UPSC Quiz – 2024 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 1st June 2024

·       ECB is subject to regulatory oversight by the RBI, which sets limits on the amount of ECB that Indian companies can obtain and the purposes for which it can be used.

·       The ECBs fall under the umbrella of RBI regulations as postulated under the Master Direction – External Commercial Borrowings, Trade Credits, and Structured Obligations (Master Direction), and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA).

·       ECBs should adhere to criteria like minimum maturity period, maximum all-in-cost ceiling, permitted and non-permitted end-uses, etc.

·       There are a variety of eligibility regulations created by the government for availing of finance under the automatic route.

·       These regulations are in relation to amounts, industry, the end-use of the funds, etc.

·       The approval route, on the other hand, mandates that companies which fall under certain pre-specified sectors must obtain the RBI’s or the government’s explicit permission, prior to raising funds through ECB.

·       As per RBI guidelines, all entities except a Limited Liability Partnership are allowed to raise ECBs.

·       Source of ECBs: ECBs can be obtained from a variety of sources, including foreign banks, international financial institutions, and foreign subsidiaries of Indian companies.

·       ECB can be in the form of rupee-denominated loans, which are repaid in Indian rupees, or foreign currency-denominated loans, which are repaid in a foreign currency.

·       It’s the world’s largest Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) and is roughly the size of France.

·       It is a wetland paradise with a high concentration of wildlife, including the largest elephant population.

·       The region comprises 103 wildlife management areas and 85 forest reserves.

·       Contains three World Heritage sites: Victoria Falls, Okavango Delta, and Tsodilo Hills.

·       The KAZA TFCA includes 36 protected areas, such as national parks, game reserves, forest reserves, community conservancies, and game management areas. The area is home to the Okavango Delta, a World Heritage Site and the largest inland delta in the world, where large numbers of megafauna migrate annually.

·       KAZA states signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2006.

·       The KAZA Treaty was signed in 2011, leading to its immediate implementation.

·       The initiative aims to conserve biodiversity and promote nature-based tourism for rural economic growth.

·       Although different cryogenic gases have specific properties and turn into liquids under different temperature conditions, they all have one thing in common: small amounts of their liquid can expand into large volumes of gas

Cryonics:

·       Cryonics, the practice of freezing an individual who has died, with the object of reviving the individual sometime in the future.

·       The word cryonics is derived from the Greek krýos, meaning “icy cold.”

·       It is an effort to save lives by using temperatures so cold that a person beyond help by today’s medicine can be preserved for decades or centuries until a future medical technology can restore that person to full health.

·       A person that is held in such a state is called a “cryopreserved patient”, because Cryonicists (the advocates of cryonics) do not regard the cryopreserved person as really dead.

·       Cryonic preservation can be performed only after an individual has been declared legally dead.

·       The process is initiated shortly after death, with the body being packed in ice and shipped to a cryonics facility.

·       There, the blood is drained from the body and replaced with antifreeze and organ-preserving compounds known as cryoprotective agents.

·       In this vitrified state, the body is placed in a chamber filled with liquid nitrogen, where it will theoretically stay preserved at -196 °C until scientists are able to find a way to resuscitate the body in the future.

·       Regardless of the individual characteristics of cryogenic fluids, almost all of them can be grouped into one of three main groups for classification:

·       Inert gases: These gases do not exhibit any significant chemical reaction. They don’t burn or allow combustion. They include nitrogen, helium, neon, argon and krypton.

·       Flammable gases: The gas produced by these cryogenic liquids can burn in the air. The most common examples are hydrogen, methane and liquefied natural gas.

·       Oxygen: Many of the materials considered ‘non-combustible’ can burn in the presence of liquid oxygen. Organic materials can react explosively with liquid oxygen. The hazards and precautions associated with handling liquid oxygen must therefore be considered separately.

·       Liquid Nitrogen is an inert, colorless, odorless, noncorrosive, nonflammable, and extremely cold element. It is a cryogenic liquid

·       These are those fish species which migrate between saltwater and freshwater environments.

·       Diadromous fish are a species group that includes both anadromous and catadromous fish.

·       Some of the examples for diadromous fish: the allis shad (Alosa alosa), twait shad (Alosa fal- lax), Mediterranean twaite shad (Alosa agone) and the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) etc.

·       In order to better understand these movements, scientists have classified these migrations into several categories.

·       Anadromous fish: These are born in freshwater, then migrate to the ocean as juveniles where they grow into adults before migrating back into freshwater to spawn.

·       Catadromous fish: These are born in saltwater, then migrate into freshwater as juveniles where they grow into adults before migrating back into the ocean to spawn.

·       Amphidromous fish: These are born in freshwater/estuaries, then drift into the ocean as larvae before migrating back into freshwater to grow into adults and spawn.

·       Potamodromous fish: These are born in upstream freshwater habitats, then migrate downstream (still in freshwater) as juveniles to grow into adults before migrating back upstream to spawn.

·       Threats: Diadromous fish are sensitive to anthropogenic pressures. They are subjected to terrestrial, freshwater, and marine pressures such as agricultural and pollutant runoffs, habitat destruction, barriers to migration, fishing, bycatch, and climate change.

·       The region’s caldera, formed 39,000 years ago, spans 12-15 km in diameter, with one-third under the Tyrrhenian Sea.

·        It is the largest active caldera in Europe and more active than nearby Mount Vesuvius.

·       Campi Flegrei has been restless since 1950 due to bradyseism, a phenomenon involving surface movement from underground magma chamber activity.

·       Its last eruption in 1538 created Monte Nuovo.