QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 22 February 2020

Solution: a)

Six months after being declared India’s tiger state, Madhya Pradesh has now secured the tag of being the country’s gharial state. According to the findings of a survey conducted by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) – a leading Indian nature conservation organization – Madhya Pradesh houses a maximum 1,255 gharial population in the country followed by 255 gharials in Bihar. “As per the WTI survey report, there are 1,255 gharials in the Chambal river in Madhya Pradesh.” Forest department sources said the Deori Eco Centre in Morena is the prime contributor to boosting the gharial population in MP, as its at this centre where Gharial eggs are hatched and hatchlings are reared up to three years. Gharial prefers deep fast flowing rivers, however adult gharial have also been observed in still water branches (jheel) of rivers and in comparatively velocity-free aquatic environments of deepholes (kunds) at river bends and confluences. Smaller animals seem to conserve energy by resting out of the mainstream in sheltered backwaters, particularly during the monsoon (July-September). Sand and rock outcrops are preferred basking sites and these animals show considerable site fidelity. Historically, gharial were found in the river system of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and southern part of Bhutan and Nepal. Today they survive only in the waters of India and Nepal. The surviving population can be found within the tributaries of the Ganges river system: Girwa (Uttar Pradesh), Son (Madhya Pradesh), Ramganga (Uttarakhand), Gandak (Bihar), Chambal (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) and Mahanadi (Orissa). Status: Listed in Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and as Critically Endangered on IUCN Red List

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Solution: c)

The government has unveiled a programme to research on ‘indigenous’ cows. To be funded by multiple scientific ministries, the initiative, SUTRA PIC, is led by the Department of Science and Technology (DST). It has the Department of Biotechnology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Ministry for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Homoeopathy) among others and the Indian Council of Medical Research as partners. SUTRA PIC or Scientific Utilisation Through Research Augmentation-Prime Products from Indigenous Cows, has five themes: Uniqueness of Indigenous Cows, Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Medicine and Health, Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Agricultural Applications, Prime-products from Indigenous Cows for Food and Nutrition, Prime-products from indigenous cows-based utility items.

Aims and objectives:

• Scientific research on the complete characterisation of milk and milk products derived from Indian indigenous cows.
• Scientific research on nutritional and therapeutic properties of curd and ghee prepared from indigenous breeds of cows by traditional methods.
• Development of standards for traditionally processed dairy products of Indian-origin cows, etc.

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Solution: b)

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Solution: d)

The IIP is an index used to track the performance of the industrial sector in the Indian economy. It does this by mapping the volume of production. But since it is an “index”, it targets a basket of industrial products — ranging from the manufacturing sector to mining to energy — and allocates different weights to them. Then, depending on the production of this basket, it throws up an index value. The index value is then compared with the value of the index in the same month a year ago to arrive at a percentage growth or decline figure.

How is IIP data read?

There are two ways to understand the IIP data. One can either drill down the IIP data and look at the sectoral performance — where the whole industrial sector is divided into three sub-sectors, namely manufacturing, mining and electricity — or look at the use-based classification.

What is the sectoral classification?

In the sectoral classification, manufacturing has the highest weight of 77.6%, mining has 14.4% share and electricity has 8% weight.

What is use-based classification?

Within the use-based classification, data is provided for six categories. These are :-

• Primary Goods (consisting of mining, electricity, fuels and fertilisers) — this has a weight of 34%
• Capital Goods (e.g. Machinery items) — this has a weight of 8%
• Intermediate Goods (e.g. yarns, chemicals, semi-finished steel items, etc) — this has a weight of 17%
• Infrastructure Goods (e.g. paints, cement, cables, bricks and tiles, rail materials, etc) — this has a weight of 12%
• Consumer Durables (e.g. garments, telephones, passenger vehicles, etc) — this has a weight of 13%
• Consumer Non-durables (e.g. food items, medicines, toiletries, etc) — this has a weight of 15%.

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Solution: b)

Among elephant deaths caused in conflict with humans, electrocution is the primary cause, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the deaths (333 out of 510).

Between 2014-15 and 2018-19, 2,361 humans were killed as a result of conflict with elephants, while 510 elephants were killed in incidents of electrocution, train accidents, poaching and poisoning during the same period. Additionally, conflict with tigers caused 275 human deaths between 2014 and 2019

West Bengal had the highest number of human deaths caused by elephants and tigers during these periods — 403 died due to conflict with elephants, and 74 due to tigers. West Bengal is followed by Odisha in the number of human deaths caused by elephants (397) and by Maharashtra in the number of deaths caused by tigers (74).

Among elephant deaths caused in conflict with humans, electrocution is the primary cause, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the deaths (333 out of 510).