Statement 2 is Incorrect:
ASEEM refers to all the data, trends and analytics which describe the workforce market and map demand of skilled workforce to supply.
It is developed and managed by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in collaboration with Bengaluru-based Company named Betterplace.
It is an AI-based portal which will map details of workers based on regions and local industry demands and will bridge the demand-supply gap of skilled workforce across sectors. It will provide employers with a platform to assess the availability of a skilled workforce and formulate their hiring plans. It will also provide real-time granular information by identifying relevant skilling requirements and employment prospects.

Option C is Correct:
Bhashan Char Island:
Bhasan Char also known as Char Piya, is an island in Hatiya, Bangladesh. The island was formed with Himalayan silt in 2006 spanning 40 square kilometres. It is underwater from June to September annually because of the monsoon, and it has no flood fences.
In June 2015, the Bangladeshi government suggested resettling Rohingya refugees on the island under its Ashrayan Project. The proposal was characterized by the UN Refugee Agency as “logistically challenging”.

Option D is Correct:
Without the availability of adequate capital either in the form of physical capital or in the form of human capital development of nation is not possible. The higher the rate of capital formation, the faster is the pace of economic growth. Saving and investment are essential for capital formation. But savings are different from hoardings. For savings to be utilised for investment purposes, they must be mobilised in banks and financial institutions. And the businessmen, the entrepreneurs and the farmers invest these community savings on capital goods by taking loans from these banks and financial institutions. This is capital formation.
The process of capital formation involves three steps: Increase in the volume of real savings, Mobilisation of savings through financial and credit institutions and Investment of savings. So, if a country has high savings but poor technology, low efficiency then economic growth will not be possible.

Both Statements are Incorrect:
About All India Tiger Estimation:
The tiger count is prepared after every four years by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) provides details on the number of tigers in the 18 tiger reign states with 50 tiger reserves.
However, this time, the census also included data collected from the rough terrains of north-eastern states which were not possible due to logistic constraints before. The entire exercise spanned over four years is considered to be the world’s largest wildlife survey effort in terms of coverage and intensity of sampling.
Over 15, 000 cameras were installed at various strategic points to capture the movement of tigers. This was supported by extensive data collected by field personnel and satellite mapping.

Highlights of the 2018 estimation India has 2,967 tigers, a third more than in 2014, according to results of a tiger census. India has achieved the target of doubling tiger population four years before the 2022 deadline.

According to the census, Madhya Pradesh saw the highest number of tigers at 526, closely followed by Karnataka at 524 and Uttarakhand at number 3 with 442 tigers.

While Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of tigers, Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu registered the “maximum improvement” since 2014. Chhattisgarh and Mizoram saw a decline in their tiger numbers while tiger numbers in Odisha remained constant. All other states witnessed a positive trend.

Both Statements are Correct:
About NATGRID:
NATGRID initially started in 2009 is an online database for collating scattered pieces of information and putting them together on one platform. It links intelligence and investigation agencies.

At least 10 Central government agencies, such as the Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing and others have access to the data on a secured platform. NATGRID is exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005 under sub-section (2) of Section 24.

Utility of NATGRID:
The NATGRID enables multiple security and intelligence agencies to access a database related to immigration entry and exit, banking and telephone details, among others, from a common platform. The 10 user agencies will be linked independently with certain databases which will be procured from 21 providing organisations including telecom, tax records, bank, immigration etc. to generate intelligence inputs.

Option D is Correct:
Kuaizhou, meaning “fast ship” in Chinese, was operated by the commercial launch firm Expace and was originally scheduled for 2018 after being developed three years earlier. Also known as KZ-11, it had a lift-off mass of 70.8 tonnes, and was designed to launch low-Earth and Sunsynchronous orbit satellites.
It was carrying two satellites — the first being a remote sensing satellite that would provide data to clients on a commercial basis for forecasting and managing geological disasters.
It would also provide the information required for natural resource exploration. The second was part of a series of satellites for low-Earth orbit navigation. Both satellites were built by Changguang Satellite Co. Ltd., a commercial entity born out of the state-owned firms.

The first statement is incorrect.
Who are the Tangams?
The Tangams is a little-known community within the larger Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh and resides in the hamlet of Kugging in Upper Siang district’s Paindem circle. In 1975, the community’s population was pegged at 2,000 spread across 25 villages.

