QUIZ – 2016: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 13 & 14 November 2016

Solution: c.

• Copper and bronze were used to make tools, weapons, ornaments and vessels. Gold and silver were used to make ornaments and vessels.
• Cotton was probably grown at Mehrgarh from about 7000 years ago. Actual pieces of cloth were found attached to the lid of a silver vase and some copper objects at Mohenjodaro.

Primary Source: Page 36, Our Pasts – I, Class VI, NCERT;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/the-case-of-the-missing-cloth/article9339355.ece

Solution: c.

A mains-oriented question. The statements are feeder points for if and when there is a requirement to write about the history of civil-military relations in India.

• “…Nehru laid the foundations of firm civilian control of the military which has held steady for the last seven decades…”
• September 1946: One of the first steps taken by Nehru was to replace the commander-in-chief as defence member of the Viceroy’s executive council — de facto, the defence minister — by a civilian leader, Sardar Baldev Singh. This was not done on a whim. It was the culmination of a longstanding demand of the Indian nationalists and the Congress party. As part of the measures to keep the military firmly under civilian control, the Motilal Nehru committee had recommended that the defence member of the council should be a civilian as early as in 1928.
• Steven Wilkinson, professor at Yale University, says Nehru’s high point of dealing with the military was in 1955, when he reduced and split up the unified armed forces hierarchy into three separate commands, one each for the army, air force and navy. Each of them was headed by a nominally equal chief of staff. Nehru did this deliberately, Wilkinson argues, as he acknowledged in February 1963, “to reduce the role of the military on the Indian scene.”
• Nehru was not alone in institutionalising firm civilian control of the military. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, his deputy prime minister, was angrier than Nehru when the British chiefs of the armed forces protested the government’s decision to position troops around Junagadh state in October 1947, after it had declared accession to Pakistan. Both leaders made it clear that they were prepared for a showdown if military commanders didn’t follow the orders of the civilian government. This incident led to the creation of a defence committee of the cabinet to institutionalise civil-military interaction on matters of national security.
• The fabric of civil-military relations, woven so deftly by Nehru, had started fraying at the edges in his final years. But the culture, norms and institutional structures established in the early years have shown India as an exception to all other post-colonial societies. The British did not bestow a structured template of civil-military relations to independent India.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/jawaharlal-nehru-legacy-prime-minister-military-4371638/

Solution: d.

• Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae—simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater—grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds. The human illnesses caused by HABs, though rare, can be debilitating or even fatal.
• While many people call these blooms ‘red tides,’ scientists prefer the term harmful algal bloom.
• Most blooms, in fact, are beneficial because the tiny plants are food for animals in the ocean. In fact, they are the major source of energy that fuels the ocean food web.
• A small percentage of algae, however, produce powerful toxins that can kill fish, shellfish, mammals, and birds, and may directly or indirectly cause illness in people.
• HABs also include blooms of non-toxic species that have harmful effects on marine ecosystems.

Primary Source: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/redtide.html

—

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/indous-collaboration-to-focus-on-pelagic-fish-resources/article9338579.ece

—

Solution: a.

“A large-scale initiative involving a rigorous coaching programme for preparing tribal children for entrance examinations to prestigious schools began here last week. The ten-month programme targets 100 tribal boys and girls. While the boys would appear for next year’s entrance examination for the Sainik schools, the girls would try their luck with Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.”

“Last year, half-a-dozen boys from impoverished tribal families of Attappady secured admission to Sainik School at Kazhakuttam in Thiruvananthapuram by cracking a tough all-India entrance examination and subsequent interview. This year too, the initiative titled Project Shine (Click HERE) is being undertaken by the 1991-batch students of the Sainik School. “Last year, we gave six months’ training to 24 students, and 15 among them were able to pass the entrance examination. However, only six were able to successfully complete the interview. This year, we are initiating the project in a foolproof manner to ensure success to all the 100 children,” Babu Mathew of the alumni association told The Hindu.”

Statement 3 refers to the VidyaGyan Leadership Academy in UP: “No-one can even apply unless their family income is below the equivalent of £1,500 per year, and the school carries out checks to make sure that better-off families are not trying to get in.”

—

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/100-tribal-children-get-coaching-to-crack-exams/article9342402.ece

Solution: c.

A general knowledge question.

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO because of the airfield designation code or Gitmo because of the common pronunciation of this code by the U.S. military) is a United States military base located on 45 square miles (120 km2) of land and water at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

International Page, The Hindu, 14^th November 2016;

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/world/guantanamo-bay-doctors-abuse.html

—

Solution: a.

“With the Supreme Court responding to the presidential reference (Click HERE) and terming illegal the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, politics in the State has predictably acquired a defiant edge.”

Advisory Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court: Article 143 authorises the president to seek the opinion of the SC in two categories of matters:

• On any question of law or fact of public importance which has arisen or which is likely to arise.
• On any dispute arising out of any pre-constitution treaty, agreement, covenant, engagement, salad or other similar instruments.

In the first case, the SC may tender or may refuse to tender its opinion to the president. But, in the second case, the SC ‘must’ tender its opinion to the president. In both the cases, the opinion expressed by the SC is only advisory and not a judicial pronouncement.

‘Supreme Court’, Indian Polity 4^th Edition by M Laxmikanth;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/punjabs-politics-of-defiance/article9341060.ece

Solution: a.

“The supermoon is a made-up term,” said James Lattis, an astronomer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It’s not an astronomical term, there’s no technical definition of it.” Supermoon was actually coined by an astrologer in the 1970s, not by a scientist. The term has come to loosely mean a full moon that is at perigee, or when the moon is at its closest position to Earth along its orbit.

14^th November 2016, ‘Explained’ Page, Indian Express;

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/science/supermoon.html

Solution: d.

• Ethanol blending is the practice of blending petrol with ethanol. Many countries, including India, have adopted ethanol blending in petrol in order to reduce vehicle exhaust emissions and also to reduce the import burden on account of crude petroleum from which petrol is produced
• The renewable ethanol content, which is a by product of the sugar industry, is expected to result in a net reduction in the emission of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC). Ethanol itself burns cleaner and burns more completely than petrol it is blended into. In India, ethanol is mainly derived by sugarcane molasses, which is a by-product in the conversion of sugar cane juice to sugar.

Primary Source: http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Ethanol_Blending_Programme_(EBP)_in_India

—

Improvisation: Page 7, PRS MPR – October 2016;

Solution: d.

Mains-oriented question.

• “….In addition, on 03.07.2013, it was decided that ethanol would be procured only from domestic sources. This led to a rise in ethanol prices, which to a great extent reportedly eroded the economy of the blend. At present, government has permitted OMCs to implement the ethanol blending programme in notified 20 States and 4 Union Territories as per the availability of ethanol.”

There are reportedly significant transaction barriers which impede smooth supplies of ethanol for blending.

• In several States, State not only imposes levy on molasses but also regulates the movement of non levy molasses.
• Inter-state movement of ethanol requires No-Objection-Certificates (NOCs) from the State Excise Authorities along with permits from dispatching and receiving States.
• Most States impose “Export/Import” duties on ethanol leaving and entering their boundaries.
• There are some instances where Octroi is levied on ethanol for entry into municipal limits.

Hence States were requested by the Central Government to liberalise restrictions on the supply of ethanol so that its blending with petrol can be encouraged while improving the financial health of sugar sector and also liquidation of cane dues of farmers.

Primary Source: http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Ethanol_Blending_Programme_(EBP)_in_India

—

Improvisation: Page 7, PRS MPR – October 2016;