INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 17 April 2020) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• Stat1: The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves.
• Stat2: The value of the SDR is based on a basket of five currencies—the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Chinese renminbi, the Japanese yen, and the British pound sterling.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/18/special-drawing-rights-sdr/

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• Stat2: The SDR was created as a supplementary international reserve asset in the context of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system. The collapse of Bretton Woods system in 1973 and the shift of major currencies to floating exchange rate regimes lessened the reliance on the SDR as a global reserve asset. Nonetheless, SDR allocations can play a role in providing liquidity and supplementing member countries’ official reserves, as was the case amid the global financial crisis.
• The SDR serves as the unit of account of the IMF and some other international organizations.
• Stat1: The SDR is neither a currency nor a claim on the IMF. Rather, it is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. SDRs can be exchanged for these currencies.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/18/special-drawing-rights-sdr/

Ans: (d)

Explanation: UNESCO’s World Heritage mission is to

• Encourage countries to sign the World Heritage Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage;
• Encourage States Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List;
• Encourage States Parties to establish management plans and set up reporting systems on the state of conservation of their World Heritage sites;
• Help States Parties safeguard World Heritage properties by providing technical assistance and professional training;
• Provide emergency assistance for World Heritage sites in immediate danger;
• Support States Parties’ public awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation;
• Encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage;
• Encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/18/world-heritage-day-2/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Friday, announced a 60% increase in the Ways and Means Advances (WMA) limit of state governments over and above the level as on March 31, with a view to enabling them “to undertake COVID-19 containment and mitigation efforts” and “to better plan their market borrowings”.

What exactly is Ways and Means Advances (WMA)?

• It is a facility for both the Centre and states to borrow from the RBI.
• These borrowings are meant purely to help them to tide over temporary mismatches in cash flows of their receipts and expenditures.
• In that sense, they aren’t a source of finance per se. Section 17(5) of the RBI Act, 1934 authorises the central bank to lend to the Centre and state governments subject to their being repayable “not later than three months from the date of the making of the advance”.

RBI allows banks to maintain lower liquidity ratio:

• The central bank has reduced the liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) requirement for banks to 80 per cent from 100 per cent with immediate effect as a relief to these lenders.
• This means, banks should have a stock of high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) — such as short-term government debt — which is 80 per cent of their total net cash outflows for 30 days. RBI stipulates banks to maintain LCR so that they can be sell the assets in stressed times.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/04/18/how-the-rbi-is-handling-the-great-lockdown/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Stat1: NHB is an All India Financial Institution (AIFl), set up in 1988, under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987. It is an apex agency established to operate as a principal agency to promote housing finance institutions both at local and regional levels and to provide financial and other support incidental to such institutions and for matters connected therewith.
• Stat2: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sold its entire stakes in the National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) and National Housing Bank. The decision to divest its entire stake was taken based on the recommendations of the second Narasimham Committee.
• The government now holds a 100 per cent stake in both NHB and NABARD.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2019/04/26/national-housing-bank-2/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• Stat1: The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), with help from Gujarat’s forest department, is attempting for the first time a process to restore coral reefs using biorock or mineral accretion technology.
• A biorock structure was installed one nautical mile off the Mithapur coast in the Gulf of Kachchh on 19th January, 2020. The scientists have used solar panels for power in this case.
• Stat2: Biorock: It is the name given to the substance formed by electro accumulation of minerals dissolved in seawater on steel structures that are lowered onto the sea bed and are connected to a power source, in this case solar panels that float on the surface
• Stat3: Biorock technology is an innovative process originally invented in 1976 by the late architect Professor Wolf Hilbertz to produce natural building materials in the sea. Biorock materials are the only marine construction material that grow, get stronger with age, and are self-repairing.
• 

Refer: Insights Pt 2019 Exclusive (Environment Protection): https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/14/insta-revision-modules-environment-module-for-upsc-cse-prelims-2020/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• It is a deciduous tree native to tropical areas of America.
• It grows up to 15 to 20 metres in a short period of time and distributes thousands of seeds after flowering.
• It is an invasive species.
• Concerns: The thick foliage of the tree arrests the growth of other indigenous tree and grass species. Thus, it causes food shortage for the wildlife population, especially herbivores. It also adversely affect the germination and growth of the native species.
• It is categorised as ‘Least Concern’ under IUCN Red List.

Refer: Insights Pt 2019 Exclusive (Environment Protection): https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/14/insta-revision-modules-environment-module-for-upsc-cse-prelims-2020/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Stat1 and 2: The Jammu and Kashmir UT will set up a 10-member committee that will declare Dal Lake, an Eco-sensitive Zone. The Environment Protection Act, 1986 does not mention the word “Eco-sensitive Zones”.
• The section 3(2)(v) of the Act, says that Central Government can restrict areas in which any industries, operations or processes shall not be carried out or shall be carried out subject to certain safeguards
• Besides the section 5 (1)of this act says that central government can prohibit or restrict the location of industries and carrying on certain operations or processes on the basis of considerations like the biological diversity of an area, maximum allowable limits of concentration of pollutants for an area, environmentally compatible land use, and proximity to protected areas.
• The above two clauses have been effectively used by the government to declare Eco-Sensitive Zones or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFA). The same criteria have been used by the government to declare No Development Zones.

Refer: Insights Pt 2019 Exclusive (Environment Protection): https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/14/insta-revision-modules-environment-module-for-upsc-cse-prelims-2020/

Ans: (b)

Explanation: Centre clarifies on definition of forest.

• Clarifications given by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Environment Ministry:
• States need not take the Centre’s approval to define what constitutes unclassified land as forest.
• Do we have a comprehensive legal definition for forest?
  • Since 2014, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has been considering evolving a legal definition of forest and reportedly prepared drafts as late as 2016. These, however, were never made public.
• How is a forest defined?
  • The freedom to define land, not already classified as forests by the Centre or State records, as forest has been the prerogative of the States since 1996 and stems from a Supreme Court order, called the Godavarman judgment.
  • The Supreme Court judgment expanded the definition of forest to include lands that were already notified by the Centre as forests, that appear in government records as forests as well as those that fell in the “dictionary definition” of forest.
  • The latter clause allows the States to evolve their own criteria and define tracts of land as forest, and these would then be bound by forest conservation laws.

Refer: Insights Pt 2019 Exclusive (Environment Protection): https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/14/insta-revision-modules-environment-module-for-upsc-cse-prelims-2020/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• India tests Swedish torrefaction technology to reduce stubble burning.
• What is torrefaction?
  • It is a thermal process used to produce high-grade solid biofuels from various streams of woody biomass or agro residues.
  • The end product is a stable, homogeneous, high quality solid biofuel with far greater energy density and calorific value than the original feedstock, providing significant benefits in logistics, handling and storage, as well as opening up a wide range of potential uses.

Refer: Insights Pt 2019 Exclusive (Environment Protection): https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/14/insta-revision-modules-environment-module-for-upsc-cse-prelims-2020/