QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 19 March 2020

Solution: c)

A trade deficit means broadly can mean two things.

One, that the demand in the domestic economy is not being met by the domestic producers. For instance, India may be producing a lot of milk but still not enough for the total milk demand in the country. As such, India may choose to import milk.

Two, many a time a deficit signifies the lack of competitiveness of the domestic industry. For instance, Indian car manufacturers could import steel from China instead of procuring it from the domestic producers if the Chinese steel was decidedly cheaper, for the same quality.

More often than not, the trade deficit of a country is due to a combination of both these main factors.

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Solution: b)

Hard ground swamp deer (Barasingha or Rucervus duvaucelii), the state animal of Madhya Pradesh, is seeing a revival in the Kanha National Park and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) after having been perilously close to extinction for a long time.

KNPTR is on the Maikal range of the Satpura hills, and is spread over an area of 940 square kilometres between Mandla and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh.

The deer was brought back from the verge of extinction with the help of a successful breeding programme and conservation practices at the KNPTR.

Swam deer are already extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is now found only in south- western Nepal and central and northeastern India.

There are three subspecies of swamp deer found in the Indian Subcontinent. The western swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii) found in Nepal, southern swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii branderi) found in central and north India and eastern swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii ranjitsinhi) found in the Kaziranga and Dudhwa National Parks.

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Solution: d)

A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This usually means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology or the will of their constituents.

In India all parties can issue a whip to their members. Parties appoint a senior member from among their House contingents to issue whips — this member is called a Chief Whip, and he/she is assisted by additional Whips.

However, there are some cases such as Indian Presidential elections where whips cannot direct a Member of Parliament (MP) or Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) on whom to vote.

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Solution: b)

IRENA is an intergovernmental organisation mandated to facilitate cooperation, advance knowledge, and promote the adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy.

• It is the first international organisation to focus exclusively on renewable energy, addressing needs in both industrialized and developing countries.
• It was founded in 2009 & its statute entered into force on 8 July 2010 and is headquartered in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi.
• IRENA is an official United Nations observer.

Source

Solution: d)

Countries use bilateral/regional trade agreements to increase market access and expand trade in foreign markets. These agreements are called reciprocal trade agreements (RTAs) because members grant special advantages to each other.

• RTAs include many types of agreements, such as preferential arrangements, free trade agreements, customs unions, and common markets, in which members agree to open their markets to each other’s exports by lowering trade barriers.
• They have become an increasingly prominent feature of the multilateral trading system in recent years, in part, because of stalled global negotiations taking place under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO).