INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 4 May 2020) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• About BharatMarket: The marketplace will integrate capabilities of various technology companies to provide end-to-end services in the logistics and supply chains from manufacturers to end consumers, including deliveries at home.
  • The e-commerce portal will include a nationwide participation by retailers.
  • This endeavour aims to bring 95 per cent of retail traders onboard the platform, who will be the shareholders and the portal will be run exclusively by the traders.
• About Government e Marketplace (GeM):
  • GeM is a state-of-the-art national public procurement platform of Ministry of Commerce and Industries that has used technology to remove entry barriers for bonafide sellers and has created a vibrant e-marketplace with a wide range of goods and services.
  • Aim: GeM aims to enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.
  • Features: It facilitates online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various Government Departments / Organisations / PSUs. It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best value for their money.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/05/04/bharatmarket/

Ans: (b)

Explanation: About BOBBLE:

• BoBBLE is a joint India-UK project.
• It seeks to examine the impact of ocean processes in the Bay of Bengal (BoB) on the monsoon system.
• It is is a project funded by Union Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Natural Environment Research Council of UK.
• The Bay of Bengal (BoB) plays a fundamental role in controlling the weather systems that make up the South Asian summer monsoon system.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/05/04/bay-of-bengal-boundary-layer-experiment-or-bobble/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: Here Directive word is not correct!!

• Stat1: El Niño is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean with a global impact on weather patterns.
  • The cycle begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean shifts eastward along the equator toward the coast of South America. Normally, this warm water pools near Indonesia and the Philippines. During an El Niño, the Pacific’s warmest surface waters sit offshore of northwestern South America.
• Stat2: The location of tropical storms shifts eastward during an El Niño because atmospheric moisture is fuel for thunderstorms, and the greatest amount of evaporation takes place above the ocean’s warmest water.
• Stat3: There is also an opposite of an El Niño, called La Niña. This refers to times when waters of the tropical eastern Pacific are colder than normal and trade winds blow more strongly than usual.
• Collectively, El Niño and La Niña are parts of an oscillation in the ocean-atmosphere system called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO cycle, which also has a neutral phase

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/05/04/bay-of-bengal-boundary-layer-experiment-or-bobble/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Stat1 &2 : Non-Aligned Movement is an idea that emerged in 1950. NAM is the second-largest platform globally in terms of country membership after the UN. It currently has more than 120 members. The Asian-African Conference of 1955 held in Bandung was the catalyst for the establishment of the Non-Aligned Movement.
• Stat3: The actual formation took place in Belgrade, where the Non-Aligned Movement was formally established by the leaders of 25 developing countries in 1961.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/05/04/non-aligned-movement-summit-2/

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• Stat1: A change in the Earth’s magnetic field resulting in the magnetic north being aligned with the geographic south, and the magnetic south being aligned with the geographic north is called as geomagnetic reversal. Complete magnetic reversals have happened every 200,000 to 300,000 years over the past 20 million years. But that regularity hasn’t continued, as the last known reversal occurred roughly 780,000 years ago.
• Stat2: In the upper regions of the ionosphere, beginning several hundred kilometres above Earth’s surface and extending tens of thousands of kilometres into space, is the magnetosphere, a region where the behaviour of charged particles is strongly affected by the magnetic fields of Earth and the Sun. It is in the lower part of the magnetosphere that overlaps with the ionosphere that the spectacular displays of the aurora borealis and aurora australis take place. The magnetosphere also contains the Van Allen radiation belts, where highly energized protons and electrons travel back and forth between the poles of Earth’s magnetic field.
• Stat3: When living organisms originated, they did not affect the early atmosphere because they lacked the ability to do so. Early atmosphere of earth was modified by solar winds. This happened not only in case of the earth, but also in all the terrestrial planets, which were supposed to have lost their primordial atmosphere through the impact of solar winds

1. The first non-cellular forms of life could have originated 3 billion years back….(then) About 2000 million years ago the first cellular forms of life appeared on earth. Early atmosphere of earth had no free oxygen, the (life) forms until then could at best be only “anaerobic”.
2. For several eons prior to the evolution of cyanobacteria, during the Archean eon, more primitive microbes lived anaerobically, without utilizing oxygen. These ancient organisms—and their “extremophile” descendants today—thrived in the absence of oxygen, relying on sulfate for their energy needs.
3. Life started to have a major impact on the environment ONLY once cyanobacteria or photosynthetic organisms evolved. These organisms, blue-green algae, fed off atmospheric carbon dioxide and converted much of it into marine sediments consisting of the shells of sea creatures.
4. Oxygen was first produced somewhere around 2.7 billion to 2.8 billon years ago. The early atmosphere is much older than that (between 4.5 billion years ago to 2.5 billion years ago).

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/05/04/magnetosphere/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• ATULYA:
  • It is a cost-effective solution to disintegrate corona virus.
  • This microwave steriliser can be operated in portable or fixed installations and helps in disintegrating the virus by differential heating in the range of 56 to 60 Celsius temperatures.
  • Developed by Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT), Pune.
• eCovSens:
  • It is a biosensor that can detect the novel coronavirus in saliva samples.
  • It has been developed by researchers from the National Institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad.
  • The device gives results within 30 seconds using just 20 microlitres of the sample.
  • How it works? The device consists of a carbon electrode and the coronavirus antibody. The antibody is capable of binding with the spike protein found on the outer layer of the virus. An electrical signal is generated when the antigen and antibody binds.

Refer: facts for Prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/05/04/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-4-may-2020/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The international environmental think tank ‘Germanwatch’ has recently released the Global Climate Risk Index 2020.
• The annually published Risk Index analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.).
• Germanwatch, based in Bonn and Berlin (Germany), is an independent development and environmental organisation which works for sustainable global development.
• Key findings: On India:
  • India is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change.
  • In 2020, India’s rank has worsened from the 14th spot in 2017 to 5th in 2018 in the global vulnerability.
  • India has also recorded the highest number of fatalities due to climate change and the second highest monetary losses from its impact in 2018.
  • India’s high rank is due to severe rainfalls, followed by heavy flooding and landslide that killed over 1000 people.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2019/12/06/global-climate-risk-index-2020/

Ans: (d)

Explanation: About WAYU (Wind Augmentation Purifying Unit):

• WAYU is developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) as a part of Technology Development Project funded by Department of Science and Technology.
• The device has the capacity to purify air in an area of 500 meter square. The device consumes only half a unit of electricity for 10 hours of running and has a maintenance cost of only Rs. 1500 per month.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2018/09/28/insights-daily-current-affairs-28-september-2018/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• Corbett NP: Ram Ganga river (Tributary of ganga)
• Kaziranga NP: Brahmaputra river
• Silent Valley NP: Bhavani river (Tributary of Kaveri)

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• Amrabad Tiger Reserve lies in the Nallamala hills, a landscape that is recovering after over two centuries of degradation by the British and the Nizam of Hyderabad.
• It is a mystifying landscape of lofty hills and cavernous valleys, perennial rivers and exciting winding roads that have thick, forested topography on one side and deep and vast valleys on the other along with different hues to mark the seasons.
• It is India’s second-largest tiger reserve, next only to Nagarjunasagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve
• It is dominated by the Chenchus, a ST, who are less affluent and are the most under-privileged group in Telangana.
• In 2017, Telangana Forest Department for first time has re-introduced ‘mouse deer’ in the forests of Nallamalla in Amrabad Tiger Reserve (ATR).

Refer: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/wildlife-biodiversity/amrabad-tiger-reserve-an-eden-under-threat-65524