Daily Current Affairs Today MCQ : 16 February 2023 Quiz

Among the big States in the country, Chhattisgarh and Bihar allocated the most proportion of their budget towards education in FY23.

While Chhattisgarh allocated 18.82 per cent of the State’s estimated net budget expenditure to education, Bihar allocated 18.3 per cent.

The States/UTs that have spent a higher portion of their budget expenditure on education are Delhi, Assam and Himachal Pradesh, which allocated 22 per cent, 20 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively, of their budgets on education this fiscal year.

The literacy rate in Chattisgarh is 77.9 per cent, while the rate for Bihar is 70.9 per cent, one of the lowest in the country, according to the National Sample Survey 2018.

At 96.2 per cent, Kerala has the highest literacy rate in the country, while it is 82.9 per cent in Tamil Nadu.

The literacy rate of UP is 67.68%.

The literacy rate of Bihar is 61.8%.

The literacy rate of Chhattisgarh is 70.28%.

The literacy rate of west Bengal is 76.26%.

Rajasthan: 66.11%.

So the overall observation says that TN is planning on increasing its literacy rates further though it is already higher.

Gross direct tax collections has grew up tp 24 per cent to Rs 15.67 trillion so far this fiscal.

After adjusting for refunds, the net direct tax collection stood at Rs 12.98 trillion, a growth of 18.40 per cent.

The net collections are about 79 per cent of Revised Estimates (RE) of direct tax collection for current fiscal, the CBDT said.

Key Points -

Between April to February 10, the growth rate for gross Corporate Income Tax (CIT) and gross Personal Income Tax (PIT) collections was 19.33 per cent and 29.63 per cent respectively.

After adjustment of refunds, the net growth in CIT collections is 15.84 per cent and that in PIT collections is 21.23 per cent (PIT including STT).

Refunds amounting to Rs 2.69 trillion have been issued during April 1, 2022 to February 10, 2023, which are 61.58 per cent higher than refunds issued during the same period in the preceding year.

The Reserve Bank announced its second global hackathon – "HARBINGER 2023 – Innovation for Transformation" with the theme "Inclusive Digital Services".

Registration for the hackathon starts from February 22, 2023.

It had received 363 proposals submitted by teams from within India and from 22 other countries including the US, UK, Sweden, Singapore, Philippines and Israel.

Winner of the hackathon will be given a prize of Rs 40 lakh and runner-up Rs 20 lakh.

The first hackathon was announced in November 2021 and results were declared in June 2022.

Namami Gange Programme was launched from June 2014 till 31st March 2021 to rejuvenate River Ganga and its tributaries with a budget of Rs 20,000 crore.

The Government of India has approved Namami Gange Mission-II with a budgetary outlay of Rs 22,500 crore till 2026 including projects for existing liabilities (Rs 11,225 Cr) and new projects/interventions (Rs 11,275 crore).

Till 31st December 2022, a total of 409 projects have been taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 32,912.40 Crore, out of which 232 projects have been completed and made operational.

Namami Gange Programme -

It is being operated under the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.

The Ganga River System -

The headwaters of the Ganga called the ’Bhagirathi’ are fed by the Gangotri Glacier and joined by the Alaknanda at Devprayag in Uttarakhand.

At Haridwar, Ganga emerges from the mountains to the plains.

The Ganga is joined by many tributaries from the Himalayas, a few of them being major rivers such as the Yamuna, the Ghaghara, the Gandak and the Kosi.

The Government of India has launched a mobile app "KhananPrahari" and a web app Coal Mine Surveillance and Management System (CMSMS) for reporting unauthorized coal mining activities so that monitoring and taking suitable action on it can be done by the concerned Law & Order enforcing authority.

The CMSMS has been developed to curb illegal mining and take transparent action as an e-Governance initiative of GoI on the use of Space Technology.

The objective of the development and launching of the CMSMS application was to detect citizens’ participation against illegal mining by receipt of citizen complaints through a mobile app – KhananPrahari.

Coal Sector in India -

As a result of exploration carried out up to the maximum depth of 1200 m, a cumulative total of 319.02 Billion tonnes of Geological Resources of Coal have so far been estimated in the country till April, 2018.

