Ans: D

Exp:

The President of India recently launched India’s first home-grown gene therapy for cancer at IIT Bombay. CAR-T cell therapy is considered one of the most phenomenal advances in medical science. 

Statement 1 is correct: CAR stands for chimeric antigen receptor. CAR T cell therapy involves collecting T cells from a patient’s blood and genetically engineering them to produce special called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) on their surface. In contrast to general immunotherapies that boost the overall immune system, CAR T cell therapy involves engineering a patient’s immune cells to attack their cancer specifically.

Statement 2 is correct: CAR T cell therapies have mostly been successful against blood cancers, with limited efficacy seen so far against solid tumours. Additional bioengineering strategies are being explored to improve solid tumour treatments.

Statement 3 is correct: Severe toxicities like cytokine release syndrome and neurological issues can occur in some patients after CAR T cell infusion, although usually manageable. 

Ans: A

Exp:

Recently, the Strategic Forces Command (SFC), along with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), conducted the successful flight test of the New Generation Ballistic Missile Agni-Prime. 

Statement 1 is incorrect. Agni-P is a two-stage, surface-to-surface, road-mobile, and solid-fueled missile launched via a canister, providing operational flexibility and ease of transport.

Statement 2 is correct: Agni-P is the latest and sixth variant of the Agni series missiles (under IGMDP – Integrated Guided Missile Development Program).

Statement 3 is correct: Agni-P features a manoeuvrable reentry vehicle (MaRV) for precisely delivering warheads to multiple locations.

Statement 4 is correct: The project collaborates with the Strategic Forces Command and Defence Research and Development Organisation. 

Ans: D

Exp:

Recently, the prevalence and significance of superficial fakes during elections have sparked alarm.

Statement 1 is incorrect: Shallow fakes or cheap fakes are pictures, videos, and voice clips created without the help of AI technology but by either editing or using other simple software tools. Shallow fake videos are manually altered or selectively edited. They can be created easily; in some cases, it can be just a clipped video shared without any context.

Meanwhile, Deepfakes describe photorealistic and audio-realistic images and video and audio created or manipulated with artificial intelligence to deceive. 

Statement 2 is incorrect: Shallow or cheap fakes are made with existing traditional technologies—for example, a conventional edit on a photo, slowing down a video to change an individual’s speech patterns, or more often relying on mis-captioning or mis-contextualising an existing image or video, claiming it is from a time or place it is not from. 

Ans: A

Exp:

The Supreme Court was recently asked whether states can regulate industrial alcohol or whether the Centre exercises exclusive control on the subject.

Statement 1 is correct: The Parliament under  Entry 52 List I ( Industries controlled by the Union in Public Interest) has the exclusive legislative power to levy an excise duty on alcohol not fit for human consumption but meant for industrial use, whereas Entry 8 in the State List under the Seventh Schedule gives states the power to legislate on the production, manufacture, possession, transport, purchase and sale of “intoxicating liquors”. 

Statement 2 is incorrect. Extra-neutral alcohol intended for industrial purposes remains under the GST, attracting an 18 per cent levy. 

ENA, like ethanol, is a byproduct of the sugar industry derived from molasses produced during sugarcane processing.

•  It is a key element in the production of cosmetics and personal care items, such as perfumes, toiletries, and hair sprays. 
• Given its solvent qualities, it is also used in manufacturing lacquers, paints, and ink for the printing industry, as well as pharmaceutical items such as antiseptics, medicines, syrups, and medicated sprays.

Ans: C

Exp:

Recently, the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) was allotted a new common symbol (Mike).

Statement 1 is incorrect: The Election Commission can identify political parties and assign symbols according to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. A political party is assigned a standard emblem known as an electoral or election symbol. 

• It was suggested in the 1960s that the Symbol Order, a statute of Parliament, be used to regulate, reserve, and allot election emblems.
• In response to this suggestion, the ECI declared that the allotment of symbols and the recognition of political parties are subject to the terms of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

Statement 2 is correct: If a party is recognised as a `National Party’, it is entitled to exclusive allotment of its reserved symbol to the candidates set up throughout India.

Statement 3 is correct: The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 prohibits parties from using emblems with religious or community implications. While hearing the dispute between the two Shiv Sena factions in October, the ECI prohibited them from using the ‘Trishul’ (trident) sign due to its religious undertones.

Statement 4 is correct: Rule 10B of the Symbols Order provides that the concession of a common free symbol shall be available to a ‘registered unrecognised party’ for two general elections. Furthermore, a party shall be eligible for a common symbol in any subsequent general election if it had secured at least 1% of votes polled in the State on the previous occasion when the party availed of this facility.