QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 20 January 2017

Solution: d.

The first two mentioned languages are dialects of Hindi.

MHA: List of languages in the eighth schedule;

Improvisation: Don’t add Hindi dialects in Eighth Schedule say academics;

Solution: a.

A GK question.

“Known as “comfort women”, these former sex slaves were “recruited” from Korea, China and parts of Southeast Asia. Although there are only around 40 surviving comfort women in Korea, they are a potent reminder of Japanese wartime atrocities as well as what many consider to be the lack of sincere atonement on the part of Japan.”

TH: Reopening old wounds;

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Solution: b.

“…the Government of India finally decided last week to ratify the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour and Convention 138 on Minimum Age of Employment.”

• ILO Convention 185 deals with Seafarers’ Identity Documents, and this Convention was ratified by India in 2015.
• ILO Convention 182 deals with the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour.
• Since the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016 has been passed by Parliament and prohibits employment of children up to 14 years of age, the ILO conventions 138 and 182 can now be ratified.

TH: Safe Childhoods for a Safe India;

Solution: b.

“The British Foreign Secretary has sought Indian assistance in resolving current tensions between the U.K., the U.S. and Mauritius over the future of the U.S. military base Diego Garcia, and the Indian Ocean Chagos Archipelago, amid a warning from Mauritius last year that it would push to take the matter to the International Court of Justice.”

• The British — acting on the request of the U.S. — are hopeful that India may be able to exercise its influence with the Mauritian government to help the three sides come to some agreement, to prevent the situation from escalating. The British believe that ensuring the future of Diego Garcia would be in India’s security interest in the region
• The Chagos Islands — referred to by the British as the British Indian Ocean Territory, but which is not recognised as such by Mauritius — is home to the U.S. military base Diego Garcia. In the 1960s and 1970s, inhabitants were removed from the islands. Tensions remain, with Mauritius maintaining that the archipelago remains its integral part.

TH: UK seeks Indian help in resolving Chagos Archipelago dispute;

Solution: a.

Question being repeated. See graphic in link provided below for justification for second statement being wrong. (Commissioning of the Farakka barrage resulted in a substantial increase in catch for a while, but it eventually resulted in a reduction).

• Is the hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) a sea or a river fish? Where is it found?

It is what is called an anadromous species — like the salmon, sturgeon and shad, it is born in fresh water, spends most of its life in the sea and returns to fresh water to spawn. The bony fish, with silver scales and a faint streak of pink on its belly, is found in marine, estuarine and riverine environments. The Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea are its marine homes; the rivers Ganga, Bhagirathi, Hooghly, Brahmaputra, Rupnarayan, Narmada, Cauvery and Godavari are its spawning grounds.

• And how far upstream does it travel?

It’s a long-distance swimmer that’s been known to travel 1,200-1,400 km from the Bay of Bengal — up the Hooghly and then the Ganga up to Patna and Varanasi, and sometimes even Allahabad, Kanpur and, up the Yamuna to Agra.

September 2016: IE: Fish ladders help Hilsa breeding;

Improvisation: IE: Small fry;

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