From 2016 to 2020, a team from the Centre for Endangered Languages (CFEL) of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU), carried out extensive field research and documented the community.
Their survey revealed that Tangams were now concentrated in only one village (Kugging), with only 253 reported speakers. As per the UNESCO World Atlas of Endangered Languages (2009), Tangam — an oral language that belongs to the Tani group, under the greater Tibeto-Burman language family — is marked ‘critically endangered’.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
The Padmanabhaswamy temple is heavily influenced by the Dravidian style of architecture, which is why it resembles a lot of the temples in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu with its tall gopuram and high walls and intricate carvings.
Vishnu is the presiding deity of the Padmanabhaswamy temple and is also the ‘ruler’ of Travancore. He was ‘crowned’ as the Emperor of Travancore in the 18th century and members of the royal family rule as regents on his behalf. Which is also why the royal crown of Travancore has been preserved inside the temple.
Celebrated once every six years in January, the Laksha Deepam festival is the biggest festival of the Padmanabhaswamy temple. The festival gets its name from the lighting of a hundred thousand (one lakh or Laksha) lamps inside the temple and its premises. Held on the day of Makar Sankranti, the festival marks the end of 12 Bhadradeepams, a seven-day ritual that is held twice every year. On the day images of Padmanabha, Narasimha and Krishna are taken out on Garudavahana (Vishnu’s mythical eagle) in a grand procession.
An image of Padmanabha or Vishnu reclining on the serpent Anantha or Adi Sesha is the centre of the Padmanabhaswamy temple. With his right hand placed over a Shiva lingam, Vishnu is flanked by Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and Bhudevi, the goddess of Earth. Bramha is shown to emanate from Vishnu’s navel. Interestingly, the image of Vishnu is made out of 12,000 shaligrams or fossilized shells that can be
traced back to the banks of Nepal’s Gandaki River.
In 2011 a treasure was revealed from its cellars. The treasure was valued $1 trillion at the time of its discovery making the Padmanabhaswamy Temple the richest in the world. To put this into perspective, the entire Mughal treasury at the zenith of its power could be valued at $90 billion.

All Options are Correct.
Dehing Patkai National Park:
Dehing Patkai NP is located in the Dibrugarh and Tinsukia Districts of Assam and covers an area of 111.19 sq. km rainforest. It is located in the Dehing Patkai landscape which is a dipterocarp-dominated lowland rainforest.

It spreads across the coal- and oil-rich districts of Upper Assam (Dibrugarh, Tinsukia and Sivasagar) and is believed to be the last remaining contiguous patch of lowland rainforest area in Assam. The WLS due to their importance for elephant habitat was declared as Dehing-Patkai Elephant Reserve under Project Elephant.
Post upgradation, Dehing Patkai will be the sixth national park in Assam — the other five being Kaziranga, Nameri, Manas, Orang and Dibru-Saikhowa.

Option A is Correct.
The C/2020 F3 comet also dubbed NEOWISE will be visible with the naked eye for around 20 minutes every day for 20 days across India.
What are Comets?
Comets or “dirty snowballs” are mostly made of dust, rocks and ice, the remnants from the time the solar system was formed over 4.6 billion years ago. The word comet comes from the Latin word “Cometa” which means “long-haired” and the earliest known record of a comet sighting was made by an astrologer in 1059 BC.
Comets can range in their width from a few miles to tens of miles wide. While there are millions of comets orbiting the sun, there are more than 3,650 known comets as of now, according to NASA.

How do they illuminate?
Comets do not have the light of their own and what humans are able to see from Earth is the reflection of the sun’s light off the comet as well as the energy released by the gas molecules after it is absorbed from the sun. The visibility cannot be precisely predicted since a lot depends on the way the “outbursts” of gas and dust play out determining how much of a “good show” the comet will put out for observers.
As they orbit closer to the sun, they heat up and release debris of dust and gases that form into a “glowing head” that can often be larger than a planet.

Option A is Correct.
PRAGYATA guidelines:
These guidelines have been developed from the perspective of learners, with a focus on online/blended/digital education for students who are presently at home due to lockdown.

