Answer: A
Explanation:
● Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme with 100%
funding from Government of India.
● Aim : To augment the income of the farmers by providing income support to all landholding
farmers’ families across the country.
● The Scheme initially provided income support to all Small and Marginal Farmers’ families
across the country, holding cultivable land upto 2 hectares. Its ambit was later expanded
w.e.f. 01.06.2019 to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of
their land holdings.

● Under the Scheme an amount of Rs. 6000/- per year is transferred in three 4-monthly
installments of Rs. 2000/- directly into the bank accounts of the farmers, subject to certain
exclusion criteria relating to higher income status
● Eligibility : All landholder farmer’s families in the country are eligible for the PM-Kisan
Scheme subject to the prevalent exclusion criteria. Farmers who do not own any land are
not eligible for this scheme.
● Excluded from the scheme
o Institutional land holders,
o Farmer families holding constitutional posts,
o Serving or retired officers and employees of state/central government as well as
PSUs and government autonomous bodies.
o Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with
a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last
assessment year.

● Identification of beneficiaries : The responsibility of identifying the eligible beneficiary
farmers and uploading their data on the PM-KISAN portal lies entirely with the state
governments.

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Answer: B
Explanation
● The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest single structure humans ever put into
space.
● Statement 2 is correct: The ISS is in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) about 400 km to 420 km
above Earth's surface
● Its main construction was completed between 1998 and 2011, although the station
continually evolved to include new missions and experiments.
● Statement 1 is incorrect: The ISS includes contributions from 15 nations. NASA (United
States), Roscosmos (Russia) and the European Space Agency are the major partners of
the space station who contribute most of the funding; the other partners are the Japanese
Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
● The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew
members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology,
and other fields.
● The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS), which is
operated by Russia, and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by
many nations.

1. Which of the following statements is correct regarding windfall taxes?

Answer: B
Explanation
● Windfall taxes are designed to tax the profits a company derives from an external,
sometimes unprecedented event— for instance, the energy price-rise as a result of the
Russia-Ukraine conflict. Hence option B is the correct answer.
● These are profits that cannot be attributed to something the firm actively did, like an
investment strategy or an expansion of business.
● Governments typically levy a one-off tax retrospectively over and above the normal
rates of tax on such profits, called windfall tax.
● One area where such taxes have routinely been discussed is oil markets, where price
fluctuation leads to volatile or erratic profits for the industry.
● They are not necessarily permanent, applicable to all sectors uniformly, or restricted to
times of economic booms.

2. With reference to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI),
consider the following statements.
1. While the Wholesale Price Index keeps track of the wholesale price of goods, the CPI
measures the average price that households pay for a basket of different goods and services.
2. The WPI does not capture changes in the prices of services, which CPI does.

Answer: C
Explanation:
About CPI
● Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an index which measures the weighted average of prices of a
basket of consumer goods and services such as transportation, food and medical care.
● It is calculated by measuring price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of
goods and services and averaging them.
● It is released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation.
● The base year used to calculate CPI in India is 2011-2012.

WPI Vs CPI
● Statement 1 is correct: While the Wholesale Price Index keeps track of the wholesale price
of goods, the CPI measures the average price that households pay for a basket of different
goods and services.
● Statement 2 is correct: The CPI basket consists of services like housing, education,
medical care, recreation etc. which are not part of WPI basket. A significant proportion
of WPI item basket represents manufacturing inputs and intermediate goods like
minerals, basic metals, machinery etc. whose prices are influenced by global factors but
these are not directly consumed by the households and are not part of the CPI item
basket.
● Even as the WPI is used as a key measure of inflation in some economies, the RBI no longer
uses it for policy purposes. The central bank currently uses the Consumer Price Index as
a key measure of inflation to set the monetary and credit policy.
● Under the Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) framework, RBI aims to contain CPI based
inflation within 4 percent with a band of (+/-) 2 percent.

3. Consider the following statements about Nipah infection
1) It is a zoonotic disease.
2) Fruit bats are considered the natural reservoirs of the Nipah virus.
3) There are currently no drugs or vaccines specific for Nipah virus infection.

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Answer: C
Explanation
About Nipah infection
● It is a viral infection caused by the Nipah virus (NiV).
● Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural host of Nipah virus. Hence,
Statement 2 is correct.
● The disease was first identified in 1998 during an outbreak in Malaysia and it was named
after a village in Malaysia, Sungai Nipah. Later, Nipah outbreaks have been reported in
Singapore, Bangladesh and India.
● A study in 2018 has identified many South East Asian countries including Indian states
as potential hotspots for the NiV disease.
● NiV is on the top-10 priority list pathogens identified by the World Health Organization.
Transmission
● It is a zoonotic virus (transmitted from animals to humans) which can also be transmitted
through contaminated food or directly between people. Hence, Statement 1 is correct.
● Consumption of fruits or fruit products (such as raw date palm juice) contaminated
with urine or saliva from infected fruit bats is the most likely source of infection.
● In infected people, it causes a range of illnesses from asymptomatic (subclinical) infection
to acute respiratory illness and fatal encephalitis.
● The virus can also cause severe disease in animals such as pigs, resulting in significant
economic losses for farmers.
Treatment

● Statement 3 is correct: There are currently no drugs or vaccines specific for Nipah virus
infection.
● The primary treatment for humans is supportive care.
● Preventing the Nipah virus involves infection control measures like using protective
equipment, disinfecting surfaces, and avoiding sick animals or areas with known Nipah
virus outbreaks.

4. Which of the following issues has been a point of contention in the Demchok and Despang
areas?

Answer: B
Explanation
● Demchok and Despang are areas in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control that have been
points of contention between India and China due to territorial claims and border disputes.

5. The central bank currently uses which of the indicators to set the monetary and credit
policy in India?

Answer: A
Explanation:
● The Reserve Bank of India currently uses Consumer Price Index (CPI) to set the monetary
and credit policy in India.