• The Union Cabinet has approved the creation of the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) to give a major push for the creation of high-quality infrastructure in premier educational institutions.
• Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) is a joint venture of MHRD Government of India and Canara Bank for financing creation of capital assets in premier educational institutions in India as part of rising 2022 HEFA’s scope is greatly expanded to cover school education, educational institutes under Ministry of health etc.
• It would fund projects for infrastructure and development of world-class Labs in IITs/IIMs/NITs and such other institutions.
• The HEFA would also mobilise CSR funds from PSUs/Corporates, which would, in turn, be released for promoting research and innovation in these institutions on a grant basis.
• The HEFA would finance the civil and lab infrastructure projects through a 10-year loan.
• All the Centrally Funded Higher Educational Institutions would be eligible for joining as members of the HEFA.

• Indigo planting started in Bengal as early as 1777.
• It was first planted by Louis Bonard.
• When the British Power expanded, Indigo planting was emphasized because of the high demand for Blue Dye in Europe.
• The peasants were compelled to plant Indigo rather than food Crops.
• The peasants were provided loans called 'dadon' for indigo planting at a very high-interest rate.
• Indigo farmers received very low returns for their crops.
• The land under Indigo degraded for the cultivation of any further crop.
• The contract conditions under which Indigo planters kept the cultivators were harsh.
• The loan made the people indebted and resulted in a rebellion.

• Laurentian Climate or Cool Temperate Eastern Marine Climate is an Intermediate type of climate between the British Type Climate (moderate) and the Taiga Type Climate (extreme) of climate. Therefore, statement 1 is correct.
• It has features of both the maritime and the continental climates. Laurentian type of climate is found only in two regions and that too only in the northern hemisphere. Therefore, statement 2 is correct.
• North-eastern North America, including eastern Canada, north-east U.S.A., and Newfoundland.
• Eastern coastlands of Asia, including eastern Siberia, North China, Manchuria, Korea and northern Japan.
• It is Absent in Southern Hemisphere because In the southern hemisphere only a small section of continents extends south of 40°S latitude. Some of these small sections come under the rain-shadow region of Andes (Patagonia) and hence Westerlies hardly ever reach these regions. So these regions are subjected to aridity rather than continentality. In other regions, the oceanic influence is so profound that neither the continental nor the eastern margin type of climate exists.

• The Mediterranean climate, as the name suggests, is found along the west coast of the continents around the Mediterranean Sea and between 30° to 40° latitudes from the subtropics. The southeast and southwest coasts of central California, central Chile and Australia are examples of this. The most developed form of this type of climate is found in central Chile. Other Mediterranean regions include California (around San Francisco), the Southwestern region of Africa (near Cape Town), Southern Australia and Southwest Australia (Swanland).
• These areas come under the influence of subtropical high winds in summer and westerly winds in winter. Thus, hot and dry summers and mild and rainy winters are the characteristics of this climate.
• The average monthly temperature in summer is around 25°C and in winter it is less than 10°C. The annual rainfall is between 35 and 90 cm.

Hot Local Winds: Hot Local winds are produced generally by the mechanism of downslope compressional heating also known as adiabatic heating. The examples of the Hot Local Winds include Chinook, Harmattan, Foehn, Sirocco, Norwester, Brickfielder, Khamsin, Santa Ana, Loo etc. 

Cold Local Winds: Cold local winds are dust-laden winds and as they have a temperature below freezing point, they create Cold Wave condition. The examples of Cold Local winds include Mistral, Bora, Northers, Blizzard, Purga, Lavender, Pampero, Bise etc.

The Act of 1892 provided for the following:

It increased the number of additional (non-official) members in the Central and provincial legislative councils but maintained the official majority in them.

It increased the functions of legislative councils and gave them the power of discussing the budget and addressing questions to the executive.

It provided for the nomination of some non-official members of the:

• Central Legislative Council by the viceroy on the recommendation of the provincial legislative councils and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce, and
• that of the Provincial legislative councils by the Governors on the recommendation of the district boards, municipalities, universities, trade associations, zamindars and chambers.

Question Hour:

The first hour of every parliamentary sitting is slotted for the Question Hour.
However, in 2014 the Question Hour was shifted in the Rajya Sabha from 11 am to 12 noon.
Therefore, Rajya Sabha's first session starts with Zero Hour instead of Question Hour like the Lok Sabha. Therefore, Statement 1 is not correct.

• During this one hour, Members of Parliament (MPs) ask questions to ministers and hold them accountable for the functioning of their ministries.
• The questions can also be asked to the private members (MPs who are not ministers).

Zero Hour:

• Zero Hour is an Indian parliamentary innovation. It is not mentioned in the parliamentary rules book.
• Under this, MPs can raise matters without any prior notice.

Kinds of questions: 

There are three types of questions asked-

• Starred question (distinguished by an asterisk)- this requires an oral answer and so the supplementary questions can follow. Therefore, Statement 2 is not correct.
• Unstarred question- this requires a written answer and so the supplementary questions cannot follow.
• Short notice question is one that is asked by giving a notice of less than ten days. It is answered orally.

Poona Sarvajanik Sabha:

• It was established by MG Ranade in 1870.
• Ganesh Vasudeo was a prominent leader of the Sabha. So, statement 1 is not correct.
• It did not advocate radical reforms. So, statement 3 is not correct.
• It was a socio-political organization in British India that started with the aim of working as a mediating body between the government and the people of India. So, statement 2 is correct.
• It started as an elected body of 95 members elected by 6000 persons.
• The organization was a precursor to the Indian National Congress which started with its first session from Maharashtra itself.
• It provided many of the prominent leaders of national stature to the Indian freedom struggle including Bal Gangadhar Tilak.

• Green financing is to increase the level of financial flows (from banking, micro-credit, insurance and investment) from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors to sustainable development priorities.
• A key part of this is to better manage environmental and social risks, take up opportunities that bring both a decent rate of return and environmental benefit and deliver greater accountability.
• Green financing could be promoted through changes in countries’ regulatory frameworks, harmonizing public financial incentives, increases in green financing from different sectors, alignment of public sector financing decision-making with the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals, increases in investment in clean and green technologies, financing for sustainable natural resource-based green economies and climate-smart blue economy, increase use of green bonds, and so on.

The Arya Samaj:

• It is a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement.
• It promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas.
• It was founded by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati on 10 April 1875.
• Members of the Arya Samaj believe in one God and reject the worship of idols.
• It split into two in Punjab after 1893. So, statement 1 is correct.
• The split was on the question of eating meat. So, statement 3 is correct.
• The group that refrained from meat was called the Mahatma group and the one favoring the consumption of meat as the Cultured Party.