ANSWER: A

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: C

• As per the Home Ministry, cyber reporting system saved Rs 570 crore from fraudsters.
• The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, has been launched for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off of funds by the fraudsters.
• It has been launched under Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).
  • I4C is under the purview of Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It leverages new-age technologies for sharing online fraud related information and taking action in almost real time.
• CFCFRMS aims to integrate Law Enforcement Agencies and Banks and Financial Intermediaries.
• It is integrated with Helpline no. 155260, which is manned and operated by the concerned State Police.

ANSWER: D

• The NCI has declined 238.3 points in May 2022 to 157.7 in May 2023.
• The decline indicates a strong supply of coal in the market, with sufficient availability to meet the growing demands.
• Similarly, NCI for non-coking coal declined 34.3% on year to 147.5 points in May.
  • Non-coking coal is mainly used in thermal plants for power generation due to its inherent lack of caking properties.

ABOUT NATIONAL COAL INDEX (NCI)

• It is released by the Ministry of Coal every month.
• The National Coal Index combines coal prices from all sales channels, including notified prices, auction prices and import prices.
• Established with the base year as fiscal year 2017-18, it serves as a reliable indicator of market dynamics, providing valuable insights into coal price fluctuations.

ANSWER: C

• UNESCO recently released the Global Education Monitoring Report, 2023.
• The report has been titled “Technology in education: a tool on whose terms?”

MAJOR FINDINGS

POSITIVES

• Digital technology has dramatically increased access to teaching and learning resources like digital libraries, educational portalsg National Digital Library of India.
• Technology in Education such as radio and mobile phones, has opened up opportunities for hard-to-reach populations.
• Online learning became a lifeline for almost 1 billion students during the COVID-19 school closures.
• Technology has opened up opportunities for learners with disabilities by reducing barriers to learning.
• Digital literacy and critical thinking are now increasingly important, particularly with the growth of generative AI.

NEGATIVES

• It showed that higher screen time was associated with poorer well-being; less curiosity, self-control and emotional stability; higher anxiety; and depression diagnoses”.
• It highlighted that “mere proximity to a mobile device was found to distract students and to have a negative impact on learning in 14 countries.”
• Access to the internet and digital devices remains highly unequal, especially in low-income and marginalized communities.
• Another major concern around the indiscriminate use of digital technology in education was children’s privacy.
• The Report has endorsed banning smartphones in schools.

ANSWER: D

• Markarian 421, a supermassive black hole, is firing powerful jets of high-energy particles directly towards our planet.
• The “blazar,” which is the name given to black hole systems that have jets pointed at Earth, is about 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
• Supermassive black holes that are active at the centres of galaxies (active galactic nuclei) are surrounded by “accretion disks” that feed them.
  • But not all the material in the accretion discs ends up being consumed by the black hole.
  • Some of it is channelled towards the black hole’s “poles” and blasted out at a speed near that of light.

ANSWER: B

• Tuvalu, the world’s least visited nation, is likely to disappear soon due to rising sea levels.
• Although the entire nation is coral atolls, the inhabitable stretches of land are maximum just 2 m above sea level.
• It’s an island country in the west-central Pacific Ocean, and sits around halfway between Hawaii and Australia.
• Tuvalu, formerly called the Ellice Islands, receives just more than two thousand tourists a year, has only one international airport.

 ANSWER: A

• A flood in the Sainj river has left many families homeless in Sainj under Banjar subdivision of Kullu district.The flooded river washed away 30 houses and 40 shops at Sainj on July 10, forcing residents to take refuge in temporary shelters.
• The V-shaped Sainj Valley rises from the lower ranges of the main Himalaya to the east of Kullu.
• The Sainj River flows past a series of interlocking spurs and widens as it travels southwest to join the River Beas at the small village of Larji.

ANSWER: D

• The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has given approval for setting up a world-class zoological park and a safari at Bankhandi in Kangra district.
• Around 195 hectares of forestland has already been demarcated for the park project and forest clearance will not be required for it.
• The proposal includes a tiger safari, besides bringing a host of other animals like various species of crocodiles.
• At present, there are only three zoos at Gopalpur in Kangra, Renukaji in Sirmaur and the Kufri Nature Park in Shimla.