[Mission 2023] Current Affairs Quiz , 26 January 2023

Solution: a)

Reservation in Indian law is a form of affirmative action whereby a percentage of seats are reserved in the public sector units, union and state civil services, union and state government departments and in all public and private educational institutions, except in the religious/ linguistic minority edu­cational institutions, for the socially and educationally backward communities who are inadequately represented in these services and institutions.

Justice G. Rohini Committee was set up to examine the possibility of creating categories within OBCs for the reservation to ensure “equitable distribution” of representation among all OBC communities. Its objectives include working out a mechanism, criteria, norm and parameters through a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within the OBCs and identifying the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the Central List of OBCs and classifying them into their respective sub-categories.

Part XVI deals with reservation of SC and ST in Central and State legislatures.

Article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution enabled the State and Central Governments to reserve seats in government services for the members of the SC and ST.

Solution: c)

The Court, pointing to its own judgment in K S Puttaswamy, has said that “right to privacy is as sacrosanct as human existence and is inalienable to human dignity and autonomy”. While agreeing that it is not an absolute right, the Court has said any restrictions “must necessarily pass constitutional scrutiny”.

Any surveillance or snooping done on an individual by the state or any outside agency is an infringement of that person’s right to privacy. Hence, any violation of that right by the state, even in national interest, has to follow procedures established by the law.

Solution: c)

Landraces refer to naturally occurring variants of commonly cultivated crops. These are as opposed to commercially grown crops, which are developed by selective breeding (hybrids) or through genetic engineering to express a certain trait over others. 

Biodiversity allows a natural mechanism for crops to develop traits to face challenging situations. However, given the large-scale human interference in crop selection, that ability is now lost in most commercially crops

Naturally occurring landraces have a large pool of still untapped genetic material, which can provide solutions. Genetic diversity is nature’s survival mechanism. The wider the gene pool, the more the chance of developing a trait that can help in surviving extreme climate events.

kalbhat, a unique landrace of scented rice. Over the years, this variant had almost vanished from cultivators’ fields as hybrid variants became popular. It has better climate resilience than popularly grown rice and can withstand flood or drought better.

Solution: d)

A currency swap is a transaction in which two parties exchange an equivalent amount of money with each other but in different currencies. The parties are essentially loaning each other money and will repay the amounts at a specified date and exchange rate. The purpose could be to hedge exposure to exchange-rate risk, to speculate on the direction of a currency, or to reduce the cost of borrowing in a foreign currency.

Currency swap agreements between countries help in reducing its reliance on the International Monetary Fund.

Solution: c)

Major maritime initiative launched by QUAD leaders to check illegal fishing in the Indo-Pacific region and enhance the security apparatus of the region. ‘Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness’ (IPMDA) will offer an integrated and cost-effective maritime domain and transform the ability of partners in the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region to fully monitor the waters on their shores.

The IPMDA is said to be a satellite-based maritime security system aiming for a “fundamental requirement for peace, stability, and prosperity” in the Indo-Pacific region.

The initiative will integrate three critical regions of the Pacific Islands – Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean region – and allow tracking of “dark shipping” and other “tactical activities”.

“Dark ships” are vessels with their Automatic Identification System (AIS) – a transponder system – switched off so as not to be detectable.

The maritime system will also improve the partners’ ability to respond to climate and humanitarian events and protect their fisheries – a vital need for many Indo-Pacific economies.