Ans: A

Exp:

Why in news?

• India is set to acquire five lithium blocks in Argentina spotted by KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Ltd.)

About Lithium Triangle:

• Latin America is the region of the world with the largest amount of lithium. Its so-called Lithium Triangle will inevitably become the nexus for the coveted mineral, which is often referred to as ‘white gold’. The Lithium Triangle is a lithium-rich region in the Andean southwest corner of South America, spanning the borders of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile and forming a geographic triangle of lithium resources underneath their salt flats. Approximately 58 percent of the world’s lithium resources are found in these three countries, according to the 2021 USGS Mineral Commodity Summary. Of the world’s 86 million tons of identified lithium resources, Bolivia possesses 21 million tons, followed by Argentina with 19.3 million tons and Chile with 9.6 million tons. While Chile has successfully transformed the majority of its available resources into economically viable reserves available for commercial production, Argentina and Bolivia have thus far failed to do so, largely due to unfavourable investment climates and more challenging geographic conditions.

Ans: B

Exp:

Why in the news?

• Britain will deploy a naval ship off Guyana later this month, its ministry of defence said on Sunday, as the South American nation faces a border dispute with neighbour Venezuela over the oil-rich Essequibo region.

About the Essequibo region:

• Around 160,000 square km (62,000-square-mile) Essequibo region is generally recognised as part of Guyana, but in recent years Venezuela has revived its claim to the territory and to offshore areas after major oil and gas discoveries.  Essequibo has been under the authority of Guyana – and before it, British Guiana – for more than a century, but Venezuela has long sought to control it. The discovery of oil in waters off Essequibo’s coast in 2015 helped fire up the current dispute. Tensions increased further in September this year when Guyana held an auction for exploration licenses in those waters. Guyana’s wealth is mostly based on oil production and exports, which has made its economy one of the fastest-growing economies in the world in recent years.

Ans: A

Exp:

Why in the news?

• The Veerashaiva Mahasabha has asked its community members not to describe themselves as Hindu in the forthcoming population census or caste census.
  • Statement 1 is correct:  The Lingayat sect was founded by Basava in the 12th century. Philosophically, their qualified monism and their conception of bhakti (devotion) as an intuitive and loving knowledge of God show the influence of the 11th–12th-century thinker Ramanuja. It is in their ritual and social observances that their split with traditional Brahmanical Hinduism is most apparent.
  • Statement 2 is incorrect: Lingayats are members of a Hindu sect with a wide following in southern India who worship Shiva as the only deity. The followers take their name (“lingam-wearers”) from the small representations of a lingam, a votary object symbolising Shiva, which both the men and the women always wear hanging by a cord around their necks, in place of the sacred thread worn by most upper-caste Hindu men.
  • Statement 3 is incorrect: The Lingayat’s earlier overthrow of caste distinctions has been modified in modern times, but the sect continues to be strongly anti-Brahmanical and opposed to the worship of any image other than the lingam. They rejected the: 
    • Authority of the Vedas
    • Doctrine of transmigration of souls
    • Child marriage
    • The ill treatment of widows.
  • In the early 21st century, some Lingayats began to call for legal recognition by the Indian government as a religion distinct from Hinduism or, alternatively, as a caste within Hinduism.

Ans: C

Exp:

Why in the news?

• Bangladesh’s willingness to join China-backed trade bloc Regional Comprehensive and Economic Partnership (RCEP) has made India wary, with New Delhi evaluating the possible implications before starting free-trade agreement (FTA) talks with Dhaka, people aware of the matter said.

About Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP):

• The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed on the sidelines of the mostly online ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) conference this weekend. It includes the:
  • 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
  • China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. 
• The members make up nearly a third of the world’s population and account for 29% of global gross domestic product. The new free trade zone will be bigger than both the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the European Union. India was also part of the negotiations but pulled out last year over concerns that lower tariffs could hurt local producers.

RCEP is expected to eliminate a range of tariffs on imports within 20 years. It also includes provisions on intellectual property, telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, and professional services.

Ans: D

Exp:

Why in the news?

• On the occasion of the 162nd birth anniversary of Mahamana Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will release the first series of 11 volumes of ‘Collected Works of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya’ in a programme organised at Vigyan Bhawan. 

About Madan Mohan Malaviya:

• Madan Mohan Malaviya was an Indian scholar, educational reformer, and a leader of the Indian nationalist movement. He was attracted to politics and made his political debut at the 1886 Calcutta (Kolkata) session of the Indian National Congress. Malaviya helped establish the Hindu Mahasabha (“Great Society of Hindus”) in 1906, which brought diverse local Hindu nationalist movements together. Malaviya, who was keenly interested in uplifting the educational standards of the country, was the principal founder in 1916 of the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, a premier institution of learning in India. He served as the university’s vice-chancellor for some two decades (1919–38) and remained active at the school until his death. Malaviya’s consciousness toward the public led to the launch of his own Hindi-language weekly- the Abhyudaya (1907), the Leader of Allahabad- an English-language daily (1909), and the Hindi monthly- Maryada (1910). In addition, he was chairman of the board of directors of the Hindustan Times from 1924 until he died.