Daily Current Affairs Quiz Prelims Practice 2027
- The handbook was prepared by an Expert Committee constituted by the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, under the chairpersonship of Justice (Retd.) Aniruddha Bose.
- Section 53A of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 bars the admission of a victim's sexual history as evidence on the question of consent.
- The handbook directs that the term 'prosecutrix' be replaced with 'accused' in all survivor-related judicial writing.
- The Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 was approved by the Supreme Court of India.
Statements 1, 2 and 4 are correct. The Expert Committee was chaired by Justice (Retd.) Aniruddha Bose and constituted by NJA Bhopal on the Court's direction. Section 53A bars admitting a victim's prior sexual history as evidence on consent, continuing the position under the amended Indian Evidence Act. The Witness Protection Scheme, 2018 was approved by the Supreme Court in Mahender Chawla v. Union of India (2018). Statement 3 is incorrect — the handbook directs that "prosecutrix" be replaced with "survivor" or "complainant," not "accused," which refers to the perpetrator, not the victim.
Reason (R): The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act, 2020 introduced this restriction, and the Supreme Court upheld the 2020 Amendment in Noel Harper v. Union of India (2022).
Both A and R are correct, and R explains A. The sub-grant ban was not part of FCRA 2010 originally — it was introduced by the FCRA Amendment Act, 2020, which drastically restricted the FCRA regime. The Supreme Court upheld the 2020 Amendment in Noel Harper v. Union of India (2022), holding that receiving foreign funds is not a fundamental right, directly confirming the source and validity of the Assertion's restriction.
- Pakistan's nuclear deterrence capability forms a key strategic complement to Saudi Arabia's financial resources and Türkiye's conventional military strength under the Pact.
- The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was established in 1985 and includes all six Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf.
- The 2019 drone attacks on Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq and Khurais facilities temporarily disrupted approximately 5 percent of global oil supply.
Statements 1 and 3 are correct. Analysts describe the Mecca Pact as combining Saudi financial/energy power, Türkiye's NATO-grade conventional force, and Pakistan's nuclear deterrence as three complementary capabilities. The September 2019 Abqaiq/Khurais drone attacks knocked out roughly 5.7 million barrels per day, about 5% of global oil supply, the largest single disruption in oil market history. Statement 2 is incorrect — the GCC was established in 1981, not 1985; the six-Arab-monarchies description is accurate but the founding year is wrong.
- The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran and Oman and is approximately 35 kilometres wide at its narrowest point.
- Approximately 40 percent of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade and 20 percent of global oil trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz annually.
Both statements are correct. The Strait of Hormuz, separating Iran from the Oman peninsula, is roughly 33–39 km wide at its narrowest, with 35 km the standard cited figure. It carries about 20–21% of global petroleum liquids trade and 30–40% of global LNG trade annually (US EIA data), making it the world's most important oil chokepoint.
- A glueball is a hypothetical particle composed entirely of gluons, which are the carriers of the strong nuclear force.
- The glueball was confirmed at the Beijing Spectrometer III (BESIII) experiment by studying decays of J/ψ (J-psi) particles.
- Gluons, unlike photons, carry colour charge, which allows them to interact with each other and potentially form bound states without quarks.
- The Standard Model classifies gluons as fermions — the same category as quarks and electrons.
Statements 1, 2 and 3 are correct. Glueballs are QCD-predicted composite particles made entirely of gluons with no quarks, and X(2370) has now been experimentally confirmed at BESIII, which studied over 10 billion J/ψ decays to characterise it. Gluons carry colour charge, unlike photons, enabling gluon-gluon self-interaction that makes glueball formation theoretically possible. Statement 4 is incorrect — gluons are bosons (force carriers), not fermions; fermions include quarks, electrons, and other matter particles.
The flavour-singlet nature of X(2370) is the experimental smoking gun for its glueball identity. Hadrons composed of quarks carry detectable quark flavour signatures (up, down, strange, charm, bottom, top), whereas a flavour-singlet particle has none — flavour-neutral, meaning it cannot be built from quarks, the defining property of a glueball. Option (A) confuses flavour with mass; option (C) confuses flavour symmetry with colour symmetry; option (D) confuses colour singlet (a requirement for all observable hadrons) with colour charge.
- The study found that glaciers in the Zanskar region are moving more slowly than they did 30 years ago, with average surface velocity declining by 2.4 metres per year per decade.
- The Zanskar region receives most of its snowfall from the Indian summer monsoon, unlike the eastern Himalaya which depends on mid-latitude westerly disturbances.
- The 'peak water' concept refers to the point at which a glacier's meltwater contribution to river flows reaches its maximum before declining as glacier mass diminishes.
Statements 1 and 3 are correct. The Cryosphere study, covering 12 Zanskar Himalaya glaciers over 1992–2023, found average flow velocity declining by 2.4 m/year per decade, caused by thinning ice exerting less driving stress. "Peak water" is the scientific term for maximum meltwater discharge from a shrinking glacier, after which flows decline as ice mass is lost. Statement 2 is incorrect and reversed — Zanskar (eastern Ladakh) receives most snowfall from mid-latitude westerly disturbances in winter, not the summer monsoon, which instead dominates the eastern Himalaya (Arunachal, Sikkim).
- The Treaty was brokered by the World Bank and grants India exclusive use rights over the three eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.
- Under the Treaty, Pakistan has exclusive rights over the three western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
- The Treaty contains no mechanism for modification or exit, making it legally permanent and not subject to any renegotiation.
Statements 1 and 2 are correct. The IWT, 1960 was brokered by the World Bank, giving India unrestricted rights over the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) and Pakistan exclusive use rights over the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab), subject to limited non-consumptive Indian use. Statement 3 is incorrect — Article XII provides for modification by a duly ratified treaty between both parties, the Permanent Indus Commission meets annually, and India invoked Article XII in January 2023 to seek modification, directly contradicting the "no mechanism, legally permanent" claim.
Assertion (A): Section 14 of the Tribunal Reforms Bill, 2026 leaves the qualifications, manner of selection and service conditions of tribunal members to future executive rules rather than specifying them in the legislation itself.
Reason (R): In Rojer Mathew v. Union of India (2019), Justice Deepak Gupta held that defining who is qualified to exercise judicial power is an essential legislative function that cannot be delegated to the rule-making executive.
Both A and R are correct, and R is the correct explanation. Section 14 of the 2026 Bill delegates qualifications, selection manner, salaries, and service conditions to future executive rules, a widely criticised provision. In Rojer Mathew v. Union of India (2019), Justice Deepak Gupta's concurring opinion held that determining who is qualified to exercise judicial power is an essential legislative function, not delegable to the executive — precisely why Section 14's delegation is constitutionally vulnerable.
Option (A) is correct — the ICTP Dirac Medal is awarded by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, a UNESCO-affiliated institute, on 8 August (Dirac's birthday), recognising outstanding contributions to theoretical physics not yet honoured by a Nobel Prize; Deepak Dhar (IISER Pune) is India's second recipient after Ashoke Sen (2012). Option (B) is wrong — the Nobel Prize is awarded separately by the Royal Swedish Academy, not equivalent to the Dirac Medal. Option (C) is wrong — IUPAP co-awards it, but for theoretical, not applied, physics, with a different prize amount. Option (D) is wrong — it is not an NSF award and isn't limited to Indian-origin scientists.
