Today in History (May 7^th, 1861)

Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861. He was born in Kolkata on May 7, 1861. He was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his collection of poems, Gitanjali.

Let’s revise

A) Which player has been suspended by NADA for doping test?

1. Bajrang Punia
2. PT Usha
3. Sakshi Malik
4. Brajbhushan singh

Ans. (a)

B) Mullaperiyar dam is located in which state?

1. Tamil Nadu
2. Kerala
3. Karnataka
4. Maharashtra

Ans. (b)

C) Mullaperiyar dam is located on which one of the following hills?

1. Vindhya range
2. Cardamom hills
3. Eastern Ghats
4. None of the above

Ans. (b)

D) Which one of the following hills is known for meeting place of the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats?

1. Nilgiri Hills
2. Agastya hills
3. Vindhya range
4. Garo hills

Ans. (a)

E) The first Indian Defence University has been established in___________

1. Jaipur
2. Gurugram
3. New Delhi
4. Kanpur

Ans. (b)

F) Chloropicrin was recently in news, it is _______

1. New rifle for Indian Army
2. An Operation by Indian Army in Kashmir
3. A chemical agent used in wars
4. A medicine to treat blood cancer

Ans. (c)

G) Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has its headquarters in______

1. New York
2. The Hague, Netherlands
3. London
4. Paris

Ans. (b)

H)________is referred to as the spice garden of India as it has a variety of spices and is popular in the entire world.

1. Kerala
2. Karnataka
3. Rajasthan
4. Bihar

Ans. (a)

Summary of Today’s News

Hamas accepts ceasefire proposal by Egypt, Qatar

• Hamas announced on Monday it has accepted a proposal from Egypt and Qatar.
• The proposal is for a ceasefire to halt the seven-month-long war with Israel in Gaza.
• But after few hours Israel ordered 1,00,000 Palestinians to begin evacuating from the southern city of Rafah.
• That is signaling a long-promised imminent ground invasion.
• However there was no immediate comment from Israel on the deal. The details of the proposal have not yet been released. In recent days, Egyptian and Hamas officials have said the ceasefire would take place in a series of stages during which Hamas would release hostages it is holding in exchange for Israeli troop pullbacks from Gaza.
Is it End to war?
It is not clear whether the deal will an end to the war and complete Israeli withdrawal. Hamas said in a statement that its top leader, Ismail Haniyeh, had delivered the news in a phone call with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Egypt’s Intelligence Minister. After this news Palestinians are happy and expecting peace.
Aid agencies have warned that an offensive will worsen Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe and bring a surge of more civilian deaths in an Israeli campaign that in nearly seven months has killed 34,000 people and devastated the territory.
But it is a challenge for Israel and USA.

NIA probe against Kejriwal over alleged funding from SFJ

• Delhi Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena has recommended a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
• This recommendation is on a complaint made by the World Hindu Federation-India (WHF-I).
• This complaint alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) received political funding from the banned organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’ (SFJ).
• AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “This is another big conspiracy against Mr. Kejriwal at the behest of the BJP.” The BJP was in panic due to fear of losing all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, he added.
• Sources in Raj Niwas said according to the WHF-I complaint Mr. Kejriwal had allegedly received $16 million from extremist groups for espousing “pro-Khalistan” sentiments.
• World Hindu Federation-India (WHF-I) referred to a video released by the U.S.-based pro-Khalistan advocate and SFJ chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in which he claimed AAP received the money between 2014 and 2022.
• It has been alleged that Mr. Kejriwal held closed-door meetings with pro-Khalistan leaders.
• This meeting was held at the Richmond Hills Gurdwara in New York during his visit in 2014.
• During this meeting Kejriwal promised to facilitate the release of convicted terrorist Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar in return for substantial financial backing, Raj Niwas sources said.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA)

• It is the body responsible for selecting athletes to represent India & managing the Indian teams at the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, and other international athletic meets.
• It was founded in 1927 with Sir Dorabjee Tata and Dr. A.G. Noehren.
• It is registered as a Non-Profit Organisation under the Societies Registration Act of 1860
• It plays with the name of Team India & is an affiliated member of the International Olympic Committee.
• Structure: A 32-member Executive Council, headed by President and assisted by different Standing Committees that includes subject-field experts for effective governance. The election for the Executive Council is held once in every 4 years.
• Current President of Indian Olympic Association is PT Usha
• PT Usha is the first woman President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

ED seizes 20 crore in Jharkhand

• The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday recovered ₹20 crore of “unaccounted-for cash” and some jewellery.
• It was from the premises of the domestic help of Sanjiv Lal.
• He is personal secretary to Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Alamgir Alam.
• Sources said that during questioning, Jahangir Alam — the domestic help — confessed that the money belonged to Mr. Lal.
• As the cash amount was considerable, the ED was forced to employ a counting machine to wade through the notes.
• The opposition said that the Congress loves cash, and they have stolen the hard-earned money of the people of Jharkhand.
• In the past four-and-a-half years, the JMM-Congress combine along with the RJD have looted Jharkhand and made it Lootkhand.
• Opposition blamed that the ruling government wanted to misuse the money in the ongoing election.
• The minister said that we should wait for the results of investigation for any comment

IS ‘supporter got bail in UAPA case from Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court granted bail to a person. He was an alleged Islamic State (IS) supporter. The charges were under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
The High Court said that only his “fascination” with the banned terrorist organisation cannot be dubbed as his association with it.
The Bench said that Ammar Abdul Rahiman was highly radicalised and had downloaded pro-IS material and was accessing sermons of Muslim hardliners but that would not be enough to attract Section 38 [offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation] and 39 [offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation] of the UAPA.
The Bench said there was nothing to indicate that Mr. Rahiman made any endeavour to further disseminate the material. “Merely because the mobile device of the appellant was found carrying incriminating material, including photographs of terrorist Osama bin Laden, jihad promotion, IS flags, etc. and he was also accessing lectures of hardliner/Muslim preachers would not be enough to brand him as a member of such terrorist organisation, much less his being acting in furtherance of its cause,” the court said.
“Any curious mind can access and even download such content. That act by itself, to us, appears to be no crime,” the Bench said, allowing him bail.