QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 20 JANUARY 2018

Solution: a.

Statement 1 is correct.

India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier IAC-I Vikrant is named after India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant – purchased from the UK (and which was decommissioned in 1997). It is being built by Cochin Shipyard.

• India currently operates INS Vikramaditya procured from Russia.
• Like INS Vikramaditya, Vikrant too would employ the STOBAR (Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery) mechanism with a ski-jump and arrestor cables to launch and recover aircraft.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/aircraft-carrier.htm;

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/navy-confident-of-commissioning-aircraft-carrier-vikrant-in-two-years/article22474986.ece;

Solution: a.

Drake Passage is a deep waterway 1,000 km wide, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans between Cape Horn (the southernmost point of South America) and the South Shetland Islands, situated about 100 miles (160 km) north of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Drake Passage defines the zone of climatic transition separating the cool, humid, subpolar conditions of Tierra del Fuego (an archipelago at the southern extremity of South America) and the frigid, polar regions of Antarctica.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Drake-Passage;

Improvisation, The Hindu; (https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/insv-tarini-crosses-designated-point-all-woman-crew-hoists-tricolour/articleshow/62565356.cms): “Indian Naval Sailing Vessel (INSV) Tarini crossed Cape Horn, its designated point, early on Friday morning, following which its all-woman crew hoisted the tricolour to mark their accomplishment.”

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Solution: b.

India is a member of three out of four Multilateral Export Control Regimes – The Australia Group most recently, the Wassenaar Arrangement and the Missile Technology Control Regime. Statement 1 is incorrect.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-admitted-to-australia-group/article22475433.ece;

The four Multilateral Export Control Regimes: https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/policy-guidance/multilateral-export-control-regimes;

Solution: d.

http://www.wassenaar.org/participating-states/#HU;

http://mtcr.info/partners/;

http://www.australiagroup.net/en/participants.html;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-admitted-to-australia-group/article22475433.ece;

Solution: a.

The same question was posted here earlier.

• The Ministry of Urban Development (now Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs) has launched the City Liveability Index. The index will be used to measure 116 cities, which include smart cities, state capitals, and cities with a population of above one million.
• The index will be a common minimum reference framework that will help cities know where they stand in terms of quality of life. It would also help cities to understand the interventions required to improve these standards.
• The cities will be assessed on a set of 79 parameters which would capture the extent and quality of infrastructure. These include availability of roads, mobility, education and health care, employment opportunities, emergency responses, mechanisms for grievance redressal, level of pollution, and availability of open spaces.

http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/MPR/MPR-%20June%202017.pdf;

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=166859;

In the news: “Centre compiling liveability index”, News Page, The Hindu;

Solution: a.

A question on “pre-industrial” levels has earlier been posted here. It refers to the period 1850-1900.

Last year was the second or third hottest year on record – after 2016 and on a par with 2015, the data shows. But those two years were affected by El Niño – the natural phenomenon centred on the tropical Pacific Ocean which works to boost temperatures worldwide. Take out this natural variability (in fact, we’ve been going into cooler La Niña conditions) and 2017 would probably have been the warmest year yet, the researchers say.

Figures were published by the world’s three main agencies monitoring global temperatures: the UK Met Office and the two US organisations – the US space agency (Nasa) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). Nasa rates 2017 the second hottest year, and Noaa and the Met Office judge it to be the third hottest since records began in 1850.

The World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General said the long-term temperature trend was far more important than the ranking of individual years. “That trend is an upward one,” he said. “Seventeen of the 18 warmest years on record have all been during this century, and the degree of warming during the past three years has been exceptional.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42736397;

Explained Page, 19^th January 2018, Indian Express;

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