QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 10 February 2018

Solution: c.

The Museum of London recently unveiled its latest display, a chunk of a 130-ton fatberg that was blasted out of a city sewer last year. It took sewage workers with jet hoses nine weeks to dislodge the 250-metre-long mass of oil, fat, diapers and baby wipes.

The fatberg is considered a natural for the museum, which charts the city’s ancient and modern history. The word itself, a hybrid of “fat” and “iceberg”, is one of London’s gifts to the world: It was coined by the city’s sewer workers and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 2015.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/fatberg-goes-from-sewer-to-museum/article22695130.ece

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Solution: d.

The Sela Pass is a high-altitude mountain pass located on the border between the Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh state in India.

The Army’s presence in Arunachal Pradesh, specifically the western section leading to Tawang, had been scaled up since the Chinese aggression in 1962. This led to a land acquisition spree in Tawang and West Kameng districts.

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/where-every-family-is-a-crorepati/article22696993.ece

Solution: b.

• The Bill allows the central government to increase this capital to Rs 30,000 crore. The capital may be increased to more than Rs 30,000 crore by the central government in consultation with the RBI, if necessary.
• Under the original Act (NABARD Act, 1981; NOT the amendment bill), the central government and the RBI together must hold at least 51% of the share capital of NABARD. The Bill (amendment bill) provides that the central government alone must hold at least 51% of the share capital of NABARD. (The Bill transfers the share capital held by the RBI and valued at Rs 20 crore to the central government. The central government will give an equal amount to the RBI.)
• The Bill replaces the terms ‘small-scale industry’ and ‘industry in the tiny and decentralised sector’ with the terms ‘micro enterprise’, ‘small enterprise’ and ‘medium enterprise’ as defined in the MSME Development Act, 2006.
• Under the 1981 Act, experts from small-scale industries are included in the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council of NABARD. The Bill extends this provision to the MSMEs.

For the other amendments, refer: http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-national-bank-for-agriculture-and-rural-development-amendment-bill-2017-4726/

Solution: b.

When the rivers originate from a hill and flow in all directions, the drainage pattern is known

as ‘radial’. The rivers originating from the Amarkantak range present a good example of it.

The Narmada originates on the western flank of the Amarkantak plateau at a height of about 1,057m. It flows in a rift valley between the Satpura in the south and the Vindhyan range in the north. It flows south of Bhopal and north of Surat. The mouth of River Narmada is located at Bharuch, north of Surat.

India Physical Environment, Class 11 NCERT;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/gujarat-may-face-severe-water-crisis/article22695179.ece;

Solution: d.

Cyber Physical Systems is an interdisciplinary field that deals with the deployment of computer-based systems that do things in the physical world, such as, for instance, self-driven cars. Though India is only now developing a programme on CPS, the National Science Foundation of the United States had identified it as a key area of inter-disciplinary research back in 2003.

Chapter ‘Transforming Science and Technology in India’, Economic Survey 2017-18: The term Cyber Physical System (CPS) refers to machine based communication, analysis, inference, decision, action, and control in the context of  a natural world (“Physical” aspect). This is hugely multidisciplinary area including deep  mathematics  used  in  Artificial  Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big data Analytics, Block Chains, Expert Systems, Contextual Learning going to integration of  all of  these with intelligent materials and machines, control systems, sensors and actuators, robotics and smart manufacturing. Together these are the building blocks of  future industry that will throw up both new challenges and opportunities.

Para 109 (http://www.indiabudget.gov.in/bspeecha.asp): Combining  cyber  and  physical  systems  have  great  potential  to transform  not  only  innovation  ecosystem  but  also  our  economies  and  the way we live. To invest in research, training and skilling in robotics, artificial intelligence,  digital  manufacturing,  big  data  analysis,  quantum communication  and  internet  of  things,  Department  of  Science  & Technology  will  launch  a  Mission  on  Cyber  Physical  Systems  to  support establishment  of  centres  of  excellence.

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/big-discoveries-have-small-origins/article22695426.ece;

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/jaitley-heralds-cyber-physical-systems-mission-to-create-new-jobs/article22624153.ece;

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