QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 26 April 2018

Solution: a.

Under the new U.S. legislation, CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), the U.S. can impose sanctions on any company which engages with Russia in the defence or energy sector.

The law (signed by the President of USA in 2017), among other things, imposed new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-dragon-beckons-again/article23662063.ece;

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Solution: d.

Justification for Statement 1: “…though government agencies have attached the diamond merchant duo’s assets in India, an American court has disallowed the sale of their assets in other jurisdictions while allowing their U.S.-based entity to offload its assets. The reason: India is yet to pass a model law mooted by the UN for cross-border insolvency cases. It is not clear whether this ordinance can tide over this major handicap..”

Justification for Statement 2: The Ordinance makes provisions for a Court (‘Special Court’ under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002) to declare a person as a Fugitive Economic Offender.

Read more about the other provisions of the ordinance here: PIB;

Improvisation: TH;

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Solution: c.

Inquilab Zindabad – Hasrat Mohani

Saare Jahan Se Accha and Naya Shivala – Muhammad Iqbal

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/urdu-and-patriotism/article23664027.ece;

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Solution: b.

Indian researchers have discovered the world’s smallest land fern hiding in the Ahwa forests of the Western Ghats in Gujarat’s Dang district.

• The fingernail-sized fern belongs to a group known as the adder’s-tongue ferns, named after their resemblance to a snake’s tongue.
• The new Malvi’s adder’s-tongue fern Ophioglossum malviae is just one centimetr-long.
• A look at the plant’s minuscule spores under a powerful electron microscope revealed it had a unique thick outer layer which similar species lacked.

Ferns, unlike moss, are vascular plants. The vascular system consists of xylem (wood), concerned mainly with the conduction of water and dissolved minerals, and phloem, which functions mainly in the conduction of foods, such as sugar.

Source/improvisation: TH;

Moss versus Fern;

Solution: d.

• The SCO comprises eight member states, namely the Republic of India, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan;
• The SCO counts four observer states, namely the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Republic of Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Mongolia;
• The SCO has six dialogue partners, namely the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Kingdom of Cambodia, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, the Republic of Turkey, and the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

http://eng.sectsco.org/about_sco/;

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1530036;

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