QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 03 OCTOBER 2017

Solution: d.

South Sudan too is a land-locked country. But it isn’t a country that constitutes the Horn of Africa (see image).
Improvisation: http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/raja-mandala-india-and-djiboutis-geopolitical-scrum-ram-nath-kovind-abroad-visit-4871697/;
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Solution: c.
A tectonic plate (also called lithospheric plate) is a massive, irregularly-shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere. Plates move horizontally over the asthenosphere as rigid units. The lithosphere includes the crust and top mantle with its thickness range varying between 5-100 km in oceanic parts and about 200 km in the continental areas. A plate may be referred to as the continental plate or oceanic plate depending on which of the two occupy a larger portion of the plate. Pacific plate is largely an oceanic plate whereas the Eurasian plate may be called a continental plate.

Alfred Wegener had thought of all the continents to have initially existed as a super continent in the form of Pangaea. However, later discoveries reveal that the continental masses, resting on the plates, have been wandering all through the geological period, and Pangaea was a result of converging of different continental masses that were parts of one or the other plates.

Plate tectonics states that Earth’s outer shell, or lithosphere, consists of large rigid plates that move apart at oceanic ridges, come together at subduction zones, or slip past one another along fault lines.

During Earth’s long history, there probably have been several Pangea-like supercontinents. The oldest of those supercontinents is called Rodinia and was formed some one billion years ago. Another Pangea-like supercontinent, Pannotia, was assembled 600 million years ago. Present-day plate motions are bringing the continents together once again. Africa has begun to collide with southern Europe, and the Australian Plate is now colliding with Southeast Asia. Within the next 250 million years, Africa and the Americas will merge with Eurasia to form a supercontinent that approaches Pangean proportions.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Pangea;
Pg 35 (Distribution of oceans and continents) Fundamentals of Physical Geography Class 11, NCERT;
Improvisation: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41472281;
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Solution: a.
A mains-oriented question.

China says the support base at Djibouti will be used for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid in Africa and West Asia. The US, Japan and France also have military bases in Djibouti.

Djibouti, a tiny country at the Horn of Africa, is favoured for its location as it sits near a busy shipping route. It is also seen as a stable country in an otherwise volatile region.

Like in so many areas, China’s strategic advances in the Horn have helped put Djibouti back on India’s political radar. President Kovind will be India’s first president or prime minister to visit Djibouti.

Beijing’s infrastructure development in the Horn preceded the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative by President Xi Jinping. But it has acquired an unprecedented momentum in recent years. One of the more visible infrastructure projects in the region has been the 750 km-long rail link between landlocked Ethiopia and Djibouti.

China’s geopolitical interest in the Horn has come into sharp focus over the last decade with the regular deployment of naval units to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Although piracy has now come down significantly, China is raising its strategic profile in the region. Under an accord signed last year, Beijing has secured the rights to a base in Djibouti that can host up to 10,000 soldiers until 2026.

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/raja-mandala-india-and-djiboutis-geopolitical-scrum-ram-nath-kovind-abroad-visit-4871697/;
From July: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40578106;
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Solution: b.
A GK question.

The trio’s ( Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young) breakthroughs were on fruit flies, but their findings explain how the molecular clock works to keep time in all animals.

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2017/press.html;
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/i-am-very-pleased-for-the-fruit-fly-nobel-winner-michael-rosbash/article19786482.ece;
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Solution: c.
The Keynesian multiplier showed that any government spending brought about cycles of spending that increased employment and prosperity regardless of the form of the spending. For example, a $100 million government project, whether to build a dam or dig and refill a giant hole, might pay $50 million in pure labor costs. The workers then take that $50 million and, minus the average saving rate, spend it at various businesses. These businesses now have more money to hire more people to make more products, leading to another round of spending. This idea was at the core of the growth of the welfare state.

Taken further, if people didn’t save anything, the economy would be an unstoppable engine running at full employment. Keynesians wanted to counteract saving by taxing savings to force people to spend more. However, unless someone holds his or her savings entirely in cash – and true hoarding like this is rare – it’s invested either by the individual or by the bank holding the capital.

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/keynesian-multiplier.asp;
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-fiscal-myth/article19786445.ece;