UPSC Quiz – 2020 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 27th Oct 2020

Solution (a)

• India’s first seaplane service in Gujarat, is set to start from 31st October 2020, the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, with the aim of providing air connectivity between the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad and the Statue of Unity in Kevadia.
• Ministry: Union Ministry of Civil Aviation.
• The seaplane will be operated by SpiceJet. It is a 19-seater seaplane, which will be able to accommodate 14 passengers.
• In the next phase, Dharoi dam (Mehsana district) will connect Ambaji and Shatrunjay dam (Bhavnagar district) and Tapi district.

Seaplane:

• A seaplane is a fixed-wing aeroplane designed for taking off and landing on water.
• There are two main types of seaplanes: flying boats (often called hull seaplanes) and floatplanes.
• A flying boat is a fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water, that usually has no type of landing gear to allow operation on land. It differs from a floatplane as it uses a purpose-designed fuselage which can float, granting the aircraft buoyancy
• A floatplane is supported on the water by pontoons, called floats.

Solution (a)

• The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways has laid the foundation stone for the country’s first MultiModal Logistics Park (MMLP) at Jogighopa in Assam.
• Developed under the Bharatmala Pariyojana of the Government of India.
  • Bharatmala Pariyojana is an umbrella program for the highways sector envisaged by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
  • In order to reduce congestion on proposed economic corridors, enhance logistic efficiency and reduce logistics costs of freight movements, 35 locations have been identified for development of MultiModal Logistics Parks.
• It will have direct connectivity with National Highway 17, the proposed Jogighopa waterway terminal on Brahmaputra, the newly constructed Rupsi and Guwahati airports as well as the main railway route.
• It will have all the facilities like warehouses, railway siding, cold storage, custom clearance house, yard facility, workshops, petrol pumps, truck parking, administrative building, boarding lodging, eating joints, water treatment plant, etc.
• The park will reduce trade cost by 10% and have cargo capacity of 13 million metric tons (MMT) per year.

Solution (a)

• Saudi Arabia hosted the first-ever Ministerial Meeting of the G-20 Anti-Corruption Working Group (ACWG) virtually.
• Currently, Saudi Arabia holds the presidency of G-20 and is the first Arab nation to do so.

G-20 Anti-Corruption Working Group:

• It was set up in June 2010 at the Toronto Summit of G-20. The year 2020 marks its 10th anniversary.
• Objective: To prepare “comprehensive recommendations for consideration by leaders on how the G20 could continue to make practical and valuable contributions to international efforts to combat corruption”.
• ACWG has led the G-20 anti-corruption efforts coordinating the collective and national actions taken by its members.
• It actively works with the World Bank Group, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), etc.
  • The World Bank and the UNODC are also involved in the ACWG through the active participation and contribution of Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR) to its work, which plays an advisory role on asset recovery, anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing, transparency and beneficial ownership, etc.

Solution (a)

• According to the October update of the World Economic Outlook 2020, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) will witness a contraction of over 10%.
• This is more than the double of 4.5% contraction projected in the April edition.
• World Economic Outlook is a survey by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which is usually published twice a year in the months of April and October.

Key Points

• Global growth would contract by 4.4% in 2020 and bounce back to 5.2% in 2021.
• Indian economy, severely hit by the pandemic, is projected to contract by 10.3% in 2020.
  • The spread of the Covid-19 and containment measures have severely disrupted supply and demand conditions in India.
• However, India is likely to bounce back with an 8.8% growth rate in 2021, thus regaining the position of the fastest-growing emerging economy, surpassing China’s projected growth rate of 8.2%.
  • Among the major economies, China is the only country to show a positive growth rate of 1.9% in 2020.

Solution (a)

• Recently, Kabartal Wetland (Bihar) and Asan Conservation Reserve (Uttrakhand) have been designated as Ramsar sites, making them ‘Wetlands of International Importance’.
• Earlier in 2020, India designated 10 more wetlands as a Ramsar site, taking the total number from 27 to 37.
• With 2 more inclusions, the total number of Ramsar sites in India is 39, the highest in South Asia.

Kabartal Wetland:

• Also known as Kanwar Jheel, it covers 2,620 hectares of the Indo-Gangetic plains in the Begusarai district of Bihar.
• It acts as a vital flood buffer for the region besides providing livelihood opportunities to local communities.
• Significant biodiversity is present, with 165 plant species and 394 animal species recorded, including 221 bird species. It is also a valuable site for fish biodiversity with over 50 species documented.
• It is an important stopover along the Central Asian Flyway, with 58 migratory waterbirds using it to rest and refuel.
• Five critically endangered species inhabit the site, including three vultures – the red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus), white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and Indian vulture (Gyps indicus) – and two waterbirds, the sociable lapwing (Vanellus gregarius) and Baer’s pochard (Aythya baeri).
• Major threats to the Site include water management activities such as drainage, water abstraction, damming and canalization.