QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 22 NOVEMBER 2017

Solution: c.

Born on this day in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1864, Rukhmabai Raut was one of the first women to practice medicine in colonial India. Backed by the British director of Bombay’s Cama Hospital, suffrage activists, and other supporters, Raut set off in 1889 for the the London School of Medicine for Women and obtained her qualifications at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Brussels. She then joined a hospital in Surat, serving as chief medical officer the next 35 years.

As an activist, Raut fought to stamp out child marriage. Married at age 11 to a 19-year-old groom chosen by her mother, Raut refused to live with her husband, winding up at the center of one of India’s most famous 19th-century court cases. Her bravery in defying contemporary Indian social customs attracted scrutiny in the British press and led to the passage of the Age of Consent Act in 1891 (thus, following the 1857 revolt, british policy of nonintervention in socio-religious matters came to a halt until 1891).

Additional Information: “.. The new policy of religious nonintervention was born equally out of fear of recurring mutiny, which many Britons believed had been triggered by orthodox Hindu and Muslim reaction against the secularizing inroads of utilitarian positivism and the proselytizing of Christian missionaries. British liberal socioreligious reform therefore came to a halt for more than three decades—essentially from the East India Company’s Hindu Widow’s Remarriage Act of 1856 to the crown’s timid Age of Consent Act of 1891, which merely raised the age of statutory rape for “consenting” Indian brides from 10 years to 12.”

Improvisation: https://www.google.com/doodles/rukhmabai-rauts-153rd-birthday;

Source: https://www.thebetterindia.com/65696/india-first-practising-lady-doctor-rukhmabai/;

https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Government-of-India-Act-of-1858#ref486261;

Women, Caste and Reform – Our Pasts-III Part 2, Class 8 NCERT;

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Solution: b.

• These flowering plants, which grow in near-shore waters, are under intense pressure – some estimates suggest global losses are running at 7% a year.
• The grasses provide shelter and food for many sea creatures. Fishers actively target seagrasses because they recognise the habitats’ great productivity. This is true from small-scale recreational activity all the way through to large-scale commercial practice.
• Seagrass meadows are found around every continent except Antarctica.
• The plants cycle nutrients, stabilise sediments, and – as photosynthesisers – act as a “sink” for carbon dioxide.
• They also provide nursery habitat for juvenile fish, which hide from predators among the stems.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42028699

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Solution: a.

The discovery of interstellar object 1I/2017 U1 is the first detection of a celestial object in our solar system that originated from another solar system, and the shape of the object itself looks very different than any asteroid or comet we’ve seen in our own solar system. The most elongated asteroids we see in our own solar system have aspect ratios of no more than 3:1. This interstellar asteroid has an aspect ratio of around 10:1.

The object was discovered by the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 telescope which surveys the sky searching for asteroids that could pose an impact hazard to Earth. (Funding under NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations (NEOO) Program, which finds and tracks asteroids and comets in Earth’s neighbourhood).

The team from the Pan-STARRS observatory that was the first to detect the interstellar visitor has chosen the name ‘Oumuamua’ for their discovery. The name is of Hawaiian origin and means “a messenger from afar arriving first.”

To read more about this discovery, refer to the following links: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/solar-system-s-first-interstellar-visitor-dazzles-scientists; https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/faq/interstellar;

Source/Improvisation: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42053634;

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Solution: a.

This is the first time in over seven decades of the United Nations, that the U.K. will not be represented in the ICJ (Although there is no entitlement to membership on the part of any country, the Court has always included judges of the nationality of the permanent members of the Security Council, until the recent round of elections); and this is the first time that one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council lost out to an ordinary member in a race. This is also the first time that one sitting member of the ICJ lost out to another sitting member.

• The International Court of Justice is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. These organs vote simultaneously but separately.
• In order to be elected, a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies. This sometimes makes it necessary for a number of rounds of voting to be carried out.
• Elections are held in New York (United States of America) on the occasion of the annual autumn session of the General Assembly.

http://www.icj-cij.org/en/members;

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/faced-with-defeat-uk-withdraws-india-wins-international-court-of-justice-seat/article20609566.ece;

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Solution: a.

‘Feed-In Tariff’ (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/feed-in-tariff.asp) is an economic policy created to promote active investment in and production of renewable energy sources. Feed-in tariffs typically make use of long-term agreements and pricing tied to costs of production for renewable energy producers. By offering long-term contracts and guaranteed pricing, producers are sheltered from some of the inherent risks in renewable energy production, thus allowing for more diversity in energy technologies.

Improvisation/In the news (http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/low-tariffs-slowing-new-bids-for-wind-solar-energy-projects-icra/article20628651.ece): Capacity addition in the renewable energy sector in the near term remains adversely impacted due to migration from feed-in tariff to bid tariff route. The wind energy sector is now following a bid based regime since February 2017, given the success of a reverse auction under two rounds of 1GW each by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) with a bid tariff discovery at ₹3.46/kwh in February 2017 & ₹2.64/kwh in October 2017.

This option is being preferred by the State utilities since the bid tariff level is significantly lower than the approved feed-in tariffs by State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) for wind power projects. The recent increase by about 15% (i.e. 6-7 cents/watt) in imported PV module prices, if sustained, could have an adverse impact on the viability of solar power projects with tariffs lower than ₹3.5 per unit.

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