QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 6 November 2020

Solution: b)

The 12th Finance Commission raised the share of States in shareable Central taxes from 29.5 per cent to 30.5 per cent.

13th Finance Commission: The states’ share in central taxes has been increased from 30.5 per cent (including the share of additional excise duties) to 32 per cent.

The 14th Finance Commission considerably increased the devolution of taxes from the centre to states from 32% to 42%.

15th Finance Commission has recommended 41% share for states from Centre’s divisible pool.

Source

Solution: b)

Bioplastic simply refers to plastic made from plant or other biological material instead of petroleum. It is also often called bio-based plastic.

It can either be made by extracting sugar from plants like corn and sugarcane to convert into polylactic acids (PLAs), or it can be made from polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) engineered from microorganisms.

Not all bioplastics are biodegradable nor biodegrade more readily than fossil-fuel derived plastics.

Biodegradability of bioplastics in compost environments can be upgraded by adding more soluble sugar and increasing temperature. Soil environments on the other hand have high diversity of microorganisms making it easier for biodegradation of bioplastics to occur. However, bioplastics in soil environments need higher temperatures and a longer time to biodegrade.

Source

Solution: d)

Six official committees have so far estimated the number of people living in poverty in India — the working group of 1962; V N Dandekar and N Rath in 1971; Y K Alagh in 1979; D T Lakdawala in 1993; Suresh Tendulkar in 2009; and C Rangarajan in 2014.

Source

Solution: b)

India is the largest emitter of sulphur dioxide (SO2) in the world, contributing more than 15 per cent of global anthropogenic emissions, according to a new report by Greenpeace released on August 19, 2019.

The primary reason for India’s high emission output is the expansion of coal-based electricity generation over the past decade, the report added.

The greatest source of SO2 in the atmosphere is the burning of fossil fuels in power plants and other industrial facilities. Other sources include industrial processes such as extracting metal from ore, natural sources such as volcanoes, and locomotives, ships and other vehicles and heavy equipment that burn fuel with high sulphur content.

The vast majority of plants in India lack flue-gas desulfurisation (FGD) technology to reduce air pollution, according to the report.

Studies show that the sulphur content in Indian coal is hardly 0.7%.

Solution: d)

TRAI regularly issues orders and directions on various subjects such as tariffs, interconnections, quality of service, Direct To Home (DTH) services and mobile number portability.