10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: May 23, 2020

Statement 1 is correct. Signed in 1992, the Open Skies Treaty permits each state-party to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights over the others’ entire territories to collect data on defence related activities.

Statement 2 is incorrect. India is not a member to the treaty. Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Kyrgyzstan has signed, but not ratified the treaty.

The United States has announced its intention to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty.

All of the above are tools of increasing money supply in an economy, which in turn can promote investment and consumer spending and thereby demand.

Repo rate is the interest rate at which the central bank lends short term money to banks with repurchase agreements.

Quantitative easing (QE) is a form of monetary policy in which a central bank purchases long-term securities from the open market in order to increase the money supply.

Helicopter money is the term used for a large sum of new money that is printed and distributed. For more on this visit: https://blog.forumias.com/what-is-helicopter-money-and-why-its-use-is-advocated-against-corona-pandemic/

Statement 1 is incorrect. Locusts are herbivorous insects that can be serious pests of agriculture due to their ability to form dense and highly mobile swarms. They are species of short-horned grasshoppers.

Desert Locusts feed on leaves, shoots, flowers, fruit, seeds, stems and bark. Nearly all crops and plants including maize, sorghum, barley, rice, sugarcane, cotton, fruit trees, vegetables, pasture grasses and weeds.

Statement 2 is incorrect. As per the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Locusts do not attack people or animals. There is no evidence to suggest that they carry diseases that could harm humans.

Statement 3 is correct. An adult Desert Locust can consume roughly its own weight, about 2 grams, in food every day.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Open Market Operations of RBI are the market operations conducted by the RBI by way of sale or purchase of Government Securities to or from the market.

Statement 2 is correct. The objective of OMOs is to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis. When the RBI feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity. Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, RBI may buy securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market.

Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China is a national law of China that serves as the de facto constitution of the Hong Kong.

Basic Law works with the “one country, two systems” principle such that the governance and economic system practiced in mainland China are not extended to Hong Kong.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Kali River is also known as Sharda River in lower reaches, Kutiyangdi or Mahakali River in Himalayan region, it joins Ghagra River, which is a tributary of Ganga.

Statement 2 is correct. By the Sagauli treaty, Nepal renounced all claim to the disputed Tarai region, and ceded its conquests west of the Kali River.

An accommodative stance by Central bank means it aims to expand the overall money supply to boost the economy when the economic growth is slowing down. This is also known as “easy monetary policy” and central bank will cut rates to inject money into the financial system whenever needed.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Khudol is a crowdfunded initiative of Ya_All, an Imphal-based NGO that had created India’s first transgender football team.

Statement 2 is correct. The initiative aims to ensure food, health and hygiene of the LGBTQI+ community, people living with HIV, daily-wage earners, children and adolescents.

The United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Youth has listed Manipur’s Khudol (gift) among the top 10 global initiatives for an inclusive fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malaria is not a direct risk of having Metabolic Syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome also known as Syndrome X is a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. It is a group of risk factors – high blood pressure, high blood sugar, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and abdominal fat.

Statement 1 is correct. The group exposure limit determines the maximum amount a bank can lend to one business house or connected business entities. It prevents the troubles at one company having a spillover effect on the bank’s other assets, which could lead to a systemic risk.

Statement 2 is incorrect. It is fixed by RBI. Under the Large Exposures Framework, the exposure of a bank to a group of connected counterparties should not be higher than 25 per cent of the lender’s eligible capital base at all times.

Recently, as a one-time measure in view of financial crisis due to COVID-19, RBI decided to increase a bank’s exposure to a group of connected companies from 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the eligible capital base of the bank. The increased limit will be applicable up to June 30, 2021.