DAY – 7 ( INSTA REVISION TEST – 7)INSTA REVISION PLAN 2.0, 2021

Solution: B

Pakistan to remain on FATF grey list

Context:

Pakistan is likely to remain on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for failing to comply with the global terrorist financing watchdog’s deadline to prosecute and penalise terrorist financing in the country.

What’s the issue?

At an FATF meeting in February, Islamabad had been told that ‘all deadlines’ had expired and if they didn’t prosecute and penalise terrorist financing by June, the watchdog would take action.

At the Paris plenary too, the FATF had expressed serious concerns over Pakistan’s failure to complete its 27-point action plan in line with the agreed timelines – which ended in September 2019.

Implications:

With Pakistan’s continuation in the ‘Grey List’, it will be difficult for the country to get financial aid from the IMF, the World Bank, the ADB and the European Union.

This will further enhance problems for the nation which is in a precarious economic situation.

Also, there is every possibility that the global body may put the country in the ‘Black List’.

About FATF:

It is an inter- governmental body established in 1989 on the initiative of the G7.

Its Secretariat is located at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris.

Member Countries: There are 39 member of FATF, representing most financial centres around the world. This includes 2 regional organisations- GCC and EC. The FATF Plenary is the decision making body of the FATF. It meets three times per year.

What is blacklist and grey list?

Black List: Countries known as Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories (NCCTs) are put in the blacklist. These countries support terror funding and money laundering activities. The FATF revises the blacklist regularly, adding or deleting entries.

Grey List: Countries that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to the country that it may enter the blacklist.

https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/06/30/

Solution: A

Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre

Overview:

1. Created to provide private players to use Indian space infrastructure.

1. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will remain the basic body that decides what missions are to be undertaken but this new body will help fill the gaps.
2. With this, Private companies will be provided level playing field in satellites, launches and space-based services.
3. Future projects for planetary exploration, outer space travel will be open for the private sector.

Significance and expected outcomes:

India is among a handful of countries with advanced capabilities in the space sector.

1. With these reforms, the sector will receive new energy and dynamism, to help the country leapfrog to the next stages of space activities.
2. This will not only result in an accelerated growth of this sector but will enable Indian Industry to be an important player in global space economy.
3. With this, there is an opportunity for large-scale employment in the technology sector and India becoming a Global technology powerhouse.
4. Allow ISRO to focus more on research and development activities, new technologies, exploration missions and human spaceflight programme.

Solution: A

What are Placebos?

Placebos are substances that are made to resemble drugs but do not contain an active drug.

A placebo is made to look exactly like a real drug but is made of an inactive substance, such as a starch or sugar.

Solution: C

India and Singapore have signed Bilateral Agreement for Navy Cooperation that will allow Indian Navy ships logistical support, including refuelling at Singapore’s Changi Naval Base located near disputed South China Sea (SCS).

Solution: C

The S-400 Triumf — NATO calls it SA-21 Growler — is a modern long-range surface-to-air missile (MLR SAM) system developed by Russia. First used in 2007, the S-400 is an upgrade of the S-300 series of missile systems put in place for the defence of Moscow.

The missile system integrates a multifunction radar, autonomous detection and targeting systems, anti-aircraft missile systems, launchers, and command and control centre.

Important Points

1. It is based on a multifunctional system that can drop missiles at different speeds.
2. It can target aircrafts (up to 5^th generations), cruise and ballistic missiles by supersonic and hypersonic missiles of the system.
3. It can address the incoming targets at a range of 400 kms and a height of 30-40 kms.
4. It can neutralise 36 targets at one time in the range of 400 kms.
5. Its radar detection system has a range of 600kms and can target 100-300 targets.
6. It has 12 launchers equipped with missiles which can be launched within 5 minutes.

Solution: A

The Golden Crescent is the name given to one of Asia’s two principal areas of illicit opium production (with the other being the Golden Triangle), located at the crossroads of Central, South, and Western Asia. This space overlaps three nations, Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, whose mountainous peripheries define the crescent.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/amarinder-seeks-modis-help/article27407109.ece

Solution: D

The Intellectual Property Appellate Board, a quasi-judicial body, was constituted in September 1958.

The jurisdiction of the Copyright Board extends to the whole of India. The Board is entrusted with the task of adjudication of disputes pertaining to copyright registration, assignment of copyright, grant of Licenses in respect of works withheld from public, unpublished Indian works, production and publication of translations and works for certain specified purposes. It also hears cases in other miscellaneous matters instituted before it under the Copyright Act, 1957.

The Copyright (Amendment)Act, 2012 which came into force w.e.f. June 21,2015 provides for a full time IPAB Under Section 11 with Chairman and two other members, with its headquarters in Delhi. The new full time IPAB is expected to be reconstituted shortly.

http://copyright.gov.in/frmIPAB.aspx

Solution: C

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was established with the signing of the SAARC Charter in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. SAARC comprises of eight Member States: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Secretariat of the Association was set up in Kathmandu on 17 January 1987.

Decisions at all levels are to be taken on the basis of unanimity; and bilateral and contentious issues are excluded from the deliberations of the Association.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization comprising seven Member States lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.

