QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 28 September 2020

Solution: a)

Section 8 (c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 1985 says, “No person shall cultivate any coca plant or gather any portion of coca plant; cultivate the opium poppy or any cannabis plant; or produce, manufacture, possess, sell, purchase, transport, warehouse, use, consume, import inter-State, export inter-State, import into India, export from India or tranship any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance, except for medical or scientific purposes and in the manner and to the extent provided by the provisions of this Act …” Any person found violating these measures can be charged under the NDPS Act.

The Act extends to the whole of India and it applies also to all Indian citizens outside India and to all persons on ships and aircraft registered in India.

The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 is one of three major drug control treaties currently in force. It provides additional legal mechanisms for enforcing the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.

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Solution: c)

While telescopes offer glimpses of outer space by translating digital data into stunning images, NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) has gone a step further by unveiling a new ‘sonification’ project that transforms data from astronomical images into audio.

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Solution: d)

Recently over 450 long-finned pilot whales have died in Australia in what is being called the biggest stranding of whales on record in Australia. The whales were beached at a remote beach in Tasmania’s west coast.

Whales are known to strand themselves on beaches across the world and they do so singularly or in groups.

There are a few theories that might explain this behaviour. One reason could be that some whales follow schooling fish or other prey into shallow waters, which causes the whales to become disoriented, as a result of which they get stranded. Another reason could be panic from being trapped by a predator such as killer whales or sharks. Another possibility is that whales might be drawn to land by prey-rich currents. Further, the shape of the beach and the coastline could also have a role to play. For instance, if the beach has gently-sloping shorelines, whales that are dependent on echolocation for navigation can be deceived. The species that most often get stranded on Australian beaches are those that use echolocation or sonar for navigation, such as pilot and sperm whales.

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Solution: c)

Brute force acquisition can be performed by 3rd party passcode brute force tools that send a series of passcodes / passwords to the mobile device. This technique uses trial and error in an attempt to create the correct combination of password or PIN to authenticate access to the mobile device.

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Solution: a)

The Essential Commodities Act is an act of Parliament of India which was established to ensure the delivery of certain commodities or products, the supply of which if obstructed owing to hoarding or blackmarketing would affect the normal life of the people. 

Additionally, the government can also fix the maximum retail price (MRP) of any packaged product that it declares an “essential commodity”.

The Centre can include new commodities as and when the need arises, and take them off the list once the situation improves.

The act empowers Central and State Governments concurrently to control production, supply and distribution of certain commodities in view of rising pricing. When difference arise between Centre and States, the act specifies that the Centre will prevail.