QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 23 April 2020

Solution: b)

The Indian Ocean has some large marginal or regional seas such as the Arabian Sea, the Laccadive Sea, the Somali Sea, Bay of Bengal, and the Andaman Sea.

The Tasman Sea is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean.

Solution: d)

April 22 is Earth Day, an international event celebrated around the world to pledge support for environmental protection. The year 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the annual celebrations. This year’s theme for Earth Day is ‘climate action’.

In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 as ‘International Mother Earth Day’.

Earth Day was first observed in 1970, when 20 million took to the streets to protest against environmental degradation. The event was triggered by the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, as well as other issues such as smog and polluted rivers.

The landmark Paris Agreement, which brings almost 200 countries together in setting a common target to reduce global greenhouse emissions, was signed on Earth Day 2016.

According to earthday.org, Earth Day aims to “build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and the planet.” The movement’s mission is “to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide.”

Source

Solution: c)

Solution: d)

The Indian Ocean Commission (COI) is an intergovernmental organization that links African Indian Ocean nations: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion (an overseas region of France), and Seychelles. There are also five observers: China, India, Malta, the European Union and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.

The commission was created in 1982 in Port-Louis, Mauritius, and institutionalised in 1984. The secretariat is based in Mauritius. The current secretary-general is Hamada Madi.

Objectives:

• Political and diplomatic cooperation,
• Economic and commercial cooperation
• Sustainable development in a globalisation context, cooperation in the field of agriculture, maritime fishing, and the conservation of resources and ecosystems
• Strengthening of the regional cultural identity, cooperation in cultural, scientific, technical, educational and judicial fields.

ReCoMAP:

The COI has funded a number of regional and national conservation and alternative livelihoods projects through ReCoMAP, Regional Programme for the Sustainable Management of the Coastal Zones of the Countries of the Indian Ocean (PROGECO in French). This project ended in 2011.

Source

Solution: c)

Gravitational lensing is an effect of Einstein’s theory of general relativity – simply put, mass bends light.

Gravitational lensing describes the fact that light is deflected by large masses in the universe, just like a glass lens will bend a light right on Earth.

The more massive the object, the stronger its gravitational field and hence the greater the bending of light rays – just like using denser materials to make optical lenses results in a greater amount of refraction.

Gravitational lensing is useful to cosmologists because it is directly sensitive to the amount and distribution of dark matter.

Lensing can help astronomers work out exactly how much dark matter there is in the Universe as a whole and also how it is distributed.

Lensing has also been used to help verify the existence of dark matter itself.