QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 03 January 2017

Solution: d.

“Defined by the BJP as those who have risen from the category of the poor but are yet to stabilise in the middle class, the “neo middle class” figured prominently in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden Budget speech… Even as Jaitley announced a slew of measures targeted at poverty reduction, the acknowledgement of the new aspirational class, a product of the post-liberalisation era, indicated that the politics of freebies, hailed as welfare schemes by the previous governments, may have come to an end… While setting aside Rs 200 crore for credit enhancement facility for young start-up entrepreneurs belonging to the Scheduled Castes, he again referred to their aspiration “to be a part of the neo middle class”…”

IE 2014: ‘Neo middle class’ is the new ‘Aam aadmi’;

Improvisation: PM’s address to the nation on the eve of New Year;

Solution: c.

The app is based on the Unified (and not ‘United’) Payments Interface.

• Bharat Interface for Money or BHIM is a digital payments solution app based on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). If you have signed up for UPI based payments on your respective bank account, which is also linked to your mobile number, then you’ll be able to use the BHIM app to conduct digital transactions.
• BHIM is also supposed to support Aadhaar-based payments, where transactions will be possible just with a fingerprint impression, but that facility is yet to roll out.
• BHIM app is not a mobile wallet. In case of mobile wallets like Paytm or MobiKwik you store a limited amount of money on the app, that can only be sent to someone who is using the same wallet. Your friend, relative or even a merchant who you’re trying to pay doesn’t necessarily need to be on the BHIM app. All they need is a bank account to receive the payment. (BHIM also has options to transfer via IFSC, MMID as well for non-UPI banks).

IE: BHIM App for UPI-based payments – everything you need to know;

Solution: b.

• On the question of a split in a political party outside the legislature, Para 15 of the Symbols Order, 1968, states: “When the Commission is satisfied… that there are rival sections or groups of a recognised political party each of whom claims to be that party the Commission may, after taking into account all the available facts and circumstances of the case and hearing (their) representatives… and other persons as desire to be heard decide that one such rival section or group or none of such rival sections or groups is that recognised political party and the decision of the Commission shall be binding on all such rival sections or groups.”
• This applies to disputes in recognised national and state parties. For splits in registered but unrecognised parties, the EC usually advises the warring factions to resolve their differences internally or to approach the court.

IE: SP Feud: Who gets the symbol?;

Solution: c.

• …the Supreme Court ruled that “religion, race, caste, community or language would not be allowed to play any role in the electoral process” and that election of a candidate would be declared null and void if an appeal is made to seek votes on these considerations.
• By a 4-3 majority ruling, a seven-judge Constitution Bench held that an election will be annulled not only if votes are sought in the name of the religion of the candidate but also when such an appeal hinges on religion of voters or candidate’s election agents or by anybody else with the consent of the candidate.
• The third class will include religious and spiritual leaders, often engaged by candidates to mobilise their followers.
• Section 123(3) of the Act defines as “corrupt practice” appeals made by a candidate or his agents to vote or refrain from voting for any person on the ground of “his” religion, race, caste, community or language.
• What came up for interpretation before the Constitution Bench was the meaning of the term “his” since that would define whose religion it has to be when an appeal is made. Previous judgments handed out conflicting views and hence the question came up before the seven judges.
• In their majority view, four judges ruled in favour of a purposive interpretation, stating that “his” would mean religion of candidate, his agents, voters as well as any other person who, with the candidate’s consent, brings up religion in an appeal for the furtherance of the prospects of the election.
• The minority (numerically) judges dissented, holding that the expression “his” used in conjunction with religion, race, caste, community or language is in reference to the candidate, in whose favour the appeal to cast a vote is made, or that of a rival candidate when an appeal is made to refrain from voting for another.

India Kanoon: Section 123, RPA 1951;

IE: Can’t seek votes in name caste, religion;

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Solution: b.

Tech giant Google on Tuesday honoured social reformer Savitribai Phule on the occasion of her birth anniversary.

• Savitribai had many firsts to her credit — she was the first woman teacher of the first women’s school in India and a pioneer in modern Marathi poetry.
• Savitribai taught in the school which she and her husband, Jyotirao Phule, started in 1848 with just nine students on the rolls.
• Savitri set up a care centre for widows and even encouraged them to remarry. She also fought for the rights of the untouchables. When bubonic plague spread in Pune in 1897, Savitri and her son opened a clinic to treat the sick.
• The Government of Maharashtra has instituted an award in her name to honour women social reformers.

TH: Google Doodle pays tribute to social reformer;

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