This sub-regional organization came into being on 6 June 1997 through the Bangkok Declaration. It constitutes seven Member States: five deriving from South Asia, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.

https://bimstec.org/?page_id=189

Solution: C

What is EIA?

EIA is an important process for evaluating the likely environmental impact of a proposed project. It is a process whereby people’s views are taken into consideration for granting final approval to any developmental project or activity. It is basically, a decision-making tool to decide whether the project should be approved or not.

The EIA process involves:

Screening: this stage decides which projects need a full or partial assessment study.

Scoping: this stage decides which impacts are necessary to be assessed. This is done based on legal requirements, international conventions, expert knowledge and public engagement. This stage also finds out alternate solutions.

Assessment & evaluation of impacts and development of alternatives: this stage predicts and identifies the environmental impacts of the proposed project and also elaborates on the alternatives.

EIA Report: in this reporting stage, an environmental management plan (EMP) and also a non-technical summary of the project’s impact is prepared for the general public. This report is also called the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Decision making: the decision on whether the project is to be given approval or not and if it is to be given, under what conditions.

Monitoring, compliance, enforcement and environmental auditing: monitoring whether the predicted impacts and the mitigation efforts happen as per the EMP.

Solution: D

Review Petition

Under Article 137, the Supreme Court has the power to review any of its judgments or orders.

Scope for review:

When a review takes place, the law is that it is allowed not to take fresh stock of the case but to correct grave errors that have resulted in the miscarriage of justice.

The court has the power to review its rulings to correct a “patent error” and not “minor mistakes of inconsequential import”.

• In a 1975 ruling, Justice Krishna Iyer said a review can be accepted “only where a glaring omission or patent mistake or like grave error has crept in earlier by judicial fallibility”.

In a 2013 ruling, the Supreme Court has laid down three grounds for seeking a review of a verdict it has delivered:

1. The discovery of new and important matter or evidence which, after the exercise of due diligence, was not within the knowledge of the petitioner or could not be produced by him.
2. Mistake or error apparent on the face of the record.
3. Any other sufficient reason. It means a reason that is analogous to the other two grounds.

Who can file a review petition?

As per the Civil Procedure Code and the Supreme Court Rules, any person aggrieved by a ruling can seek a review. However, the court exercises its discretion to allow a review petition only when it shows the grounds for seeking the review.

Solution: C

Zealandia

Researchers from GNS Science in New Zealand have announced that they mapped the shape and size of the Zealandia continent in unprecedented detail.

Background:

Scientists confirmed the existence of an eighth continent, called Zealandia, under New Zealand and the surrounding ocean in 2017.

Because 94% of Zealandia’s 2 million square miles are underwater, mapping the continent is challenging.

Latest findings:

1. Zealandia‘s area is nearly 2 million square miles (5 million square kilometers) — about half the size of Australia.
2. But only 6% of the continent is above sea level. That part underpins New Zealand’s north and south islands and the island of New Caledonia.
3. Latest map depicts coastlines, territorial limits, and the names of major undersea features. The map is part of a global initiative to map the planet’s entire ocean floor by 2030.
4. This map also reveals where Zealandia sits across various tectonic plates, which of those plates are being pushed under the other in a process known as subduction, and how quickly that movement is happening.

Solution: B

Where is West Bank?

It is a landlocked territory near the Mediterranean coast of Western Asia, bordered by Jordan to the east and by the Green Line separating it and Israel on the south, west and north. The West Bank also contains a significant section of the western Dead Sea shore.

What are the disputed settlements here?  Who lives there?

1. The West Bank was captured by Jordan after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
2. Israel snatched it back during the Six Day War of 1967, and has occupied it ever since.
3. It has built some 130 formal settlements in the West Bank, and a similar number of smaller, informal settlements have mushroomed over the last 20-25 years.
4. Over 4 lakh Israeli settlers — many of them religious Zionists who claim a Biblical birthright over this land — now live here, along with some 26 lakh Palestinians.

Solution: C

The 97^th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2011 gave a constitutional status and protection to co-operative societies. Hence, statement 1 is incorrect. In this context, it made the following three changes in the constitution:
1. It made the right to form co-operative societies a fundamental right
(Article 19). Hence, statement 3 is correct.
2. It included a new Directive Principle of State Policy on promotion of cooperative societies (Article 43-B2). Hence, statement 2 is correct
3. It added a new Part IX-B in the Constitution which is entitled “The Cooperative Societies” (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT).

National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was established by amending the Constitution of India through the ninety-ninth constitution amendment with the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 or 99th Constitutional Amendment Act-2014 passed by the Lok Sabha on 13 August 2014 and by the Rajya Sabha on 14 August 2014.

Solution: A

The TRAI Act of 1997 was amended in the year 2000 and TDSAT was set up to adjudicate disputes and dispose of appeals with a view to protect the interests of service providers and consumers of the telecom sector.

The decision of TDSAT is appealed to Supreme Court of India. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.

The jurisdiction of TDSAT stands extended to matters that lay before the Cyber Appellate Tribunal and also the Airport Economic Regulatory Authority Appellate Tribunal.

http://www.tdsat.gov.in/Delhi/Delhi.php

Solution: A

The Index of Eight Core Industries measures the performance of eight core industries i.e., Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. The industries included in the Index of Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Index of Eight Core Industries is released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).