Daily Quiz #27 UPSC Prelims Marathon – July 31, 2019

Explanation: This Act is also known as Morley-Minto Reforms (Lord Morley was the then
Secretary of State for India and Lord Minto was the then Viceroy of India).
•It considerably increased the size of the legislative councils, both Central and provincial. The number of members in the Central Legislative Council was raised from 16 to 60. The number of members in the provincial legislative councils was not uniform.
•It retained official majority in the Central Legislative Council but allowed the provincial legislative councils to have non-official majority.
•It enlarged the deliberative functions of the legislative councils at both the levels. For example, members were allowed to ask supplementary questions, move resolutions on the budget, and so on.
•It provided (for the first time) for the association of Indians with the executive Councils of the Viceroy and Governors. Satyendra Prasad Sinha became the first Indian to join the Viceroy’s Executive Council. He was appointed as the law member.
•It introduced a system of communal representation for Muslims by accepting the concept of ‘separate electorate’. Under this, the Muslim members were to be elected only by Muslim voters. Thus, the Act ‘legalised communalism’ and Lord Minto came to be known as the Father of Communal Electorate.
•It also provided for the separate representation of presidency corporations, chambers of commerce, universities and zamindars.

Explanation: The original constitution did not provide for the fundamental duties of the citizens. These were added during the operation of internal emergency (1975–77) by the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act of 1976 on the recommendation of the Swaran Singh Committee. The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002 added one more fundamental duty. The Part IV-A of the Constitution (which consists of only one Article- 51- A) specifies the eleven Fundamental Duties viz., to respect the Constitution, national flag and national anthem; to protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country; to promote the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people; to preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture and so on. The fundamental duties serve as a reminder to citizens that while enjoying their rights, they have also to be quite conscious of duties they owe to their country, their society and to their fellow-citizens. However, like the Directive Principles, the duties are also non-justiciable in nature.

Explanation: The term ‘justice’ in the Preamble embraces three distinct forms-social, economic and political, secured through various provisions of Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles. Social justice denotes the equal treatment of all citizens without any social distinction based on caste, color, race, religion, sex and so on. It means absence of privileges being extended to any particular section of the society, and improvement in the conditions of backward classes (SCs, STs and OBCs) and women. Economic justice denotes the non-discrimination between people on the basis of economic factors. It involves the elimination of glaring inequalities in wealth, income and property. A combination of social justice and economic justice denotes what is known as ‘distributive justice’. Political justice implies that all citizens should have equal political rights, equal access to all political offices and equal voice in the government.

Explanation: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific. APEC’s 21 members aim to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration. To date, its 21-member countries are China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Russia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Australia, Chile, Canada, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Peru, Taiwan, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Mexico, and the US.

Explanation: named after its first Chairman Prof. Claude Zangger, was formed following the coming into force of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to serve as the “faithful interpreter” of its Article III, paragraph 2, to harmonize the interpretation of nuclear export control policies for NPT Parties. The Committee has been focussing on what is meant in Article III.2 of the Treaty by “especially designed or prepared equipment or material for the processing, use or production of special fissionable material.” The Zangger Committee maintains a Trigger List (triggering safeguards as a condition of supply) of nuclear-related strategic goods to assist NPT Parties in identifying equipment and materials subject to export controls. Today the Zangger Committee has 39 members including all the nuclear weapon States. Its Trigger List includes illustrative examples of equipment and materials judged to be within the understandings of the Committee. The Trigger List and the Zangger Committee’s understandings are published by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the INFCIRC/209 series.