QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 09 February 2018

Solution: c.

‘Operation Cactus’ is the code name for India’s military intervention in the Maldives in 1988, following an attempted coup d’état against the government of President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and his request for help.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/drama-on-the-high-seas-30-years-ago/article22682261.ece

Solution: a.

“India’s unprecedented climb to historic high levels of  investment and saving rates in the mid- 2000s  has  been  followed  by  a  pronounced,  albeit  gradual,  decline.  This  current  episode  of investment and saving slowdown is still ongoing.”

Source/Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-formal-informal-divide/article22682258.ece;

Ch-3, Economic Survey 2017-18;

Solution: c.

Regarding Statement 1: A situation when increased interest rates lead to a reduction in private investment spending such that it dampens the initial increase of total investment spending is called crowding out effect.

Regarding Statement 2: The government now aims to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 48.8% in 2018-19, 46.7% in 2019-20 and 44.6% in 2020-21, while fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP is targeted to be reduced to 3.3%, 3.1% and 3%, respectively during the same period.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/crowding-out-effect;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-formal-informal-divide/article22682258.ece;

Solution: a.

In what could catapult Visakhapatnam into a top scuba diving destination in the world, a second shipwreck with a critically endangered species of Goliath grouper (considered to be the keystone species of an ecosystem) was discovered by a team of experienced divers and diving instructors recently in the sea off Bheemunipatnam, 45 km from the city of Vishakhapatnam. This comes a month after a century-old shipwreck was unearthed in the region.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/second-shipwreck-goliath-grouper-fish-found-near-vizag/article22683229.ece

Solution: d.

• As per Section 2(1)(ja) (definition of ‘inventive step’) of the Patents Act, the product in question must feature a technical advance over what came before that’s not obvious to a skilled person. Because secondary patents for pharmaceuticals are often sought for trivial variants, they typically fail to qualify as an invention.
• Further, when a medicine is merely a variant of a known substance, Section 3(d) necessitates a demonstration of improvement in its therapeutic efficacy.
• Section 3(d) is complemented by other exceptions to patentability: Section 3(e) ensures that patents for combinations of known substances are allowed only if there is synergistic effect, while Section 3(i) ensures that no exclusivity can be claimed over methods of treatment.

The Act: http://www.ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAct/1_31_1_patent-act-1970-11march2015.pdf;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/biologics-patents-and-drug-prices/article22682251.ece