UPSC 2017 Weekly Current Affairs Quiz: Mar 05 - Mar 11

All the statements are correct.

Kaziranga National Park is located about 200 km to the north-east of Guwahati and in the heart of Assam. It is a world heritage site. It is home to two-thirds of the entire Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) population. 

‘Panna Tiger Reserve’ is located in Madhya Pradesh.

The Indian rhinoceros, or greater one-horned rhino, is categorised as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its 2008 red list. This is an improvement from its status in 1986, when it was considered ‘endangered’.

Lohit River is  a tributary to the Brahmaputra River.  Lohit River before merging into Brahmaputra River in Assam travels for about two hundred kilometers through the red laterite soils of the Lohit Basin, therefore, it is given the name “the river of blood”.

International Energy Agency brings out the report known as ‘Southeast Asia Energy Outlook’.

There are six schedules under WPA,1972 which give varying degrees of protection. Out of the six schedules , Schedule I and part II of Schedule II provide absolute protection and offences under these are prescribed the highest penalties. The penalties for Schedule III and Schedule IV are less and these animals are protected. Schedule V includes the animals which may be hunted. These are Common crow , Fruit bats, Mice & Rats only. Schedule VI contains the plants, which are prohibited from cultivation and planting.

Industries reserved for the MSME sector include-

Pickles & chutneys

Bread

two edible oils (without solvent extraction) -Mustard oil, Ground nut oil

Wooden furniture and fixtures

Exercise books and registers

Wax candles

Laundry soap

Safety matches

Fire works

Agarbatties

Glass bangles

Steel almirah

Rolling shutters

Steel chairs, tables, furniture

Padlocks

utensils- stainless steel, aluminum

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is under threat from humans.For example forests are considered as biodiversity hotspots.

An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a concept whereby a coastal State assumes jurisdiction over the exploration and exploitation of marine resources in its adjacent section of the continental shelf, taken to be a band extending 200 miles from the shore. Among other things, in the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has the exclusive right to construct and to authorize and regulate the construction, operation and use of artificial islands.

‘INS Viraat’ is an aircraft carrier.

Arunachal Pradesh borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. Arunachal Pradesh also shares international borders with Bhutan in the west, Myanmar in the east and China in the north.

The ‘Senkaku Islands’ dispute, often featured in the news is a dispute between Japan and China.

Answer: (a)

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund) brings out the report known as ‘The State of the World’s Children reports’.

• The Act provides for the prohibition of sex selection, before or after conception.
• It regulates the use of pre-natal diagnostic techniques, like ultrasound and amniocentesis by allowing them their use only to detect:
  genetic abnormalities
  1. metabolic disorders
  2. chromosomal abnormalities
  3. certain congenital malformations
  4. haemoglobinopathies
  5. Sex linked disorders.
  • No laboratory or centre or clinic will conduct any test including ultra-sonography for the purpose of determining the sex of the foetus.
  • No person, including the one who is conducting the procedure as per the law, will communicate the sex of the foetus to the pregnant woman or her relatives by words, signs or any other method.
  • Any person who puts an advertisement for pre-natal and pre-conception sex determination facilities in the form of a notice, circular, label, wrapper or any document, or advertises through interior or other media in electronic or print form or engages in any visible representation made by means of hoarding, wall painting, signal, light, sound, smoke or gas, can be imprisoned for up to three years and fined Rs. 10,000.

HFCs are produced mostly in developed countries, hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs) replaced CFCs and HCFCs. HFCs pose no harm to the ozone layer because, unlike CFCs and HCFCs, they do not contain chlorine. They are however greenhouse gases, with a high global warming potential (GWP), comparable to that of CFCs and HCFCs.

The targets apply to the four greenhouse gases carbon dioxide,methane, nitrous oxide,Sulphur hexafluoride, and two groups of gases, hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs). The six GHG are translated into CO₂ equivalents in determining reductions in emissions.

Long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic, mainly through drinking of contaminated water, eating of food prepared with this water and eating food irrigated with arsenic-rich water, can lead to chronic arsenic poisoning. Skin lesions and skin cancer are the most characteristic effects.

Long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water can cause cancer in the skin, lungs, bladder and kidney.

• Kigali Amendment which amends the 1987 Montreal Protocol aims to phase out Hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs).
• India has agreed to a time-line to reduce the use of HFCs by roughly 85% of their baselines by 2045.
  This move will help to prevent a potential 0.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperature by the end of the century.
• The Kigali Agreement or amended Montreal Protocol for HFCs reduction will be binding on countries from 2019.
• Under it, developed countries will also provide enhanced funding support estimated at billions of dollars globally.

Ropar Wetland, also named Ropar Lake, is a man-made freshwater riverine wetland. Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle (Chitraindica) also known as small-headed softshell turtle is an endangered species of softshell turtle is found here.

Considering the wetland’s diverse and rich biodiversity, Ramsar Convention has included Ropar Wetland (listed as Ropar Lake) as one of the Ramsar sites among the 26 sites listed under India, for “the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the ecological and hydrological functions they perform.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka is amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka which created Provincial Councils in Sri Lanka. This also made Sinhala and Tamil as the official language of the country and English as link language. Statement 2 is false. There are talks about creation of a second chamber in central legislature. This is deemed as 13 plus. It was not there in the original 13th amendment.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand).

RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which excludes China and India and includes several nations of the Americas.

In 2016, prospective RCEP member states accounted for a population of 3.4 billion people with a total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $21.4 trillion, approximately 30 percent of the world’s GDP.

Tulip festival is organised by the Jammu and Kashmir government. The showcase of the event is the Asia’s largest Tulip garden located in the Kashmir Valley.

Article 136: SPECIAL LEAVE TO APPEAL BY THE SUPREME COURT

As per this article

Clause(a) The Supreme Court may, in its discretion, grant special leave to appeal from any judgment, decree, determination, sentence or order in any cause or matter passed or made by any court or tribunal in the territory of India

Clause(b) Nothing in clause (a) shall apply to any judgment, determination, sentence or order passed or made by any court or tribunal constituted by or under any law relating to the Armed Forces.

Special Leave petition or SLP can be presented under following circumstance: SLP can be filed against any judgment or decree or order of any High Court /tribunal in the territory of India or, SLP can be filed in case the High court refuses to grant the certificate of fitness for appeal to Supreme Court of India.

Time frame within which SLP can be filed: SLP can be filed against any judgment of High Court within 90 days from the date of judgement or SLP can be filed within 60 days against the order of the High Court refusing to grant the certificate of fitness for appeal to Supreme Court.

Who can file SLP: Any aggrieved party can file SLP against the judgment or order of refusal of grant of certificate.

Terai Arc Landscape, The Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) extends from River Yamuna in India in the west to River Bagmati in Nepal in the east covering an area of about 50,000 km2. The landscape is part of the Tarai-Duar Savana Eco-region and has two distinct physiographic regions, the terai and the bhabar. TAL has one of the world’s densest tiger populations and houses 14 protected areas of which five are in Nepal. The tiger, the Asian elephant and the Indian rhinoceros are three flagship species of the region.

• Scientists of CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Visakhapatnam have found three new canyons forming a major canyon system in the depths of Bay of Bengal close to Kovvada in Srikakulam district.
• The new canyon system is very huge and probably formed by the river Kandivalasa. The depth of the canyon varies from about 90 metres from the starting point to about 2,500 metres at the deepest point, and it extends to about 50 to 70 km deep into
• The depth is more than the Grand Canyon, which is about 1,857 metres.
• Most of the canyons in the ocean system across the world act as channels for depositing sediments in the shelf region. The more the deposit, the more are the chances of finding hydro-carbons.