QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 16 JANUARY 2018

Solution: d.

The same question was posted here earlier.

The cobweb phenomenon: After the prices of a particular agricultural commodity shoots through the roof during a season of scarcity, farmers resort to boosting the production of this commodity on the premise of the pre-existing demand and prices, leading to a problem of plenty and the resultant price crash. This can happen in the case of any crop.

From 2017: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/glut-ruins-farmers-trapped-in-cobweb-phenomenon/article18404845.ece;

Source/Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/problem-of-plenty-on-devising-a-sound-agricultural-policy/article22444683.ece;

Solution: a.

The Arab Spring is a misnomer used by the media to describe the uprising that the self-immolation of Mohammad Bouazizi unleashed in Tunisia on December 18, 2010 in protest against police corruption and ill-treatment — a spark that ignited into wildfire and spread to Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and to other countries. (The uprising in Tunisia is specifically referred to as the Jasmine Revolution.)   Sahel is a semiarid region of western and north-central Africa extending from Senegal eastward to The Sudan. It forms a transitional zone between the arid Sahara (desert) to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south.   Q1 CS(P) 2014: http://mrunal.org/2014/08/answerkey-csat-2014-international-relation-defense.html; https://www.britannica.com/place/Sahel; Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/after-the-spring-the-seventh-anniversary-of-the-jasmine-revolution/article22444684.ece; —

Solution: a.

Justification for Statement 1: Soil organic matter (SOM) is mainly composed of carbon (referred to as SOC), hydrogen and oxygen but also has small amounts of nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, sulphur, potassium, calcium and magnesium contained within organic residues. It is divided into ‘living’ and ‘dead’ components. Less than 15% of below-ground soil organic matter such as roots, fauna and microorganisms is ‘living’

Justification for Statement 2: CO2 from soil is emitted back into the atmosphere when SOM is decomposed by microorganisms. Carbon is also partly exported from soils to rivers and oceans as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) or as part of erosion material… Approaches to increase SOC include reducing soil erosion, no-till-farming, use of cover crops, nutrient management, applying manure and sludge, water harvesting and conservation, and agroforestry practices.

Regarding Statement 3: The carbon-based GHGs emitted by soil are CO2 and methane (CH4) which are two of the most leading anthropogenically emitted GHGs. Another form of GHG is nitrous oxide (N2O), the emission of which has become increasingly anthropogenically driven, largely from agricultural soils and livestock facilities.

https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/soil-carbon/what-soil-organic-carbon;

http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6937e.pdf;

Source/Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/a-new-weapon-in-the-carbon-fight/article22445785.ece

Solution: c.

Universal social protection is essential for realizing the human right to social security for all, advancing social justice and promoting inclusive growth, and accelerating progress towards achieving the globally agreed 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its SDGs.

This ILO flagship report (World Social Protection Report) provides a global overview on recent trends in social protection systems, including social protection floors.

Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees that should ensure, as a minimum that, over the life cycle, all in need have access to essential health care and to basic income security which together secure effective access to goods and services defined as necessary at the national level.

Source/improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/still-a-raw-deal-for-many/article22444629.ece;

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Solution: c.

Article 12 is included in Part III of the Constitution (Fundamental Rights: http://lawmin.nic.in/olwing/coi/coi-english/Const.Pock%202Pg.Rom8Fsss(6).pdf).

‘State’ under this article has been defined in a wider sense so as to include all its agencies. It is the actions of these agencies that can be challenged in the courts as violating the Fundamental Rights. According to the Supreme Court, even a private body or an agency working as an instrument of the State falls within the meaning of the ‘State’ under Article 12.

According to Article 36, the term ‘State’ in Part IV has the same meaning as in Part III dealing with  Fundamental  Rights.

Chapters ‘Fundamental Rights’ and ‘DPSP’; Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/tackling-government-litigation/article22444640.ece;

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