[MISSION 2022] INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 2 November 2021) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• The European Union has unveiled some of the world’s most ambitious proposals, titled “Fit for 55”, to reduce carbon emissions and wean its 27 members off fossil fuels.
• These measures are a EU’s roadmap to achieve its target to reduce emissions by 55% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/india-will-achieve-net-zero-emissions-by-2070/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: About UNFCCC:

• The UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit, which marked the beginning of the international community’s first concerted effort to confront the problem of climate change.
• Known also as the Rio Convention, the UNFCCC established a framework for action to stabilise concentrations of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere.
• The UNFCCC entered into force in 1994, and nearly all of the world’s nations have now signed on.
• It is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement. It is also the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/cop26-climate-conference-2/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Palk Bay is a semi-enclosed shallow water body between the southeast coast of India and Sri Lanka.
• The Palk Strait is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna District of the Northern Province of the island nation of Sri Lanka. It connects the Bay of Bengal in the northeast with Palk Bay in the southwest.
• The strait is named after Robert Palk, who was a governor of Madras (1755–1763) during the Company Raj period.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/bottom-trawling-and-associated-issues/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• S1: National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG) was registered as a society on 12th August 2011 under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
• S2: NMCG has a two tier management structure and comprises of Governing Council and Executive Committee. Both of them are headed by Director General, NMCG. Executive Committee has been authorized to accord approval for all projects up to Rs.1000 crore. Similar to structure at national level, State Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) acts as implementing arm of State Ganga Committees. Thus the newly created structure attempts to bring all stakeholders on one platform to take a holistic approach towards the task of Ganga cleaning and rejuvenation.
• S3: The Director General(DG) of NMCG is a Additional Secretary in Government of India. For effective implementation of the projects under the overall supervision of NMCG, the State Level Program Management Groups (SPMGs) are, also headed by senior officers of the concerned States.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/ganga-mission-in-guinness-records/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Ganga is the third largest river in the world by discharge.
• The mouth of River Ganga forms the world’s largest delta, known as Sunderbans, and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.
• About Sundarbans:
  • The Sundarbans comprises hundreds of islands and a network of rivers, tributaries and creeks in the delta of the Ganga and the Brahmaputra at the mouth of the Bay of Bengal in India and Bangladesh.
  • Located on the southwestern part of the delta, the Indian Sundarban constitutes over 60% of the country’s total mangrove forest area.
  • It is the 27th Ramsar Site in India, and with an area of 4,23,000 hectares is now the largest protected wetland in the country.
  • The Indian Sundarban, also a UNESCO world heritage site, is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.
  • It is also home to a large number of “rare and globally threatened species, such as the critically endangered northern river terrapin (Batagur baska), the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), and the vulnerable fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus).”
  • Two of the world’s four horseshoe crab species, and eight of India’s 12 species of kingfisher are also found here. Recent studies claim that the Indian Sundarban is home to 2,626 faunal species and 90% of the country’s mangrove varietie

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/ganga-mission-in-guinness-records/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The Ganges river dolphin is the national aquatic animal of India.
• It is listed as ‘endangered’ under the IUCN Red List Assessments, Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act (1972), Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
• The species, whose global population is estimated at 4,000, is mostly found in the Indian subcontinent.
• The Ganges river dolphin can only live in freshwater and is essentially blind.

Refer: facts for prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/mission-2022-insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-2-november-2021/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The BASIC group was formed as the result of an agreement signed by the four countries on November 28, 2009.
• They are a bloc of four large newly industrialized countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
• The four committed to act jointly at the Copenhagen climate summit, including a possible united walk-out if their common minimum position was not met by the developed nations.
• This emerging geopolitical alliance, initiated and led by China, then brokered the final Copenhagen Accord with the United States.
• Subsequently, the grouping is working to define a common position on emission reductions and climate aid money, and to try to convince other countries to sign up to the Copenhagen Accord.

Refer: facts for prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2021/11/02/mission-2022-insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-2-november-2021/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The HMS was founded in Howrah in 1948 by socialists Forward Bloc followers and independent unionists which included Basawon Singh (Sinha), Ashok Mehta, R.S. Ruikar, Maniben Kara, Shibnath Banerjee, R.A. Khedgikar, T.S. Ramanujam, V.S. Mathur, G.G. Mehta. R.S. Ruikar was elected president and Ashok Mehta general secretary.
• HMS absorbed the Royist Indian Federation of Labour and the Hind Mazdoor Panchayat, which was formed in 1948 by socialists leaving the increasingly communist dominated AITUC.
• Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hind_Mazdoor_Sabha

Refer: UPSC CSE 2018

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Sthānakavāsī is a sect of Śvētāmbara Jainism founded by a merchant named Lavaji in 1653 AD. It believes that idol worship is not essential in the path of soul purification and attainment of Nirvana/Moksha.
• The sect is essentially a reformation of the one founded on teachings of Lonka, a fifteenth-century Jain reformer. Sthānakavāsins accept thirty-two of the Jain Agamas, the Śvētāmbara canon. Śvētāmbarins who are not Sthānakavāsins are mostly part the Murtipujaka sect
• Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sth%C4%81nakav%C4%81s%C4%AB

Refer: UPSC CSE 2018

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Jean-Baptiste Tavernier(1605 – 1689) was a 17th-century French gem merchant and traveller Tavernier, a private individual and merchant traveling at his own expense, covered, by his own account, 60,000 leagues (120,000 miles in making six voyages to Persia and India between the years 1630 and 1668.
• Tavernier is best known for his discovery or purchase of the 116-carat Tavernier Blue diamond, in 1666. The diamond was certainly Indian in origin and likely sourced by Tavernier in 1666[4] at the Kollur mine in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
• Tavernier sold it to Louis XIV of France.
• Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Tavernier

Refer: UPSC CSE 2018