Ans: B

Exp:

India advocates for flexibility in existing WTO agreements in the 13th Ministerial Conference of WTO held in Abu Dhabi.

Statement 1 is correct: The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organisation dealing with the rules of trade between nations. 

• The Marrakesh Agreement signed in 1994 marked the culmination of the 8-year-long Uruguay Round and established the World Trade Organization (WTO), which officially came into being on January 1, 1995.

Statement 2 is correct: WTO is not a UN specialised agency. However, it has maintained strong relations with the United Nations and its agencies since its establishment.

Statement 3 is incorrect: The Ministerial Conference (not General Council) is the highest decision making body of the WTO. 

• The MInisterial Conference usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions. 
• The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.

Ans: C

Exp:

Continuing with a longstanding policy, China has signed agreements with two zoos in the United States and Spain on panda conservation.

Statement 1 is correct: China has used pandas as a modern diplomacy tool since the 1950s, to soften its image on the global stage and strengthen ties with other countries.

• Panda diplomacy is a part of their Cultural diplomacy.

• Cultural diplomacy is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding.

Statement 2 is correct: Panda diplomacy refers to the practice of the Chinese government gifting or loaning giant pandas to other countries as a symbol of friendship, goodwill, or to strengthen diplomatic relations. 

• Example- China’s Nationalist party, which sought to ally with the United States against Japanese aggression during the Second World War, gifted the US a pair of pandas in 1941.

Ans: A

Exp:

Statement 1 is incorrect: The project for anaemia control under Mission Utkarsh will be a joint public health initiative by the Ministries of Ayush and Women and Child Development. 

• The project would be launched in five aspirational districts first as a pilot project.

Statement 2 is correct: Under this Mission Utkarsh program, over 94,000 adolescent girls between the age group of 14-18 years registered under Poshan Tracker at approximately 10,000 Anganwadi Centres will be benefited in the 12 months period of the program. 

• The coordinating agency for the project will be the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS). 
• The districts to be covered include; Dhubri, Bastar, Paschimi Singhbhum, Gadchiroli and Dhoulpur from the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Rajasthan respectively.

Ans: D

Exp:

‘Bitcoin Halving’ refers to the 50% reduction in the reward paid to Bitcoin miners who successfully process other people’s cryptocurrency transactions so that they can be added to the public digital ledger known as the blockchain.

• The Bitcoin halving is significant because it reduces the rewards for mining Bitcoin by half, making it more scarce and valuable.
• Bitcoin mining increases the supply of BTC in circulation while the Bitcoin Halving reduces the rate at which these coins are released, making the asset more scarce.
• Scarcity is a predominant factor for pushing up the prices of bitcoin.

Ans: A

Exp:

Prime Minister pays tributes to Veer Savarkar on his Punya Tithi. 

Statement 1 is correct: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, commonly known as Swatantryaveer Savarkar was an Indian independence activist and politician who formulated the Hindu nationalist philosophy of Hindutva. 

• He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha and was the president of Hindu Mahasabha from 1937 to 1943.
• He coined the term “Hindutva” and wrote his famous ideological treatise, “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?”

Statement 2 is incorrect: He founded a secret society called Abhinav Bharat Society (not Anushilan Samiti). It was initially founded as Mitra Mela at Nasik. 

• The society was associated with several revolutionaries and political activists with branches in various parts of India and London.
• Savarkar went to London and  founded the ‘Free India Society’, based on the ideas of the Italian nationalist Giuseppe Mazzini.
• Anushilan Samiti was an underground secret society in Bengal for anti-British revolutionaries.

Statement 3 is correct: He wrote a book titled ‘The History of the War of Indian Independence’.

• He was the first person who referred to the 1857 mutiny as “A War of Independence”