QUIZ – 2016: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 27 & 28 November 2016

Solution: d.

• The phrase “as far as possible”: In the Bill, the proposed Section 14 talks of prevention measures that the Central or State governments may take, “as far as possible,” for the provision of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and Opportunistic Infection (OI) Management, against the spread of HIV. The amendment also goes on to provide drugs for both ART and OI ‘as far as possible’.
• Ombudsman Scope: The law as drafted by civil society envisaged an ombudsman working at the district level who would attend to complaints on health issues relating to HIV. The idea was that PLHIVs don’t have to go to court. The original drafts envisaged a full-time person working on the issue at the district level. Under the proposed Bill, the ombudsman is now to function at the State level. Moreover s/he can be an ordinary government servant. Now that the ombudsman is neither a full-time officer nor trained in judicial matters and considering the types of issues that he would have to deal with under the bill, the proposed amendment would only result in the whole mechanism becoming unworkable.
• On Needles: Another crucial flaw deals with the needle safety programme. The government has proposed amendment to Clause 22 of the Bill, by deleting all references to needle and syringe exchange. This clause of the Bill was aimed to protect volunteers and patients from illegality.
• On Employment: the Bill does not confer powers to civil courts in relation to employment. As per prevailing law, only a government or a public sector employee can seek employment or reinstatement if s/he is discriminated and not employed or illegally terminated. The law as originally drafted provided for specific powers to the civil court including employment and reinstatement and compensation for loss of wages and damages (including private sector related discrimination of PLHIVs)). None of this is provided in the latest version currently waiting to be passed in Parliament.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/A-Bill-that-falls-short/article16707488.ece

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Solution: a.

• The flash floods (Kallakadal) that wrecked havoc in the coastal areas of Kerala come furtively from a distance, nearly 6,000 km away from the Southern Indian Ocean, scientists have concluded.
• Kallakadal, as they are locally known, or flash floods that swept across the Kerala coast in 2005 caught the scientific community and local communities off-guard. There were no apparent oceanographic reasons or scientific explanations for the process.
• While locally visible weather features like cyclones or storm surges could account for the usual coastal flooding, it is the absence of such elements that baffled the scientists. The failure of the ocean forecast systems to predict the process added mystery to it.
• Studies carried out by the scientists of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, revealed that the flash-flooding reported along the south-west coast was caused by the swell waves coming from the Southern Ocean.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/The-flash-floods-in-Kerala-come-from-a-distance/article16706744.ece

Solution: d.

Treatment of wastewater involves physical, chemical, and biological processes, which remove physical, chemical and biological matter that contaminates the wastewater.

“The levels of organic matter in sewage are too low to be directly recovered. We investigated how we can use bacteria to capture this material,” said one of the researchers Francis Meerburg. “We periodically starve the bacteria, in a kind of ‘fasting regimen’ Afterwards, waste-water is briefly brought into contact with the starved bacteria which are gluttonous and gobble up the organic matter without ingesting all of it,” Professor Nico Boon said. “This enables us to harvest the undigested materials for the production of energy and high-quality products. We starve the rest of the bacteria, so that they can purify fresh sewage again,” Boon explained.

The researchers said their approach is unique because they have developed a high rate variation of the so-called contact-stabilisation process. By using the contact-stabilisation process, up to 55 per cent of the organic matter could be recovered from sewage, the researchers said. This is a huge step forward, because the existing processes cannot recover more than 20 to 30 per cent. The researchers calculated that this amount can provide sufficient amounts of energy to completely treat sewage without the need for external electricity.

Ch-18, Class 7, Science, NCERT;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/Hungry-bacteria-can-extract-energy-from-sewage/article16709836.ece

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Solution: d.

This question has been posted here before.

“In the recent years A1 and A2 type milk has emerged as one of the hot debating topic among the consumers worldwide. Studies suggest that milk from cows with A2 type is for healthier than their A1 counterparts. Shri Singh said that Milk from desi (indigenous) cows naturally contains A2 type milk protein. The indigenous breeds of cows produce A2 type milk protein which is known to protect us from various chronic health problems such as Cardio Vascular Diseases, Diabetes and neurological disorders besides providing several other health benefits.”

Primary Source: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=142254

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Improvisation: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=154397

Solution: a.

The word, Hydroponic, comes from Latin and means working water. Simply put, it is the art of growing plants without soil.

Improvisation: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38089984

Solution: b.

“Driverless tractors that can follow pre-programmed routes are already being deployed at large farms around the world. Drones are buzzing over fields assessing crop health and soil conditions. Ground sensors are monitoring the amount of water and nutrients in the soil, triggering irrigation and fertiliser applications. And in Japan, the world’s first entirely automated lettuce farm (First robot-run farm by the company “Spread”)is due for launch next year.”

“Japan’s shrinking agricultural sector is a reflection of a wider demographic crisis, with the average age of the country’s farmers rising to 65.9 in 2011. According to government figures, agriculture accounted for just 1.2% of Japanese gross domestic product in 2013, while the number of full-time farmers was 1.7 million in 2014, down from 2.2 million a decade earlier.” … What’s also interesting is that this farm will be a vertical farm, dependent not on the weather/climate but on LED lighting developed specifically for plant cultivation.

Improvisation: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38089984

Solution: d.

“Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range experimental solar-powered aircraft project, and also the name of the project’s two operational aircraft. The privately financed project is led by Swiss engineer and businessman André Borschberg and Swiss psychiatrist and aeronaut Bertrand Piccard, who co-piloted Breitling Orbiter 3, the first balloon to circle the world non-stop. The Solar Impulse project’s goals were to make the first circumnavigation of the Earth by a piloted fixed-wing aircraft using only solar power and to bring attention to clean technologies.”

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/The-world-of-aviation-did-not-believe-that-a-solar-powered-plane-could-be-made/article16711735.ece

Solution: d.

The reserve deposit ratio (rdr) is a determinant of money supply. Rdr is the proportion of the total deposits commercial banks keep as reserves. To maintain a healthy rdr in commercial banks, Cash Reserve Ratio is one tool. Other tools include SLR and Bank Rate. When money supply comes under discussion, so will inflation. The latter is proportional to the former.

Page 39, Macroeconomics, Class 12 NCERT;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/money-and-banking/banks-told-to-maintain-addl-average-daily-balance-with-rbi/article9389836.ece

Solution: a.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday unexpectedly ordered banks to deposit their extra cash with it, in a bid to absorb excess liquidity generated by a government ban on larger banknotes.
• The central bank said banks would need to transfer 100% of their cash under the RBI’s cash reserve ratio from deposits generated between 16 September and 11 November, saying it was a temporary measure that would be reviewed on or before 9 December.
• The incremental CRR prescribes the reserve ratio based on the extent of growth in resources (deposits). It immobilises the excess liquidity from where it is lodged (the banks which show high growth), unlike the average ratio which impounds from the banks which are slow-growing as well as banks which are fast-growing. It also avoids the jerkiness of the average ratio.

http://www.livemint.com/Industry/3SkXPqlzeHpVYHcKsimYDM/RBI-imposes-higher-cash-reserve-ratio-on-banks.html

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