[Mission 2023] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 14 September 2022

Solution: d)

India’s Constitution makers saw the value of international law and thus provided in Article 51 that the state shall foster respect for international law. 

India asserted its sovereignty and championed the principle of self-determination in international law including by playing a key role in organising the first Asian-African Conference at Bandung in 1955, proclaiming that colonialism should “speedily be brought to an end”.

India has played an active role in shaping international law on terrorism by proposing a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), and recently initiated the International Solar Alliance (ISA), a bold attempt to influence international environmental law.

Source

Solution: a)

The MEA funds research centres such as the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). But the ICWA focuses largely on the study of international relations, not international law.

The Indian Society of International Law (ISIL), established in 1959, was supposed to become a centre of excellence for research in international law. However, ISIL has failed in producing worthwhile research in international law.

Source

Solution: d)

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism’s genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including the transfer of genes within and across species boundaries to produce improved or novel organisms.

Mass cytometry is a mass spectrometry technique based on inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and time of flight mass spectrometry used for the determination of the properties of cells (cytometry).

Chromatin remodeling is the dynamic modification of chromatin architecture to allow access of condensed genomic DNA to the regulatory transcription machinery proteins, and thereby control gene expression.

Solution: b)

Classification based on Stem Cells formation at different times of human lives

There are 3 types under this classification

• Embryonic stem cells
• Adult stem cells
• Induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSC’s

What are Embryonic Stem cells?

These are the Stem cells that exist only during the earliest stage of development.

What are Adult Stem Cells?

• These are the cells that can multiply when there is a need to repair adult organs and tissues.
• These cells are present in almost all organs of the human body.
• They are multipotent i.e. they can give rise to a limited number of mature cell types, usually corresponding to the tissues in which they reside. A most well-known example is the blood-forming (hematopoietic) stem cells from bone marrow that give rise to different blood cells in our body.
• Some tissue-specific stem cells can only give rise to one or two mature cell types and are called unipotent and bipotent, respectively. Stem cells found in the skin produce new skin cells and are an example of unipotent stem cells.

What are induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC’s)?

• These cells are not found in the body but made in the laboratory from cells of the body.
• The iPSC cells have properties similar to those of embryonic stem cells.
• Human iPSC’s were generated in 2007.

Solution: c)

A total of 82,893.61 ha of forest land has been approved for non-forestry use under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, from April 2016 to March 2021.

206 proposals involving 4,118.109067 ha area within Protected Areas, including national parks and sanctuaries, have been recommended by the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife during 2020 and 2021.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change has statutory and constitutional obligations to protect the forests in India.