QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 29 July 2020

Solution: d)

• The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in January 1994 to facilitate agri-business ventures by catalysing private investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) Scheme in close association with financial institutions.
• SFAC is an Autonomous Society promoted by Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India”
• It is registered under Societies Registration Act 1860.

The main functions of SFAC are:

• Promotion of development of small agribusiness through VCA scheme.
• Helping formation and growth of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) / Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs).
• Improving availability of working capital and development of business activities of FPOs/FPCs through Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme.
• Implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Electronic Trading platform.

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Solution: b)

India has moved down 10 places to rank 68th on the annual global competitiveness index, largely due to improvements witnessed by several other economies.

Global Competitiveness Index is compiled by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF).

Solution: d)

Scientists have created the world’s first living, self-healing robots using stem cells from frogs.

Named xenobots after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which they take their stem cells, the machines are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide — small enough to travel inside human bodies. They can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food, and work together in groups.

These are “entirely new life-forms”.

Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types.

Xenobots even have self-healing capabilities; when the scientists sliced into one robot, it healed by itself and kept moving.

Xenobots don’t look like traditional robots — they have no shiny gears or robotic arms. Instead, they look more like a tiny blob of moving pink flesh.

Xenobots could be used to clean up radioactive waste, collect microplastics in the oceans, carry medicine inside human bodies, or even travel into our arteries to scrape out plaque. The xenobots can survive in aqueous environments without additional nutrients for days or weeks — making them suitable for internal drug delivery.

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Solution: c)

Gee’s golden langur also known as the golden langur, is an Old-World monkey found in a small region of western Assam, India and in the neighboring foothills of the Black Mountains of Bhutan. It is one of the most endangered primate species of India.

They are listed in Appendix I of CITES and Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Gee’s golden langur is currently endangered with the current population trend as decreasing.

The regions of its distribution are very small; the main region is limited to an area approximately 60 miles square bounded on the south by the Brahmaputra River, on the east by the Manas River, on the west by the Sankosh River, all in Assam, and on the north by the Black Mountains of Bhutan.

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Solution: b)

National Disaster Response Fund is defined in Section 46 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act) as a fund managed by the Central Government for meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation due to any threatening disaster situation or disaster. NDRF is constituted to supplement the funds of the State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) of the states to facilitate immediate relief in case of calamities of a severe nature.

The DM Act defines “disaster” to mean ‘a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes, or by accident or negligence which results in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property, or damage to, or degradation of, environment, and is of such a nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.’

NDRF amount can be spent only towards meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation. For projects exclusively for the purpose of mitigation, i.e, measures aimed at reducing the risk, impact or effect of a disaster or threatening disaster situation a separate fund called National Disaster Mitigation Fund has to be constituted.

The NDRF is financed through the levy of a cess on certain items, chargeable to excise and customs duty, and approved annually through the Finance Bill. The requirement for funds beyond what is available under the NDRF is met through general budgetary resources.

Currently, a National Calamity Contingency Duty (NCCD) is levied to finance the NDRF and additional budgetary support is provided as and when necessary. A provision also exists in the DM Act to encourage any person or institution to make a contribution to the NDRF.

NDRF is located in the “Public Accounts” of Government of India under “Reserve Funds not bearing interest”

Department of Agriculture and Cooperation under Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) monitors relief activities for calamities associated with drought, hailstorms, pest attacks and cold wave /frost while rest of the natural calamities are monitored by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

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