UPSC Quiz – 2020 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2nd January 2021

Solution (a)

In news: Tribal communities have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to withdraw the Centre’s notification classifying 121 villages around the Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Narmada district as eco-sensitive zones.

Shoolpaneshwar Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in Gujarat state, located in the western Satpura Range south of the Narmada River.

It shares a common boundary with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Solution (b)

Anaemia is the condition of having a lower-than-normal number of red blood cells or quantity of haemoglobin.

It can make one feel tired, cold, dizzy, irritable and short of breath, among other symptoms.

A diet which does not contain enough iron, folic acid or vitamin B12 is a common cause of anaemia.

Some other conditions that may lead to anaemia include pregnancy, heavy periods, blood disorders or cancer, inherited disorders and infectious diseases.

Anaemia in our country:

• In 15 of these 22 states and UTs, more than half the children are anaemic. Similarly, more than 50 per cent women are anaemic in 14 of these states and UTs.
• The proportion of anaemic children and women is comparatively lower in Lakshadweep, Kerala, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, and higher in Ladakh, Gujarat, J&K, and West Bengal, among others.

Solution (a)

Lightning is a very rapid — and massive — discharge of electricity in the atmosphere, some of which is directed towards the Earth’s surface.

These discharges are generated in giant moisture-bearing clouds that are 10-12 km tall.

The base of these clouds typically lies within 1-2 km of the Earth’s surface, while their top is 12-13 km away.

Occurrences of lightning are not tracked in India, and there is simply not enough data for scientists to work with. Often, safety measures and precautions against lightning strikes do not receive as much publicity as other natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Process:

• As water vapour moves upward in the cloud, the falling temperature causes it to condense. Heat is generated in the process, which pushes the molecules of water further up.
• As they move to temperatures below zero degrees celsius, the water droplets change into small ice crystals.They continue to move up, gathering mass — until they are so heavy that they start to fall to Earth.
• This leads to a system in which, simultaneously, smaller ice crystals are moving up and bigger crystals are coming down.
• Collisions follow, and trigger the release of electrons — a process that is very similar to the generation of sparks of electricity.
• As the moving free electrons cause more collisions and more electrons, a chain reaction ensues.
• This process results in a situation in which the top layer of the cloud gets positively charged, while the middle layer is negatively charged.
• The electrical potential difference between the two layers is huge — of the order of a billion to 10 billion volts.
• In very little time, a massive current, of the order of 100,000 to a million amperes, starts to flow between the layers.
• An enormous amount of heat is produced, and this leads to the heating of the air column between the two layers of the cloud.
• This heat gives the air column a reddish appearance during lightning. As the heated air column expands, it produces shock waves that result in thunder.

Solution (c)

In news: Subhash Chandra Bose had unfurled the Tricolour in Port Blair on 30th December, 1943.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) is one of the most celebrated freedom fighters of India.

In 1942, he earned the title ‘Netaji’, in Germany by the Indian soldiers of the Azad Hind Fauj.

Bose is credited with the very famous slogan, “Give me blood, and I shall give you freedom!” as well as “Jai Hind”.

Timeline

• In 1919, Bose headed to London to give the Indian Civil Services (ICS) examination and he was selected. Bose, however, resigned from Civil Services as he believed he could not side with the British.
• In 1921, Bose worked under Chittaranjan Das, a powerful politician in Bengal. He worked as the editor for Das’s newspaper, Forward, and later started his own newspaper, Swaraj.
• In 1923, Bose was elected the President of the All India Youth Congress and also the Secretary of Bengal State Congress.
• During the mid-1930s Bose travelled in Europe. He researched and wrote the first part of his book, The Indian Struggle, which covered the country’s independence movement in the years 1920–1934.
• After his return, Bose took over as the elected President of Indian National Congress in 1938 (Haripur) and stood for unqualified Swaraj (self-governance) and the use of force against the British which then combated against Mahatma Gandhi and his views.
• Bose was re-elected in 1939 (Tripuri) but soon resigned from the presidency and formed the All India Forward Bloc, a faction within the Congress which aimed at consolidating the political left.
• In 1943, he travelled to Japan and took leadership of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia. With Japanese aid and influence, he took the leadership of a trained army of about 40,000 troops in Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia known as the Indian National Army.
• The troops of the INA were under the aegis of a provisional government, the Azad Hind Government, which came to produce its own currency, postage stamps, court and civil code, and was recognised by nine Axis states.
• In 1945, the British Indian Army retaliated to the capture of Manipur, Kohima and Imphal by INA and killed almost half of the Japanese forces and the entire participating INA contingent.
• Bose escaped to Manchuria seeking a future in the Soviet Union.
• He is said to have died in 1945 when his plane crashed in Taiwan. However, there are still many conspiracy theories regarding his death.

Solution (d)

The Tropic of Capricorn passes through the countries including Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, and Paraguay.