QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 21 April 2020

Solution: b)

What is the Opec+?

• Opec+ refers to the alliance of crude producers, who have been undertaking corrections in supply in the oil markets since 2017.
• OPEC plus countries include Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan and Sudan.

What are their goals?

• The Opec and non-Opec producers first formed the alliance at a historic meeting in Algiers in 2016.
• The aim was to undertake production restrictions to help resuscitate a flailing market.

Solution: c)

Essentially, a currency’s exchange rate vis-a-vis another currency reflects the relative demand among the holders of the two currencies. This demand, in turn, depends on the relative demand for the goods and services of the two countries. If the US dollar is stronger than the rupee, then it shows that the demand for dollars (by those holding rupee) is more than the demand for rupees (by those holding dollars).

Typically, stronger economies have stronger currencies. For instance, the US economy is relatively stronger than India’s and this is reflected in one US dollar being equal to around 76 rupees.

The Reserve Bank of India tabulates the rupee’s Nominal Effective Exchange Rate (NEER) in relation to the currencies of 36 trading partner countries. This is a weighted index — that is, countries with which India trades more are given a greater weight in the index. A decrease in this index denotes depreciation in rupee’s value; an increase reflects appreciation.

There is one more measure that is even better at capturing the actual change. This is called the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) and is essentially an improvement over the NEER because it also takes into account the domestic inflation in the various economies.

Many factors affect the exchange rate between any two currencies ranging from the interest rates to political stability (less of either results in a weaker currency). Inflation is one of the most important factors.

Here’s how. Imagine that the Re-$ exchange rate was exactly 1 in the first year. This means that with Rs 100, one could buy something that was priced at $100 in the US. But suppose the Indian inflation is 20% and the US inflation is zero. Then, in the second year, an Indian would need Rs 120 to buy the same item priced at $100, and the rupee’s exchange rate would depreciate to 1.20.

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Solution: d)

Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, recycled food waste, etc. Bioplastic can be made from agricultural by-products and also from used plastic bottles and other containers using microorganisms. Not all bioplastics are biodegradable nor biodegrade more readily than commodity fossil-fuel derived plastics.

Some bioplastics like PHAs (polyhydroxyalkanoates) are soil- and marine-safe — that is, they safely degrade in the environment within weeks or months, leaving no harmful residues.

Although bioplastics save more nonrenewable energy than conventional plastics and emit less GHG compared to conventional plastics, bioplastics also have negative environmental impacts such as eutrophication and acidification.

Bioplastics induce higher eutrophication potentials than conventional plastics. Biomass production during industrial farming practices causes nitrate and phosphate to filtrate into water bodies; this causes eutrophication which is the richness of the nutrients in body waters. Bioplastics also increase acidification. The high increase in eutrophication and acidification caused by bioplastics is also caused by using chemical fertilizer in the cultivation of renewable raw materials to produce bioplastics.

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Solution: b)

Angikaar has been launched for social behaviour change, focusing on issues such as water & energy conservation, waste management, health, tree plantation, sanitation and hygiene.

Target group: It has been launched for beneficiaries of completed houses under PMAY (U), through community mobilisation and IEC activities.

Implementation: The campaign will converge with schemes and Missions of other Ministries dealing with these subjects. The convergence would especially focus on Ujjwala for gas connection and Ayushman Bharat for health insurance to the beneficiaries of PMAY (U).

The campaign will include door to door activities, ward and city level events.

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Solution: d)

Fortification is the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health. Rice fortification is the practice of increasing the content of essential micronutrients in rice and to improve the nutritional quality of the rice.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has formulated a comprehensive regulation on fortification of foods namely ‘Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016’. These regulations set the standards for food fortification and encourage the production, manufacture, distribution, sale and consumption of fortified foods.

Fortification can be an excellent way of increasing the content of vitamins in breast milk and thus reducing the need for supplementation in postpartum women and infants.

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