QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 18 October 2018

Solution: a.

BBC: The US has announced plans to withdraw from a 144-year-old postal treaty, which the White House says lets China ship goods at unfairly low prices. Under the treaty, a UN body sets lower international rates for packages from certain countries, a move originally designed to support poorer nations. But the US says the discounts put American businesses at a disadvantage.

Officials said they hoped the notice of withdrawal would set the stage to agree a better deal.

Britannica:;

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Solution: c.

In the news (BBC): One of the rarest flowers in the world, the Neelakurinji blooms just once every 12 years in India’s south-western state of Kerala, when it covers the hills in a violet hue. Munnar is known for its tea, coffee and spice plantations, which, along with the lush views and misty mountains, have made the town a beloved tourist destination. It is here where one of India’s best-kept secrets lives: the Neelakurinji, one of the world’s rarest flowers, which blooms only once every 12 years. And this year, it has bloomed again.

IE: The most famous relative of the karvi (once-in-8-years) is the neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana), which bursts into flower every 12 years in the shola forests in southern India and gives the Nilgiri Hills (Blue Mountains”) its name.

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Solution: a.

In the news (BBC): Archaeologists in Italy have uncovered an inscription they say may show that the history books have been wrong for centuries. Historians have long believed that Mount Vesuvius erupted on 24 August 79 AD, destroying the nearby Roman city of Pompeii. But now, an inscription has been uncovered dated to mid-October – almost two months later.

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Solution: b.

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In the news: BBC;

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Solution: c.

TH: Strategic autonomy is simply India’s ability to take relatively autonomous decisions on matters of vital interest to us. Not 100% autonomous, but on those decisions that are critical for India, we ensure that they are taken here [New Delhi], not in some other capital. From that point of view, there is continuity today in our foreign policy with how it has always been.

IDSA: In its pure form, strategic autonomy presupposes the state in question possessing overwhelmingly superior power. This is what would enable that state to resist the pressures that may be exerted by other states to compel it to change its policy or moderate its interests. Theoretically, therefore, only a lone superpower in a unipolar international order truly possess strategic autonomy since it is the only country that would wield overwhelming economic, industrial, military and technological capabilities and thus the power to resist pressure from all other states. Even superpowers become susceptible to the pressures exerted by their superpower peers in bipolar or multipolar orders, which means that their ability to be strategically autonomous is not absolute but only relative.

It follows from this that regional powers like India are destined to be even less strategically autonomous. While they may express the aspiration to be strategically autonomous, their ability and willingness to practice it are likely to be inconsistent and variable. They will resist external pressure to change their policy or moderate their interest on core issues of national security irrespective of the costs involved.

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