Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) was launched by the Government in april 2018, primarily aims at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging industries including MSMEs, start-ups, individual innovators, R&D institutes & academia, and provide them grants/funding and other support to carry out R&D which has good potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs.
• iDEX is funded and managed by a ‘Defence Innovation Organization (DIO)’ which has been formed as a ‘not for profit’ company as per Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013 for this purpose, by the two founder members i.e. Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) - HAL & BEL.
• iDEX functions as the executive arm of DIO, carrying out all the required activities while DIO will provide high level policy guidance to iDEX.

Key Functions

• Co-Innovation/co-creation
• Piloting of candidate technologies in important platforms
• Indigenization of various defence and aerospace related platforms being manufactured in the country.

Explanation :

• The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 3^rd November, 2001.
• The Treaty’s truly innovative solution to access and benefit sharing, the Multilateral System, puts 64 most important crops – crops that together account for 80 percent of the food derived from plants – into an easily accessible global pool of genetic resources that is freely available to potential users in the Treaty’s ratifying nations for some uses.
• There are 146 contracting parties to the Treaty (143 states and the European Union) as of July 2019.

Aim

• Recognizing the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world;
• Establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials;
• Ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.

Explanation :

• Tropical forests are closed canopy forests growing within 10 degrees north or south of the equator.
• These are very wet places, receiving more than 200 cm rainfall per year, either seasonally or throughout the year.
• Temperatures are uniformly high - between 20°C and 35°C.
• The majority of tropical rainforests are found in four biogeographic realms: the Afrotropical(mainland Africa, Madagascar, and scattered islands), the Australian (Australia, New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands), the Indomalayan(India, Sri Lanka, mainland Asia, and Southeast Asia), and the Neotropical(South America, Central America, and the Caribbean islands).The heavy rains that occur in rainforests wash organic material from the soil, a process known as leaching, rendering the soil nutrient-less.
• A common feature of many tropical rainforests is the distinct buttress roots of trees. Instead of penetrating to deeper soil layers, buttress roots create a widespread root network at the surface for more efficient uptake of nutrients in a very nutrient poor and competitive environment.
• Rainforests are the most productive and most complex ecosystems on Earth.

Explanation :

• SurangaBawadi was built by Adil Shah-I of Adilshahi dynasty of Bijapur in the 16th century to supply water to Vijaypura in Karnataka.
• It is an integral part of the ancient Karez System of supplying water through subterranean tunnels.

Karez System

• Karez system was built by Bahmani kings in 15th Century by the Bahmani kings in Bidar, Gulbarg and Bijapur in Karnataka and also in Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh.
• Also known as Qanat, it is a water-harnessing technology that originated in Iran/Persia.
• Karez technology basically taps into the ground tunnel to the settlement, ending in surface canal and/or pools in the village for various uses.

World Monuments Watch

• The World Monuments Watch is a global program launched in 1995 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of World Monuments Fund.
• It aims to identify imperiled cultural heritage sites and direct financial and technical support for their preservation.

Explanation :

• Dhrupad, considered the oldest style of major vocal styles associated with Hindustani classical music, is said to be a form of the Gandharva Veda (the Vedic science of music, which is a branch of Sama Veda).
• The Sama Veda was chanted with the help of melody and rhythm called Samgana. Gradually this developed into other vocal styles called ‘Chhanda’ and ‘Prabandha’ with introduction of verse and meter. The fusion of these two elements led to the emergence of Dhrupad.
• A Dhrupad has at least four stanzas, called Sthayi (or Asthayi), Antara, Sancari and Abhoga.
• Like all Indian classical music, dhrupad is modal and monophonic, with a single melodic line and no chord progression.
• It performed by a solo singer or a small number of singers in unison to the beat of the pakhavaj or mridang rather than the tabla.
• The language of Dhrupad changed from Sanskrit to BrijBhashasome time between the 12th and the 16th century.
• The earliest mention in Persian texts of Dhrupad is in Ain-i-Akbari of Abu Fazl (1593).

Notable Dhrupad Singers

• Swami ShriHaridas, Surdas, Govind Swami, AshtSakha, Tansen and BaijuBawara.

Explanation :

• Natural uranium is composed of various isotopes, or different types of uranium. It contains approximately 99.3% of the isotope uranium-238, and has only very small concentrations, about 7%, of the fissile isotope uranium-235. An isotope is considered fissile if it can be split by a slow moving neutron.
• Uranium-235 is the most significant fissile isotope of uranium for reactor fuel and nuclear weapons.
• Uranium needs to be in a gaseous form for enrichment due to the varying chemical and physical properties the different isotopes (U-235 and U-238) have.
• Commercially, the U235 isotope is enriched to 3 to 5% (from the natural state of 0.7%) and is then further processed to create nuclear fuel.
• At the conversion plant, uranium oxide is converted to the chemical form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to be usable in an enrichment facility.

Stages of Enrichment

• Uranium enriched to concentrations above 0.7% but less than 20% uranium-235 is defined as low enriched uranium (LEU). Most nuclear reactors use LEU that is about 3-5% uranium-235.
• Uranium enriched to more than 20% uranium-235 is defined as highly enriched uranium (HEU). All HEU is weapons-usable, but the lower the enrichment level the greater the amount of material required to achieve a critical mass - the amount of material required to build a bomb.
• States with nuclear weapons typically use so-called weapons-grade HEU, which is typically defined as 90% HEU or above, to minimize weapons’ size.

Explanation :

• NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.
• The North Atlantic Treaty(also referred to as the Washington Treat) signed in 1949, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• NATO membership is open to “any other European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”
• NATO's Headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

Members

• Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

Explanation :

• Initially, BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand - Economic Cooperation) was formed at a meeting in June, 1997 in Bangkok.
• Myanmar was admitted in December, 1997 and the organization was renamed as BIMST-EC.
• The grouping expanded when Nepal and Bhutan were admitted in February, 2004. The grouping’s name was changed to BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) at 1st Summit Meeting held in Bangkok in July, 2004.
• BIMSTEC Permanent Secretariat is at Dhaka was opened in 2014 and India provides 33% (65% of region's population) of its expenditure

Significance

• Together, the organization comprises 5 billion people – 21% of the world population, and a combined GDP of over US$ 2.5 trillion.

Explanation :

• The DTAA is a tax treaty signed between two or more multiple countries so that taxpayers can avoid paying double taxes on their income earned from the source country as well as the residence country.
• A DTAA becomes applicable in cases where an individual is a resident of one nation, but earns income in another.
• DTAAs can be either be comprehensive, encapsulating all income sources, or limited to certain areas, which means taxing of income from shipping, inheritance, air transport, etc.

Significance

• It helps to make country attractive investment destination by providing relief on dual taxation.

Explanation :

• AIFs refer to any privately pooled investment fund, (whether from Indian or foreign sources), in the form of a trust or a company or a body corporate or a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP).
• In India, AIFs are defined in Regulation 2(1) (b) of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Alternative Investment Funds) Regulations, 2012.
• Venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, managed futures,art and antiques, commodities and real estate are examples of AIFs.

Categories

• Category I: Mainly invests in start- ups, SME's or any other sector which government considers economically and socially viable.
• Category II: These include private equity funds or debt funds for which no specific incentives or concessions are given by the government or any other Regulator
• Category III: Alternative Investment Funds such as hedge funds or funds which trade with a view to make short term returns or such other funds which are open ended and for which no specific incentives or concessions are given by the government or any other regulator.