[Mission 2022] Insta– QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 03 December 2021

Solution: a)

The Kedar Nath judgment upheld the constitutional validity of sedition as defined in Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. And the Court read down the provision by holding that only writings or speeches which incite people to violence against the Government will come within the mischief of sedition. So, as per this judgment, unless speeches or writings tend to cause violence or disorder, there is no sedition.

Section 124A of the IPC, which contains the law of sedition, categorises four sources of seditious acts. They are, spoken words, written words, signs or visible representations. 

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Solution: b)

Black carbon results from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. BC is produced both naturally and by human activities as a result of the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuels, and biomass.

It is a short-lived pollutant that is the second-largest contributor to warming the planet behind carbon dioxide (CO2).

Solution: d)

What is desertification?

A slow process in which land productivity and resilience steadily decline, overgrazing, deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices are the main causes of desertification. Mining and climate change are also major causes. In India, the main reason for desertification is loss of soil cover, mainly due to rainfall and surface runoff. Water erosion and wind erosion are the two other main reasons in India.

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Solution: b)

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has transferred a portion of the assets valued at Rs 8,441 crore it had seized in connection with cases related to the three fugitive economic offenders — Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, and Mehul Choksi — to state-run banks.

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a law enforcement agency and economic intelligence agency responsible for enforcing economic laws and fighting economic crime in India. It is part of the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government Of India.

The prime objective of the Enforcement Directorate is the enforcement of two key Acts of the Government of India namely, the Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 (FEMA) and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA).

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Solution: c)

The World Heritage Committee has sounded a warning by drawing up a resolution to inscribe the reef on the ‘List of World Heritage in Danger’. 

The GBR is about 2,300 km long and extends across a breathtaking 346,000 sq. km. area, hosting an assemblage of fishes and invertebrates in the reefs, dugongs, green turtles and other species in seagrass meadows, and sharks, rays, anemones, sponges, worms and myriad other forms all of which need a delicate ecological balance to thrive.

At the heart of the crisis is climate change, which has led to three big events of coral bleaching in 2016, 2017 and 2020.

Coral growth is also endangered by the proliferation of crown-of-thorns starfish, which consumes them — the starfish population has shot up as predators declined due to overfishing.

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