Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

Supplementary Grant

• It is granted when the amount authorised by the Parliament through the appropriation act for a particular service for the current financial year is found to be insufficient for that year.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General of India brings such excesses to the notice of the Parliament.
• The Public Accounts Committee examines these excesses and gives recommendations to the Parliament.

Additional Grant

• It is granted when a need has arisen during the current financial year for additional expenditure upon some new service not contemplated in the budget for that year.

Token Grant

• It is granted when funds to meet the proposed expenditure on a new service can be made available by re-appropriation.
• A demand for the grant of a token sum (of Re 1) is submitted to the vote of the Lok Sabha and if assented, funds are made available.
• Re-appropriation involves transfer of funds from one head to another. It does not involve any additional expenditure.

Constitutional Provision

• Article 115: Supplementary, additional or excess grants.
• Article 116: Votes on account, votes of credit and exceptional grants.

Explanation :

• Maharashtra is set to become the first coastal state to declare a state mangrove tree species as a symbol to enhance conservation of the salt-tolerant vegetation.
• Earlier, Maharashtra has declared the State Tree (Mango), State Animal (Indian Giant Squirrel), State Bird (Yellow-footed Green Pigeon), State Butterfly (Blue Mormon), and State Flower (Jarul) to focus on their ecological significance.

Sonneratiaalba

• Also known as mangrove apple and as white chippi in Marathi, it grows up to five feet and bear white flowers with a pink base as well as green fruits, that resemble apple and are used to make pickles.
• They often grow on newly-formed mudflats and play an important role in combating land erosion.
• The flowers, which bloom at night, are pollinated by nocturnal creatures like bats.

Explanation :

• Rogan painting is an art of cloth printing practiced in the Kutch District of Gujarat.
• It is the technique of painting on fabric, crafted from a thick brightly coloured paint like substance made with castor seed oil.
• Rogan Art, an ancient textile art, with its origins in Persia, came to Kutch around 300 years ago.
• Traditionally, the craft was used to beautify bridal clothing of the regional tribes.
• Beautiful borders and floral patterns on ghagras, odhanis and bed spreads were painstakingly painted.
• The intricate motifs – geometric flowers, peacocks, the tree of life, etc. – are drawn from the history and folk culture of the Kutch region.

Explanation :

• The Malabar Rebellion, also known as the MoplahRebellion, was an armed revolt staged by the Mappila Muslims of Kerala in 1921.
• The most prominent leaders of the rebellion were VariankunnathKunjahammad Haji, SithiKoyaThangal and Ali Musliyar.
• Three different political movements merged to trigger the rebellion —one, the tenancy movement, was rooted in local agrarian grievances (particularly in south Malabar); the other two were the Khilafat (Caliphate) movement and the Non-Cooperation movement, launched jointly by the All-India Khilafat Committee and the Indian National Congress.
• In August 1920, Gandhi along with Shaukat Ali (the leader of the KhilafatMovement in India) visited Calicut to spread the combined message of non-cooperation and Khilafat among the residents of Malabar.
• In response to Gandhi’s call, a Khilafat committee was formed in Malabar and the Mappilas, under their religious head MahadumTangal of Ponnani pledged support to the Non-cooperation Movement.
• The Moplah tenants agitated against the Hindu landlords (locally referred to as Janmi) and the British government.
• Most of their grievances were related to the security of tenure, high rents, renewal fees and other unfair exactions of the landlords.
• The British government responded with much aggression, bringing in Gurkha regiments to suppress it and imposing martial law.
• Wagon Tragedy: A noteworthy event of the British suppression was the wagon tragedy when approximately 60 Mappila prisoners on their way to prison, were suffocated to death in a closed railway goods wagon.

Explanation :

• The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier international forum for global economic cooperation.
• Formed in 1999, the G-20 has the mandate to promote global economic growth, international trade, and regulation of financial markets.
• The members of the G20 are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union.
• Because the G-20 is a forum, not a legislative body, its agreements and decisions have no legal impact, but they do influence countries' policies and global cooperation.
• It does not have any permanent secretariat or headquarters.
• The G-20's ranks include all members of the Group of Seven (G-7), a forum of the seven countries with the world's largest developed economies: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Objectives

• Policy coordination between its members in order to achieve global economic stability, sustainable growth.
• To promote financial regulations that reduce risks and prevent future financial crises.
• To create a new international financial architecture.

Significance

• G20 members account for 85 percent of the world economy, 75 percent of global trade, and two-thirds of the world's population, including more than half of the world's poor.

Explanation :

• The Yanomami are the largest relatively isolated tribe in South America. They live in the rain forests and mountains of northern Brazil and southern Venezuela.
• They can be classified as foraging horticulturalists, depending heavily on rain forest resources; they use slash-and-burn horticulture, grow bananas, gather fruit, and hunt animals and fish.
• They live in large, circular houses called yanos or shabonos.
• The Yanomami consider all people to be equal, and do not have a chief. Instead, all decisions are based on consensus after long discussions and debates.

Explanation :

• Article 23 prohibits trafficking in human beings and begar and other similar forms of forced labour and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with the law.
• Article 24 says that “No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.”
• Article 29 provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same.It grants protection to both religious minorities as well as linguistic minorities. However, the Supreme Court held that the scope of this Article is not necessarily restricted to minorities only, as use of the word ‘section of citizens’ in the Article that include minorities as well as majority.
• Article 30 of the Indian Constitution states the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

Explanation :

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups on Andaman Islands

Great Andamanese Tribe

• These are a part of the Negrito tribes that inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands.
• The tribe speaks Jeru dialect among themselves.

Jarwas

• Jarawa tribe is native to the South Andaman Nicobar Island.
• They are the tribes of African origin living in Andaman who settled 50 years back.

Shompens

• They are the only tribe in the region with Mongoloid features.
• The other PVTGs have Negroid features.

Onges

• The Little Andaman Island is home to Onges tribes, who are fewer than 100.

North Sentinelese

• North Sentinel Island is part of North Andaman region home to the Sentinelese tribe.

Explanation :

• Channapatna toys are a particular form of wooden toys that are manufactured in the town of Channapatna, Ramanagara district of Karnataka.
• As a result of the popularity of these toys, Channapatna is known as Gombegala Ooru (toy-town) of Karnataka.
• The origin of these toys can be traced to the reign of Tipu Sultan who invited artisans from Persia to train the local artisans in the making of wooden toys.
• The major raw material used for the manufacturing of toys is the wood of the Wrightiatinctoria tree,colloquially called Aalemara (ivory-wood).
• However, the craft has diversified over time; in addition to the traditional ivory-wood, other woods—including rubber, sycamore, cedar, pine and teak—are now used as well.
• This traditional craft is protected as a geographical indication (GI)(2006) under the World Trade Organization, administered by the Government of Karnataka

Explanation :

• Teesta river is a tributary of the Brahmaputra (known as Jamuna in Bangladesh), flowing through India and Bangladesh.
• It originates in the Himalayas near Chunthang, Sikkim and flows to the south through West Bengal before entering Bangladesh.
• The literary meaning of the word ‘Teesta’ is Trishna (desire) which never ends. The legend of the Teesta River is mentioned in KalikaPurana.
• Among the other rivers of northern India, Teesta River is also called as younger daughter of Himalaya.
• Originally, the river continued southward to empty directly into the Padma River (main channel of Ganga in Bangladesh) but around 1787, the river changed its course to flow eastward to join the JamunaRiver.
• The river flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal before entering the territory of Bangladesh.