QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 15 JANUARY 2018

Solution: b.

A recent notification by the Forests, Environment & Wildlife Management Department, Government of Sikkim titled Sikkim Forest Tree (Amity & Reverence) Rules 2017 states that the “State government shall allow any person to associate with trees standing on his or her private land or on any public land by entering into a Mith/Mit or Mitini relationship.”

To read about it in detail: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/sikkim-allows-people-to-forge-fraternal-ties-with-trees/article22437418.ece;

Solution: a.

We have earlier framed questions on Neonicotinoids. But the statements given in the question here refer to Organophosphates.

Three common and widely used farm pesticides can harm endangered salmon and jeopardize their survival, according to a new report by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries). The pesticides belonging to the family of organophosphates —chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon—also threaten orcas (the killer whale), because they eat salmon, the agency said.. The findings are included in a biological opinion that NOAA’s fisheries experts wrote for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Neonicotinoids (frequently appearing in the news in recent past): http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sundaymagazine/britains-honey-is-contaminated/article22439915.ece;

Source/improvisation:  http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/pesticides-threatened-salmon-whales-study/article22437338.ece;

From 2013: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130718-organophosphates-pesticides-indian-food-poisoning/;

Solution: b.

Definition of ‘public works’: The Bill introduces a definition for ‘public works’, which includes the construction of any infrastructure that is financed and carried out by the central government for public purposes.  This infrastructure must be necessary for public safety and security and must be based on a specific instance of danger to public safety.  Also, there should be no reasonable alternative to carrying out construction in the prohibited area.

http://www.prsindia.org/uploads/media/Ancient%20Monuments%20and%20Archaeological%20Sites/Bill%20Summary%20-%20Ancient%20Monuments%20%28Amendment%29%20Bill,%202017.pdf;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/historians-oppose-monuments-bill/article22437352.ece;

Solution: b.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, supplier of two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, aims to more than double royalty charges. That’s bad news for electric cars: the metal is a key battery ingredient. But the move could backfire in the long-term by accelerating an already frantic search for alternatives.

Cobalt has been at the heart of the green fever in metals markets over the last year. Like lithium, nickel and even copper, its outlook has been transformed by ambitious forecasts for the growth of electric vehicles. The price of what was once an ingredient for aerospace superalloys has gone from under $35,000 per tonne a year ago to over $75,000

Cobalt is usually not mined alone, and tends to be produced as a by-product of nickel and copper mining activities. (Cobalt naturally occurs in nickel bearing laterites and nickel-copper sulfide deposits and, thus, is most often extracted as a by-product of nickel and copper.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt;

https://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/co.htm; https://www.thebalance.com/metal-profile-cobalt-2340131;

Source/Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/cobalt-tax-grab-will-send-carmakers-on-a-diversion/article22436916.ece;

Solution: a.

This is relevant due to the increasing demand for cobalt (which in turn is due to the increasing demand for green technologies). There has been a demand over the past few years for this mineral to be included in the conflict mineral list under the Dodd-Frank act. US is one of the world’s major consumers of electronics; naturally, including this mineral on the list will in all likelihood have positive implications (for ethical/sustainable cobalt mining).

On July 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill, an 848-page behemoth that included a special section on conflict minerals. The law called for publicly listed American companies to disclose whether any of their products included minerals from mines controlled by armed groups in or around Congo. Though Dodd-Frank did not explicitly ban corporations from using Congo’s conflict minerals, it made big companies worry about being linked with what is arguably the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

The US Congress enacted this section of the Act because of concerns that the exploitation and trade of conflict minerals by armed groups is helping to finance conflict in the Congo region and is contributing to an emergency humanitarian crisis. Under the Act, those minerals include tantalum, tin, gold or tungsten.

Improvisation (http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/cobalt-tax-grab-will-send-carmakers-on-a-diversion/article22436916.ece): “The decision to double cobalt mining royalty charges… also aggravates miners’ and investors’ anxiety about working in the DRC, one of the world’s poorest countries, where questionable practices in smaller mines already create headaches..”

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/conflict-minerals/gettleman-text;

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/;

US SEC: https://www.sec.gov/opa/Article/2012-2012-163htm—related-materials.html;

About the Dodd-Frank Act: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dodd-frank-financial-regulatory-reform-bill.asp;

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Solution: a.

A mains-oriented/GK question.

“On a cold London morning last year, 17-year-old Amika George was at the breakfast table when a news story caught her attention. It was about young girls, some just 10 years old, in the northern English city of Leeds missing a week of school every month because their families couldn’t afford to buy them sanitary napkins.. A Leeds school had, in fact, sought help from a charity that provided hygiene products to women in Kenya, the report went on to say.”

“Shocked, Amika knew she had to do something. She launched the #FreePeriods campaign, and prepared a petition that quickly garnered support, with over 1,33,000 signatories. Last month, a thousand protesters, including politicians, activists and models, gathered outside Downing Street to ask for the government’s help to end ‘period poverty’ in the U.K. — by providing free sanitary napkins to the poorest students.”

http://www.thehindu.com/society/kerala-girl-at-centre-of-period-poverty-campaign-in-london/article22435221.ece;

Solution: a.

• Orphan crops are those that aren’t traded internationally, and therefore tend to get less attention in terms of research of agricultural training and extension, such as cassava and millets.
• They’re typically grown in Africa, Asia, and/or South America and eaten as part of local diets. They are incredibly important where they’re grown – they provide income for the poorest farmers and serve as staples in the local diet.
• They are the forgotten crops. When we talk about food production and food security, we usually think about just a handful of the main grains: wheat, rice and maize. But there are a great many more neglected and underused crops that are often more nutritious, and which grow better in many places. They could also help fight climate change, because they often need less water and tolerate higher temperatures and droughts.
• Because they get less research attention, the breeding technology for orphan crops is lagging way behind modern technology. Though this has hurt their resilience, especially to pests and disease, they are uniquely adapted to the environment in which they are grown.

http://www.mssrf.org/content/call-remember-forgotten-crops-ms-swaminathan;

http://www.rtb.cgiar.org/blog/2015/11/05/orphan-crops-what-they-are-why-they-matter-and-whats-being-done/;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/take-a-grain-check-theres-more-to-the-indian-diet-than-polished-rice-and-wheat/article22429984.ece;

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