QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 22 February 2019

            Solution: d)

The Prime Minister dedicated the 6th International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) to the nation. The Institute is built at the campus of National Seed Research and Training Center (NSRTC) in Varanasi.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization known for its work in developing rice varieties that contributed to the Green Revolution in the 1960s.

Aim: The Institute, established in 1960 aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and ensure environmental sustainability of rice farming.

It is also the largest non-profit agricultural research center in Asia.

Correct Answer: c)

The idea of issuing priority sector lending certificates first appeared in the Report of the Dr. Raghu

Ram Rajan led Committee on Financial Sector Reforms – A Hundred Small Steps.

The Committee proposed the PSLC scheme to allow a more efficient implementation of the priority sector lending mandate (with similar schemes extending to possible financial service mandates also).

Statement 1: Any registered lender (including microfinance institutions, cooperative banks, banking correspondents, etc.) who has made loans to eligible categories would get ‘Priority Sector Lending

Certificates’ (PSLC) for the amount of these loans. A market would then be opened up for these certificates, where deficient banks can buy certificates to compensate for their shortfall in lending.

Importantly, the loans would still be on the books of the original lender, and the deficient bank would only be buying a right to undershoot its priority sector-lending requirement by the amount of the certificate.

Statement 2: If the loans default, for example, no loss would be borne by the certificate buyer. The merit of this scheme is that it would allow the most efficient lender to provide access to the poor, while finding a way for banks to fulfil their norms at lower cost.

Essentially the PSLC will be a market-driven interest subsidy to those who make priority sector loans. It is an innovative instrument designed in a market friendly way for achieving a socialistic / welfare goal.

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Solution: d)

Karnataka has highest number of elephants followed by Assam and Kerala. Elephant is listed as endangered species under IUCN List.

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Solution: d)

Jim Corbett National Park is the oldest national park in India and was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park to protect the endangered Bengal tiger. It is located in Nainital district of Uttarakhand and was named after Jim Corbett who played a key role in its establishment. The park was the first to come under the Project Tiger initiative.

The park has sub-Himalayan belt geographical and ecological characteristics. An ecotourism destination.

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Solution: a)

42 rivers in India are polluted with at least two toxic heavy metals reveals this report published by Central Water Commission. Ganga, the national river, is polluted with five heavy metals—chromium, copper, nickel, lead and iron.

Unlike organic contaminants, heavy metals are non-biodegradable and also carcinogenic. Heavy metals such as Zinc, Copper, Nickel, Mercury, Cadmium, Lead, Chromium and Arsenic tend to accumulate in organisms, which may lead to a reduction in species diversity. Central Water Commission under Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR has been playing a major role in the monitoring water quality of river water since year 1963 and at present, is observing water quality at 429 key locations covering all major river basins of India. The present report attempts to provide the water quality scenario of Indian rivers in respect of trace & toxic metals.

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