[Mission 2023] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 3 June 2023

Solution: d)

The number of loan accounts for the microfinance industry increased to 136.3 million in FY23, from 123.9 million in FY22, posting a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 10%. Lender-wise figures showed that NBFCs registered highest y-o-y growth of 23%, followed by NBFC-MFIs at 15%, not-for profits or NFPs at 6%, banks at 6%, and small finance banks at 5%.

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Solution: c)

Earthquakes can result in Tsunamis if a large amount of water gets displaced. 

Tectonic events with a strong vertical slip element are more likely to raise or lower the water column compared to horizontal slip elements”. “Thus, knowing the slip type at the early stages of the assessment can reduce false alarms and enhance the reliability of the warning systems.

Relying on seismographs and buoys attached by bottom-pressure sensors is not always the right method, as all earthquakes do not result in Tsunamis, and the buoys can detect Tsunamis only when one passes them, leaving less time to react and evacuate. In such cases, time is of the essence.

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Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Acoustic radiation- the sound produced by the earthquake that carries information about the tectonic events and travels considerably faster than the Tsunami waves. The underwater microphones, named hydrophones, record the acoustic waves and monitor the tectonic activity in real time.

Acoustic radiation travels through the water column much faster than Tsunami waves. It carries information about the originating source, and its pressure field can be recorded at distant locations, even thousands of kilometres away from the sources. 

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Solution: a)

Only Statement 3 is correct.

The Indian Space Research Organisation is collaborating with the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, an autonomous research institute, to build the X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) that is scheduled to be launched later this year.

“XPoSat will study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.”

It has been billed as India’s first, and only the world’s second polarimetry mission that is meant to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions. The other such major mission is NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) that was launched in 2021.

X-rays have much higher energy and much shorter wavelengths, between 0.03 and 3 nanometers, so small that some x-rays are no bigger than a single atom of many elements. The physical temperature of an object determines the wavelength of the radiation it emits. The hotter the object, the shorter the wavelength of peak emission.

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Solution: d)

Port towns of the Indus Valley Civilization: Balakot (Pakistan), Khirasa (in Gujarat’s Kutch) and Kuntasi (in Rajkot).