QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 11 DECEMBER 2017

Solution: a.

In 1979, the Morarji Desai Government appointed the Second Backward  Classes  Commission under  the  chairmanship of B P Mandal, a Member of Parliament, in terms of Article 340 of the Constitution to investigate the conditions of the socially and educationally backward  classes  and  suggest  measures for their  advancement. The commission submitted its report in 1980 and identified as many as 3743 castes as socially and educationally backward classes. They constitute  nearly  52%  component  of  the  population,  excluding  the  scheduled  castes  (SCs) and  the scheduled  tribes  (STs).  The  commission  recommended  for  reservation  of  27%  government  jobs  for the  Other  Backward  Classes  (OBCs)  so  that  the  total  reservation  for  all  ((SCs,  STs  and  OBCs) amounts to 50%. It was after ten years in 1990 that the V P Singh Government declared reservation of 27% government jobs for the OBCs. Again in 1991, the Narasimha Rao Government introduced two  changes: (a) preference to the poorer sections among the OBCs in the 27% quota, i.e., adoption of the economic criteria in granting reservation, and (b) reservation of another 10% of jobs for poorer (economically  backward)  sections  of  higher  castes  who  are  not  covered  by  any  existing  schemes  of reservation.

In  the  famous Mandal case (1992),  the  scope  and  extent  of  Article  16(4),  which  provides  for reservation of jobs in favour of  backward  classes,  has  been  examined  thoroughly  by  the  Supreme Court. Though the Court has rejected the additional reservation of 10% for poorer sections of higher castes, it upheld the constitutional validity of 27% reservation for the OBCs with certain conditions.

Ch- Fundamental Rights, Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/24-years-on-obc-workforce-in-centre-still-short-of-mandal-mark/article21382491.ece;

Solution: c.

On December 8, 2017, a three-judge Bench led by the Chief Justice dismissed a petition filed by primary school teacher Neeta Upadhyay for ‘one nation, one education board’ to end disparity in knowledge dissemination during the formative years of a child.

Ms. Upadhyay said the current education under multiple boards did not provide equal opportunity to all. The fundamental right to free and compulsory education under Article 21A includes a common education system where the “rich and the poor are educated under one roof”.

The 2011 judgment: The CJI Bench’s cursory dismissal of Ms. Upadhyay’s plea is starkly antithetical to the very tenets of the 2011 judgment by the Panchal Bench in the Tamil Nadu and Others versus K. Shyam Sunder and Others. The judgment had held that the “right of a child should not be restricted only to free and compulsory education, but should be extended to have quality education without any discrimination on the ground of their economic, social and cultural background”.

Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/education/schools/plea-for-one-nation-one-education-board-dismissed/article21385977.ece;

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Solution: b.

The CISF has written to schools across the country offering professional security consultancy services to ensure safe environment for children, a move that comes in the wake of the killing of a student in Gurugram. Some have responded and sought a professional security audit to be done of their school premises.

The paramilitary, mandated as the nodal security agency to guard critical installations in the country including airports, has written dozens of letters to school authorities stating it can help create a “safe and secure” environment for school-going children which will come with a service fee (Rs 4 lake for an average school).

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ryan-killing-cisf-offers-consultancy-to-make-schools-safe/articleshow/61710975.cms;

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/post-ryan-killing-14-schools-seek-cisfs-security-audit/article21386456.ece;

Solution: d.

Ahead of the December 10-13 meeting of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) highest decision-making body, India has highlighted the difficulties faced by services suppliers from developing economies in complying with rich countries’ complex domestic regulations.

India also rejected attempts by some WTO Members such as European Union and Canada to include ‘gender equality’ in the services trade negotiations agenda.

According to a November 27 WTO report, “the state of play in the services negotiations covers four areas: services trade facilitation, services related to e-commerce, market access, and domestic regulation.”

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-business/wto-india-battles-services-barriers/article21383784.ece;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/crunch-time-at-wto/article21386424.ece;

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Solution: d.

The Eleventh Ministerial Conference (MC11) will take place from 10 to 13 December 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/crunch-time-at-wto/article21386424.ece

Solution: a.

“The G-33 coalition — which includes Indonesia, China and India — seeks a complete exemption from commitments to reduce subsidies, such as minimum support prices, from this poverty-alleviation programme. New Delhi has declined to negotiate any more trade-offs on this proposal at Buenos Aires, or accept calls for stringent transparency requirements to monitor these schemes..”

• Option ‘a’ is related to the above-quoted extract from today’s TH editorial (http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/crunch-time-at-wto/article21386424.ece). The G-33 coalition is also called “friends of special products” in agriculture. To repeat, it is a “coalition of developing countries pressing for flexibility for developing countries to undertake limited market opening in agriculture.”
• Option ‘d’ refers to the G20 coalition (within the WTO; this G20 is not to be confused with the G-20 group of finance ministers and central bank governors).

https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/negotiating_groups_e.htm;

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Solution: d.

“Coromandel, n.p. A name which has been long applied by Europeans to the Northern Tamil Country, or (more comprehensively) to the eastern coast of the Peninsula of India from Point Calimere to the mouth of the Kistna, sometimes to Orissa… The name is in fact Choramandala, the Realm of Chora; this being the Tamil form of the very ancient title of the Tamil Kings who reigned at Tanjore… The name occurs in the forms Cholamandalam or Solamandalam on the great temple inscription of Tanjore.”

“So Coromandel takes its name from the ancient dynasty of Tamil rulers known as the Cholas. That word ‘Chola’ first appears on rock inscriptions that can be accurately dated to within a year or two either side of 260 BCE, carved by order of Emperor Ashoka, and it continues to reappear century after century on the walls and monuments of the great temple cities of Tamil country, right up to a final appearance in the year 1279 CE.”

http://www.thehindu.com/books/how-a-coast-got-its-name/article21386207.ece;

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