QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 25 May 2020

Solution: c)

In India, Maize is grown throughout the year. It is predominantly a kharif crop with 85 per cent of the area under cultivation in the season. Maize is the third most important cereal crop in India after rice and wheat. It accounts for around 10 per cent of total food grain production in the country. In addition to staple food for human being and quality feed for animals, maize serves as a basic raw material as an ingredient to thousands of industrial products that includes starch, oil, protein, alcoholic beverages, food sweeteners, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, film, textile, gum, package and paper industries etc.

Major maize growing states in India are Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

India has allowed imports of 1 lakh tonne of maize during 2019-20 under tariff rate quota (TRQ) system.
Although the area sown under maize in the kharif season is good, there are concerns about the crop size due to lingering risks from the fall army worm (FAW) pest and skewed rainfall.
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Solution: b)

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 Pacific Rim member economies that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Headquartered in Singapore, the APEC is recognized as one of the highest-level multilateral blocs and oldest forums in the Asia-Pacific region, and exerts a significant global influence.

India has requested membership in APEC, and received initial support from the United States, Japan, Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Solution: a)

Maharashtra, India’s largest onion-growing state.

To ensure uninterrupted supply of onion throughout the year, the crop is grown in three cycles –  Kharif (which is sown in May-July and harvested in October-December); late kharif (which is sown in August-September and harvested in January-March); and Rabi (which is sown in October-November and harvested in April).

Of these, kharif and late kharif crops cannot be stored because of large moisture content. Which means, onion grown in the rabi crop cycle is the only one that can be stored.

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Solution: c)

The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. It is the only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter.

Disappearing sea ice impacts Emperor Penguins directly, as the animals use it as a home base for their nine-month breeding season and for feeding and moulting.

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Solution: a)

SAANS, a campaign aimed at reducing child mortality due to pneumonia, which contributes to around 15% deaths annually of children under the age of five.

SAANS, short for ‘Social Awareness and Action to Neutralise Pneumonia Successfully’ was launched to mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia, and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.

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