QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 30 April 2018

Solution: d.

SDG 15 (Life on Land): Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss. The statement in the question is one of the targets under this Goal.

Source/improvisation: PIB;

Solution: d.

In the news (TH): The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has once again placed India on ‘Priority Watch List’ in it’s annual Special 301 Report on the state of intellectual property protection.. The report comes at a time when the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has demanded the elimination of ‘Form 27’ — a statutory requirement unique to India’s patent law that mandates patent holders to declare how a monopoly is being exercised in the country.. The report called India’s implementation of the patent act as restrictive.

USTR: Special 301: The “Special 301” Report reflects the outcome of a Congressionally-mandated annual review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement. The review reflects the Administration’s resolve to encourage and maintain enabling environments for innovation, including effective IPR protection and enforcement, in markets worldwide, which benefit not only U.S. exporters but the domestic IP-intensive industries in those markets as well. The Report identifies a wide range of concerns that limit innovation and investment..

Solution: d.

The carbon-capturing formations in Oman, consisting largely of a rock called peridotite, are in a slice of oceanic crust and the mantle layer below it that was thrust up on land by tectonic forces nearly 100 million years ago. Peridotite normally is miles below the earth’s surface. When the rocks are exposed to air or water as they are in Oman, they are like a giant battery with a lot of chemical potential. They’re far from equilibrium with the atmosphere and surface water. These rocks

naturally react with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and turn it into stone. Even pooled spring water that has bubbled up through the rocks reacts with CO2 to produce an ice-like crust of carbonate that, if broken, re-forms within days.

Image: Veins of white carbonate minerals run through slabs of dark rock.

Scientists say that if this natural process, called carbon mineralisation, could be harnessed, accelerated and applied inexpensively on a huge scale — admittedly some very big “ifs” — it could help fight climate change. Rocks could remove some of the billions of tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide that humans have pumped into the air since the beginning of the Industrial Age.

Capturing and storing carbon dioxide, is drawing increased interest. The IPCC says that deploying such technology is essential to efforts to rein in global warming.

TH; NYT;

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Solution: a.

The One Health concept (CDC) recognises that the health of people is connected to the health of animals and the environment. The goal of One Health is to encourage the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines-working locally, nationally, and globally-to achieve the best health for people, animals, and our environment.

The areas of work in which a One Health approach (WHO) is particularly relevant include food safety, the control of zoonoses (diseases that can spread between animals and humans, such as flu, rabies and Rift Valley Fever), and combatting antibiotic resistance (when bacteria change after being exposed to antibiotics and become more difficult to treat).

One of the objectives of India’s National Action Plan on Anti-Microbial Resistance (NAP-AMR) is to “Define the strategic priorities, key actions, outputs, responsibilities, and indicative timeline and budget to slow the emergence of AMR in India and strengthen the organisational & management structures to ensure intra- & inter-sectoral coordination with a One Health approach..”

Improvisation (reference to India’s NAP-AMR): TH;

Image Source: World Organisation for Animal Health;

Solution: d.

The UIP was launched in 1985. Thus, option ‘a’ holds good well before Mission Indradhanush was launched. The most appropriate answer for this question is option ‘d’.

From 2014 (PIB): The Health Minister informed that between 2009-2013 immunization coverage has increased from 61% to 65%, indicating only 1% increase in coverage every year. To accelerate the process of immunization by covering 5% and more children every year, the Mission Mode has been adopted to achieve target of at least 90% coverage by 2020, he stated.

In 2017 (PIB), “Intensified Mission Indradhanush (IMI)” was launched. The special drive will focus on improving immunization coverage in select districts (high priority districts) and urban areas to ensure full immunization to more than 90% by December 2018. The achievement of full immunisation under Mission Indradhanush to at least 90% coverage was to be achieved by 2020 earlier. With the launch of IMI, achievement of the target has now been advanced.

Improvisation: TH;

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