QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 02 July 2017

Solution: d.

Improvisation: TH: Sunderbans steadily losing its famed mangroves;

WHC: India;

Solution: b.

• How climate change and sea level rise has contributed to the phenomenon of losing land, including mangrove forests in the Sundarbans, in the last part of the 21st century: This is because there is less fresh water flow and sediment supply in the western (Indian) part of the delta, so we have starvation of sediment and the rate of sea level rise is higher than sediment supply. Hence we are losing land, including mangrove forest.
• The eastern (Bangladesh) side of the delta is gaining land because of the huge amount of sediment and water flow from the Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers.

TH: Sunderbans steadily losing its famed mangroves;

Solution: a.

• 2003: The Vajpayee government forms a task force under Vijay Kelkar to recommend tax reforms.
• 2004: Vijay Kelkar, then advisor to the Finance Ministry, recommends the GST to replace the existing tax regime.

GST FAQ: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting;

TH: GST Timeline;

Solution: d.

“As winter descends on the Changthang plateau in Ladakh, the world of the Changpa nomads transforms as drastically as the landscape of this high-altitude cold desert… And yet, for these guardians of the Changthangi, or pashmina goats, retreating to lower altitudes and more merciful climes is no option. Rather, they seek out the cold, the elemental ingredient essential to triggering the growth of the fine coat of the goats. And for it, they embrace a lifestyle honed to perfection over centuries and based on a beautiful symbiosis.”

TH: Pashmina Plateau;

Solution: b.

“I was 15 years old when Garry Kasparov” … was defeated by … “IBM’s Deep Blue in 1997. The idea of man versus machine sounded outlandish at the time: we didn’t have a personal computer at home and my exposure to computers was limited to the neat row of five computers in the new computer lab at school…”

THBL: Google AI beats Chinese master in ancient game of GO;

TH: Checkmated by machine;

Solution: c.

• Hypoxic zones are areas in the ocean of such low oxygen concentration that animal life suffocates and dies, and as a result are sometimes called “dead zones.”
• Hypoxic zones can occur naturally, but scientists are concerned about the areas created or enhanced by human activity. There are many physical, chemical, and biological factors that combine to create dead zones, but nutrient pollution is the primary cause of those zones created by humans.

NOAA: What is a dead zone?;

TH, 2^nd July 2017;