QUIZ – 2016: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 31st October & 01 November 2016

Solution: c.

The GRAPES-3 experiment at Ooty has the potential to provide information (on the basis of detecting muon outbursts) which can be used to provide early warnings of solar storms.

“The largest recorded solar storm in history is the Carrington event of 1859, which disrupted telegraph lines on earth for several hours. This storm caused Aurorae to be recorded even as far south as Florida State in the USA. If a storm of this magnitude should occur today, it would cripple all the VLSI-based communication systems, smart devices, mobile phones, computer networks and satellites, causing chaos. Therefore, detecting such muon bursts could serve as an early warning in the case of a superstorm.”

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indian-muon-trackers-get-a-handle-on-solar-storms/article9281700.ece

Solution: c.

• “…Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately. NASA is clear that “even at their worst, the Sun’s flares are not physically capable of destroying Earth”….”
• Unlike when in ordinary circumstances auroras are visible close only to the north and south poles, it will trigger auroras worldwide.
• All satellites in low orbits, including manned stations like the ISS and China’s Tiangong-1, could get dragged back down to Earth. After a big solar event, the extra energy from the Sun swells the Earth’s atmosphere, pushing it higher into orbit and thickening the air. The furthest atoms out, they actually drag the station down, like tiny little tendrils.
• We might also lose a lot of money. Banks store people’s cash in databases, so if a geomagnetic current found its way to a data centre it could delete millions of people’s savings.
• A storm half the strength of the Carrington event would destroy hundreds of transformers in the US alone.
• The extra heating also expands a layer of charged particles called the ionosphere, which radio signals back to Earth must pass through. The thicker ionosphere creates turbulence, delaying the signals. For tasks like GPS, which rely on transmissions that are timed to a billionth of a second, this disruption can be devastating.

Primary Source: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/s20150923-the-sun-creates-space-weather-that-affects-us-all

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Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indian-muon-trackers-get-a-handle-on-solar-storms/article9281700.ece

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Solution: b.

National Front Party – France;

Five Star Movement – Italy;

The other two are correctly paired. “Spain has Podemos. Italy has its Five Star Movement, and Greece its Syriza. Now, the populist insurgency sweeping through Europe is finding a foothold in Iceland, where the Pirate Party, with its pirate flag logo and anarchist leanings, was poised to make big gains in a general election Saturday.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news-service/populist-wave-lifts-icelands-pirate-party/article9285864.ece

Solution: c.

• One of the world’s biggest telescope projects might be forced to move its location. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) was due to be built in Hawaii, but ran into opposition with indigenous groups which consider its proposed site sacred.
• Now the TMT’s board says a site in the Canary Islands, Spain, could act as a potential alternative.
• The $1.4bn project will enable experts to study the early Universe and peer into the atmospheres of exoplanets.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/mbErel.aspx?relid=142343

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Improvisation: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37836824

Solution: a.

From the given set of options, the most appropriate description of Tesla would be option ‘a’, though ‘Tesla’ is well-known primarily for its electric cars.

“Roof tiles with built-in solar panels have been unveiled by Tesla chief executive Elon Musk. The tiles, made from glass, are intended to be a more attractive way to add solar panels to homes, compared with currently-used solar technology.”

Improvisation: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37809151

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Solution: b.

• Asylum and refugee status are different concepts although the terms are often used interchangeably. Asylum is an expansive institution of protection, refugees are a narrow category of people. An asylee need not be a refugee.
• Refugee status is narrowly defined. The UN’s Refugee Convention of 1951 links refuge to persecution on racial, religious, national, social, or political grounds. Many countries including India disagreed with the UN’s definition. It set the bar for protection too high for ordinary people for whom proving targeted persecution is difficult.
• The duty to protect refugees is a widely accepted, binding norm of international law. But the refugee convention refuses protection to people accused of “serious non-political crimes” such as terrorism. So governments routinely slap trumped-up terror accusations against their dissidents. For such people, asylum is a beacon.
• Asylum and extradition are related concepts. Extradition law exempts a country from handing over a criminal if the offence for which she is wanted is of a political character. This is known as the ‘political offence exception.’ It enables political asylum. It is recognised in the Extradition Act, 1962 and earlier laws too — perhaps an indicator of the legislature’s intent to allow people like Mr. Bugti to shelter in India at the government’s discretion.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/bhairav-acharya-writes-about-case-against-a-uniform-asylum-law/article9288594.ece

Solution: a.

• PM consists of a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles of organic and inorganic substances suspended in the air.
• The most health-damaging particles are those with a diameter of 10 microns or less, (≤ PM10), which can penetrate and lodge deep inside the lungs. Chronic exposure to particles contributes to the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as of lung cancer.
• Air quality measurements are typically reported in terms of daily or annual mean concentrations of PM10 particles per cubic meter of air volume (m3). Routine air quality measurements typically describe such PM concentrations in terms of micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3).

Primary Source: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/

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Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/300-million-children-breathing-toxic-air-globally-says-unicef-report/article9288673.ece

Solution: b.

• The Ministry of Finance constituted a Public Debt Management Cell within the Ministry. The Cell will be an interim arrangement, which will be upgraded to a statutory Public Debt Management Agency in about two years. Note that Finance Bill, 2015 contained provisions to set up a statutory agency, which were dropped from the Bill before it was passed by Parliament.
• Public debt refers to the loans and borrowings taken by the government, and may be broadly categorised as internal debt (borrowings from within the country) and external debt (borrowing from international sources). The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) manages the internal debt of the country, while the Finance Ministry manages the external debt.
• A Middle Office was created in the Ministry in 2008 to formulate a debt management strategy for the government. The Public Debt Management Cell will subsume the Middle Office.

PRS MPR, October 2016;

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