QUIZ – 2016: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 3 and 4 December 2016

Solution: b.

“A few months back, the Madras High Court mandated that Thirukkural be taught in all schools in Tamil Nadu.”

• The Tirukkural or Thirukkural or shortly the Kural, is a classic Tamil sangam literature consisting of 1330 couplets or kurals, dealing with the everyday virtues of an individual.
• Considered one of the greatest works ever written on ethics and morality, it is known for its universality and non-denominational nature. It was authored by Thiruvalluvar.

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/Making-of-a-legislative-court/article16750199.ece

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Solution: a.

Why is this relevant?

The state government recently stated (Click HERE) that it “is working towards declaring the Manipuri pony as an endangered breed of horses” and steps were being taken to initiate the establishment of a sanctuary for its protection.

• The modern game originated in the tiny north-eastern Indian state of Manipur, but is now under threat.
• Polo is still popular in Manipur, mainly because of the state’s rare breed of polo ponies. Manipuri ponies are considered to be descendants of Asian wild horses and have been recognised as one of the five indigenous horse breeds of India. They are smaller than other breeds – but well loved for their stamina, speed and ability to survive in harsh weather conditions.
• However, conservationists say Manipuri ponies are now so far in decline that they are critically endangered.
• When there was no war, Manipuris used the ponies to play sagol kangjei, the predecessor of modern day polo. It is not clear when exactly Manipuris started playing the game but some records indicate that it was as early as the first Century.
• The traditional game attracted the attention of British colonial rulers in the 19th Century, who were fascinated by the horsemanship of the riders and the speed and endurance of the ponies. From then on, polo caught the imagination of the nobility and the British army who took the game to the west.

Information source: BBC

Solution: d.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the high-yielding Mexican wheat variety which launched India’s Green Revolution.

• For Jaunti’s farmers, the Sonora 64 and Lerma Rojo 64-A seeds were, in every sense, their first ever introduction to modern agricultural technology. And they adapted quite effortlessly to it. The traditional wheat cultivars were 4.5-5 feet tall and slender, rendering them not very receptive to fertiliser or water application. The plants simply grew taller and ‘lodged’ — fell flat on the ground — when their earheads were heavy with more grain produced in response to higher nutrient doses. Borlaug’s Mexican wheats were shorter in plant height, at 2-2.5 feet, and yet had normal size grain-bearing panicles. They tillered profusely, with stronger stems that made them less prone to lodging. Since the changed plant architecture permitted more fertiliser and water use, the new wheat strains gave higher grain yields per acre.

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/after-the-revolution/

Solution: b.

If you have an idea regarding the dates of these texts, you can solve this question by elimination method.

• “…. Muziris, the ancient seaport which disappeared in the 14th century, known only by mentions in Tamil Sangam texts and Graeco-Roman manuscripts dating back to millennia ago. Muziris is, perhaps, one of the first cosmopolitan centres in the world, and all because of a single commodity: black pepper…”
• The Graeco-Romans mention Muziris in several documents, from the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea — a celebrated navigational map of the known world between the first and third centuries AD — to the more prosaic Muziris Papyrus, a trade contract, dating to the second century AD, between an Alexandrine and an Indian merchant.

http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/food-wine/the-spice-trail/

Solution: d.

The same question was posted here in August.

“An ancient camping site dating ninth millennium BC has been discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under Ministry of Culture, on the way to Saser La which leads to the Karakoram Pass in Ladakh. A charcoal sample collected from the Site, was subsequently sent to BETA LAB, Florida, USA, for radiocarbon date determination in order to understand the antiquity of the above stated camp-site. The outcome i.e. 8500 BC (10500 years before present) was beyond even ASI’s expectation. Such an early antiquity on the basis of a scientific date was the very first for that region.”

Primary Source: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=148945

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http://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/Pre-historic-camping-site-found-in-Ladakh/article16756963.ece

Solution: a.

A GK question (and thus beneficial for mains). Not one that will appear in preliminaries. Please pay attention – statement in option ‘a’ is how the members of this movement define the purpose of their activities! They tried achieving this objective through setting off low-intensity blasts in a number of places.

• The term Base Movement is suspected to be a reference to the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) formed in August 2014, with the official name of “Jamaat Qaidat al-jihad fi’shibhi al-qarrat al-Hindiya’’ or “Organisation of the Base of Jihad in the Indian Sub-Continent’’.

Source: IE2;

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Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/Kodaikanal-Jewish-settlement-likely-target-of-‘Base-Movement’/article16741462.ece

Solution: c.

• Drawing comparisons between the current government’s efforts and those taken by the Janata Government in 1978, a note issued by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on Friday pointed out that the present government’s efforts were at variance with the demonetisation drive carried out by the Janata government, given that in 1978 a law had been promulgated for the exercise.
• Unlike the 1978 law, the present government notification (and not ‘law’) does not prohibit the transfer of demonetised notes to persons other than banks. In the 1978 Act, Section 4 prohibited the transfer of the demonetised notes to anybody other than Scheduled Banks after the said currency notes had stopped being legal tender. Venkatesh Nayak, Programme Coordinator, CHRI’s Access to Information Programme, said that the absence of such provisions may have already allowed black money holders to transfer unaccounted for funds to third parties, thus subverting the very purpose of the current exercise.
• The CHRI note also refers to the absence of a clause for declaring the source of the demonetised notes as was included in the earlier law.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Government’s-demonetisation-move-faces-legal-challenge/article16744775.ece

Solution: b.

• Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is a safe motherhood intervention under the National Rural Health Mission (NHM). It is being implemented with the objective of reducing maternal and infant mortality by promoting institutional delivery among pregnant women. The scheme is under implementation in all states and Union Territories (UTs), with a special focus on Low Performing States (LPS).
• Over the last decade, a government programme aimed at increasing institutional deliveries has changed the health-seeking behaviour of Indian women. A new study, released on Friday, has found that the maternal health programme Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) led to a 22 per cent increase in women delivering in government hospitals between 2004 and 2014. The scheme also is attributed for increasing the probability of a woman being hospitalised by 1.3 per cent, resulting in a 2 per cent increase in overall hospitalisation of women in India. The increase, however marginal, is a cause of celebration as women in rural India are known to delay seeking health interventions.
• Recently, conclusive evidence was obtained to show (Click HERE) that the programme had played a role in reducing ‘socioeconomic disparities’ existing in maternal care (This question was posted here in October as well).

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/Choosing-hospital-over-home/article16756430.ece

Solution: a.

“Giving the word ‘hartal’ a positive twist, the district administration and the panchayat called for a plastic ‘hartal’ on December 8. The hartal call is a continuation of the campaign against plastic carry bags. The drive to collect cleaned plastic carry bags and other plastic waste from households has been under way since December 1, with the cooperation of government and private schools.”

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/Kannur-to-observe-‘plastic-hartal’/article16756847.ece

Solution: c.

Question framed from a mains perspective.

• Longstanding, high-profile tech-related investigations continue in Europe. Our regulators could be cautious about seeking European guidance on regulating the digital sector given Europe’s indifferent performance in tech. As others have documented, Europe’s technology sector is far from thriving, and many have put the blame on over-regulation.
• A recent analysis of the market capitalisation of online platforms by The Economist showed that the US leads the world, followed by Asia, and Europe is a distant third.
• At a time Indian tech companies are growing and the economy is poised on an accelerated growth trajectory mainly due to the country’s technology sector, Indian regulators must be cautious in following Europe’s example in the regulation of its digital economy.
• The Indian government is working hard to encourage investment and bring rapid expansion in the technology sector. It is now incumbent on regulators to weigh the pros and cons of their actions against this objective and not rush into decisions that could jeopardise this growth.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/regulating-lightly-digital-india-economy-cci-competition-law-bar-association-4407590/

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