[Mission 2024] Current Affairs Quiz , 15 September 2023

Solution: d)

What is the wage-price spiral?

If prices go up, it is natural that workers will ask for higher wages. But if wages go up, it only fuels the overall demand, while doing nothing to boost the supply. End result: inflation surges further because while a worker has more money, so does his colleague. When they go to the market then the only thing that changes is the price of the good — in other words, inflation rises.

Raising interest rates slows down overall economic activity and demand, often leading to job losses. Through this rather unjust and iniquitous method, the central banks prevent a wage-price spiral and consequent inflation.

Solution: c)

A combination of factors led to the occurrence of the Texas fish kill.

First was the warm water. When sea surface temperatures rise, it becomes difficult for the fish to breathe as oxygen dissolves easily in colder water in comparison to warmer water. Things take a turn for the worse when a school of fish gets trapped in shallow water, which gets warmer more quickly.

Another factor that contributed to the Texas fish kill was calm seas. Experts suggest that one of the ways for oxygen to enter the water is by mixing with wind and waves. But in the past few weeks, the waves along the Texas Gulf Coast have been very calm, causing the depletion of dissolved oxygen.

One more problem was the overcast weather in Texas. Officials pointed out that due to cloudy skies, phytoplankton were unable to carry out the process of photosynthesis, which is another way of producing oxygen in the water. Photosynthesis is driven by sunlight and it slows down on cloudy days, resulting in decreased dissolved oxygen concentration.

Solution: c)

Sinkholes are depressions formed in the ground when layers of the Earth’s surface start collapsing into caverns. They can occur suddenly and without warning, because the land under the surface of the Earth can stay intact for a period of time until the spaces get too big.

Sinkholes can be formed due to natural processes or human activity. Typically, sinkholes form in areas of “karst” terrains, where the rock below the surface of the Earth can be easily dissolved by groundwater.

Essentially, this means that when rainwater seeps into the ground, the rock below the surface of the Earth starts dissolving, leading to the creation of spaces. This process is a slow and gradual one and can sometimes take hundreds or thousands of years.

• All natural earthquakes take place in the lithosphere.
• Earthquake waves are basically of two types — body waves and surface waves. Body waves are generated due to the release of energy at the focus and move in all directions travelling through the body of the earth. The body waves interact with the surface rocks and generate new set of waves called surface waves. These waves move along the surface. The velocity of waves changes as
• they travel through materials with different densities. The denser the material, the higher is the velocity.
• The surface waves are the last to report on seismograph. These waves are more destructive. They cause displacement of rocks, and hence, the collapse of structures occurs.

Refer:

Solution: a)

Only statement 2 is correct.

What is Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005?

It is an act to provide for more effective protection of the rights of Women guaranteed under the Constitution who are victims of violence of any kind occurring within the family and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

• It is the first significant attempt in India to recognise domestic abuse as a punishable offence, to extend its provisions to those in live-in relationships, and to provide for emergency relief for the victims, in addition to legal recourse.
• The Act provides a definition of “domestic violence” for the first time in Indian law, with this definition being broad and including not only physical violence, but also other forms of violence such as emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse.

• It is a civil law meant primarily for protection orders, rather than criminal enforcement.

Solution: c)

Scientists from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have mapped out the global distribution of sodium on the Moon’s surface. They used the CLASS instrument (Chandrayaan-2 large area soft X-ray spectrometer) carried by the second Indian Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2.

This is the first effort to provide a global-scale measurement of sodium on the lunar surface using X-ray fluorescent spectra.

X-ray fluorescence is commonly used to study the composition of materials in a non-destructive manner. When the sun gives out solar flares, a large amount of X-ray radiation falls on the moon, triggering X-ray fluorescence.