UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 14th JULY 2021

Solution (b)

The Constitution specifies offices like those of the President, Vice President, Chief Justice of India, and Comptroller and Auditor General of India, as well as Speakers and Deputy Speakers. 

Article 93 for Lok Sabha and Article 178 for state Assemblies state that these Houses “shall, as soon as may be” choose two of its members to be Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Thus The Constitution neither sets a time limit nor specifies the process for these elections. It leaves it to the legislatures to decide how to hold these elections.

In Lok Sabha and state legislatures, the President/Governor sets a date for the election of the Speaker, and it is the Speaker who decides the date for the election of the Deputy Speaker. The legislators of the respective Houses vote to elect one among themselves to these offices.

The Speaker (along with the Deputy Speaker) is elected from among the Lok Sabha members by a simple majority of members present and voting in the House.

Usually, a member belonging to the ruling party is elected Speaker. The process has evolved over the years where the ruling party nominates its candidate after informal consultations with leaders of other parties and groups in the House. The tradition for the post of the Deputy Speaker going to the Opposition party started during the term of Prime Minister Morarji Desai’s government.

The Constitution provides that the office of the Speaker should never be empty. So, he continues in office until the beginning of the next House, except in the event of death or resignation.

The Speaker is “the principal spokesman of the House, he represents its collective voice and is its sole representative to the outside world”. The Speaker presides over the House proceedings and joint sittings of the two Houses of Parliament. It is the Speaker’s decision that determines whether a Bill is a Money Bill and therefore outside of the purview of the other House.

The Deputy Speaker is independent of the Speaker, not subordinate to him, as both are elected from among the members of the House. The Deputy Speaker ensures the continuity of the Speakers office by acting as the Speaker when the office becomes vacant.

Article Link: Explained: Electing a Speaker and Deputy Speaker

Solution (c)

The Great Indian Bustard is endemic to Indian Sun-Continent. It is found in Central India, Western India and Eastern Pakistan.

The habitat where it is most often found is arid and semi-arid grasslands, open country with thorn scrub, tall grass interspersed with cultivation. It avoids irrigated areas.

The bird is found in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat states.

It is one of the Species for the Recovery Programme under the Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

IUCN Status is critically endangered mainly because it has been extirpated from 90% of its former range and the population was estimated at perhaps fewer than 250 individuals in 2008.

Article Link: Green energy projects threaten the last refuges of the endangered great Indian bustard.

Solution (c)

During the financial crisis of 2007–2008, several banks, including the UK’s Northern Rock and the U.S. investment banks Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, suffered a liquidity crisis, due to their over-reliance on short-term wholesale funding from the interbank lending market.

As a result, the G20 launched an overhaul of banking regulation known as Basel III. In addition to changes in capital requirements, Basel III also contains two entirely new liquidity requirements: the net stable funding ratio (NSFR) and the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR).

The NSFR will require banks to maintain a stable funding profile in relation to the composition of their assets and off-balance sheet activities. NSFR requires banks to fund their activities with stable sources of finance (reliable over the one-year horizon).

The objective is to harmonise the regulatory frameworks for various regulated lenders and credit companies.

The rules treat physically traded gold like any other commodity, requiring banks to hold requiring banks to hold more cash to match their gold exposure as a buffer against adverse price moves.

In India NFSR will come into effect from October 1, 2021.

The liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requires banks to hold a buffer of high-quality liquid assets sufficient to deal with the cash outflows encountered in an acute short term stress scenario as specified by supervisors.

Article Link: Britain carves out exemption for gold clearing banks from Basel III rule

Solution (d)

Project Elephant was launched in 1992 by the Government of India Ministry of Environment and Forests to provide financial and technical support to wildlife management efforts by states for their free-ranging populations of wild Asian Elephants.

Under the Project Elephant 32 Elephant Reserves (ERs) extending over about 58,000 square kilometres has been formally notified by various State Governments.

Currently there is no legislation providing legal status to the Elephant reserves.

The Union environment ministry has proposed an amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in 2019 to accord legal status to elephant reserves and corridors on the lines of tiger reserves.

With the proposed amendment, the ministry proposes to have a legal framework for elephant reserves and statutory status for Project Elephant.

Article Link: A proposed elephant reserve in Chhattisgarh, and its reduced area

Solution (b)

Kesariya Buddha Stupa is located in the Champaran (east) district of Bihar.

Kesariya Stupa has a circumference of almost 400 feet (120 m) and raises to a height of about 104 feet (32 m).

The site’s exploration reportedly started in the early 19th century, from its discovery led by Colonel Mackenzie in 1814 to General Cunningham’s proper excavation in 1861–62.

The first construction of the Stupa is dated to the 3rd century BCE. The original Kesaria stupa probably dates to the time of Ashoka (circa 250 BCE), as the remains of a capital of a Pillar of Ashoka were discovered there.

The discovery of gold coins bearing the seal of the famous emperor Kanishka of the Kushan dynasty (AD 30 to AD 375) goes on to further establish the ancient heritage of Kesaria.

Article Link: Bihar’s Kesaria Buddha stupa waterlogged