10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: October 31,2020

Statement 1 is correct. LPA of rainfall is the rainfall recorded over a particular region for a given interval (like month or season) average over a long period like 30years, 50-years etc.

Current LPA of all India south west monsoon rainfall based on the average rainfall over the period 1961 -2010 is 880.6mm.

Statement 2 is incorrect. India Meteorological Department (IMD) has revised the normal onset and withdrawal dates based on recent data. The normal dates of onset are revised based on data during 1961-2019 and normal dates of withdrawal are revised based on data during 1971-2019.

Monsoon onset over Kerala remains the same, i.e., 1 June. However, new monsoon advance dates over the states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Telegana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and parts of Uttar Pradesh are delayed by 3-7 days compared to existing normal dates. However, over extreme northwest India, the monsoon arrives now little earlier, on 8th July compared to the existing date of 15th July. There are however appreciable changes in the monsoon withdrawal dates, especially over Northwest and Central India. Monsoon withdraws from NW India almost 7-14 days later from the existing dates. There is no change in the final withdrawal date over south India, i.e., 15th October.

The Finance Commission is constituted by the President under article 280 of the Constitution, mainly to give its recommendations on distribution of tax revenues between the Union and the States and amongst the States themselves.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The share of states in the center’s taxes was recommended to be decreased from 42% during the 2015-20 period to 41% for 2020-21.  The 1% decrease is to provide for the newly formed union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh from the resources of the central government.

Statement 2 is incorrect.  The 15th Finance Commission (Chair: Mr N. K. Singh) was required to submit two reports.  The first report, consisting of recommendations for the financial year 2020-21, was tabled in Parliament on February 1, 2020. The final report with recommendations for the next five financial years starting from 2021-22 to 2025-26 will be submitted on November 9, 2020.

Statement 1 is correct. Constitution under article 243ZE provides that there shall be constituted in every Metropolitan area a Metropolitan Planning Committee to prepare a draft development plan for the Metropolitan area as a whole.

The Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with respect to-

–the composition of the Metropolitan Planning Committees;

–the manner in which the seats in such Committees shall be filled:

Provided that not less than two-thirds of the members of such Committee shall be elected by, and from amongst, the elected members of the Municipalities and Chairpersons of the Panchayats in the Metropolitan area in proportion to the ratio between the population of the Municipalities and of the Panchayats in that area.

Statement 2 is incorrect. No such provision exists. The Legislature of a State may, by law, make provision with respect to the manner in which the Chairpersons of such Committees shall be chosen.

Aegean Sea, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, located between the Greek peninsula on the west and Asia Minor on the east.

A strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea has shaken Turkey and Greece on 30^th October 2020.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments and not a UN organ.

It is financed primarily by Members out of public funds. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.

# The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.

Statement 2 is correct. The IPU has 179 Member Parliaments out of the 193 countries in the world – from huge nations like China, India and Indonesia, to the tiny States of Cabo Verde, San Marino and Palau.

All parliaments can join IPU if they are lawfully established national bodies operating in States or aspirational States recognized by the United Nations. On rare occasions, Members are suspended due to the unconstitutional dissolution of parliament.

# Lok Sabha Speaker will lead Indian Parliamentary delegation to 206th session of Governing Council of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to be held from 1 to 4 November 2020.

Indian Army has developed a simple messaging application named the Secure Application for Internet (SAI). The application supports end to end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over the internet.

SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements. It will be utilized pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service.

Statement 1 is correct. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) is a statutory body established through an Act of Parliament, 2008. The mandate is to supports basic research in emerging areas of Science & Engineering.

Statement 2 is correct. “SERB-POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research)”, designed exclusively for women scientists was launched recently.

SERB POWER Scheme will have two components namely (i) SERB-POWER Fellowship (ii) SERB- POWER Research Grants. While a Search-cum-Selection Committee constituted for the purpose will help in identifying the POWER Fellowship, the existing Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) mechanism will be used to select the POWER Research Grants.

It is proposed to institute 25 POWER Fellowships annually. A total of 50 Power Grants each will be sanctioned in Level I & Level II per annum.

Statement 1 is correct. Input Tax Credit (ITC) allows a person to avail credit of tax paid on the inward supply of goods or services or both which is used or intended to be used in the course or furtherance of business.

ITC is a mechanism to avoid cascading of taxes, i.e., ‘tax on tax.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Uninterrupted and seamless chain of input tax credit is one of the key features of Goods and Services Tax.

One of the most important features of the GST system is that the entire supply chain is subject to GST to be levied by Central and State Government concurrently. As the tax charged by the Central or the State Governments would be part of the same tax regime, credit of tax paid at every stage would be available as set-off for payment of tax at every subsequent stage.

Both statements are correct.

In March 1931 Vallabhbhai presided over the 46th session of the Indian National Congress at Karachi which was called upon to ratify the Gandhi-lrwin Pact, which had just then been concluded.

He was the first deputy prime minister of India, while being home minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet. He occupied the post for 3 years until his death in 1950. The post was vacant until Morarji Desai became the second deputy prime minister in 1967.

# Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary on 31st October is celebrated as Rashtriya Ekta Diwas (National Unity Day).

Statement 1 is incorrect. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, independent India’s first Minister for Education, established many institutions such as the Sahitya Akademi, the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi, and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and also provided a major stimulus for the setting up of the Indian Institutes of Technology.

Statement 2 is correct. The Objects of the Council as defined in the Memorandum of Association are:

–To participate in the formulation and implementation of policies and programmes relating to India’s external cultural relations;

–To foster and strengthen cultural relations and mutual understanding between India and other countries;

–To promote cultural exchange with other countries and peoples;

–To establish and develop relations with national and inter-national Organization in the field of culture;

–To take such measures as may be required to further these objectives.

# The ICCR recently organised a global painting competition named ‘United Against CORONA- Express through Art’.