QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 08 October 2019

Solution: c)

A Crèche (Bal Basera) is a project for the welfare of Children of Construction Workers. Bal Basera shall accommodate about 35 Children and shall be run by the CPWD OWA.

CPWD Officer’s Wives Association, a Socio Cultural Organization, is actively involved in the social welfare activities of weaker sections of society since last 48 years. It is providing monetary help to the families of CPWD employees in distress, donating funds for organizations engaged in the humanitarian causes, managing a large number of Bal Baseras and organizing health camps at construction sites, running a Vocational Training Centre, a Day Care Centre and a Pre nursery School in New Delhi.

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            Solution: c)

The health ministry in April 2018 notified a ban on private firms from manuacturing and selling oxytocin, stating that it wanted to restrict the responsibility of supplying the drug to a Karnataka-based public sector manufacturer to avoid its misuse in the veterinary field.

• Oxytocin has also been dubbed the hug hormone, cuddle chemical, moral molecule, and the bliss hormone due to its effects on behavior, including its role in love and in female reproductive biological functions in reproduction.
• Oxytocin is a hormone that is made in the brain, in the hypothalamus. It is transported to, and secreted by, the pituitary gland, which is located at the base of the brain.
• It acts both as a hormone and as a brain neurotransmitter.
• The release of oxytocin by the pituitary gland acts to regulate two female reproductive functions: Childbirth and Breast-feeding.

Oxytocin is also used to increase the size of vegetables such as pumpkins, watermelons, eggplants, gourds, and cucumbers.

Solution:  b)

The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the Earth’s North and South poles. The term vortex refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air close to the poles.

The polar vortex spins in the stratosphere, a layer of the atmosphere 10-48 km above the ground and above the troposphere, where most familiar weather patterns develop.

Often during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the polar vortex will become less stable and expand, sending cold Arctic air southward over the United States.

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Solution: d)

REITs are similar to mutual funds. While mutual funds provide for an opportunity to invest in equity stocks, REITs allow one to invest in income-generating real estate assets.

They are collective investment vehicles that operate and manage property portfolios and give returns to investors. Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) mandated that all REITS be listed on exchanges and make an initial public offer to raise money.

REITs can reduce the risk related to your property investments as 80 per cent of the value of the REIT should be in completed and rent-generating assets. They are required to be run by professional managements with specified years of experience notified by SEBI.

A REIT can be launched as an initial public offer (IPO). An investor can apply for investment in the REIT through his demat account, either online or by filling up the IPO form and indicating demat account details. After the issue is closed, the REIT will allot units to eligible investors.

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Solution: b)

The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) launched a ‘drought toolbox’ – a kind of knowledge bank that may be used by vulnerable countries, including India, to reduce drought risk, be better prepared and effectively respond to it – on sidelines of its conference (COP14) in Greater Noida.
It is a web page that provides the stakeholders easy access to case studies and other resources to support action on drought preparedness with the aim of boosting the resilience of people and ecosystems to drought.

The ‘drought toolbox’ will help the countries in framing or fine-tuning their respective national drought policies in due course based on monitoring, forecast, and early warning.

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