UPSC Quiz – 2020 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 21st Dec 2020

Solution (c)

In news: Any exploitation of Sentinel Island will wipe out tribals

Solution (c)

• In news: States get more time to set up biodiversity committees
• As per the Biological Diversity Act 2002, What are Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) are created for “promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity” by local bodies across the country.
• The main function of the BMC is to prepare People’s Biodiversity Register in consultation with the local people. The Register shall contain comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use or any other.

Composition:

• It shall consist of a chair person and not more than six persons nominated by the local body, of whom not less than one third should be women and not less than 18% should belong to the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes.
• The Chairperson of the Biodiversity Management Committee shall be elected from amongst the members of the committee in a meeting to be chaired by the Chairperson of the local body.
• The chairperson of the local body shall have the casting votes in case of a tie.

Solution (d)

• In news: The National Commission for Minorities celebrated World Minorities Rights Day on 18th December 2020.

 National Commission for Minorities

• In 1992, with the enactment of the NCM Act, 1992, NCM was formed.
• In 1993, the first Statutory National Commission was set up and five religious communities viz the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities.
• In 2014, Jains were also notified as a minority community.

Functions:

• Evaluation of the progress of the development of minorities under the Union and States.
• Monitoring of the working of the safeguards for minorities provided in the Constitution and in laws enacted by Parliament and the state legislatures.
  • Example – National Commission for Minority Education Institution (NCMEI) Act, 2004: It gives the minority status to the educational institutions on the basis of six religious communities notified by the government.
• It ensures that the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme is implemented and the programmes for minority communities are actually functioning.
• Looking into specific complaints regarding deprivation of rights and safeguards of minorities and taking up such matters with the appropriate authorities.
• It investigates matters of communal conflict and riots.

Solution (a)

• In news: Overexploitation, long life cycle have endangered a common Himalayan herb 
• The Himalayan trillium is declared as endangered by the International union for conservation of Nature
• The Himalayan trillium is found across India, Bhutan, Nepal and China.
• It is a natural source of steroidal saponins which are important components of steroidal drugs.
• The plant is popular in traditional Chinese medicine.
• Increased demands over the last decade has made its illegal collection from the wild a rather lucrative business in India: a kilogram fetches about Rs.3,000-5,000.
• The current gathering practices are entirely destructive as a single team uproots all plants in an area lest other collecting teams get to them later.
• The trilliums growing mostly in moist hill slopes with dense tree cover.
• Mature plants (which can live to 30 years or more) usually produce only one flower per year and vegetative reproduction through tubers occurs only in very old plants.
• Unregulated harvests combined with such low levels of reproduction and other pressures like grazing could cause local extinction of the plant in many regions.

Solution (b)

In news: India-Bangladesh Virtual Summit