Target Prelims 2021 Daily Quiz

02 Apr 2021

Q1. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. Political parties are allowed to have star campaigners for seeking votes in elections.
2. They are nominated by the Election Commission of India specifying their
constituencies and duration of the stay and expenses incurred.
3. The Election Commission has issued guidelines under the Model Code of Conduct
regulating poll campaign by them.
4. A recognised political party can have 40 star campaigners and a registered
unrecognised political party can have 20.

a. 1 and 2 only
b. 1, 2 and 3 only
c. 1, 3 and 4 only
d. 2, 3 and 4 only
Star Campaigner

• A star campaigner is a celebrity vote seeker in an election for a party.

• There is no law that defines who is a star campaigner. This person can be a politician
or even a film star.
• It is a status that political parties contesting an election give to certain big names
who the parties feel have more vote-fetching ability in the polls than others.
• There is no law governing who can or cannot be made a star campaigner. They are
nominated by the concerned political parties specifying their constituencies and
duration of the stay.
• Since political parties appoint star campaigners, the Election Commission has issued
guidelines under the Model Code of Conduct regulating poll campaign by them.
• A ‘recognised’ party declared as such by the Election Commission can nominate a
maximum of 40 star campaigners. An unrecognised political party can nominate a
maximum of 20 star campaigners.

Why political parties need a star campaigner?

• It has a lot to do with poll expenditure. The Election Commission keeps a tab on
expenditure incurred by individual candidates during campaign.
• Expenditure incurred on electioneering by the star campaigner is not added to a
candidate’s poll expenditure giving him/her more leeway. According to the
Representation of People’s Act, these expenses will be borne by the political parties.
• Terms and conditions apply:
• For an individual candidate to get a relief from campaign expenditure, the star
campaigner has to limit oneself to general campaigning for the party.
• If she/he shares the stage with a candidate, the entire campaign cost except
expenditure incurred on travelling will be added to the candidate’s election expenses.
• This applies even if the star campaigner seeks vote for the candidate taking his or
her name.
• If more than one candidates share the stage with the star campaigner, the expenditure
incurred on the rally will be shared equally by the contestants.
• If the candidates are not present but their posters or photographs have been displayed
in their constituencies where a star campaigner holds a poll rally, the entire expense
will be added to the election expenses of the contestants.
Q2. Which of the following led to the establishment of BIMSTEC?

a. Delhi Dialogue
b. Bangkok Declaration
c. Colombo Accord
d. Dhaka Declaration
BIMSTEC

• The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic

Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional multilateral organisation.
• It consists of 7 nations from South Asia and Southeast Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan,
India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.
• This organization came into being in 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration.
• Initially, it was formed with four Member States with the acronym ‘BIST-EC’
(Bangladesh, India, Sri-Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation).
• It became renamed ‘BIMST-EC’ in 1997, following the inclusion of Myanmar.
• With the admission of Nepal and Bhutan in 2004, the name of the grouping was
changed to ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic
Cooperation’ (BIMSTEC).
• Areas of Cooperation: Economic Co-operation, Trade and Investment, Connectivity,
Technology, Energy Education, Tourism, Fisheries, Agriculture and Cultural
Cooperation.
• Special Focus – Maritime Security, Counter Terrorism, Transnational Crime,
Environment and Climate Change, Disaster Management.
Q.3 Which of the following statements are correct?

1. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was

negotiated and signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.
2. It is focused on eliminating greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances and toxic
air pollutants.
 3. The Kyoto Protocol was the first implementation of measures under the UNFCCC
until it was superseded by the Paris Agreement.

a. 1 only
b. 1 and 2 only
c. 1 and 3 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

Q4. Which of the following statements are correct?

1. The Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is a government backed savings scheme targeted at

the parents of girl children.
2. The scheme encourages parents to build a fund for the future education and marriage
expenses for their female child.
3. It was launched in 2015 as a part of the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign.
 a. 2 only
b. 1 and 2 only
c. 1 and 3 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

PRELIMS (2018)

Q5. With reference to India’s satellite launch vehicle, consider the following
statements:

1. PSLVs launch the satellites useful for Earth resources monitoring whereas GSLVs
are designed mainly to launch communication satellites.
2. Satellites launched by PSLV appear to remain permanently fixed in the same
position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth.
 3. GSLV MK III is a four-staged launch vehicle with the first and third stages using
solid rocket motors; and the second and fourth stages using liquid rocket engines.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a. 1 only
b. 2 and 3
c. 1 and 2
d. 3 only

FACT OF THE DAY

Baikal-GVD (Gigaton Volume Detector)
• Last week, Russian scientists launched one of the world’s biggest underwater
neutrino telescopes called the Baikal-GVD (Gigaton Volume Detector) in the waters
of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake situated in Siberia.
• The construction of this telescope, which started in 2016, is motivated by the mission
to study in detail the elusive fundamental particles called neutrinos and to possibly
determine their sources.
• Studying this will aid scientists’ understanding of the origins of the universe since
some neutrinos were formed during the Big Bang, others continue to be formed as a
result of supernova explosions or because of nuclear reactions in the Sun.
• The Baikal-GVD is one of the three largest neutrino detectors in the world along
with the IceCube at the South Pole and ANTARES in the Mediterranean Sea.
• One way of detecting neutrinos is in water or ice, where neutrinos leave a flash of
light or a line of bubbles when they interact.
• To capture these signs, scientists have to build large detectors.
• An underwater telescope such as the GVD is designed to detect high-energy
neutrinos that may have come from the Earth’s core, or could have been produced
during nuclear reactions in the Sun.