10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: November 17, 2020

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region between the ten ASEAN states (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) and five of their FTA partners—Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.

–The members make up nearly a third of the world’s population and account for 29% of global gross domestic product.

–The new free trade zone will be bigger than both the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the European Union.

–India was also part of the negotiations, but pulled out last year, over concerns that lower tariffs could hurt local producers.

Statement 1 is correct. Article 3 of the Constitution states that the Parliament may by law—

–form a new State by separation of territory from any State or by uniting two or more States or parts of States or by uniting any territory to a part of any State;

–increase the area of any State;

–diminish the area of any State;

–alter the boundaries of any State;

–alter the name of any State.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The first schedule of the Constitution lists the States and Union Territories, not the capital cities.

Moore’s Law refers to Moore’s perception that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, though the cost of computers is halved. Moore’s Law states that it can be expected that the speed and capability of computers will increase every couple of years, and we will pay less for them.

Moore’s law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empirical relationship linked to gains from experience in production.

Two submarines of the ongoing Project-75 Scorpene programme at MDL, Kalvari and Khanderi, have been commissioned into the Indian Navy. The third submarine, Karanj, is in the last phase of rigorous sea trials. The fourth Scorpene, Vela, has commenced her sea trials, fifth Scorpene submarine of Project-75 named ‘Vagir’ has been launched at Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) in Mumbai recently whilst the sixth and last submarine, Vagsheer, is being readied for boot together.

Scorpene submarines can undertake multifarious types of missions i.e Anti-Surface warfare, Anti-Submarine warfare, Intelligence gathering, Mine Laying, Area Surveillance etc.

The Scorpene project is given support by the Department of Defence Production (MoD) and Indian Navy throughout its various phases of construction.

# The number 75 in Project 75 refers to such unique identifier which was assigned to a programme for series production of submarines in India. Based on the specifications drawn for Project 75, the Scorpene class submarine from France, chosen under the project, is being constructed at the Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) in Mumbai.

The Crew Dragon is a class of reusable spacecraft developed and manufactured by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon, including the Falcon 9 rocket and associated ground systems, is the first new, crew spacecraft to be NASA-certified for regular flights with astronauts since the space shuttle nearly 40 years ago.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying a crew of four people to the International Space Station (ISS) on a six-month-long mission on Nov 14.

Statement 1 is correct. The Indian southwest monsoon (SWM) season of June to September is the chief rainy season for India and about 75% of the country’s annual rainfall is realized during this season.

Subsequent to the withdrawal of SWM, the northeast monsoon (NEM), a small-scale monsoon confined to parts of southern peninsular India occurs.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The rainfall from the NEM is mostly confines to Tamil Nadu, Puducherry & Karaikal, Kerala & Mahe, Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema and South Interior Karnataka regions.

The northeast monsoon derives its name from the direction in which it travels – from the northeast to the southwest. The normal date of setting in of easterlies over the southeastern peninsular India is 14^th October.

Horn of Africa refers to region of eastern Africa. It is the easternmost extension of African land and is mostly defined as the region comprising the countries of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

Statement 1 is correct. The two main components of the Sabka Vishwas-Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme, 2019 are dispute resolution and amnesty.

The dispute resolution component is aimed at liquidating the legacy cases of Central Excise and Service Tax that are subsumed in GST and are pending in litigation at various forums. The amnesty component of the Scheme offers an opportunity to the taxpayers to pay the outstanding tax and be free of any other consequence under the law.

Statement 2 is incorrect. SVLDRS, 2019 was introduced on 1st September, 2019 and provided taxpayers relief in payment of disputed tax amounts ranging from 70% (of the tax amount) to 40%. It also provided for full waiver of interest and penalty. The Scheme closed on 30.06.2020.

The Central Government has recently decided to extend the period for availing the SVLDR Scheme, 2019 to 31st December, 2020 for eligible taxpayers from Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir and UT of Ladakh.

The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently issued an order to scale-up and expand Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahabhiyaan (PM-KUSUM) Scheme.

PM-KUSUM Scheme has three Components:

— Renewable energy-based power plants (REPP) of capacity 500 kW to 2 MW will be setup by individual farmers/ group of farmers/ cooperatives/ panchayats/ Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO)/Water User associations (WUA) on barren/fallow land.

— Installation of 20 lakh (up from 17.50 lakh) stand-alone agricultural pumps that are solar-powered.

— Solarisation of 15 lakh (up from 10 lakh) grid-connected agriculture pumps that are solar-powered.

Both statements are correct.

Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010 was been enacted by the Parliament to consolidate the law to regulate the acceptance and utilization of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies.

As per the FCRA, members of legislatures, political parties, government officials, judges and media persons are prohibited from receiving any foreign contribution

Any donation, delivery or transfer received from a ‘foreign source’ whether in rupees or in foreign currency is construed as ‘foreign contribution’ under FCRA, 2010. Such transactions even in rupees term are considered as foreign contribution.

# The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently relaxed norms for farmer, student, religious and other groups who are not directly aligned to any political party to receive foreign funds if the groups are not involved in “active politics”.