribes and the remaining five of the non-Aryan people.
• The battle that the Bharatas fought with the host of ten chiefs is known as the Battle of Ten Kings.
• It was fought on the river Parushni, coterminous with the river Ravi, and it gave victory to Sudas and established the supremacy of the Bharatas. Of the defeated tribes, the most important was that of the Purus.
Answer (b)
• Lord Lytton came to India as viceroy in 1876.
• In 1876 the maximum age for sitting the Indian Civil Service examination was lowered from 21 to 19 to the disadvantage of the Indians.
• He passed in 1878, against the advice of his own law member, the Vernacular Press Act, designed basically to gag the Indian press, which had become critical of the colonial policies.
• Ilbert Bill controversy was during the tenure of Lord Ripon. Partition of Bengal was effectuated by Lord Curzon.
Answer(a)
• Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was formed at Bombay in October 1934 under the leadership of Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Minoo Masani. They were disenchanted with the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and also not in agreement with the prevalent political line of the CPI. Hence the alternative CSP was formed. From the beginning, all the Congress socialists were agreed to work inside the National Congress.
• All the radical developments on the peasant front in the 1930s culminated in the formation of the All-India Kisan Congress in Lucknow in April 1936which later changed its name to the All-India Kisan Sabha. Swami Sahajanand, the militant founder of the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (1929), was elected the President, and N.G. Ranga, the pioneer of the Kisan movement in Andhra and a renowned scholar of the agrarian problem, the General Secretary.
• At the Tripuri Session of the Congress in 1939, a resolution was passed censoring Subhash Chandra Bose for raising allegations against the Gandhians. Gandhi asked him to constitute his own Working Committee and refused all cooperation. Bose tried to patch up a compromise but failed, and ultimately in April 1939 he resigned and was quickly replaced by Rajendra Prasad. Bose then formed his own Forward Block in 1939, as a left party within the Congress; but it did not gain much strength outside his own province of Bengal.
• The Lahore Resolution for Pakistan was a formal political statement adopted by the All-India Muslim League in March 1940 for the creation of a separate Muslim State. It called for the grouping of geographically contiguous areas where Muslims are in majority (North-West, East) into independent states in which constituent units shall be autonomous.
Answer (a)
Statement 1 is correct. Co-operative banks are financial entities established on a cooperative basis and belonging to their members. This means that the customers of a cooperative bank are also its owners.
Statements 2 and 3 are not correct. In India, cooperative banks are registered under the State’s Cooperative Societies Act. They also come under the regulatory ambit of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)under two laws, namely, the Banking Regulations Act, 1949, and the Banking Laws (Co-operative Societies) Act, 1955.They were brought under the RBI’s watch in 1966, a move that brought the problem of dual regulation along with it. Urban Co-operative Banks (UBBs) are either scheduled or non-scheduled.
Answer (c)
• The National Anti-Profiteering Authority (NAA) has been constituted under Section 171 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
• It is to ensure the reduction in the rate of tax or the benefit of the input tax credit is passed on to the recipient by way of a commensurate reduction in prices.
• The Authority’s core function is to ensure that the benefits of the reduction are GST rates on goods and services made by GST Council and proportional change in the Input tax credit passed on to the ultimate consumers and recipient respectively by way of reduction in the prices by the suppliers.
• The National Anti-Profiteering Authority shall be headed by a senior officer of the level of a Secretary to the Government of India and shall have four technical members from the Centre and/or the States.
Powers and functions of the authority:
o In the event the National Anti-profiteering Authority confirms the necessity of applying anti-profiteering measures, it has the power to order the business concerned to reduce its prices or return the undue benefit availed along with interest to the recipient of the goods or services.
o If the undue benefit cannot be passed on to the recipient, it can be ordered to be deposited in the Consumer Welfare Fund.
o In extreme cases the National Anti-profiteering Authority can impose a penalty on the defaulting business entity and even order the cancellation of its registration under GST.
o The orders of the NAA can be appealed against only in the high court.
Answer (a)
• Deep Fakes is the digital media (video, audio, and images) manipulated using Artificial Intelligence.
• Deep fakes have evolved from mere annoyance to high stake warfare for creating social discord, increasing polarisation, and in some cases, influencing an election outcome. It allows hyper-realistic digital falsification that can inflict damage to individuals, institutions, businesses, and democracy.
• Deep Fake makes it possible to fabricate media — swap faces, lip-syncing, and puppeteers — mostly without consent and bring threat to psychology, security, political stability, and business disruption.
Answer (d)
All the statements are correct.
• ICAO is a United Nations (UN) specialized agency, established in 1944, which laid the foundation for the standards and procedures for peaceful global air navigation.
• The Convention on International Civil Aviation was signed on 7th December 1944 in Chicago.
• It established the core principles permitting international transport by air, and also led to the creation of the ICAO.
• India is among its 193 members.
• It is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.