QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 29 May 2021

Solution: b)

Air India airlifted 35 tonnes of zeolite mineral used in oxygen production plants on two flights from Rome to Bengaluru.

Zeolite is used in oxygen production plants that are based on pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology.

• Zeolitesare microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts.
• Zeolites occur naturally but are also produced industrially on a large scale.
• Natural zeolites form where volcanic rocks and ash layers react with alkaline groundwater.
• Naturally occurring zeolites are rarely pure and are contaminated to varying degrees by other minerals, metals, quartz, or other zeolites. For this reason, naturally occurring zeolites are excluded from many important commercial applications where uniformity and purity are essential.

Source                  Source

Solution: d)

An ILP is only valid for domestic tourists.

Rationale behind:

The Inner Line Permit is an extension of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act 1873.

After the British occupied the Northeast, the colonisers started exploiting the region and its resources for economic benefits.

• They first started tea plantations and oil industries in Brahmaputra Valley.

The indigenous tribes living in the hill areas would regularly conduct raids into the plains to loot and plunder, marauding the tea gardens, oil rigs and trading posts set up by the British East India Company.

• It was in this context that the BEFR 1873 was promulgated.

Solution: a)

Purchasing Managers’ Index is an economic indicator that is calculated from monthly surveys of purchasing managers and supply executives from specific companies. PMI Manufacturing gives an indication of the economic health of the manufacturing sector.

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.

Solution: d)

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is the chairman of the WHO Executive Board. India is a member state of the South East Asia Region at the WHO.

It is one of the WHO’s two decision making bodies. The other one is the World Health Assembly. The agency’s headquarters are located at Geneva in Switzerland.

Composition:

The executive Board is composed of 34 members technically qualified in the field of health.

The Board chairman’s post is held by rotation for one year by each of the WHO’s six regional groups: African Region, Region of the Americas, South-East Asia Region, European Region, Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Western Pacific Region.

Term:

Members are elected for three-year terms.

Functions:

• Sets out agenda for the Health Assembly and resolutions for forwarding to the Assembly are adopted.
• Gives effect to the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly.
• Advises it and facilitates its work.
• The Board and the Assembly create a forum for debate on health issues and for addressing concerns raised by Member States.
• Both the Board and the Assembly produce three kinds of documents — Resolutions and Decisions passed by the two bodies, Official Records as published in WHO Official publications, and Documents that are presented “in session” of the two bodies.

Source

Solution: c)

The current OPEC members are the following: Algeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Saudi Arabia (the de facto leader), the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Ecuador, Indonesia and Qatar are former members.