QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 18 DECEMBER 2017

Solution: a.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), 2015-2030, is the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda and identifies targets and priority actions towards reducing disaster risks and implementing development that is both resilient and sustainable. India, being a signatory to the SFDRR, is committed to work towards achieving the targets enshrined in the Framework.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=174409;

Solution: a.

“Rare chitrakathi paintings, wooden and clay dolls of Mysore and Andhra Pradesh, Kalamkaris, Patachitra of Odisha, Patua scrolls of West Bengal, Kavad, the wooden story telling boxes of Rajasthan explore the multiplicity of Ramayana traditions..”

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=174414;

Chapter 9 – Living Craft Traditions of India, Class XI, NCERT;

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Solution: c.

The Russian-made Mi-8 entered India in 1971. These helicopters were part of Operation Meghdoot of 1989 in the Siachen Glacier and Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka. The craft operated extensively in humanitarian, rescue and disaster relief operations across the country including during the devastating 2015 Chennai floods of 2015, apart from ferrying many VIPs and VVIPs.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/iafs-mi-8-chopper-flies-into-history/article21827710.ece;

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Solution: d.

In the transit method, the space telescope catches tiny dips in the amount of light coming from individual stars, caused by planets crossing in front of them.

In the news (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42356305; http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/a-measured-leap-on-planetary-system/article21827715.ece): Scientists have announced the discovery of two new exoplanets, Kepler-90i and Kepler-80g. this announcement by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S. is particularly significant. First, with the discovery of the planet Kepler 90i, orbiting the star Kepler 90, we now know of another star besides the Sun that has eight planets orbiting it. Second, Christopher Shallue, a software engineer at Google, and Andrew Vanderburg, of the University of Texas, Austin, have discovered it using a deep learning neural network — an artificial intelligence tool that mimics the workings of a human brain.

Additional Information: The Robotvetter program is the first attempt at automating the process of rejecting false positives in signals detected by space telescopes that are used for discovering exoplanets (here, specifically the Kepler Space Telescope).

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html;

Solution: c.

Between 2013 and 2016, there was a 24% jump in the number (stock) of Indian students studying abroad. This growth outpaced that for China (which saw a 12% expansion).

Growth rates apart, the other unusual facet of student migration from India is that it is largely a one-way street. While China had more than 8 lakh students lodged in varsities abroad in 2016, it had also half as many international students lodged at its own campuses. In Malaysia, inbound students pursuing college were neck-and-neck with outbound ones. But in India, the number of students lodged abroad is at more than four times the inbound numbers.

A more immediate problem than the brain drain though, is the dollar drain. As more Indian parents pack off their children right from undergraduation, foreign exchange remittances towards their support are growing by leaps and bounds.

The current account records exports and imports in goods and services and transfer payments.

• The trade balance is obtained by subtracting imports of goods from the exports of goods.
• Trade in services denoted as invisible trade (because they are not seen to cross national borders) includes both factor income and net non-factor income.
• Transfer payments are receipts which the residents of a country receive ‘for free’, without having to make any present or future payments in return. They consist of remittances, gifts and grants. They could be official or private.

The balance of exports and imports of goods is referred to as the trade balance. Adding trade in services and net transfers to the trade balance, we get the current account balance.

Chapter 6, Open Economy Macroeconomics;

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/what-indias-student-exodus-means/article21827549.ece;