UPSC Quiz – 2024 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 22nd May 2024

·       The IMEEC will comprise two separate corridors, the east corridor connecting India to the Gulf and the northern corridor connecting the Gulf to Europe.

·       The corridor will include a shipping route connecting Mumbai and Mundra (Gujarat) with the UAE, and a rail network connecting the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan with the Israeli port of Haifa to reach the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

·       Haifa will then be connected by sea to the port of Piraeus in Greece to eventually be connected to Europe.

·       Beyond the transport infrastructure, undersea cables would facilitate the exchange of data, while long-distance hydrogen pipelines would boost the participants’ climate and decarbonisation goals.

·       It intends to increase efficiency, reduce costs, secure regional supply chains, increase trade accessibility, enhance economic cooperation, generate jobs, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

·       It is an international economic union and free trade zone comprising countries locatedin central and northern Asia and Eastern Europe.

·       It was established by the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union signed on May 29, 2014, in Astana.

·       Member countries include Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

·       The EAEU is being created to comprehensively upgrade, raise the competitiveness of and cooperation between the national economies, and promote stable development in order to raise the living standards of the nations of the Member-States.

·       The EAEU provides for free movement of goods, services, capital and labor, pursues coordinated, harmonized, and single policyin the sectors determined by the Treaty and international agreements within the Union.

Structure:

·       The Supreme Eurasian Economic Council is the highest body of the EAEU, which consists of the heads of the Union’s member states.

·       The Eurasian Economic Commission,based in Moscow, is the permanent supranational regulatory body of the union. The main purpose of the Commission is to ensure the functioning and development of the EAEU and developing proposals for the further development of integration.

·       The Court of the EAEU,based in Minsk,serves as the judicial body.

·       Unlike the European Commission, the Eurasian Economic Commission’s power is limited.

·       Member states disagreeing with its judgements can appeal to other bodies, and the Commission has no power to bring a member state before the Court in a case of non-compliance.

·       Disputes are often resolved bilaterally rather than via EEU institutions.

·       Unlike the European Union (EU), the EAEU does not share a common currency.

·       Objective: The Scheme enables the Members of Parliament to recommend works for creation of durable community assets based on locally felt needs to be taken up in their constituencies in the area of national priorities namely drinking water, education, public health, sanitation, roads etc.

·       Under the scheme annual MPLADS fund entitlement per MP constituency is Rs. 5 crore.

·       Lok Sabha Members can recommend works within their Constituencies.

·       The Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament can recommend works in one or more districts in the State from where he/she has been elected.

·       The Nominated Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may select any one or more Districts from any one State in the Country for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme.

·       The role of an MP is, however, limited to the recommendation of a project.

·       The onus is on the district authority to sanction, execute and complete the recommended project within a particular timeframe.

·       MPs are to recommend every year, works costing at least 15 per cent of the MPLADS entitlement for the year for areas inhabited by Scheduled Caste population and 7.5 per cent for areas inhabited by S.T. population.

·       In case an elected MP wishes to contribute MPLADS funds outside the constituency or the State/UT, they can recommend work up to Rs 25 lakh in a financial year.

·       MPs do not directly receive funds under MPLADS. The Centre directly transfers the sanctioned amount in two instalments of Rs. 2.5 crore to the district authorities of the concerned MP’s nodal district after a recommended project gets approval.

·       It takes place when the occurrence of variant forms of a gene, called alleles, increases and decreases by chance over time in a population.

·       This occurs due to random sampling and the random events that influence the survival and reproduction of those individuals.

·       These variations in the presence of alleles are measured as changes in allele frequencies.

·       Small populations are more susceptible to genetic drift than large populations, whose larger numbers can buffer the population against chance events.

·       Both possibilities decrease the genetic diversity of a population.

·       It could also cause initially rare alleles to become much more frequent, and even fixed.

·       Genetic drift is common after population bottlenecks, which are events that drastically decrease the size of a population.

·       In these cases, genetic drift can result in the loss of rare alleles and decrease the gene pool.

·       Genetic drift can cause a new population to be genetically distinct from its original population, which has led to the hypothesis that genetic drift plays a role in the evolution of new species.

·       These are based on scientific evidence that “such areas are required to be kept as inviolate for the purpose of tiger conservation, without affecting the rights of the Scheduled Tribes or such other forest dwellers”.

·       Recently, the Supreme Court has ordered the Rajasthan government to shutter 68 mines operating within a 1-kilometre periphery of the critical tiger habitat (CTH) of the Sariska reserve.

Sariska Tiger Reserve

·       It is located in the Alwar district of Rajasthan. It is well nestled in the Aravali Hills.

·       It is the first reserve in the world to successfully relocate tigers.

·       It is also famous for old temples, palaces, and lakes such as Pandu Pol, Bhangarh Fort, Ajabgarh, Pratapgarh, Siliserh Lake, and Jai Samand Lake.

·       Topography: It possesses a rocky landscape, scrub thorn arid forests, grasses, hilly cliffs, and semi deciduous wood.