INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 1 March 2021) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched a City Innovation Exchange (CiX).
• What is it?
  • The CiX will connect cities to innovators across the national ecosystem to design innovative solutions for their pressing challenges.
  • The platform will ease the discovery, design & validation of solutions through a robust, transparent and user-centric process that will reduce barriers for innovators and cities to discover fitting solutions.
  • Built on the concept of ‘open innovation’, the platform will help in the flow of ideas ‘outside in and inside out, enhancing the skills and capacity required to deliver smart urban governance.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/city-innovation-exchange-cix/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• With a view to harness the potential of bamboo crop, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation (DAC), Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is implementing a 100% Centrally Sponsored Scheme called Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) in which National Bamboo Mission (NBM) is being implemented as a sub scheme.

• More>>

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/north-east-cane-and-bamboo-development-council-necbdc/

Ans: (a)

Explanation: What is AIIB?

• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a multilateral development bank with a mission to improve social and economic outcomes in Asia and beyond.
• The Parties (57 founding members) to agreement comprise the Membership of the Bank.
• It is headquartered in Beijing.
• It commenced operations in January 2016.
• Aim:
  • By investing in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors today, it aims to connect people, services and markets that over time will impact the lives of billions and build a better future.
• Membership:
  • There are more than 100 members now.
  • Fourteen of the G-20 nations are AIIB members including France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
• Voting Rights:
  • China is the largest shareholder with 26.61 % voting shares in the bank followed by India (7.6%), Russia (6.01%) and Germany (4.2 %).
  • The regional members hold 75% of the total voting power in the Bank.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/asian-infrastructure-investment-bank-aiib-4/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• PSLV is designed mainly to deliver the “earth-observation” or “remote-sensing” satellites with lift-off mass of up to about 1750 Kg to Sun-Synchronous circular polar orbits of 600-900 Km altitude. The GSLV is designed mainly to deliver the communication-satellites to the highly elliptical (typically 250 x 3.6000 Km) Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). The satellite in GTO is further raised to its final destination, viz., Geo-synchronous Earth orbit (GEO) of about 3.6000 Km altitude (and zero degree inclination on equatorial plane) by firing its in-built on-board engines. Due to their geo-synchronous nature, the satellites in these orbits appear to remain permanently fixed in the same position in the sky, as viewed from a particular location on Earth, thus avoiding the need of a tracking ground antenna and hence are useful for the communication applications.
• Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/what-is-the-difference-between-gslv-and-pslv/article6742299.ece
• GSLV Mk 3 is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-one, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.
• Source: https://www.isro.gov.in/launchers/gslv-mk-3

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/pslv-c51-launch/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: About TEQIP:

• In the year 2002, the ministry of Human Resource and Development launched the TEQIP scheme.
• The project commenced with the World Bank assistance.
• The programme aims to overhaul the quality of technical education in the Low Income States and Special Category States (SCS) in India.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/technical-education-quality-improvement-programme-teqip/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• 28th February is celebrated as National Science Day (NSD) in India.
• NSD is celebrated to commemorate discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’, which led to Sir C.V. Raman winning the Noble Prize.
• The first National Science Day was celebrated on February 28, 1987.
• Theme: “Future of STI: Impacts on Education, Skills, and Work”.
• What is Raman Effect?
  • A phenomenon in spectroscopy discovered by the eminent physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman in 1928.
  • Raman Effect is a change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules.
  • When a beam of light traverses a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of the light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam.
  • Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength. A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light; its presence is a result of the Raman Effect.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/national-science-day-2/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• S1: Snow leopard is listed as Vulnerable under the IUCN Red List.
• S3: In India, the snow leopard habitat is spread over the northern Himalayan mountains of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
• S2: The Union Government had launchedSECURE Himalaya, a six-year project to ensure conservation of locally and globally significant biodiversity, land and forest resources in high Himalayan ecosystem spread over four states viz. Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/study-on-snow-leopard-in-himachal-pradesh/

Ans: (d)

Explanation: Jal Shakti Abhiyan:

• It is a time-bound, mission-mode campaign.
• Launched in 2019, it covered 256 water stressed districts across the country.
• The campaign will run through citizen participation.
• It is also a mass movement to bring all the stakeholders under one ambit of water conservation drive.
• It is a collaborative effort of various Ministries of the Government of India and State Governments, being coordinated by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan ‘catch the rain’:
  • To be initiated by the Jal Shakti Ministry.
  • It will be a 100-day campaign for the sake of cleaning up the water sources around us and conserving rainwater.

Refer: facts for prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/03/01/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-1-march-2021/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Maguri Motapung Beel is less than 10 km south of the more famous Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and part of the Dibru-Saikhowa Biosphere Reserve.
• The wetland derives its name from ‘Magur’, local word for the catfish Clarius batrachus, once found here in abundance. Motapung is a village nearby, and Beel is the Assamese word for wetland.

Refer: Facts for Prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/07/20/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-20-july-2020/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Dibru-Saikhowa National Park is a national park in Assam, India, located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
• It was designated a Biosphere Reserve in July 1997
• The park is bounded by the Brahmaputra and Lohit Rivers in the north and Dibru river in the south.
• It mainly consists of moist mixed semi-evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, canebrakes and grasslands.
• It is the largest salix swamp forest in north-eastern India, with a tropical monsoon climate with a hot and wet summer and cool and usually dry winter.

Refer: Facts for Prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/07/20/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-20-july-2020/