Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Financial Intelligence Unit – India (FIU-IND) was set by the Government of India on 18th November 2004 as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.
• It is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC) headed by the Finance Minister.
• FIU-IND is a multi disciplinary body with a sanctioned strength of 75 personnel. These are being inducted from different organizations namely Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Department of Legal Affairs and Intelligence agencies.
• FIU-IND is responsible for coordinating and strengthening efforts of national and international intelligence, investigation and enforcement agencies in pursuing the global efforts against money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Explanation :

• The idea of creation of Zonal Councils was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1956 when during the course of debate on the report of the States Re-organisation Commission.
• The Zonal Councils are the statutory (and not the constitutional) bodies, established by an Act of the Parliament- States Reorganisation Act of 1956.
• The act divided the country into five zones- Northern, Central, Eastern, Western and Southern and provided a zonal council for each zone.
• North Eastern Council (NEC) is a statutory advisory body constituted under the NEC Act 1971 and came into being on the 7th November, 1972 at Shillong. Eight States of Northeast India viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, are members of the council, with their respective Chief Ministers and Governors representing them.

Composition

• The Zonal Council meetings are chaired by the Union Home Minister. The Chief Ministers and two Ministers from the member States are the members ineach Zonal Council. In case of UTs, there are two members from each UT.

Zonal Councils and Member States

• The Northern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, , Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territories of Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh
• The Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
• The Eastern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Sikkim and West Bengal.
• The Western Zonal Council, comprising the States of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.
• The Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Explanation :

• The structure, known as the ‘Taj of the Deccan’ because of its striking resemblance to the Taj Mahal, was commissioned by Emperor Aurangzeb in 1660 in the memory of his first wife Dilras Banu Begum (posthumously known as Rabia-ud-Daurani).
• Also called the Tomb of the Lady, Bibi Ka Maqbara was designed by Ataullah, the son of Ahmad Lahauri, the architect of the Taj Mahal which explains its appearance heavily based on the prime marvel.

Explanation :

• Yakshagana is a traditional Indian theatre form, developed in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Shimoga and western parts of Chikmagalur districts, in the state of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district in Kerala.
• It combines dance, music, dialogue, costume, make-up, and stage techniques with a unique style and form.
• It is traditionally presented from dusk to dawn.It typically begins in the twilight hours, with an initial beating of the drums of several fixed compositions, called abbara or peetike.
• Yakshagana evolved as a dance form during the Bhakti Movement. Narahari Tirtha, a disciple of Madhvacharya, is said to be the first person to introduce Yakshagana in Udupi. Its stories are drawn from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata and other Hindu epics.

Types

• TenkutittuStyle: It is prevalent in Dakshina Kannada. Tenkutittu is noted for its incredible dance steps; its high flying dance moves; and its extravagant rakshasas (demons).
• Badagutittu Style: It is prevalent in Uttara Kannada District and places more emphasis on facial expressions, matugarike (dialogues), and dances appropriate for the character depicted in the episode.

Explanation :

• On 2^nd January, 2019, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) set up New, Emerging and Strategic Technologies (NEST) division, as a nodal division within the ministry to deal with issues like new and emerging technologies.
• NEST will help the country to collaborate with other countries in the field of 5G and artificial intelligence which are in line with India’s security goals.

Roles and Responsibilities of NEST

• The NEST will be empowered to formulate India's external technology policy in coordination with domestic stakeholders which are in line with India's developmental priorities and national security goals.
• It will also assist in evaluating foreign policy and international legal implications of new and emerging technologies and technology-based resources.
• It will also recommend a suitable foreign policy choice. Further, in multilateral and plurilateral frameworks, it will negotiate technology governance rules, standards, and architecture that are best suited for India's condition.
• The division will also be holding responsibility for matters that involves negotiations with multilateral fora like the United Nations,G20. This will help to safeguard India’s interests as such forums govern the rules of access to such technologies.

Explanation :

• Open Market Operations (OMO)is the sale and purchase of government securities and treasury bills by the central bank of the country.
• The objective of OMO is to regulate the money supply in the economy.
• When the central bank wants to increase the money supply in the economy, it purchases the government securities from the market and it sells government securities to suck out liquidity from the system.
• It carries out the OMO through commercial banks and does not directly deal with the public.
• OMO is one of the tools that central banks use to smoothen the liquidity conditions throughout the year and minimise its impact on the interest rate and inflation rate levels.

Explanation :

• The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Bill was approved by the President on September 11, 1958. It became known as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958.
• AFSPA gives armed forces the power to maintain public order in “disturbed areas”. They have the authority to prohibit a gathering of five or more persons in an area, can use force or even open fire after giving due warning if they feel a person is in contravention of the law.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs would usually enforce this Act where necessary, but there have been exceptions where the Centre decided to forego its power and leave the decision to the State governments.
• Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission (2005) in its report recommended to repeal AFSPA, citing the Act a symbol of hate, oppression and instrument of high handedness .
• Presently, AFSPA is operational in entire States of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur (except Imphal Municipal area), three districts namely Tirap, Changlang and Longding of Arunachal Pradesh and the areas falling within the jurisdiction of the 8 police stations in the districts of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering the State of Assam.

Explanation :

• Senna spectabilis is a deciduos plant species of the legume family (Fabaceae) in the subfamily Caesalpinioideae native to South and Central America.
• It is a common garden ornamental plant that also invades; forest margins, savanna, riverbanks, roadsides, waste ground and plantations.
• It can invade disturbed forests, forest edges and gaps where it can establish and suppress the regeneration of native species.
• However, it has a few medicinal properties. The plant can be used as a treatment for ringworm and skin diseases.

Explanation :

• Merchant Discount Rate (alternatively referred to as the Transaction Discount Rate or TDR) is the sum total of all the charges and taxes that a digital payment entails.
• It is the fee that a merchant has to pay to a bank for every debit/credit card transaction.
• It is split between the bank which has issued the card, the lender whose point-of-sale terminal (PoS) is being used and payment gateways like MasterCard or Visa.
• MDR also includes the processing charges that a payments aggregator has to pay to online or mobile wallets or indeed to banks for their service.

Explanation :

• The Ghataprabha River is an important right-bank tributary of the Krishna River and flows eastward for a distance of 283 kilometers before its confluence with the Krishna River at Almatti.
• It originates in the Western Ghats near chaukul village, tehsil sawantwadi in the Sindhudurg district of Maharahtra.
• The river basin stretches across Karnataka and Maharashtra states.