Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• The ISA was unveiled jointly by India and France at the U.N. Climate Change Conference-CoP-21 in Paris on November 30^th, 2015. It is headquartered at GwalPahari, Gurugram, India.
• The ISA Framework Agreement was opened for signature during the CoP-22 at Marrakesh on 15^th November, 2016.
• The idea was to form a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to collaborate on addressing the identified gaps in their energy requirements through a common approach.
• Towards this, the ISA has set a target of 1 TW of solar energy by 2030.
• Under the alliance, India has set a target to produce 100 GW of solar energy by 2022 and reduction in emission intensity by 33–35% by 2030.
• The ISA is open to 121 prospective member countries, most of them located between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn as this is the region worldwide with a surplus of bright sunlight for most of the year. Till date, 81 countries have taken membership of ISA.

Key Focus Areas

• Promote solar technologies, new business models and investment in the solar sector to enhance prosperity
• Formulate projects and programmes to promote solar applications
• Develop innovative financial mechanisms to reduce cost of capital
• build a common knowledge e-Portal
• Facilitate capacity building for promotion and absorption of solar technologies and R&D among member countries

Explanation :

• NIRVIK scheme has been launched by the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC) in order to ease the lending process and enhance loan availability for exporters.

Key Features

• Insurance cover guaranteed will cover up to 90% of the principal and interest.
• The increased cover will ensure that foreign and rupee export credit interest rates are below 4 percent and 8 percent respectively for the exporters.
• The insurance cover will include both pre and post-shipment credit.

Benefits

• Will enhance accessibility and affordability of credit for exporters
• Will make ECGC procedures exporter friendly
• Will help make Indian exports competitive

Explanation :

• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that suggests that it is the responsibility of the corporations operating within society to contribute towards economic, social and environmental development that creates positive impact on society at large.
• In India, the concept of CSR is governed by clause 135 of the Companies Act, 2013.
• As per as CSR is concerned, the Companies Act, 2013 is a landmark legislation that made India the first country to mandate and quantify CSR expenditure.
• The amendment notified in the Companies Act, 2013 requires companies with a net worth of INR 500 crore (US $70 million) or more, or an annual turnover of INR 1000 crore (US $140 million) or more, or net profit of INR 5 crore (US $699,125) or more, to spend 2 percent of their average net profits of three years on CSR.
• The corporations are required to setup a CSR committee which designs a CSR policy which is approved by the board and encompasses the CSR activities the corporations is willing to undertake.

Examples of CSR

• Environmental management, ex- waste reduction and sustainability
• Responsible sourcing, ex- using only fair trade ingredients
• Improvement of working standards and conditions
• Contributing to educational and social programs
• Employee volunteering
• Socially responsible investment
• Development of employee and community relations

Explanation :

• Bhaona,is a traditional form of entertainment, with religious messages, prevalent is Assam, India.
• It was created by MahapurushaSrimantaSankardeva, in sixteenth century, in order toconvey religious messages to villagers through entertainment.
• It is a presentation of the AnkiaNaat of Assam.
• A Bhaona, involving dialogues, songs and dances by performers in costumes and ornaments, usually involves 40-50 people, including those playing heavy drums and cymbals.
• In Bhaona cultural glimpses of Assam, Bengal Orissa, Mathura and Brindavan can be seen. The Sutradhaar, or narrator begins the story, first in Sanskrit and then in either Brajboli or Assamese.

Explanation :

• National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) was founded on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi on 2^nd October, 1958, in order to promote the trade of agricultural produce and forest resources across the nation.
• Registered under the Multi State Co-operative Societies Act, it is the national level marketing agency for agricultural products in the Cooperative Sector.
• Objective: To promote Co-operative marketing of Agricultural Produce to benefit the farmers.
• It is the nodal agency to implement price stabilization measures under "Operation Greens" which aims to double the farmers' income by 2022.

Explanation :

• A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center, a closed low-level circulation and a spiral arrangement of numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rainfall.
• Most tropical cyclones originate in the doldrums near the Equator, approximately 10 degrees away.
• The weakest tropical cyclones are called tropical depressions. If a depression intensifies such that it’s maximum sustained winds reach 39 miles per hour, the tropical cyclone becomes a tropical storm.
• Once a tropical cyclone reaches maximum sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or higher, it is then classified as a hurricane, typhoon, or tropical cyclone, depending upon where the storm originates in the world.

Eye of Cyclone

• A mature tropical cyclone is characterised by the strong spirally circulating wind around the centre which is called the eye. It is an area with calm weather descending air.

Conditions for formation of Tropical Cyclone-

• Large sea surface with a temperature higher than 27° C
• Presence of the Coriolis force
• Small differences in the vertical wind speed
• A pre-existing weak- low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation
• Upper divergence above the sea level system.

Cyclone names in different regions-

• Cyclones in the Indian Ocean
• Willy-willies in Western Australia
• Hurricanes b Atlantic
• Typhoons in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea

Explanation :

• The Non-Aligned Movement was founded under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Jawaharlal Nehru of India, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Sukarno of Indonesia.
• The basic concept for the group originated in 1955 during discussions that took place at the Asia-Africa Bandung Conference held in Indonesia.
• The first NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.

Objective

• It sought to create an independent path in world politics that would not result in member States becoming pawns in the struggles between the major powers.

Members

• It has 120 members, comprising 53 countries from Africa, 39 from Asia, 26 from Latin America and the Caribbean and 2 from Europe (Belarus, Azerbaijan). There are 17 countries and 10 international organizations that are Observers at NAM.

Explanation :

• The IndiGen initiative was undertaken by CSIR in April 2019, which was implemented by the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi and CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad.
• Called as the IndiGen Genome project, its outcomes will have applications in a number of areas including predictive and preventive medicine with faster and efficient diagnosis of rare genetic diseases.

Aim

• To test if it’s possible to rapidly and reliably scan several genomes and advise people on health risks that are manifest in their gene.
• To understand the variation and frequency of certain genes that are known to be linked to disease.

Benefits

• The project will have applications in a number of areas including predictive and preventive medicine with faster and efficient diagnosis of rare genetic diseases.
• The outcomes of the IndiGen will be utilized towards understanding the genetic diversity on a population scale.
• Other benefits include epidemiology of genetic diseases to enable cost effective genetic tests, carrier screening applications for expectant couples, enabling efficient diagnosis of heritable cancers and pharmacogenetic tests to prevent adverse drug reactions.

Explanation :

• Thotlakonda Buddhist Complex is situated on a hill near Bheemunipatnam, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
• It came to light during an aerial survey by the Indian Navy for setting up a Naval Base. After its discovery, major excavations have been conducted by the Andhra Pradesh State Archaeology Department during 1988 - 1993.
• The excavations established the existence of a Hinayana Buddhist complex which flourished 2000 years ago.
• Thotlakonda Complex is a dwelling of various Stupas, Viharas and Chaityas.

Explanation :

• Skandagupta was a son of the Gupta emperor Kumaragupta-I. He ascended the throne in 455 AD and ruled till 467 AD.
• By defeating Pushyamitras during his initial years of ascendancy, Skandagupta proved his ability to rule and took upon himself the title of
• He not only defended the great culture of India but also from external aggression and defeated the Huns (Bhitari pillar inscription), who had invaded India from the North West.
• Skandagupta issued five types of gold coins: Archer type, King and queen type, Chhatra type, Lion-slayer type and Horseman type.
• His silver coins are of four types: Garuda type, Bull type, Altar type and Madhyadesha type.