Ans: A

Exp:

• The Euclid space telescope released an image showing an area of a mosaic on October 15. 
• Statement 2 is not correct: Euclid is a European mission, built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), with support from NASA’s Roman Space Telescope. 
• NASA is assisting the Euclid mission by providing essential hardware for one of the spacecraft’s sensors, supporting the science team, and creating a Euclid data processing centre in the United States.

• Statement 1 is correct: It aims to explore the composition and evolution of the ‘dark’ Universe.
  • Further, it plans to  uncover the great cosmic mystery of dark matter and dark energy from the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.

Ans: B

Exp:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has maintained its global growth forecast for 2024 and 2025 at 3.2%, and kept India’s growth projections unchanged at 7% for FY25 and 6.5% for FY26 in its October 2024 World Economic Outlook.

• Statement 1 is not correct: World Economic Outlook (WEO) is a flagship publication of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
• Statement 2 is correct: According to the latest forecast, the world’s largest economy is now poised to grow at 2.8% in 2024 and 2.2% in 2025, against 2.6% and 1.9% forecast for the same periods in the July outlook. 
  • Meanwhile, the IMF expects China’s economy to grow at 4.8% in 2024 and 4.5% in 2025.
• Statement 3 is correct: In India, the outlook is for GDP growth to moderate from 8.2% in 2023 (FY24) to 7% in 2024 (FY25) and 6.5% in 2025 (FY26) because pent-up demand accumulated during the pandemic has been exhausted, as the economy reconnects with its potential.
• The IMF’s overall forecast for emerging markets and developing economies remained stable for the next two years in its latest outlook, hovering around 4.2% and steadying at 3.9% by 2029.

Ans: C
Exp: 

Statement 1 is correct: The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body in January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990

Statement 2 is correct: The Commission shall consist of: 

• A Chairperson, committed to the cause of women, to be nominated by the Central Government.

• five Members to be nominated by the Central Government from amongst persons of ability, integrity and standing who have had experience in law or legislation, trade unionism, management of an industry potential of women, women’s voluntary organisations ( including women activist ), administration, economic development, health, education or social welfare;  
• a Member-Secretary to be nominated by the Central Government who shall be:
  • an expert in the field of management, organisational structure or sociological movement, or
  • an officer who is a member of a civil service of the Union or of an all-India service or holds a civil post under the Union with appropriate experience.

Ans: B

Exp:

India and Pakistan have decided to extend the validity of the agreement on the Sri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor by five years to ensure “uninterrupted” travel for Indian pilgrims to the holy Gurdwara in Pakistan.

Agreement, signed on 24 October 2019, was established to facilitate pilgrimages from India to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Narowal, Pakistan, via the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor.

About Kartarpur Corridor

• Statement 1 is not correct: The Kartarpur Corridor is located on the Ravi River, which is one of the rivers of the Indus System.
  • It Connects  Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Punjab.
• Statement 2 is Correct: it was built to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev on November 12, 2019.
• Statement 3 is correct:  The idea of the organised Langar , or communal kitchen where rich and poor alike of all faiths can come together to cook, serve and eat a meal, which is a distinctive tradition of the Sikh faith, is believed to have been started here.
  

Protocol on Visits to Religious Shrines → Pilgrimages between India and Pakistan are governed by the 1974 Protocol on visits to Religious Shrines, which includes a list of shrines in Pakistan and India open for visitors from the other country → For which visas are required

Kartarpur Corridor provides visa-free access from India to the shrine inside Pakistan → Indian pilgrims need only a permit to cross into Pakistan.

Ans: B

Exp:

Recently, researchers took a closer look at the first brown dwarf discovered and found that it’s actually two brown dwarfs orbiting astonishingly close to each other while also circling a small star. The research papers were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

• Brown dwarfs are more massive than planets but not quite as massive as stars. Generally speaking, they have between 13 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter. 
• Brown dwarfs can have clouds made of precipitates in their atmospheres. 
  • Unlike Earth’s water clouds,  Clouds on brown dwarfs are much hotter and likely composed of hot silicate particles.
• Statement 1 is not Correct: A brown dwarf becomes a star if its core pressure gets high enough to start nuclear fusion.
•  Statement 2 is Correct: They are called failed stars because they’re lighter than stars, but heavier than gas giant planets.