QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 27 October 2018

Solution: d.

BBC: For more than a week, thousands of migrants from Central America have been trudging north towards the US. They say they are fleeing persecution, poverty and violence in their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Unlike previous smaller convoys of migrants, this one has drawn the attention of US President Donald Trump. He criticised a number of Central American countries for allowing people to leave the region and come “illegally” to the US. Mr Trump also threatened to cut off foreign aid to these countries, but he has not specified what money will be cut and it is unclear how he would do so.

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Solution: d.

TH: A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan held that only green or improved crackers would be used during religious festivals and other occasions, including weddings. In nationwide curbs, the judgment reduced the time for bursting crackers during Deepavali and other festivals.

The ban came on the basis of a petition filed by two infants — a six-month-old and 14-month-old — through their fathers in 2015. They said the air pollution caused by various factors, especially firecrackers, made Delhi a gas chamber. They pleaded for their right to life.

Diwali is a Festival of Lights. The Supreme Court order does not seek to curb light pollution. The ban on barium nitrate based fireworks is because of the health complications barium salts can cause, and not because of lights that are emitted by its burning.

Full judgment;

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Solution: d.

Taiwan Strait, also called Formosa Strait, lies between the coast of China’s Fukien province and the island of Taiwan (also known as Formosa). The strait extends from southwest to northeast between the South and East China seas.

In the news: TH;

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Solution: d.

• The Bill makes illegal migrants eligible for citizenship on the basis of religion. This may violate Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees right to equality.
• The Bill allows cancellation of OCI registration for violation of any law. This is a wide ground that may cover a range of violations, including minor offences (eg. parking in a no parking zone).
• One of the members of the JPC raised concerns if acknowledging the minorities from Bangladesh as “persecuted minorities” would hurt relations with the neighbouring country.
• Another member said the draft legislation had unnecessarily led to a volatile situation in the northeast as Assam faced violent protests on Tuesday.

PRS Legislative Brief; TH;

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Solution: b.

The first statement refers to the Cripps Mission. (Britain had suffered losses in SE Asia, and it was crucial to have Indian support to ward off the Japanese threat to invade India.)

The Cabinet Mission rejected the demand for a full-fledged Pakistan, because—

• the Pakistan so formed would include a large nonMuslim population-38% in the North-West and 48% in the North-East;
• the very principle of communal self-determination would claim separation of Hindu-majority Western Bengal and  Sikh- and Hindu-dominated ‘Ambala and Jullundur divisions  of Punjab (already some Sikh leaders were demanding a  separate state if the country was partitioned);
• deep-seated regional ties would be disturbed if Bengal and Punjab were partitioned;
• partition would entail economic and administrative problems, for instance, the problem of communication between the western and eastern parts of Pakistan; and
• the division of armed forces would be dangerous.

Improvisation: TH;

Spectrum’s History of Modern India;

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