10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: June 18, 2020

Statement 1 is incorrect. Sikkim was a protectorate state till the 35^th Constitution Amendment Act made it an associate state and further 36^th Constitution amendment act made it a full-fledged state of Indian Union.

Statement 2 is correct. In 1975, the Prime Minister of Sikkim appealed to the Indian Parliament for Sikkim to become a state of India. A referendum on abolishing the monarchy was held in the Kingdom of Sikkim on 14 April 1975. It was approved by 97% of voters and resulted in the country becoming an Indian state.

Statement 1 is incorrect. India has been elected to the non-permanent membership of UNSC for the eighth time for the term of 2021-22.

India have been permanent member of UNSC in: 1950 – 1951, 1967 – 1968, 1972 – 1973, 1977 – 1978, 1984 – 1985, 1991 – 1992 and 2011 – 2012.

Statement 2 is correct. Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit led the Indian delegation to the United Nations and served as India’s ambassador to Moscow, Washington and Mexico. In 1953 Pandit became the first woman to be elected president of the UN General Assembly.

Statement 3 is correct. International Solar Alliance (ISA) is registered with the UN as a treaty-based inter-governmental organization with effect from 9th Feb 2018. ISA was launched at the climate summit in 2015 by leaders of France and India.

All are correctly matched.

Hypoxia refers to a condition in which the body or a part of the body is deprived of enough oxygen supply at the tissue level.

Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when the body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. Normal body temperature is around 98.6 F (37 C) and hypothermia is said to have occurred when it falls below 35 C.

Ischemia is a condition in which the blood flow (and therefore oxygen) is restricted or reduced in a part of the body. Cardiac ischemia refers to decreased blood flow and oxygen to the heart muscle.

Statement 1 is correct. Bioremediation is the use of living microorganisms to degrade the environmental contaminants into less toxic forms. It uses naturally occurring bacteria and fungi or plants to degrade or detoxify substances hazardous to human health and/or the environment.

Statement 2 is correct. Bioaugmentation is the addition of bacterial cultures to a contaminated medium; frequently used in bioreactors and ex situ systems.

Statement 3 is correct. Biosparging is the injection of air under pressure can enhance biological degradation; usually performed in situ.

Other methods of Bioremediation include Bioventing, Composting, Bioreactors, Phytoremediation etc.

Statement 1 is correct. As per the Disaster Management Act 2005, the National Executive Committee shall prepare the National plan for disaster management; to be approved by the National Disaster Management Authority. The NDMP 2016 was revised after necessary changes was approved and published as NDMP 2019.

Statement 2 is correct. As per the NDMP 2019, Biological Hazards include Exposure to germs and toxic substances, epidemics: viral, bacterial, parasitic, fungal, or prion infections Insect infestations Animal stampedes. Min. of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) is the nodal ministry for management/mitigation of the Biological emergencies.

High Level Committee for Restructuring of FCI was chaired by Shanta Kumar. The report highlighted the issues relating to procurement, storage and distribution of food grains.

Some recommendations:

FCI should hand over all procurement operations of wheat, paddy and rice to states that have gained sufficient experience reasonable infrastructure for procurement.

Negotiable warehouse receipt system (NWRs) should be taken up on priority and scaled up quickly.

Rationalization of PDS and NFSA coverage.

FCI should outsource its stocking operations to various agencies such as Central Warehousing Corporation, State Warehousing Corporation, and Private Sector.

Total end to end computerization of the entire food management system, starting from procurement from farmers, to stocking, movement and finally distribution through TPDS.

Both statements are correct.

In order to make Indian markets more competitive and efficient, SEBI allows an additional mode for listed companies to raise funds from domestic market in the form of “Qualified Institutions Placement” (QIP).

Qualified institutional placement (QIP) is the means whereby a listed company can issue equity shares, fully and partly convertible debentures, or any securities other than warrants which are convertible to equity shares to a Qualified Institutional Buyer (QIB). The guidelines and regulations for QIP and QIB are issued by SEBI.

Statement 1 is incorrect. National Housing Bank was set up in 1988 under the National Housing Bank Act, 1987. NHB is regulated by RBI but is a wholly owned entity of the Government of India. Second Narasimham committee report had recommended that RBI cannot own the entities regulated by it. RBI has sold its stake from NHB to government of India in 2019.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The power of regulation of housing finance companies has been transferred to Reserve Bank of India in 2019, which treats them as a category of NBFCs.

Statement 1 is correct. The World Investment Report of UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), published annually since 1991 focuses on trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide, at the regional and country levels.

Statement 2 is incorrect. India was the world’s 9th largest recipient of foreign direct investments (FDI) in 2019 with $51 billion of foreign investment.

Both statements are correct.

Indian Gas Exchange (IGX), the first nationwide online delivery-based gas trading platform has been launched.  IGX will be a delivery-based trading platform for delivery of natural Gas.

It has been incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the IEX – India’s energy market platform. IGX will enable market participants to trade in standardized gas contracts. The platform is fully automated with web-based interface to provide seamless trading experience to the customers.