QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 2 January 2021

Solution: b)

The Himalayan trillium (Trillium govanianum), a common herb of the Himalayas was declared ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In recent years, the plant has become one of the most traded commercial plants of the Himalayan region, due to its high medicinal quality. It has been used in traditional medicine to cure diseases like dysentery, wounds, skin boils, inflammation, sepsis, as well as menstrual and sexual disorders. Recent experiments have shown that the rhizome of the herb is a source of steroidal saponins and can be used as an anti-cancer and anti-aging agent. This increased its market value and has now become an easy target for poachers.

Found in temperate and sub-alpine zones of the Himalayas, at an altitude from 2,400-4,000 metres above sea level, the existence of the plant has been traced across India, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. In India, it is found in – Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, and Uttarakhand.

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Solution: a)

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India, is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India.

Considering the utility nature of the objects of NPCI, it has been incorporated as a “Not for Profit” Company under the provisions of Section 25 of Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013), with an intention to provide infrastructure to the entire Banking system in India for physical as well as electronic payment and settlement systems.

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Solution: c)

The Inclusive Wealth Report (IWR) is a biennial effort led by the UN Environment to evaluate the capacities and performance of the nations around the world to measure sustainability of economy and wellbeing of their people.

A country’s inclusive wealth is the social value (not dollar price) of all its capital assets, including natural capital, human capital and produced capital.

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Solution: d)

Natural nanomaterials, as the name suggests, are those that occur naturally in the world. These include particles that make up volcanic ash, smoke, and even some molecules in our bodies, such as the hemoglobin in our blood. The brilliant colors of a peacock’s feathers are the result of spacing between nanometer-scale structures on their surface.

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Solution: b)

Bacteriophages are the viruses that can kill the bacteria.

They are comprised of a protein capsule around an RNA or DNA genome.

They are ubiquitous viruses, found wherever bacteria exist.

They are seen as a possible therapy against multi-drug-resistant strains of many bacteria.

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