[Mission 2023] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 25 February 2023

Solution: b)

LGDs have basic properties similar to natural diamonds, including their optical dispersion, which provide them the signature diamond sheen. However, since they are created in controlled environments, many of their properties can be enhanced for various purposes.

For instance, LGDs are most often used for industrial purposes, in machines and tools. Their hardness and extra strength make them ideal for use as cutters. Furthermore, pure synthetic diamonds have high thermal conductivity, but negligible electrical conductivity. This combination is invaluable for electronics where such diamonds can be used as a heat spreader for high-power laser diodes, laser arrays and high-power transistors.

Lastly, as the Earth’s reserves of natural diamonds are depleted, LGDs are slowly replacing the prized gemstone in the jewelry industry. Crucially, like natural diamonds, LGDs undergo similar processes of polishing and cutting that are required to provide diamonds their characteristic lustre.

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Solution: c)

Common law is the body of law that is created by judges through their written opinions, rather than through statutes or constitutions (statutory law). Common law, which is used interchangeably with ‘case law’, is based on judicial precedent. The United Kingdom (UK) and the Commonwealth countries, including India, are common law countries.

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Solution: d)

In June 2001, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) implemented index-based market-wide circuit breakers.

Circuit breakers are triggered to prevent markets from crashing due to a panic induced sale of stocks. This can happen due to many reasons which lead to stockholders in the market feeling that their stocks are overvalued. Thus they enter into a sell-off.

Circuit breakers temporarily halt trading and thus stop the sell-off. Effectively, circuit-breakers cap how much the value of a stock can fall in a single day/trading session and in doing so, create a more stable market overall.

How do these work?

This index-based market-wide circuit breaker system applies at three stages of the index movement, at 10, 15 and 20 per cent. When triggered, these circuit breakers bring about a coordinated trading halt in all equity and equity derivative markets nationwide.

For instance, if the S&P BSE Sensex were to fall more than 10 per cent before 1 pm on a given day, circuit breakers would be triggered for a period of 45 minutes; in case it fell more than 15 per cent on or after 2 pm, circuit breakers would be triggered for the remainder of the day and in case it fell more than 20 per cent at any time of the day, the trading would be halted for the remainder of the day.

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• Solution: d)

   

  Polaris, also known as the North Star or the Pole Star, is a very bright star (around 2500 times more luminous than our sun) placed less than 1° away from the north celestial pole. Its position and brightness have made humans use it for navigation since late antiquity. It is a part of the constellation Ursa Minor and is around 323 light-years away from Earth.

   

  Since Polaris lies nearly in a direct line with the Earth’s rotational axis “above” the North Pole, it stands almost motionless in the night sky, with all the stars of the northern sky appearing to rotate around it. This makes it an excellent fixed point from which to draw measurements for celestial navigation. Simply the elevation of the star above the horizon gives the approximate latitude of the observer and in the northern hemisphere, if you can see Polaris you can always tell which way is north (and, by extension, which ways are south, east and west).

   

  Upon crossing the equator to the South, the North Star is lost over the horizon and hence stops being a useful navigational aid.

   

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Solution: c)

Seed capital is the funding required to get a new business started. This initial funding, which usually comes from the business owner(s) and perhaps friends and family, supports preliminary activities such as market research, product research and development (R&D) and business plan development.