QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 26 February 2020

Solution: b)

Turkey is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by Greece and Bulgaria to its northwest, the Black Sea to its north, Georgia to its northeast, Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran to its east, Iraq and Syria to its southeast, the Mediterranean Sea to its south, and the Aegean Sea to its west.

Solution: d)

Like the 2019-nCoV or Wuhan virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is also caused due to a type of coronavirus, called the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). SARS is believed to be an animal virus, possibly transmitted from bats to civet cats to human beings. Both SARS and 2019-nCoV are types of viral pneumonia, and there are no antibiotics or safe and effective vaccines that work against them. The SARS virus first infected human beings in the Guangdong province of southern China in 2002, with the region still considered a potential zone of its re-emergence. It was considered the first major novel infectious disease to affect the international community in the 21st century. The epidemic affected 26 countries and resulted in more than 8,000 cases in 2003. Mainland China and Hong Kong together accounted for 87% of all infections and 84 per cent of deaths. SARS is transmitted from person to person, and the symptoms include fever, malaise, headache, myalgia, diarrhoea and shivering. According to the WHO, fever is the most frequently reported symptom, and cough, shortness of breath and diarrhoea follow in the first or second week of illness. Other countries where the SARS CoV spread during the epidemic include Hong Kong, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Singapore and Vietnam. Since the epidemic, a small number of cases have occurred due to laboratory accidents or through animal-to-human transmission. As per a WHO report, three cases of SARS infections were detected in India between November 1, 2002 and July 31, 2003.

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Solution: c)

The Boeing 747-436 plane was able to achieve a speed of 1,327 kph as it was aided by a strong jet stream generated due to Storm Ciara. Jet streams are narrow bands of strong winds that flow over thousands of kilometres from west to east. Major jet streams are found near the upper levels of the atmosphere, around 9 to 16 km from the earth’s surface, and can reach speeds of over 320 kph. The jet streams shift to the north or south depending on the season. During winters, the wind current is the strongest. They are also closer to the Equator during winter. The major jet streams are the Polar Front, Subtropical, and Tropical jet streams. In India, the Tropical jet stream influences the formation and duration of the summer monsoon. Most commercial planes fly at the jet stream level, and a strong jet stream can provide a potent tailwind to a flight travelling from west to east, like the British Airways flight, which flew from New York to London. This helps reduce the travel time for such flights, as their speeds are boosted.

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Solution: b)

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. It stretches from the baseline out to 200 nautical miles (nmi) from its coast.  In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State shall have the exclusive right to construct and to authorize and regulate the construction, operation and use of:

(a) artificial islands;

(b) installations and structures for the purposes provided for in article 56 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and other economic purposes;

(c) installations and structures which may interfere with the exercise of the rights of the coastal State in the zone.

The coastal State shall have exclusive jurisdiction over such artificial islands, installations and structures, including jurisdiction with regard to customs, fiscal, health, safety and immigration laws and regulations.

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Solution: c)

IMD brands the monsoon as ‘normal’ or ‘deficient’ based on how it fares against its benchmark Long Period Average (LPA). LPA is the average rainfall received by the country as a whole during the south-west monsoon, for a 50-year period. The current LPA is 89 cm, based on the average rainfall over years 1951 and 2000. This acts as a benchmark against which the rainfall in any monsoon season is measured. The country is said to have received deficient rainfall if the actual rainfall falls below 90 per cent of LPA. Similarly, the country is said to have received excess rainfall if the rainfall is greater than 110 per cent of LPA. It is deemed ‘normal’ when the actual rainfall received falls between 96 and 104 per cent of LPA. A 50-year average is expected to smooth out the day-to-day, month-to-month variations, while also accounting for freak weather events like the El Nino and La Nina. Like the countrywide figure, IMD maintains an independent LPA for every homogeneous region of the country, which ranges from 71.6 cm to 143.83 cm. The region-wise LPA figures are: 143.83 cm for East and Northeast India, 97.55 cm for Central India, 71.61 cm for South Peninsular India, and 61.50 for Northwest India, which put together bring the all-India figure to 88.75 cm.

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