Ans: C

Exp:

Statement 1 is correct: NAMASTE stands for National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem.

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and Social Justice & Empowerment jointly undertakes the scheme. It aims to eradicate unsafe sewer and septic tank cleaning practices.
• It provides a human-centric approach where no sanitation workers have to manually engage in the hazardous task of sewer and septic tank cleaning operations. 

Statement 2 is correct: National Safai Karamchari Financial Development Corporation (NSKFDC) would be the implementing agency for NAMASTE for a period of three years from FY 2023-24 to FY 2025-26, with a budget allocation of 349.73 crores.

• The intended outcomes of the NAMASTE scheme include zero fatalities in sanitation work, formalisation and skilling of sanitation workers, elimination of direct contact with human faecal matter, access to alternate livelihood options, and occupational safety training to all sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs) etc.

Ans: D

Exp:

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the ‘India AI mission’ with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore for five years, to give a further push for Artificial Intelligence in India.

Statement 1 is incorrect:  The India AI Mission will be implemented by ‘IndiaAI Independent Business Division (IBD) under Digital India Corporation (DIC).

• Digital India Corporation (DIC) is a Not-for-profit Company set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India, under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013. 
• Earlier the company was known as ‘Media Lab Asia’
• The National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) provides network backbone and e-governance support to Central Government, State Governments, UT Administrations, Districts and other Government bodies.

Statement 2 is incorrect: This mission is set to have eight components including IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre, and a dataset platform among others.

• IndiaAI Datasets Platform will streamline access to quality non-personal datasets for AI Innovation. 
• A unified data platform will be developed to provide a one-stop solution for seamless access to non-personal datasets to Indian Startups and Researchers.

Ans: A

Exp:

The Union Cabinet approved the continuation of a targeted subsidy of Rs.300 per 14.2 kg cylinder for up to 12 refills per year to be provided to the beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) during FY 2024-25.  

As of 1st March 2024, there are more than 10.27 crore PMUY beneficiaries.

Statement 1 is incorrect: The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) is aimed at providing LPG gas cylinders (not solar cooking stoves) to rural and deprived households.

Statement 2 is correct: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG), introduced the ‘Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana’ (PMUY).

• The release of LPG connection under this Scheme shall be in the name of the women of the household.
• The Applicants must have attained 18 years of age.
• PMUY is a flagship scheme with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households that were otherwise using traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc. 

Ans: C

Exp:

• Sweden formally joined NATO as its 32nd member, ending decades of post-World War II neutrality as concerns about Russian aggression in Europe have spiked following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
• The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an intergovernmental military alliance. It is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties.
• As of 8th March 2024, there are 32 NATO Members.
• Sweden, Estonia, Greece and Latvia are members of NATO.
• Switzerland and Ukraine are not NATO members.

Ans: B

Exp:

• A committee of 18 scientists have voted down a proposal to declare the start of the Anthropocene, or the “Human Epoch”, in geologic time.
• The Anthropocene defines Earth’s most recent geologic time period as being human-influenced, or anthropogenic, based on overwhelming global evidence that humans now alter atmospheric, geologic, hydrologic, biospheric and other earth system processes.
• The word combines the root “anthropo“, meaning “human” with the root “-cene”, the standard suffix for “epoch” in geologic time.
• Some scientists consider the Anthropocene to be distinguished as a new period either after or within the Holocene, the current epoch, which began with the end of the last glacial period.