QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 06 April 2018

Solution: c.

Prevention of cruelty to animals, Forests and Protection of wild animals and birds are subjects in the concurrent list.

Seventh Schedule: https://www.mea.gov.in/Images/pdf1/S7.pdf;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/anti-forest-anti-forest-dweller/article23437396.ece;

Solution: c.

• TH: The apex court had, on March 26, asked how convicted persons, who are barred from electoral politics, could decide on candidates for polls and ensure the maintenance of probity in public life. The apex court had posted the matter to May 3 for final disposal.. The top court had, on December 1 last year, sought the response of the Centre and the EC on the PIL and agreed to examine the constitutional validity of section 29A, RPA, which deals with the power of the poll panel to register a political party.
• Livemint: In May last year, the election commission had told a parliamentary committee that electoral bonds introduced by the government is a “retrograde” step.. The commission, in a written submission to the parliamentary standing committee on law and personnel, had said changes made in the election laws after the introduction of the bonds would compromise transparency in political funding.. “The amendment in section 29 C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 making it no longer necessary to report details of donations received through electoral bonds is a retrograde step as transparency of political funding would be compromised as a result of the change,” it had said.
• TH: A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was hearing a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking a declaration striking down Section 33(7) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, which allows candidates to contest from two constituencies at a time, as invalid and unconstitutional. The EC informed the court that it had proposed the amendment of Section 33(7) way back in July 2004. It was one of the 22 “urgent electoral reforms” the EC had suggested to a Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Standing Committee. It had pointed out that there had been cases of a person contesting from two constituencies and winning from both. “The consequence is that a by-election would be required from one constituency, involving avoidable labour and expenditure…”

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Solution: a.

• India emerged as the third most vulnerable country in terms of risk of cyber threats, such as malware, spam and ransomware, in 2017, moving up one place over previous year, according to a report by security solutions provider Symantec.
• In 2017, 5.09% of global threats detected were in India, slightly less than 5.11% in 2016. The U.S. (26.61%) was most vulnerable to such attacks, followed by China (10.95%), according to ‘Internet Security Threat Report’.
• The global threat ranking is based on eight metrics — malware, spam, phishing, bots, network attacks, web attacks, ransomware and cryptominers.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-third-most-vulnerable-country-to-cyber-threats/article23437238.ece;

Solution: b.

Widely publicized hacks such as the WannaCry worm, which affected systems on several continents in May 2017, encrypted victims’ files and demanded cryptocurrency ransoms – bitcoin, in the case of WannaCry – in order to decrypt them.

Cryptojacking takes a different approach, harnessing victims’ machines to “mine”: perform the computations necessary to update cryptocurrencies’ blockchains, creating new tokens and generating fees in the process. These new tokens and fees are deposited to wallets owned by the attacker, while the costs of mining – electricity and wear and tear to computers – are borne by the victim.

In the news: “The (Internal Security Threat) report also pointed out that with the threat landscape becoming more diverse, attackers are working harder to discover new avenues of attack and cover their tracks while doing so.  “From the sudden spread of WannaCry and Petya/NotPetya, to the swift growth in coinminers, 2017 provided us with another reminder that digital security threats can come from new and unexpected sources,” it said. Cyber criminals, it said, are rapidly adding “cryptojacking” to their arsenal as the ransomware market becomes overpriced and overcrowded. “Cryptojacking is a rising threat to cyber and personal security… The massive profit incentive puts people, devices and organisations at risk of unauthorised coinminers siphoning resources from their systems, further motivating criminals to infiltrate everything from home PCs to giant data centers.”

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cryptojacking.asp;

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Solution: a.

“Given the membership of the Lok Sabha, it is evident that this government enjoys a comfortable majority. That said, this position still needs to be tested if questioned. Parliamentary democracy works because there is a broadly held belief in the fair and just exercise of power by the state. The inability of Parliament to function and to test the support for the government undermines the very basis of our democratic structure. The Speaker has the responsibility of ensuring that the House functions and taking whatever steps are necessary — including suspension of members, if needed – to ensure order and check whether there is requisite support to admit the debate on the no-confidence motion.”

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/confidence-in-the-house/article23437310.ece;

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