Option (a) is correct

Explanation:

• Tampon tax or period tax is the VAT or GST applied on menstrual products, which makes their prices skyrocket, making it hard for many to afford them.  

• Statement 1 is incorrect: Kenya (not the USA) became the first country to scrap VAT on sanitary pads and tampons in 2004, according to research by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
• Since, VAT is an important source of revenue for governments – this is why many countries still have a tampon tax.
• Statement 2 is correct: In 2022, Scotland became the first nation to make tampons and sanitary pads free and available at designated public places such as community centres, youth clubs and pharmacies.

Option (a) is correct

Explanation:

• The World Heritage Convention is concerned with the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. The World Heritage Convention recognises some World Heritage properties specifically for their outstanding biodiversity values, protecting many of the most important ecosystems and areas of high biodiversity on the planet.
• The Marrakesh Agreement was to create an integrated multilateral trading system encompassing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the results of all the trade rounds (including the Uruguay Round) that had been conducted since the GATT was signed in 1947.
• New START Treaty was about reduction of the number of nuclear warheads that can be deployed by Russia and United States of America.

Option (d) is correct

Explanation:

• The Prime Minister of India will install the Sengol, a sceptre given by the British to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to represent the transfer of power in 1947, in the new Parliament building.
• Sengol was originally used to mark the handing over of power from one king to another during the Chola dynasty in Tamil Nadu.
• The sceptre will be installed near the podium of the Lok Sabha Speaker.
• On the eve of Independence, Jawaharlal Nehru was handed over the Sengol with the Nandi (bull deity) finial amid the singing of the sacred Tamil text Thevaram — symbolic of divine blessings and command to rule justly and fairly.

Option (b) is correct

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is not correct: Insurance Information Bureau of India has been established by the insurance regulator, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) (not by LIC) in the year 2009, as a data repository and analytics body.
• It was registered as an independent non-profit earning society under the Andhra Pradesh Societies Registration Act 2001.
• Statement 2 is correct: It acts as the Sole Repository and Analytics Body for the entire Insurance Sector in India.
• All the registered Insurance Companies in India are mandated to submit data under Life, Motor, Health, Fire and Other Miscellaneous lines of Insurance business to the Insurance Information Bureau of India.

Option (d) is correct

Explanation:

• India is set to scale up its supercomputing prowess and install an 18-petaflop system over the course of this year.
• Currently India’s most powerful, civilian supercomputers — Pratyush and Mihir — with a combined capacity of 6.8 petaflops are housed at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida, respectively.
• They were made operational in 2018.
• The fastest high-performance computing system in the world is currently the Frontier-Cray system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, United States. This has a peak speed of one exa-flop (or about 1,000 petaflops).
  • Flops (floating point operations per second) are an indicator of processing speed of computers and a petaflop refers to a 1,000 trillion flops.

Option (b) is correct

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is correct: Offshore mutual funds are mutual fund schemes that make investments in international markets and hence, are also often referred to as ‘international funds’. 
• They may also invest in fixed income securities of a country or a region.
• Offshore mutual funds may provide investment exposure to international markets, as well as tax benefits from being domiciled in overseas jurisdictions.
• Statement 2 is not correct: However, offshore funds may follow different rules and regulations than standard investments, which could present some higher risks of capital loss.