Answer: (B)
Explanation:
● Dr. M. S Swaminathan, the renowned agricultural scientist known as the Father of India’s Green Revolution, passed away at his residence in Chennai on September 28 at the age of 98. The Padma Vibhushan awardee was Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and headed the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. He was the first to get the World Food Prize and used the proceeds from the prize to establish the renowned MSSRF non-profit trust.
● Developing high yielding Basmati rice varieties, innovatively using the technology of mutation for various crops, application of genetics for increasing production and food security and launching programs such as “lab to land” were his major contributions to the country’s agriculture sector.

Answer: (D)
Explanation:
What is an Electoral Bond
An electoral bond is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India. The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his/her choice. The bonds are similar to bank notes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are free of interest. An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.
When are the bonds available for purchase?
The electoral bonds are available for purchase for 10 days in the beginning of every quarter. The first 10 days of January, April, July and October has been specified by the government for purchase of electoral bonds. An additional period of 30 days shall be specified by the government in the year of Lok Sabha elections.
Electoral bonds: Conditions
1. Any party that is registered under section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and has secured at least one per cent of the votes polled in the most recent General elections or Assembly elections is eligible to receive electoral bonds. The party will be allotted a verified account by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the electoral bond transactions can be made only through this account.

Answer: (A)
Explanation:
Gujarat has banned the planting of Conocarpus, a non-native tree. The exotic mangrove had been a popular choice for increasing the state’s green cover. Earlier Telangana also banned it.
Why has it been banned?
●Animals won’t eat its leaves
●Its pollen causes lung issues
●Its roots are damaging telecom lines
Eucalyptus in Kerala
●In Kerala’s case too, it was the British who introduced the Eucalyptus tree to Munnar, so its wood could be used as fuel in tea plantation boilers.
●The state forest department stopped the cultivation of acacia and eucalyptus in forest tracts in 2018.
Vilayati Kikar (Prosopsis) in Delhi
●In 2018, the Delhi government agreed to clear the capital’s green lungs, the Central Ridge, of the Vilayati Kikar.
●The Vilayati Kikar is not native to Delhi, and was brought to the city in the 1930s by the British.
●As the tree grows fast even in arid conditions, it can quickly increase the green cover of an area, and be used as firewood. However, it also kills off competition.

Answer: (A)
Explanation:
According to the ‘India Ageing Report 2023’, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), India’s one-fifth of population will comprise people above 60 by 2050. Further, by then of this century, the elderly will outstrip the number of children between zero and 14.
As per the report, there were 149 million persons aged 60 years and above in 2022 (as of 1 July), comprising around 10.5% of the country’s population. And, by 2050, this population will double to 20.8%, with the absolute number at 347 million. By the end of the century, the elderly will constitute over 36% of the total population of the country, the report predicted.
It leverages the latest data available from the Longitudinal Ageing Survey in India (LASI), 2017–18, Census of India, Population Projections by the Government of India (2011–2036) and World Population Prospects 2022 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs to provide an up-to-date perspective.