It provides a roadmap or pointers for carrying forward online education to enhance the quality of education. The guidelines will be relevant and useful for a diverse set of stakeholders including school heads, teachers, parents, teacher educators and students.
It stresses upon the use of an alternative academic calendar of NCERT, for both, learners having access to digital devices and learners having limited or no access.

Both Statements are incorrect:
NITI Aayog had earlier prepared and presented India’s first VNR in 2017 on the theme: ‘Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world’ The India VNR 2020 report is titled – Decade of Action: Taking SDGs from Global to Local..

India VNR 2020:
India’s VNR this year has undertaken a paradigm shift in terms of embodying a whole-of-society approach in letter and spirit. NITI Aayog engaged with sub-national and local governments, civil society organizations, local communities, people in vulnerable situations and the private sector.
Goal-wise account with best practices: In line with the theme of “Taking SDGs from Global to Local”, the goal-wise account of progress on the SDGs along with a range of diverse good practices and success stories of interventions from the States, especially Aspirational Districts.
Enabling environment: The report discusses at length the policy and enabling environment, India’s approach to localising SDGs, and strengthening means of implementation. Two levers of strengthening means of implementation: Leveraging science, technology and innovation for SDGs, and costing and financing of SDGs.

All Statements are Correct:
About GIDF:
The GIDF focuses on digitizing the economy and building India-first products and services. The plan is in line with big-tech’s bullish outlook on India. Earlier this year, Amazon said it would invest an additional $1 billion in India.

This was followed by a marquee investment announcement of $5.7 billion by Facebook in the country’s largest telecom company Reliance Jio. Last month, Microsoft’s venture fund M12 said it would open an office in India to pursue investment opportunities focusing on B2B software startups.

Focus areas:
The investment will focus on four areas important to digitization including:
– Enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language,
– Building products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs,
– Empowering businesses in their digital transformation journey and
– Leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture.

Both Statements are Incorrect:
Azad Pattan hydel project:
The project is a run-of-the-river scheme with a reservoir located near Muslimabad village, 7 km upstream from the Azad Pattan bridge, in district Sudhnoti, one of the eight districts of PoK. It is one of five hydropower schemes on the Jhelum.

Upstream from Azad Pattan are the Mahl, Kohala, and Chakothi Hattian projects; Karot is downstream. Like Kohala and Azad Pattan, Karot too is being developed under the CPEC framework.

The project will comprise a 90-metre-high dam, with a 3.8 sq km reservoir. The $ 1.5-billion project is the second power project under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Other projects in PoK:
Kohala project is a 1,124 MW hydel project that will come upon the Jhelum near Muzaffarabad. This project is one of the biggest investments by China in PoK. The Karot Hydropower station, the third project being executed by China on the Jhelum is on the boundaries of Kotli district in PoK and Rawalpindi district in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
Two hydel projects are planned in Gilgit Baltistan – Phandar Hydro Power, and Gilgit KIU. Most recent in the news was Diamer-Bhasha dam in the PoK.

Both Statements are Correct.
Melghat Tiger Reserve:
Melghat, part of the Satpura-Maikal landscape was among the first nine tiger reserves notified in 1973-74 under the Project Tiger.
The Tapti River and the Gawilgadh ridge of the Satpura Range form the boundary of the reserve. The forest is tropical dry deciduous in nature, dominated by teak.
The reserve is a catchment area for five major rivers: the Khandu, Khapra, Sipna, Gadga and Dolar. These all rivers are tributaries of the river Tapti.

Statement 2 is Incorrect.
Project Tiger:
Project Tiger is a tiger conservation programme launched in April 1973 during PM Indira Gandhi’s tenure. In 1970 India had only 1800 tigers and Project Tiger was launched in Jim Corbett National Park.

