QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 20 July 2020

Solution: c)

Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Act, 2019 provides for a reduction in tenure of chairpersons of national and state human rights bodies to three years from the earlier five years. It amends the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

Further, the Act allows for the reappointment of members of the NHRC and SHRCs for a period of five years till the age of 70 years.

The 1993 Act states that the chairperson of the SHRC is a person who should have been chief justice of a high court.  The new act amends this to provide that a person who has been chief justice or judge of a high court is to be the chairperson of the SHRC.

Solution: d)

Every transgender person shall have— (a) a right to reside in the household where parent or immediate family members reside; (b) a right not to be excluded from such household or any part thereof; and (c) a right to enjoy and use the facilities of such household in a non-discriminatory manner.

A person recognised as transgender shall have a right to self-perceived gender identity.

The District Magistrate shall issue to the applicant, a certificate of identity as transgender person after following such procedure and in such form and manner, within such time, as may be prescribed indicating the gender of such person as transgender.

No person or establishment shall discriminate against a transgender person on any of the following grounds, namely: —

(a) the denial, or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment in, educational establishments and services thereof;

(b) the unfair treatment in, or in relation to, employment or occupation;

(c) the denial of, or termination from, employment or occupation;

(d) the denial or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment in, healthcare services;

(e) the denial or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment with regard to, access to, or provision or enjoyment or use of any goods, accommodation, service, facility, benefit, privilege or opportunity dedicated to the use of the general public or customarily available to the public;

(f) the denial or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment with regard to the right of movement;

(g) the denial or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment with regard to the right to reside, purchase, rent, or otherwise occupy any property;

(h) the denial or discontinuation of, or unfair treatment in, the opportunity to stand for or hold public or private office; and

(i) the denial of access to, removal from, or unfair treatment in, Government or private establishment in whose care or custody a transgender person may be.

Solution: c)

Vietnam has rightfully protested Chinese aggression in Vanguard Bank in the South China Sea region.

Scarborough Shoal is also located in the South China Sea.

Source

Solution: d)

Nepal’s Cabinet has endorsed a new political map showing Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura under its territory, amidst a border dispute with India.

Nepal’s ruling Nepal Communist Party lawmakers have also tabled a special resolution in Parliament demanding return of Nepal’s territory in Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh.

The Lipulekh pass is a far western point near Kalapani, a disputed border area between Nepal and India. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory – India as part of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of Dharchula district.

India has said that the recently-inaugurated road section in Pithoragarh district in Uttarakhand lies completely within its territory.

Nepal said, the new map was drawn on the basis of the Sugauli Treaty of 1816 signed between Nepal and then the British India government and other relevant documents, which suggests Limpiyadhura, from where the Kali river originated, is Nepal’s border with India.

India and Nepal are at a row after the Indian side issued a new political map incorporating Kalapani and Lipulekh on its side of the border in October 2019. The tension further escalated after India inaugurated a road link connecting Kailash Mansarovar, a holy pilgrimage site situated at Tibet, China, that passes through the territory belonging to Nepal.

Source

Solution: b)

Plant genetic engineering methods were developed over 30 years ago, and since then, genetically modified (GM) crops or transgenic crops have become commercially available and widely adopted in many countries.

In India, Bt cotton was approved by Government of India in March 2002 as the first transgenic crop for commercial cultivation.

Though, it is widely claimed that transgenic crops offers dramatic promise for meeting some of greatest challenges but like all new technologies, it also poses certain risks, because of the fact that transgenic crops can bring together new gene combinations which are not found in nature having possible harmful effects on health, environmental and non-target species.

Transgenic crops are not toxic nor are likely to proliferate in the environment. However, specific crops may be harmful by virtue of novel combinations of traits they possess.

The regulatory framework for transgenic crops in India consists of the following rules and guidelines.

1. a) Rules and policies

Rules, 1989 under Environment Protection Act (1986)

Seed Policy, 2002

1. b) Guidelines

Recombinant DNA guidelines, 1990

Guidelines for research in transgenic crops, 1998

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