[MISSION 2024] RTM(Revision through MCQs)- 20 July 2023

Ans: (c )

Explanation: What is the Tankai Method?

• The Tankai method is an ancient shipbuilding technique that involves stitching wooden planks together to construct ships, rather than using nails. This method offers flexibility and durability to the ships, making them less susceptible to damage from shoals and sandbars.
• This 2000-year-old shipbuilding technique will be preserved and brought back to life.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/tankai-method/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• Crown fires burn trees up their entire length to the top. These are the most intense and dangerous wildland fires.
• Surface fires burn only surface litter and duff. These are the easiest fires to put out and cause the least damage to the forest.
• Ground fires (sometimes called underground or subsurface fires) occur in deep accumulations of humus, peat and similar dead vegetation that become dry enough to burn. These fires move very slowly, but can become difficult to fully put out, or suppress. Occasionally, especially during prolonged drought, such fires can smoulder all winter underground and then emerge at the surface again in spring.
• A zombie fire is a fire that continues to burn underground and then reignites on the surface after a period of time.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/zombie-fires/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• The forest fire season in India lasts between November to June. Several factors like temperatures, precipitation, vegetation, and moisture contribute to the scale and frequency of these fires. According to the Forest Survey of India, nearly 36 per cent of India’s forests are prone to frequent fires. Higher fire incidents are reported in March, April and May due to ample availability of dry biomass (fuel load) following the end of winter and the ongoing summer season. Most forest fires, according to experts, are man-made due to changes in agriculture and unchecked land-use patterns.
• Forest fires are broadly categorised into three categories – ground, surface and crown fire. Fires that burn organic material in the soil are called ground fires, and they burn slowly, under vegetation. Surface fires are caused largely by burning of dry leaves, branches and other materials on the ground. Such fires spread swiftly, as in the case of fires in Himachal. Crown fires burn quickly, from one tree top to another and have huge flames with intense heat. Such fires are rare in India.
• Apart from Himachal and Uttarakhand, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tripura, Mizoram and Odisha report frequent forest fires annually.
• Incidentally, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha — along with Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra — have been the top five states reporting high number of large forest fires ranging between 143 to 441 between November 2021 and April 2022.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/zombie-fires/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The sovereign gold bond was introduced by the Government in 2015.
• Government introduced these bonds to help reduce India’s over dependence on gold imports.
• It was also aimed at changing the habits of Indians from saving in physical form of gold to a paper form with Sovereign backing.
• Key facts:
  • Eligibility: The bonds will be restricted for sale to resident Indian entities, including individuals, HUFs, trusts, universities and charitable institutions.
  • Denomination and tenor: The bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of 1 gram. The tenor will be for a period of 8 years with exit option from the 5th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.
  • Minimum and Maximum limit: The minimum permissible investment limit will be 1 gram of gold, while the maximum limit will be 4 kg for individual, 4 kg for Hindu Undivided Family and 20 kg for trusts and similar entities per fiscal (April-March) notified by the government from time to time.
  • Joint Holder: In case of joint holding, the investment limit of 4 kg will be applied to the first applicant only.
  • Collateral: Bonds can be used as collateral for loans. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is to be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by the Reserve Bank from time to time.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/sovereign-green-bonds/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Since the first sovereign issuance by Poland in 2016, 22 countries have issued sovereign green bonds, raising more than $80 billion.
• Green bonds are debt instruments that can be used by governments and their entities, international organisations as well as the private sector to raise money for projects that demonstratively contribute to climate mitigation or adaptation. With more than $1 trillion of cumulative issuances to date, green bonds have come a long way since their inception in 2007 and the first sovereign issuance in 2016.
• In India, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced disclosure requirements for the issuance and listing of green bonds in 2017. Since then, India has become the second-largest issuer of green bonds (after China) among emerging markets with cumulative issues worth more than $10 billion by private companies and public sector entities such as the State Bank of India (SBI). However, there has been no green bond issuance yet by either the Central or state governments.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/sovereign-green-bonds/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: About Advance Authorization Scheme:

• It allows the duty-free import of inputs, which are physically incorporated into an export product.
• In addition to any inputs, packaging material, fuel, oil, and catalyst which is consumed/utilized in the process of production of export product, is also allowed.
• DGFT provides a sector-wise list of Standard Input-Output Norms (SION)under which the exporters may choose to apply.
• Advance Authorization is valid for 12 months from the date of issue of such Authorization.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/advance-authorisation-scheme/

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• SVAMITVA (Survey of villages and mapping with improvised technology in village areas) scheme is a new initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
• It aims to provide rural people with the right to document their residential properties so that they can use their property for economic purposes.
• The scheme is for surveying the land parcels in rural inhabited area using Drone technology.
• The survey shall be done across the country in a phase wise manner over the period 2020 -2025 .
• The scheme is proposed as a Central Sector scheme with a projected outlay of Rs 79.65 crores for the pilot phase (FY 2020 -21)

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/bhoomi-samman-2023-awards/1

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• From …..“Sweden shares a border with Norway in the west, Finland in the northeast and, like an artery, the Öresund Bridge and tunnel connects us physically and culturally to Denmark in the southwest. Our land border with Norway is the longest uninterrupted border in Europe at 1,619km long.”

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/sweden-2/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area, Lake Tanganyika, the world’s second-largest freshwater lake by volume and depth, and Lake Malawi.
• Lake Baikal is a rift lake in Russia.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2023/07/20/east-africa-crude-oil-pipeline-eacop-project/

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• All except 2 are a part of Cauvery basin. Papikonda remains entirely inside the East and West Godavari districts near Godavari basin after 2014 and after the construction of Polavaram Dam.

Refer: UPSC CSE 2020