QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 02 June 2017

Solution: b.

TH: State tops in national integration initiatives;

TH: Celebrations for Telangana Formation Day;

Solution: c.

• The Base Year of the Index of Eight Core Industries has been revised from the year 2004-05 to 2011-12 from April, 2017. The shift is in line with the new base year of Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
• Industries covered in the revised index remain the same as in the 2004-05 series. The revised Eight Core Industries have a combined weight of 40.27 per cent in the IIP.
• NOTE: Images attached include the old index (totalling 37.9, because the weights used were of the individual items as given in the IIP) and revised index (totalling 100, making the index of core industries a separate index altogether).

Solution: a.

Statement ‘b’ refers to the PROVe, the remotely operated polar vehicle in the Antarctic region.

• A PRV, or the ‘ice-breaker,’ as these ships are colloquially called, can cut through a 1.5-metre thick wall of ice. With a lifespan of 30 years, the ship is expected to be central to India’s ambitions in the Arctic and Antarctica in coming years.
• The vessel is expected to contribute to India’s scientific expeditions and to sustain research at two Indian bases in Antarctica (Maitri and Bharti) and also dovetail research initiatives in the Southern Ocean domain in the proximal regions of the Antarctic continent.
• It could also widen the thrust on Arctic research disciplines, undertaken through Indian Station Himadri (located at Svalbard, Norway, where also the Global Seed Vault is), in addition to providing a suitable research platform for other ocean research programmes.
• PIB: Taking into consideration (i) the growing need of the scientific community to initiate studies in the frontier realms of ocean sciences, (ii) the uncertainty in the charter-hire of polar vessels and the ever-escalating chartering costs, and (iii) the expansion of our scientific activities into the Arctic and Southern Ocean, it was decided to explore the feasibility of constructing and commissioning a polar research vessel which can cater to both the scientific and logistics aspects of the polar and Southern Ocean programmes.

Th: India’s polar ship still a long way off;

Solution: c.

• NCAOR: HIMADRI, ‘the abode of snow’, is India’s first research station located at the International Arctic Research base, NyÅlesund, Svalbard, Norway.
• Additional information: IndARC is the country’s first underwater moored observatory located in the Kongsfjorden fjord, half way between Norway and the North Pole. This fjord is an inlet on the coast of one of the islands which forms a part of the Svalbard archipelago.

Improvisation: Th: India’s polar ship still a long way off;

From 2014: India joins Svalbard Global Seed Vault;

Solution: a.

Only Syria and Nicaragua did not sign up to the deal (Yes, North Korea has ratified the Paris Agreement!).

• Syria didn’t sign the agreement because the country remains locked in a protracted civil war that the United Nations estimates may have displaced 12 million people and resulted in more than 250,000 deaths.
• Meanwhile, Nicaraguan leaders said they declined to enter the Paris agreement not because they didn’t want to abide by new emissions standards but because those standards weren’t strict enough and didn’t require enough sacrifice from wealthier countries with larger economies, according to Reuters. By 2015, renewables were generating about half of Nicaragua’s electricity, but government officials say the number is on track to reach 90 percent by 2020, according to the World Bank.
• Additional Information: Following President Trump’s decision, former Secretary of State John Kerry announced the launch of a movement by name “Live By Paris”.

BBC;  WP;

Solution: a.

Yes, the numbers here are important. Countries, as per the final accord, agreed to:

• Keep global temperatures “well below” the level of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and “endeavour to limit” them even more, to 1.5C
• Limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100
• Review each country’s contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge
• Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing “climate finance” to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy

BBC;

Solution: c.

All three statements are correct.

• In 1958, New Zealand born economist William Phillips wrote a paper titled The Relation between Unemployment and the Rate of Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom. In his paper, Phillips described the supposed inverse relationship between unemployment levels and the rate of inflation. This relationship was referred to as the Phillips curve.
• However, during the severe recession of 1974 to 1975, inflation and unemployment rates both reached historic levels and people began to doubt the theoretical basis of the Phillips curve. Milton Friedman and other critics argued that government macroeconomic policies were being driven by a low unemployment target and that caused the expectations of inflation to change. This led to accelerated inflation rather than reduced unemployment. It was then agreed that government economic policies should not be influenced by unemployment levels below a critical level also known as the “natural rate of unemployment.”
• The NAIRU was first introduced in 1975 as the noninflationary rate of unemployment (NIRU), which was an improvement of the concept of “natural rate of unemployment” by Milton Friedman.

Investopedia: What is NAIRU;

Improvisation: TH: What is hysteresis;

Solution: c.

In economics, hysteresis arises when a single disturbance affects the course of the economy. An example of hysteresis in economics is the delayed effects of unemployment. As unemployment increases, more people adjust to a lower standard of living. As they become accustomed to the lower standard of living, people may not be as determined to achieve the previously desired higher living standard. In addition, as more people become unemployed, it becomes more socially acceptable to be or remain unemployed. After the labor market returns to normal, some unemployed people may be disinterested in returning to the work force.

Investopedia: Hysteresis;

Improvisation: TH: What is hysteresis;