[Mission 2024] Current Affairs Quiz , 8 July 2023

Solution: c)

• A follow-on public offer (FPO), also known as a secondary offering, is the additional issuance of shares after the initial public offering (IPO). 
• Companies usually announce FPOs to raise equity or reduce debt.
• The two main types of FPOs are dilutive—meaning new shares are added—and non-dilutive—meaning existing private shares are sold publicly.

Follow-on offerings are also known as secondary offerings.

Solution: b)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

‘Green jobs’ refer to a class of jobs that directly have a positive impact on the planet, and contribute to the overall environmental welfare. Jobs involving renewable energy, conservation of resources, ensuring energy efficient means are categorised under the same.

The Skill Council for Green Jobs was launched by the Union government on October 1, 2015. Aligned to the National Skill Development Missions, it was set up to be a not-for-profit, independent, industry-led initiative. Promoted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the council aims to help manufacturers and other service providers in India’s ‘green business’ sector to implement industry-led, collaborative skills push the country on the path to truly realising the real potential and significance of ‘green jobs’.

The International Labour Organisation, the International Trade Union Confederation, the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Employers Organisation collectively launched the Green Jobs Initiative in 2008, aimed at bettering placements, training and creating opportunities for individuals to work in ‘green jobs’.

Solution: c)

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Earth’s surface constantly absorbs energy from the Sun and stores it as heat. It also emits heat back into space. Whether the surface is warming or cooling depends on the balance between how much solar radiation the planet is absorbing and how much it is radiating away.

The closer you are to one of the poles, the faster the rate of change in daylight is. That’s why Alaska can go from having hardly any daylight in the winter to hardly any darkness in the summer.

Even for a particular location, the change is not constant through the year. The rate of change in daylight is slowest at the solstices — December in winter, June in summer — and fastest at the equinoxes, in mid-March and mid-September.

The Southern Hemisphere has a lot less land and a lot more water than the Northern Hemisphere. Thanks to the influence of the southern oceans, land masses in the Southern Hemisphere tend to have fewer very extreme temperatures than land in the Northern Hemisphere does.

Solution: a)

Only statement 3 is correct.

Before the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) act of 1971, abortions were criminalised under the Indian Penal Code. The MTP changed that but still imposed heavy restrictions, especially pertaining to unmarried women. As per the 2021 amendment, the act allows abortion in a number of circumstances, most based on the health and safety of the woman.

The law allows abortion during the first 20 weeks, with approval from a medical practitioner and from the 20 to 24 weeks with authorisation by two medical practitioners. In cases involving a severe foetal anomaly after the 24-week mark, a three-person medical board must confirm the diagnosis with the final decision resting with a judge.

Solution: d)

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve to evade antibiotics. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are the biggest drivers of resistance. That means that the more we use antibiotics, the worse the problem of antibiotic resistance becomes.

Antibiotics work by binding to a specific target protein on a bacteria, then entering to kill it from the inside. Penicillin, for example, weakens the bacterial cell wall, causing the cell to disintegrate.

The most common ways bacteria evade antibiotics come from mutations that allow them to stop drugs from binding to bacteria. It’s like the bacteria changed the locks so the antibiotic key no longer opens the cell door.

Bacteria can also achieve resistance by producing proteins that inactivate or modify the antibiotic, so it no longer binds to the bacteria. Or the target protein is mutated so the antibiotic can no longer bind to it