Top 5 States in terms of total coal reserves in India are: Jharkhand > Odisha > Chhattisgarh > West Bengal > Madhya Pradesh.

The Coal resources of India are available in older Gondwana Formations of peninsular India and younger tertiary formations of north-eastern region.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore Students won AED 1 million by winning the gold medal at the World Government Summit in Dubai.

Niyati Totala and Neel Kalpeshkumar Parikh of The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore, were awarded the prestigious medal by Egyptian President Abel Fattah Al-Sisi.

The IIT students were the creators of the ’Blockbill’ app. Blockbill is a blockchain-based receipt generation app that generates digital receipts for all of its users’ transactions.

This app solves multiple problems, which aids the transition away from the production of thermal papers for printing receipts.

The “M-Gov Award” and the “GovTech Award” are annual awards organized by the UAE government as part of the World Government Summit.

It is the eighth edition of "The Global Best M-Gov Award" which is presented to students and researchers worldwide enrolled and registered in public and private universities.

Asia will use half of the world’s electricity for the first time by 2025, even as Africa continues to consume far less than its share of the global population, according to a new forecast released by the International Energy Agency.

Most of Asia’s electricity use will be in China.

It is a country with 1.4 billion people whose share of global consumption will rise from a quarter in 2015 to a third by the middle of this decade.

International Energy Agency -

The International Energy Agency is an autonomous Intergovernmental Organisation established in 1974 in Paris, France.

IEA mainly focuses on its energy policies which include economic development, energy security and environmental protection. These policies are also known as the 3 E’s of IEA.

India became an Associate member of IEA in March 2017 but it was in engagement with IEA long before its association with the organization.

Recently, India has inked a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the IEA to strengthen cooperation in global energy security, stability and sustainability.

The Science Center and Planetarium will be constructed in Kota, Rajasthan.

The Science Center and Planetarium will be one of the best science centers and planetariums in the world.

About 35 crore 25 lakh rupees will be spent on these.

An MoU was signed between the National Council of Science Museums and the Science and Technology Department of the Government of Rajasthan in this regard.

About National Council of Science Museums -

National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Culture.

It is the largest chain of science centers or museums under a single administrative umbrella in the world.

There are 24 science centers or museums and one R & D laboratory and training center of NCSM, located in different states in India.

The first science museum, Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM), Kolkata under CSIR43, was opened on 2 May 1959.

In July 1965, the second science museum of the country, the Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum (VITM) was opened in Bangalore.

Birla Planetarium in Kolkata is the largest planetarium in Asia and the second largest in the world.

It is one of the most famous planetariums in India.

Popularly known as Taramandal, the planetarium was inaugurated on 2 July 1963 by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.

According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in the last five years, the highest number of custodial deaths have been reported in Gujarat at 80.

Custodial death is a death that occurs while a person is in the custody of law enforcement officials or in a correctional facility.

In the last five years, the highest number of custodial deaths (80) has been reported in Gujarat, followed by Maharashtra (76), Uttar Pradesh (41), Tamil Nadu (40) and Bihar (38).

Related Constitutional Provisions -

Article 21 -

Article 21 states that “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law”.

Article 22 -

Article 22 provides "Protection against arrest and detention in certain cases".

Sec 330 & 331 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 provides punishment for injury inflicted for extorting confession.

Crime of custodial torture against prisoners can be brought under Sec 302, 304, 304A, and 306 of IPC.

Scientists have discovered a third natural source of quasicrystals in the Sand Hills of north central Nebraska, USA.

Quasicrystals -

Quasicrystals are fascinating materials that possess a unique combination of properties. They are a testament to the beauty and power of irregularity in the natural world.

The discovery of quasicrystals was made by American-Israeli scientist Dan Shechtman in 1982 in the lab.

Dan Shechtman received the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering quasicrystals.

The first natural quasicrystal was discovered in the Khatyrka meteorite in Russia in 2009.

In 2021, scientists discovered a quasicrystal in the remains of the first-ever detonated atomic weapon, the Trinity test of the Manhattan Project.

These findings suggest that intense, fiery conditions like those experienced by the Khatyrka meteorite and the Trinity test are the birthplace of natural quasicrystals.