QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 29 March 2018

Solution: a.

The Rural Development Ministry has been organising SARAS fairs and also Shishir Mela and Aajeevika Mela. Inspired by their success, the ministry is organizing the SARAS Aajeevika Mela 2018 in which SHG women from all states of the country will be participating for exhibition and sale of their products in over 350 stalls.

The stalls will display the skills, potential and hard work of our women from across India. The products ranges from handlooms, handicrafts, artefacts and heritage products, tribal ornaments, decorative items, metallic products, earthen utensils, paintings, organic food items, spices, processed food products, soft toys, utility items, brass and wrought iron products.

It will provide rural women producers a national platform and an opportunity to showcase their products, and seek buyers, either individuals or bulk buyers for sale nationally/internationally.

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1526353;

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Solution: a.

The GII 2017 focused on innovation in agriculture and food systems.

Improvisation (PIB): An Innovation Cell in the Ministry of Human Resource Development will be created to further strengthen the innovation efforts. It will be headed by a Scientist and comprise of a senior Ministry official and young professionals who bring to the table new ideas in promoting innovation.. The decision comes close on the heels of India moving 6 ranks up in the Global Innovation Index Ranking from 66 in 2016 to 60 in 2017, out of 127 countries. This increase has happened for the 2nd year in succession.

Additional Information: The GII relies on two sub-indices – the Innovation Input Sub-Index and the Innovation Output Sub-Index – each built around key pillars.

• Five input pillars capture elements of the national economy that enable innovative activities: (1) Institutions, (2) Human capital and research, (3) Infrastructure, (4) Market sophistication, and (5) Business sophistication.
• Two output pillars capture actual evidence of innovation outputs: (6) Knowledge and technology outputs and (7) Creative outputs.

Under the Global Innovation Index 2017, India has improved its standing in innovation inputs and innovation efficiency. The strongest points for the country happened to be a large number of science and engineering graduates, the increased investment by Global R&D companies in India, the improved QS University rankings and high rank in the highly cited research publication, global leadership in the IT service experts and leadership in export of creative goods.

https://www.globalinnovationindex.org;

Solution: c.

For the first time since 1998, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has increased the monthly stipend of surrendered militants in northeast India. The pressure to increase the stipend came after several requests from the government of Assam, which has seen the most number of surrenders and outlay for the scheme in the region. According to the policy (surrender policy), the MHA reimburses the amount paid to the surrendered militants by the State governments under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) scheme.

There is another SRE scheme that is for Left Wing Extremism-affected districts across ten states.

https://mha.gov.in/scheme;

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/northeast-ex-militants-get-more-sops/article23350358.ece;

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Solution: d.

When a fire anywhere in the world is detected by NASA’s MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) satellites, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) analyses the data by overlaying the digitised boundaries of forest areas to pinpoint the location to the exact forest compartment. The resolution of these satellites are up to 375m x 375m, which means that such fires can be detected if their extent is above half the pixel, i.e. about seven hectares.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/fighting-forest-fires/article23349772.ece;

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Solution: a.

In an embarrassing blooper, Doordarshan used the Australian government’s “MyGov” website’s logo instead of the Indian MyGov website for the broadcast of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat programme on Sunday..

Both the web portals have distinct functions. The Australian website offers access to online services of the Australian Taxation Office, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the Victorian Housing Register Application and so on.

The Indian MyGov portal is a citizen engagement platform to crowd-source governance ideas. The Prime Minister’s Mann Ki Baat address is in response to the ideas given by citizens on the portal. For example, in his address on Sunday, he invited ideas on how to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and urged citizens to send them to the website.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/mann-ki-baat-under-australian-mygov-logo/article23366964.ece