The project is administrated by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
It aims at ensuring a viable population of Bengal tigers in their natural habitats, protecting them from extinction etc.
Under this project the govt. has set up a Tiger Protection Force to combat poachers and funded relocation of villagers to minimize human-tiger conflicts.
It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Statement 1 is Incorrect.
A new analysis published in The Lancet has projected that the world population will peak much earlier than previously estimated. It projects the peak at 9.73 billion in 2064, which is 36 years earlier than the 11 billion peaks projected for 2100 by last year’s UN report World Population Prospects.
For 2100, the new report projects a decline to 8.79 billion from the 2064 peak.
5 most populated countries The five largest countries in 2100 are projected to be India, Nigeria, China, the U.S. and Pakistan. However, these forecasts showed different future trajectories between countries.
Nigeria is forecast to have continued population growth through 2100 and was expected to be the second most populous country by then.
Predictions on India’s population:
For India, the report projects a peak population of 1.6 billion in 2048, up from 1.38 billion in 2017. By 2100, the population is projected to decline by 32% to 1.09 billion.
However, meeting UN Sustainable Goal Development targets, the peak would be earlier and see a population decline to 929 million.
Conventional wisdom is that though a decline in population is expected, it is expected to begin only around 2046. The fall according to the latest 2019 assessment by the UNDP calculation, is expected to see India’s population settle at a little over 1.4 billion.
Reasons for fall:
The sharper fall is due to the assumption that all women globally will have much higher access to contraception and education. This scenario will lead to a sharper reduction in the Total Fertility Rate, a metric that shows on average how many children a woman must have to keep replenishing the population.
A TFR is lower than 2.1 leads to a decline in a country’s population.

Option D is Correct.
What was the Manhattan Project?
Germany initiated World War II by invading Poland. A letter signed by Nobel prize winning physicist Albert Einstein warned then-US President Franklin D Roosevelt of the potential threat posed by an atomic weapon being developed by Adolf Hitler.
Soon after, the US launched a secret atomic research undertaking, code-named the Manhattan Project, which sought to develop an atomic weapon to end the war.

Statements 1 and 3 are only correct.
In the recent joint working group meeting of the Sustainable Growth Pillar, an India Energy Modeling Forum was launched.
Composition: The forum would include knowledge partners, data agencies and concerned government ministries.
NITI Aayog will initially coordinate the activities of the forum and finalizing its governing structure.
Background:
Sustainable Growth Pillar is an important pillar of India-US Strategic Energy Partnership co-chaired by NITI Aayog and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The SG pillar entails energy data management, energy modelling and collaboration on low carbon technologies as three key activities.
The Forum aims to:
Provide a platform to examine important energy and environmental related issues;
Inform decision-making process to the Indian government;
Improve cooperation between modelling teams, government, and knowledge partners, funders;
Facilitate exchange of ideas, ensure production of high-quality studies;
Identify knowledge gaps at different levels and across different areas;
Build capacity of Indian institutions.
What is Energy Modelling?
Energy modeling or energy system modeling is the process of building computer models of energy systems in order to analyze them.
Such models often employ scenario analysis to investigate different assumptions about the technical and economic conditions at play.
Outputs may include the system feasibility, greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative financial costs, natural resource use, and energy efficiency of the system under investigation.
What are Energy Modelling Forums (EMF)?
The Energy Modelling Forum (EMF) in USA was established in 1976 at Stanford University to connect leading modelling experts and decision makers from government, industry, universities, and other research organizations.
The forum provides an unbiased platform to discuss the contemporary issues revolving around energy and environment.

Option D is Correct.
ASPIRE Portal:
The key objective of this portal is to facilitate the Indian Automotive Industry to become self-reliant by assisting in innovation and adoption of global technological advancements. It aims to bring together the stakeholders from various associated avenues.

This includes bringing together the automotive OEMs, Tier 1 Tier 2 & Tier 3 companies, R&D institutions and academia (colleges & universities) on matters involving technology advancements. The activities would include R&D, Product Technology Development, Technological Innovations, Technical and Quality Problem Resolution for the industry, Manufacturing and Process Technology Development etc.
Apart from acting as a solution and resource platform, the portal will also host grand challenges in line with the need of the industry as will be identified from time to time, for development of key automotive technologies.
About ICAT:
International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) is located at Manesar in Gurugram district of Haryana. It is a govt entity owned by the Ministry of Heavy Industries. It has facilities for vehicle homologation and also testing laboratories for noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) and passive safety.
It also includes a powertrain laboratory, engine dynamometers, emission laboratory with Euro-V capability, a fatigue laboratory, passive safety laboratory, and vehicle test tracks.