QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 12 March 2021

Solution: b)

The Indian Navy on March 10, 2021 inducted its third Scorpene-class conventional diesel electric submarine, INS Karanj, into service.

The first submarine of the class, INS Kalvari, was commissioned in December 2017 and the second, INS Khanderi, in September 2019. A fourth submarine, Vela, was launched into the water in May 2019 and the fifth, Vagir, in November 2020, and both are undergoing sea trials.

The Scorpene class submarines are one of the most advanced conventional submarines in the world. The Scorpene class of submarines were designed by French naval shipbuilding firm DCNS in partnership with Spanish shipbuilding firm Navantia.

Project 75I

Under this project of the Indian Navy, six latest-generation attack submarines are being built. They are expected to be completed by 2022. The project is taking shape at Mazagon Dock in Mumbai.

Naval Group is among the five Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) shortlisted for the Navy’s project that was processed through the Strategic Partnership (SP) model of defence procurement. MDL and Larsen & Toubro are the two Indian companies shortlisted under it.

Source

Solution: c)

Bamiyan is situated in the high mountains of the Hindu Kush in the central highlands of Afghanistan. The valley, which is set along the line of the Bamiyan River, was once integral to the early days of the Silk Roads, providing passage for not just merchants, but also culture, religion and language.

Source

Solution: a)

The Uttarakhand government, had sought withdrawal of “inner-line permit” (ILP) system in Niti Valley of Chamoli district and Nelang Valley of Uttarkashi district for better border management and expansion of tourism and other economic activities in villages located there.

The ILP system restricts movement in areas close to the border for everyone other than those with a formal permission. In Uttarakhand, tourists have to obtain ILP for locations near China border, at least in the three districts of Uttarkashi, Pithoragarh and Chamoli.

Uttarakhand shares a 350-km border with China and a 275-km boundary with Nepal.

Source

Solution: c)

Zombies are typically identified using the interest coverage ratio, the ratio of a firm’s profit after tax to its total interest expense. Firms with an interest coverage ratio lower than one are unable to meet their

interest obligations from their income and are categorized as zombies.

Source: Economic Survey 2020-21 Vol-1

Solution: d)

Carbon offsetting allows a country to help reach its own emissions reduction targets by funding emission reductions in another country. Companies are also increasingly using carbon credits to offset their emissions.

The first major offsetting scheme, the U.N.s clean development mechanism (CDM), was set up under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in which 190 countries agreed country-by-country emission reduction targets.

The scheme was designed to help fund emission reduction projects in developing countries, while also providing offset credits to the developed world to help meet its Kyoto targets.

More than 8,100 projects in 111 countries have registered with the CDM scheme, which has handed out over 2 billion carbon credits, called Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), representing 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide reduction.

Projects registered under the scheme range from capturing and using methane gasses in pig manure to create electricity to replacing traditional wood and coal burning cookstoves with cleaner alternatives such as ethanol. Offsets can be bought by individuals, companies or countries.