Ans: B

Exp:

Context: Recently, the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud has recommended Justice Sanjiv Khanna for appointment as the 51st Chief Justice of India. 

Statement 1 is incorrect: Article 124(2) of the Indian Constitution states that every Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed by the President. The Constitution of India does not mention any procedure for appointing the Chief Justice of India.

Statement 2 is correct: As per Article 128 of the Indian Constitution, the Chief Justice of India may at any time, with the previous consent of the President, request any person to sit and act as a Judge of the Supreme Court with the following qualifications:

• Person, who has held the office of a Judge of the Supreme Court. 
• Person, who has held the office of a Judge of a High Court and is duly qualified for appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court.

Ans: C

Exp:

Context: Hyundai Motor India launched India’s biggest IPO of Rs 27,856 crore on October 15. It was closed on Thursday with an oversubscription of 2.37 percent.

Statement 1 is correct: Initial Public Offerings (IPO) is a type of issue where an unlisted company raises capital by making a fresh issue of securities or offering its existing securities for sale to the public for the first time. 

Statement 2 is incorrect: An IPO is the process by which a privately held company, or a company owned by the government (Public Sector Undertakings) such as LIC, raises funds by offering shares to the public or to new investors. Following the IPO, the company is listed on the stock exchange.

Statement 3 is correct: The Companies Act specifies that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), a statutory body established under the SEBI Act, 1992, is the governing authority for the IPO process in India.

• The SEBI is the primary regulatory body that governs IPOs in India. SEBI sets guidelines for eligibility criteria, and companies must meet these guidelines before requesting permission to launch an IPO.

Ans: C

Exp: 

Context: Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, famous for its one-horned rhino population, has also earned the distinction of being the second butterfly diversity hub, after Namdapha National Park in Arunachal Pradesh.

Pair 1 is Correctly Matched: Nagarhole National Park is also known as “Rajiv Gandhi National Park”.

It was established as a wildlife sanctuary in 1955 and was upgraded into a national park in 1988. It was declared as the 37th Tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1999. The Park lies in the Western Ghats and is a part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Nagarahole, spread over Mysore and Kodagu, Karnataka, covering an area of 847.981 Sq km.

Pair 2 is Correctly Matched: Kaziranga National Park is located in the State of Assam and covers 42,996 Hectare (ha). It is the single largest undisturbed and representative area in the Brahmaputra Valley floodplain.

Pair 3 is not Correctly Matched: The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary renamed on 25 May 2004, formerly known as the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary or Hollongapar Reserve Forest, is an isolated protected area of evergreen forest located in Jorhat district of Assam, India. The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary contains India’s only gibbons – the hoolock gibbons, and Northeastern India’s only nocturnal primate – the Bengal slow loris.

Pair 4 is Correctly Matched: Papikonda National Park spreads over 1012.86 square kilometres in East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh. It has historically experienced varying levels of protection, beginning as a reserved forest in 1882, a wildlife sanctuary in 1978, and as a national park from 2008.

• The park lies on the left and right banks of the river Godavari and cuts through the Papikonda hill range of Eastern Ghats. 

Ans: B

Exp:

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court raised critical questions regarding the feasibility of setting up gram nyayalayas (village courts), as mandated by the Gram Nyayalayas Act of 2008.

About Gram Nyayalayas: Article 39A of the Indian Constitution ensures that the legal system promotes justice and provides free legal aid to ensure equal opportunities for all citizens, regardless of economic or other disabilities.

• Establishment: Under the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008, for speedy and easy access to the justice system in the rural areas of India.
• Statement 1 is correct: The State governments have been vested with the authority of setting up one or more nyayalayas, after proper consultation with the respective High Court, in every Panchayat at the intermediate level or group of adjacent Panchayats at the intermediate level of a district.
  • However, the Act does not make the setting up of Gram Nyayalayas mandatory.
• Statement 2 is correct: Gram Nyayalayas are deemed to be a Court of Judicial Magistrate of First Class with both civil and criminal jurisdiction to settle petty disputes at the village level.
• Statement 3 is not correct: Applicability: The Act extends to the whole of India, except to the States of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Sikkim and to the tribal areas specified in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
  • The Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution applies to the following states: Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.

Ans: C

Exp:

Context: Blackbuck and Chinkara are at the centre of the news cycle this whole week given the tragic murder of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique in Mumbai. 

• • Taxonomy is the system introduced by the Swede Carl Linnaeus to categorise life forms. Under this system, both deer and antelope are part of the Kingdom Animalia.
  • Also, both are ‘Artiodactyls’, which means they are hooved animals and put most of the weight of their bodies on two or four of the toes of their foot (which fuse to form the hoof).
  • But both belong to different ‘families’ under the Artiodactyl order. The deer belong to the family Cervidae, while antelope fall in the ‘Bovidae’ family, which also includes cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and bison. Hence Statement 1 is Correct.

• Antelopes like Blackbuck and Gazelle like Chinkara are not ‘deer’. The most basic difference between deer and antelope is the keratinous growths growing from their heads. Among deer, these growths are known as ‘antlers’ and grow only in males. They are divided into branches or ‘tines’. 

• On the other hand, antelope have “strong permanent un-branched horns consisting of a chitinous shell with a bony core,”.  Antelope do not shed their horns like deer. Hence Statement 2 is Correct.

• India has six species of antelope: Tibetan Antelope, Tibetan Gazelle, Nilgai, Blackbuck, Chinkara and Chausingha. The Nilgai is the largest and the Chausingha the smallest. 
• It has 12 species of deer, from the smallest Indian Mouse Deer to the largest Sambar. Hence Statement 3 is incorrect.