[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2021: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 30 October 2021

Solution: c)

Forests cover 31 percent of the global land area. Approximately half the forest area is relatively intact, and more than one-third is primary forest (i.e. naturally regenerated forests of native species).

More than half of the world’s forests are found in only five countries (the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China) and two-thirds (66 percent) of forests are found in ten countries.

Globally, 18 percent of the world’s forest area fall within legally established protected areas such as national parks, conservation areas and game reserves (IUCN categories I-IV).

Nearly 5.03% of Indian forests are under protection area (PA) management needing specific restoration strategies.

The remaining areas witness a range of disturbances including grazing, encroachment, fire, and climate change impacts that need area-specific considerations.

The intricate link between poverty and environmental degradation was first highlighted by India at the first UN global conference on the human environment in Stockholm.

Solution: d)

Microfinance is a form of financial service which provides small loans and other financial services to poor and low-income households. 

Microcredit is delivered through a variety of institutional channels viz., (i) scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) (including small finance banks (SFBs) and regional rural banks (RRBs)) lending both directly as well as through business correspondents (BCs) and self-help groups (SHGs), (ii) cooperative banks, (iii) non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and (iv) microfinance institutions (MFIs) registered as NBFCs as well as in other forms.

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Solution: c)

Although the monsoon season ends with September, a delayed withdrawal and other factors have been causing heavy rainfall in several states.

Delhi, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand, for example, have received very high rainfall in the last few days.

Development of low-pressure areas at multiple places — have resulted in these rainfall events at several places.

Rain in October is not unusual. October is considered a month for transition, during which the southwest monsoon withdraws and gives way to the northeast monsoon that largely affects southern peninsular India, mainly on the eastern side.

This year, however, the withdrawal began only on October 6 against a normal of September 17.

As there has been a delay in the southwest monsoon withdrawal, good rainfall has continued over Odisha, the Northeast and south India.

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Solution: b)

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Solution: c)

In 1962, after the signing of a treaty with France, the territories of Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe, and Yanam became part of the Indian Union. In the same year, then Home Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament, which grouped these territories into the Union Territory of Pondicherry, and also inserted a new Article 239A into the Constitution. The new article gave Parliament power to create a legislature for Union Territories.