Daily Quiz #15 UPSC Prelims Marathon – September 18, 2019

Explanation: The maximum strength of the Rajya Sabha is fixed at 250, out of which, 238 are to be the representatives of the states and union territories (elected indirectly) and 12 are nominated by the president. At present, the Rajya Sabha has 245 members. Of these, 229 members represent the states, 4 members represent the union territories and 12 members are nominated by the president. The Fourth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the allocation of seats in the Rajya Sabha to the states and union territories.

Explanation: The system of proportional representation aims at removing the defects of territorial representation. Under this system, all sections of the people get representation in proportion to their number. Even the smallest section of the population gets its due share of representation in the legislature. There are two kinds of proportional representation, namely, single transferable vote system and list system. In India, the first kind is adopted for the election of members to the Rajya Sabha and state legislative council and for electing the President and the Vice-President.
Though some members of the Constituent Assembly had advocated the system of proportional representation for the election of members to the Lok Sabha, the Constitution has not adopted the system due to two reasons.
•Difficulty for the voters to understand the system (which is complicated) due to low literacy scale in the country.
•Unsuitability to the parliamentary government due to the tendency of thesystem to multiply political parties leading to instability in government.
Additionally, the system of proportional representation has the following demerits:
•It is highly expensive.
•It does not give any scope for organising by-elections.
•It eliminates intimate contacts between voters and representatives.
•It promotes minority thinking and group interests.
•It increases the significance of party system and decreases that of voter.

Explanation: The Constitution lays down the following qualifications for a person to be chosen a member of the Parliament:
•He must be a citizen of India.
•He must make and subscribe to an oath or affirmation before the person authorised by the election commission for this purpose. In his oath or affirmation, he swears
(a) To bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India
(b) To uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India
•He must be not less than 30 years of age in the case of the Rajya Sabha and not less than 25 years of age in the case of the Lok Sabha.
•He must possess other qualifications prescribed by Parliament.
The Parliament has laid down the following additional qualifications in the Representation of People Act (1951):
•He must be registered as an elector for a parliamentary constituency. This is same in the case of both, the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha. The requirement that a candidate contesting an election to the Rajya Sabha from a particular state should be an elector in that particular state was dispensed with in 2003. In 2006, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of this change.
•He must be a member of a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe in any state or union territory, if he wants to contest a seat reserved for them. However, a member of scheduled castes or scheduled tribes can also contest a seat not reserved for them.

Explanation: The G20 membership comprises a mix of the world’s largest advanced and emerging economies, representing about two-thirds of the world’s population, 85 per cent of global gross domestic product and over 75 per cent of global trade.
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, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
Each year the G20 president invites several guest countries to participate in G20 events and contribute to the agenda. G20 members engage with guest countries and other non-member countries to ensure the G20 reflects a broad range of international opinion. The G20 Presidency rotates annually according to a system that ensures a regional balance over time. Reflecting its nature as an informal political forum, the G20 does not have a permanent secretariat. Instead, the G20 president is responsible for bringing together the G20 agenda in consultation with other members and in response to developments in the global economy.
To ensure continuity, the presidency is supported by a “troika” made up of the current, immediate past and next host countries

Explanation: As the world`s oldest custom union, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) dates back to the 1889 Customs Union Convention between the British Colony of Cape of Good Hope and the Orange Free State Boer Republic. A new Agreement, signed on June 29, 1910, was extended to the Union of South Africa and the British High Commission Territories (HCTs), i.e. Basutoland (Lesotho), Bechuanaland (Botswana), and Swaziland, South West Africa (Namibia) “was a defacto member, since it was administered as part of South Africa” before it became a dejure member. The primary goal was to promote economic development through regional coordination of trade. The SACU Rules of Procedure make provision for the Chairmanship of Council to be held in turn by each Member State in alphabetical order (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa) for a period of twelve (12) calendar months, commencing on the 15th July of a given year.