QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 15 June 2020

Solution: c)

Pyongyang announced it was cutting off all communication with Seoul, calling South Korea the “enemy” and warning that this was the first of several similar actions. According to experts, these moves may have been a result of North Korea’s frustrations at South Korea’s inability to revive, under US pressure, inter-Korean economic projects that had been beneficial to Pyongyang.

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Solution: d)

Parameters and Weightage

• Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR): 0.30
• Research and Professional Practice (RP): 0.30
• Graduation Outcomes (GO): 0.20
• Outreach and Inclusivity (OI): 0.10
• Peer Perception: 0.10

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras is still the country’s best in the field of higher education, according to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF).

The QS World University Rankings showed that India’s best — including IISc and most IITs — have slipped in the global lists. This is due to the high weightage given to the perception parameter in most international rankings. “The global agencies give us a lower ranking due to ‘perception’, which is a subjective parameter.

The NIRF, which was launched by the HRD Ministry in 2016, gives higher weight to parameters such as teaching and learning, student and faculty strength, use of financial resources, research papers and patents and graduation outcomes. Keeping in mind the social responsibility aspect of education in a developing country, there is a unique provision to judge institutions on inclusivity and outreach measures, including gender, geographical, and socio-economic diversity and the welcoming of differently abled students.

“90% of the parameters in NIRF are completely objective and fact-based, while only 10% is based on the subjective parameter of perception by academic peers and employers”.

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Solution: c)

The Union Cabinet had approved Submission of India’s second Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) towards the fulfilment of the reporting obligation under the Convention.

The submission of India’s second BUR would fulfil the obligation of India to furnish information regarding implementation of the convention, being a party. The scope of the BUR is to provide an update to India’s first BUR to the UNFCCC.

The second biennial update report aims to provide an update to India’s first biennial report to the United Nation’s body on climate change. The report contains five major components including national circumstances, national greenhouse gas inventory, mitigation actions, finance, technology and capacity building needs and support received and domestic monitoring, reporting and verification arrangements.

Key findings:

Out of the total emissions, energy sector accounted for 73%, Industrial Processes and Product Use (IPPU) 8%, agriculture 16% and waste sector 3%. About 12% of the emissions were offset by the carbon sink action of forestland, cropland and settlements.

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Solution: b)

On June 7, astronaut and oceanographer Kathy Sullivan, who was the first American woman to walk in space in 1984, became the first woman and the fifth person in history to descend to the deepest known spot in the world’s oceans, called the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, which is seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

Solution: d)

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth’s only continent without a native human population. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all of the land and ice shelves south of 60°S latitude. The treaty entered into force in 1961.

The treaty sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, establishes freedom of scientific investigation, and bans military activity on the continent. The treaty was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. Since September 2004, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat headquarters has been located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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