IAS Prelims GS Questions and Answers - Oct 16 & 17, 2016

ANSWER: 180

Explanation:

• The availability is 63 eggs per person per year in the country, while as per National Nutrition Institute this should be about 180 eggs per person.
• Government of India is promoting poultry farming through National Livestock Mission. Financial assistance is being given to the BPL families for poultry farming. Poultry farming is being promoted under the component of entrepreneurship development and employment generation.

ANSWER: All of the above

Explanation:

• Egg can help a lot in combating the malnutrition.
• High nutrition contents are available in eggs as well as it is a very good source of protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, B12, Amino acid and Folate, Iron, Phosphorus & Selenium.
• The recent research shows that it is helpful in reducing blindness.
• Awareness should be created among the people about the nutrition values of eggs and doctors, nutrition specialists, academicians, women and child institutes, egg processing industries and related policy makers can play a vital role in this.

ANSWER: 1, 2

Explanation:
Few key initiatives during India’s BRICS chairmanship -

• BRICS Agriculture Research Platform
• BRICS Railway Research Network
• BRICS Sports Council
• BRICS Rating Agency
• BRICS Institute for Economic Research and Analysis
• MoU on Environmental Cooperation
• Regulations on BRICS Customs Cooperation Committee
• MoU on Cooperation between Diplomatic Academies of BRICS Countries
• MoU on Cooperation among BRICS Development Banks and the NDB
• BRICS Women Parliamentarians’ Forum
• BRICS Under-17 Football Tournament
• BRICS Trade Fair

ANSWER: 2, 3

Explanation:
Few key initiatives during India’s BRICS chairmanship -

• BRICS Film Festival
• BRICS Convention on Tourism
• BRICS Digital Conclave
• BRICS Wellness Forum
• BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave
• BRICS Smart Cities Workshop
• 3rd BRICS Urbanisation Forum
• BRICS Local Bodies Conference
• BRICS Handicraft Artisans’ Exchange Programme
• BRICS Young Scientist Conclave
• BRICS Innovative Idea Prize for Young Scientists
• BRICS Economic Research Award.

ANSWER: Paleochannels of River Saraswati

Explanation:

• An expert committee of geologists, archaeologists and hydrologists say they have found evidence of the course of the river Saraswati, a river mentioned in the Rigveda and Hindu mythology.
• The seven-member committee, headed by Professor K.S. Valdiya of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), in a report commissioned by the Water Resources Ministry, concluded that evidence from palaeochannels — remnants of defunct rivers — suggested that the Sarsuti-Markanda rivulets in Haryana where the water courses of the “eastern branch of a Himalayan river” and the Ghaggar-Patiali channels were the western branches.
• These branches met in Shatrana, 25 kilometres south of Patiala and “flowed as a large river” emptying out into the sea that is now the Rann of Kutch.
• Apart from mythological investigation, the greater purpose of the six-month investigation was to check if these ancient channels, buried under several layers of sediment, can be replenished and used to improve groundwater levels.

ANSWER: Deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient in food

Explanation:

• Food fortification or enrichment is the process of adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins) to food.
• It may be a purely commercial choice to provide extra nutrients in a food, while other times it is a public health policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population.
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has formulated a comprehensive regulation on fortification of foods namely ‘Food Safety and Standards (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016’.
• These regulations set the standards for food fortification and encourage the production, manufacture, distribution, sale and consumption of fortified foods.
• The regulations also provide for specific role of FSSAI in promotion for food fortification and to make fortification mandatory.

ANSWER: 1, 3

Explanation:
Benefits and advantages of Fortification Food -

• Fortification requires neither changes in existing food patterns, habits nor individual compliance.
• It is socio-culturally acceptable and does not alter the characteristics of the food.
• It can be introduced quickly
• It can produce nutritional benefits for populations in a short period of time.
• It is safe and cost effective, especially if advantage is taken of the existing technology and delivery platforms.

Food fortification is a proven and effective strategy to meet the nutritional needs of a large number of people across various sections of the society, including the poor and underprivileged as well as the vulnerable, such as pregnant women and young children.

ANSWER: January 1^st 2019

Explanation:

• The Kigali Agreement (Hydroflurocarbon (HFC) Amendment to the Montreal Protocol) is a reaffirmation of the global intent to mitigate climate change and exemplifies international co-operation in this regard.
• The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is legally binding and will come into force from January 1, 2019.
• The Agreement upholds the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities (CBDR & RC).
• It recognizes the development imperatives of high-growth economies like India, and provides a realistic and viable roadmap for the implementation of a phase-out schedule for high global warming potential (GWP) HFCs.

ANSWER: Only 2

Explanation:

• The Paris agreement which will come into force by 2020 is not legally binding on countries to cut their emissions.
• The Kigali Amendment is considered very vital for reaching the Paris Agreement target of keeping global temperature rise to below 2-degree Celsius compared to pre-industrial times.
• For the first time in the Montreal mechanism, developing countries got divided into two different groups with different phasedown schedules.
• The amendment, which will come into force in 2019, will ensure that the developed countries eliminate at least 85% of their HFCs from the baseline period of 2011-13 by the year 2036.
• The Chinese group of developing countries has the target of eliminating 80% of their 2020-22 baseline HFC use by the year 2045, while the Indian group will have to phase out 85% of their baseline HFCs by the year 2047.

ANSWER: Both 1 and 2

Explanation:

• The Montreal Protocol seeks the elimination of harmful chemicals by all its member countries, though on different time schedules. The Kyoto Protocol, on the other hand, requires only a set of developed countries to mandatorily accept emission reduction targets.
• Both sets of countries are assigned a ‘baseline year’ (or three-year period), and a ‘freeze year’.
• The production or consumption of the harmful substance, like HFC, in the baseline year (or the average of three-year period) serves as the baseline amount against which reductions are assigned in the phasedown schedule.
• The freeze year, which is a few years after the baseline period, is the time from when the use of the harmful chemical must begin to go below the average amounts used in the baseline period.
• The use of the chemical can grow between the baseline year and the freeze year, but must come down to at least baseline levels in the freeze year.