QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 10 February 2020

Solution: a)

India is in preliminary discussions to be a part of the East Asian Observatories Consortium of eight countries committed to build large telescopes and pool resources. The EAO (East Asian Observatory) is formed by EACOA (East Asian Core Observatories Association) for the purpose of pursuing joint projects in astronomy within the East Asian region. In the era of very large scale astronomical instruments, East Asia will be competitive internationally by combining their funding resources, their technical expertise, and their manpower. The intention of EAO is to build and operate facilities, which will enhance and leverage existing and planned regional facilities. The intention of EAO is to raise funding and to build an observatory staff, separate from that of the EACOA institutions. The EAO is chartered as a non-profit Hawaii corporation. Its first task is to assume the operation of the James Clerk Maxwell Submillimetre Telescope (JCMT) on the summit of Maunakea, Hawai`i.

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Solution: c)

Most of the world is now divided into regional FTAs, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for North America, the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR for its Spanish initials) for South America, the EU, the Eurasian Economic Union (Russia and neighbours), the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) FTA in West Asia, and now the biggest of them all, RCEP.

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Solution: b)

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a farming system that can prevent losses of arable land while regenerating degraded lands. It promotes maintenance of a permanent soil cover, minimum soil disturbance, and diversification of plant species. It enhances biodiversity and natural biological processes above and below the ground surface, which contribute to increased water and nutrient use efficiency and to improved and sustained crop production.

CA principles are universally applicable to all agricultural landscapes and land uses with locally adapted practices. Soil interventions such as mechanical soil disturbance are reduced to an absolute minimum or avoided, and external inputs such as agrochemicals and plant nutrients of mineral or organic origin are applied optimally and in ways and quantities that do not interfere with, or disrupt, the biological processes.

Complemented by other known good practices, including the use of quality seeds, and integrated pest, nutrient, weed and water management, etc., CA is a base for sustainable agricultural production intensification. It opens increased options for integration of production sectors, such as crop-livestock integration and the integration of trees and pastures into agricultural landscapes.

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Solution: d)

Article 29 of the Constitution provides that a section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same. Tulu is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in two coastal districts of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district of Kerala. The Tulu-speaking people are larger in number than speakers of Manipuri and Sanskrit, which have the Eighth Schedule status.

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Solution: c)

The NCPOR under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has undertaken studies in the Western Himalaya in Chandra basin in Lahaul-Spiti (Himachal Pradesh) since 2013. The NCPOR has established a high-altitude research station named ‘Himansh’ in Himalaya at 4,000 metres altitude at Sutri Dhaka, a remote location in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. The NCPOR has also been doing research in the Arctic region and the Antarctica continent.