All 1, 2, 3 and 4 are correct. Indian Standard Meridian (82˚30’E meridian) passes through UP, MP, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

– Both statements 1 and 2 are correct.
– The portal enables e-filing of consumer complaints in the consumer commissions and online payment of the fees for filing a complaint.
– This has been launched by the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC.
– The E-Daakhil portal empowers the consumer and their advocates to file the consumer complaints along with payment of requisite fees online from anywhere for the redressal of their complaints.
-It facilitates the consumer commissions to scrutinise the complaints online to accept, reject or forward the complaint to the concerned commission for further processing.

UNESCO established Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
1. Tradition of Vedic chanting 2008
2. Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana 2008
3. Kutiyattam, Sanskrit theatre 2008
4. Ramman, religious festival and ritual theatre of the Garhwal Himalayas, India 2009
5. Mudiyettu, ritual theatre and dance drama of Kerala 2010
6. Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan 2010
7. Chhau dance 2010
8. Buddhist chanting of Ladakh: recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in the trans-Himalayan Ladakh region, Jammu and Kashmir, India 2012
9. Sankirtana, ritual singing, drumming and dancing of Manipur 2013
10. Traditional brass and copper craft of utensil making among the Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Punjab, India 2014
11. Yoga 2016
12. Nawrouz, 2016
13. Kumbh Mela

Taxes imposed by the Centre and states are a significant contributor to the price of petrol and diesel that consumers pay. To the base price of the fuel (which includes the cost of refinery processing and margins, and oil marketing company margins and cost of freight etc) is added excise and cess levied by the Centre, VAT imposed by the states, and commission to the dealer.

VAT varies from state to state, which accounts for the fact that fuel is more expensive in some states than in others. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh impose the heaviest VAT burdens among all states in the country.

India’s tax system is regressive with heavy dependence on indirect tax. This would be clear by mapping the gross tax revenue (of both centre and states)- as reproduced below. Indirect-tax-to-GDP ratio remains consistently higher than that of direct tax-to-GDP (2011-12 series, current prices).

In the OECD countries, the average share of direct tax is about two-third of the total tax, while it is a little over one-third in India.

Printing more money does not necessarily lead to inflation and a debasement of the currency. In fact, if the increased money supply creates a disproportionate increase in output because the money is invested to finance investment projects with positive net present value (where such value incorporates all the societal value generated by the investment), the increased money supply is beneficial to the citizens.

Evidence over the last two-and-a-half decades demonstrates clearly that in India, higher GDP growth causes the ratio of debt-to-GDP to decline but not vice-versa.

The National Board for Wildlife and Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change last month included the caracal, a medium-sized wildcat found in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, in the list of critically endangered species. Though not under grave threat in its other habitats, the animal is on the verge of extinction
in India, some experts believe.

Besides India, the caracal is found in several dozen countries across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. While it flourishes in parts of Africa, its numbers in Asia are declining.

The earliest evidence of the caracal in the subcontinent comes from a fossil dating back to the civilisation of the Indus Valley c. 3000-2000 BC, according to a reference in ‘Historical and current extent of occurrence of the Caracal in India’, one of the few published studies on the animal.

The Flexitarian Diet is a style of eating that encourages mostly plant-based foods while allowing meat and other animal products in moderation. It’s more flexible than fully vegetarian or vegan diets.

In 2018, Government of India approved the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) as a historic step to provide healthcare access to the most vulnerable sections in the country.
• Beneficiaries included approximately 50 crore individuals across 10.74 crores poor and vulnerable families, which form the bottom 40 per cent of the Indian population.
• The households were included based on the deprivation and occupational criteria from the SocioEconomic Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011) for rural and urban areas respectively.
• The scheme provides for healthcare of up to INR 5 lakh per family per year on a family floater basis, which means that it can be used by one or all members of the family.
• The scheme provides for secondary and tertiary hospitalization through a network of public and empanelled private healthcare providers.
• It also provides for three days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days of posthospitalization expenses, places no cap on age and gender, or size of a family and is portable across the country.
• It covers 1573 procedures including 23 specialties. AB-PM-JAY also aims to set up 150,000 health and wellness centres to provide comprehensive primary health care service to the entire population.

National Disaster Response Fund is defined in Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act) as a fund managed by the Central Government for meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation due to any threatening disaster situation or disaster. NDRF is constituted to supplement the funds of the State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) of the states to facilitate immediate relief in case of calamities of a severe nature.

NDRF amount can be spent only towards meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation. For projects exclusively for the purpose of mitigation, i.e, measures aimed at reducing the risk, impact or effect of a disaster or threatening disaster situation a separate fund called National Disaster Mitigation
Fund has to be constituted.

The NDRF is financed through the levy of a cess on certain items, chargeable to excise and customs duty, and approved annually through the Finance Bill. The requirement for funds beyond what is available under the NDRF is met through general budgetary resources.

Currently, a National Calamity Contingency Duty (NCCD) is levied to finance the NDRF and additional budgetary support is provided as and when necessary. A provision also exists in the DM Act to encourage any person or institution to make a contribution to the NDRF.

