INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 3 April 2020) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.
• It is a “policy-making body” which works to generate the necessary political will to bring about national legislative and regulatory reforms in various areas.
• The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/03/financial-action-task-force-fatf-5/

Ans: (a)

Explanation: What is blacklist and grey list?

• Black List: Countries knowns as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs) are put in the blacklist. These countries support terror funding and money laundering activities. The FATF revises the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries.
• Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/03/financial-action-task-force-fatf-5/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: National Agriculture Market

• Stat1: E-NAM (National Agriculture Market) is an online trading platform for agriculture produce aiming to help farmers, traders, and buyers with online trading and getting a better price by smooth marketing. It was launched by the Centre in 2015 and the government had to extend it in a phased manner across the 585 mandis of the country by December 31, 2019.
• Stat2: Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is the lead agency for implementing eNAM under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India.
• Stat3: https://enam.gov.in/web/commodity/commodity-list

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/03/national-agriculture-market-2/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Stat1: It is a location-based service in which an app or other software uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location, known as a geofence.
• GeoTagging, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as a geotagged photograph or video, websites, SMS messages, QR Codes or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata.
• Stat2: Geofencing isn’t just for mobile apps – it’s used to control and track vehicles in the shipping industry, cattle in agriculture industry and – you’ll see this topic pop up in drone discussions.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/03/what-is-geofencing/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) mission is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).
• GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which began orbiting Earth on March 17, 2002. The GRACE missions measure variations in gravity over Earth’s surface, producing a new map of the gravity field every 30 days.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/03/grace-fo-mission/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• An Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J transport aircraft recently delivered 6.2 tonne of essential medicines and hospital consumables to Maldives under Operation Sanjeevani.
• Under Operation Cactus (1988) the Indian Armed Forces have helped the government of Maldives in the neutralization of the coup attempt.
• Under ‘Operation Neer’ (2014) India supplied drinking water to Maldives to deal with the drinking water crisis.

Refer: Facts for Prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/03/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-3-april-2020/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Stat1: it contains all soil nutrients (0.3% N, 0.1% P, 1.0% K, plus a full range of trace elements) and amino acids.
• In terms of soil structure, seaweed does not add a great deal of bulk, but its jelly like alginate content helps to bind soil crumbs together.
• Stat2: Several of the 12,000+ varieties of seaweed in the ocean have been shown to be valuable additions to the organic garden and can be abundantly available free for those living near the coast.
• However, caution should be observed when collecting seaweed, particularly from areas that are liable to pollution, such as downriver (including estuaries) of industrial activities as seaweed is susceptible to contamination.

Refer: https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/seaweed.htm

Ans: (d)

Explanation: Agmarknet Portal:

• The portal provides easy access to commodity-wise, variety-wise daily prices and arrivals information of thousands of varieties and commodities from the wholesale markets spread all over the country.
• Prices and arrivals trend reports for important commodities, futures prices from Multi Commodity Exchange of India Limited and NCDEX are being reported online on the portal.
• The portal is run by the Directorate of Marketing & Inspection with the technical assistance of NIC as consultant on Turn-key basis. The computer facility has been provided at different markets at grassroot level and connected to internet with DMI Hqrs.

Refer: https://agmarknet.gov.in/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• Stat2: It is a “quality mark” and also has established its brand image for more than Six decades. The consumer as well as the organized purchaser prefers ISI Marked products.
• It is not compulsory for all the producers/manufacturers to follow these standards. It is compulsory for products like switches, electric motors, wiring cables etc.
• Stat1 and 3: Licences to use the standard Mark on large number of products are granted to manufacturers under the Certification Mark Scheme operated under the provisions of the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986.
• Licence number is a seven digit number represented as CM/L ——– is also given along with the Standard Mark, which contains information such a manufacturer location and details. The number is unique and published in the Gazette.

Refer: https://bis.gov.in/index.php/fmcs/certification-process/bis-standard-mark/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The Himalayan Yew (Taxus wallachiana) is a medicinal plant found in various parts of Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The species is under great threat due to over-exploitation. In the last one decade, thousands of yew trees have dried up in various parts of Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh due to poor drainage, water logging, environmental degradation etc.
• A chemical compound called ‘taxol’ is extracted from the bark, needles, twigs and roots of this tree, and it has been successfully used to treat some cancers – the drug is now the biggest selling anti-cancer drug in the world.

Refer: https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/258690