QUIZ – 2016: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 23 December 2016

Solution: b.

The Anti-Defection Law in India added the 10^th Schedule to the Constitution.

• “It is interesting to note that many advanced democracies face similar problems but haven’t enacted any such laws to regulate legislators. Prominent cases in UK politics include the defection of Ramsay Macdonald, the first Labour Prime Minister, in 1931. He defected from his party following disagreements on policy responses to the economic crisis. Neither Macdonald nor any of his three cabinet colleagues who defected with him resigned their seats in the House of Commons to seek a fresh mandate.”
• “Australian Parliament too has had its share of defections. Legislators have often shifted loyalties and governments have been formed and toppled in quick succession. In the US too, Congressmen often vote against the party programme on important issues without actually defecting from the party.”

Improvisation: TH: Badal wants stronger anti-defection law;

PRS Blog;  PRS: Anti-Defection Law – Intent and Impact;

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Solution: c.

• What is SHC Scheme? Government of India’s scheme promoted by the Department of Agriculture & Co-operation under the Ministry of Agriculture. It will be implemented through the Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments.  A SHC is meant to give each farmer soil nutrient status of his holding and advice him on the dosage of fertilizers and also the needed soil amendments, that he should apply to maintain soil health in the long run.
• What is the SHC? It is a printed report that a farmer will be handed over for each of his holdings. It will contain the status of his soil with respect to 12 parameters, namely N,P,K (Macro-nutrients) ; S (Secondary- nutrient) ; Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micro – nutrients) ; and pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters).
• How can a farmer use a SHC? The card will contain an advisory based on the soil nutrient status of a farmer’s holding. It will show recommendations on dosage of different nutrients needed. Further, it will advise the farmer on the fertilizers and their quantities he should apply, and also the soil amendments that he should undertake, so as to realize optimal yields.

SHC: FAQs;

PIB Features: The links between soil fertility and poverty alleviation;

Solution: d.

“The Music Academy library is presently undergoing extensive digitisation and cataloguing. The process has resulted in some treasures resurfacing and one of these is a book on Bharatanatyam.”

“….till then, it had been the preserve of the Devadasis and because it was rarely seen outside the temple and in the homes of the rich, it had come to mean something not in good taste. Beginning with the late 1800s there was a move to outlaw the Devadasi system, largely fuelled by the Indians, who had been educated in the western mode, complete with Victorian ideas of morality. In the 1920s this acquired a greater momentum, thanks to Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy, who though hailing from the same community was liberated enough to see its negative aspects. Using her position as the first woman member of the Madras Legislative Council to good effect, she successfully piloted a bill demanding the end of the Devadasi system.”

CCRT: Bharatanatyam;

TH: The birth of Bharatanatyam;

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Solution: a.

GK Question; information which is suitable for answer/essay writing.

TH: Cashless and worry-free in AP;

2015: TH – At Akodara, India’s first digital village;

TH: Ashoka’s adopted village shows the way;

Solution: c.

Britannica: Atlas Mountains, series of mountain ranges in northwestern Africa, running generally southwest to northeast to form the geologic backbone of the countries of the Maghrib (the western region of the Arab world)—Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. They extend from the Moroccan port of Agadir in the southwest, to the Tunisian capital of Tunis in the northeast. Their thick rim rises to form a high sill separating the Mediterranean basin to the north from the Sahara to the south, thus constituting a barrier that hinders, without completely preventing, communication between the two regions. Across, the mountains filter both air masses and human migrations.

Improvisation: IE: Snow in the Sahara;