NDRF is located in the “Public Accounts” of Government of India under “Reserve Funds not bearing interest”.

Department of Agriculture and Cooperation under Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) monitors relief activities for calamities associated with drought, hailstorms, pest attacks and cold wave /frost while rest of the natural calamities are monitored by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

Natural nanomaterials, as the name suggests, are those that occur naturally in the world. These include particles that make up volcanic ash, smoke, and even some molecules in our bodies, such as the hemoglobin in our blood. The brilliant colors of a peacock’s feathers are the result of spacing between nanometer-scale structures on their surface.
Man-made nanomaterials are those that occur from objects or processes created by people. Examples include exhaust from fossil fuel burning engines and some forms of pollution.

Nanotechnology can increase agricultural production, and its applications include: (1) nanoformulations of agrochemicals for applying pesticides and fertilizers for crop improvement; (2) the application of nanosensors in crop protection for the identification of diseases and residues of agrochemicals; (3) nanodevices for the genetic engineering of plants; (4) plant disease diagnostics; (5) animal health, animal breeding, poultry production; and (6) postharvest management. Precision farming techniques might be used to further improve the crop yields but not damage soil and water. In addition, it can reduce nitrogen loss due to leaching and emissions, and soil microorganisms. Nanotechnology applications include nanoparticle-mediated gene or DNA.transfer in plants for the development of insect-resistant varieties, food processing and storage and increased product shelf life. Nanotechnology may increase the development of biomass-to-fuel production.

The Ministry of Science and Technology released new guidelines for the Geo-spatial sector in India, which deregulates existing protocol and liberalises the sector to a more competitive field.

Geospatial data is data about objects, events, or phenomena that have a location on the surface of the earth. The location may be static in the short-term, like the location of a road, an earthquake event, malnutrition among children, or dynamic like a moving vehicle or pedestrian, the spread of an infectious disease.

Geospatial data combines location information, attribute information (the characteristics of the object, event, or phenomena concerned), and often also temporal information or the time at which the location and attributes exist. Geospatial data usually involves information of public interest such as roads, localities, rail lines, water bodies, and public amenities. The past decade has seen an increase in the use of geo-spatial data in daily life with various apps such as food delivery apps like Swiggy or Zomato, e-commerce like Amazon or even weather apps.

Hydrogen is the lightest and first element on the periodic table. Since the weight of hydrogen is less than air, it rises in the atmosphere and is therefore rarely found in its pure form, H2.
At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a nontoxic, non-metallic, odorless, tasteless, colorless, and highly combustible diatomic gas.
Hydrogen fuel is a zero-emission fuel burned with oxygen. It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines. It is also used as a fuel for spacecraft propulsion.

India is the world’s third-largest crude oil importer.
OPEC meets 78% of India’s crude oil demand, 59% of its LPG needs, and nearly 38% of LNG consumption.
Traditionally, OPEC nations offer bigger discounts on crude oil sold to western economies in comparison to eastbound cargoes

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization comprising seven Member States lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.

This sub-regional organization came into being in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration. It constitutes seven Member States: five deriving from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.

It is not an FTA. IT is a sector-driven organization focussing on sharing best practices and help each other in agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, counter-terrorism, environment, culture etc. Fourteen priority sectors of cooperation have been identified and several BIMSTEC centres have been established to focus on those sectors.

India is the largest producer of generic medicines in the world.
India’s ongoing ‘Vaccine Maitri’ campaign, which is aimed at provisioning COVID-19 vaccines to countries both near to and away from its immediate neighborhood, is one of the most important recent initiatives to leverage its science and technological advantages for the furtherance of its foreign policy objectives.

The Uttarakhand government, had sought withdrawal of “inner-line permit” (ILP) system in Niti Valley of Chamoli district and Nelang Valley of Uttarkashi district for better border management and expansion of tourism and other economic activities in villages located there.

The ILP system restricts movement in areas close to the border for everyone other than those with a formal permission. In Uttarakhand, tourists have to obtain ILP for locations near China border, at least in the three districts of Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Chamoli.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-km border with China and a 275-km boundary with Nepal.

Delhi’s current status as a Union Territory with a Legislative Assembly is an outcome of the 69th Amendment Act through which Articles 239AA and 239BB were introduced in the Constitution.

The Bench of then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, in three separate yet concurring orders, had said: “The status of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi
is not that of a Governor of a State, rather he remains an Administrator, in a limited sense, working with the designation of Lieutenant Governor”.

The L-G does have the power to refer any matter, over which there is a disagreement with the elected government, to the President under Article 239AA(4).

Famous sedition trials during freedom movement:
The first is the trial of Jogendra Chandra Bose in 1891. Bose, the editor of the newspaper, Bangobasi, wrote an article criticizing the Age of Consent Bill for posing a threat to the religion and for its coercive relationship with Indians.
The other most well-known cases are the sedition trials of Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the trial of Mahatma Gandhi in 1922. Mahatma Gandhi for his articles published in Young India.