Solution (b)

Bir Shikargah Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in Panchkula district of Haryana.

It is spread over an area of 767.30 hectares.

It houses the Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre in Pinjore.

In 2009, the Government of India declared it an Eco-sensitive Zone (ESZ), as a result development is not permitted within a 5 kilometres radius.

Article Link: 8 critically-endangered Oriental white-backed vultures fly towards survival from Haryana

Solution (b)

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) was launched in 2017 by National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.

The objectives of PLFS are:

• to estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators (viz. Worker Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Unemployment Rate) in the short time interval of three months for the urban areas only in the ‘Current Weekly Status’ (CWS).
• to estimate employment and unemployment indicators in both ‘Usual Status’ and CWS in both rural and urban areas annually.

The Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) gives estimates of Key employment and unemployment Indicators like the Labour Force Participation Rates (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR), etc. 

Article Link: Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)

Solution (d)

Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen—32°F (0°C) or colder—for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are most common in regions with high mountains and in Earth’s higher latitudes—near the North and South Poles.

Permafrost is made of a combination of soil, rocks and sand that are held together by ice. The soil and ice in permafrost stay frozen all year long.

Permafrost covers about 15% of the land area of the globe.

Immediate effects as permafrost melt due to increasing global temperatures:

• The first impacts that are very rapid will affect countries where roads or buildings were constructed on permafrost.
• The total quantity of carbon that is now buried in the permafrost is estimated at about 1500 billion tonnes and the top three meters of the ground has about 1000 billion tonnes. The world currently emits into the atmosphere, approximately 10 billion tonnes of carbon a year. So, if the permafrost thaws and releases even only one per cent of the frozen carbon in any one year, it can nullify anything that we do about industrial emissions.

Article Link: Can thawing permafrost cause another pandemic?

Solution (d)

The oldest way of producing hydrogen is by transforming coal into gas. Gasification processes convert organic or fossil-based carbonaceous materials into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. The gas generated via coal gasification is called syngas and the hydrogen can be separated from the other elements using adsorbers or special membranes. This hydrogen is known as brown or black depending of the type of coal used: brown (lignite) or black (bituminous) coal. It is the result of a highly polluting process since both CO2 and carbon monoxide cannot be reused and are released in the atmosphere.

Hydrogen produced using natural gas is known as Grey Hydrogen. Most hydrogen nowadays comes from natural gas: it is bonded with carbon and can be separated from it via a process involving water called “steam reforming”, but the excess carbon generates CO2. This hydrogen is called grey whenever the excess CO2 is not captured. Grey hydrogen accounts for most of the production today and emits about 9.3kg of CO2 per kg of hydrogen production. Sometimes, hydrogen is referred to as “grey” to indicate it was created from fossil fuels without capturing the greenhouse gases and the difference with brown or black hydrogen is just in the smaller amount of emissions generated in the process.

Article Link: Ministry of Coal Constitutes Task Force and Expert Committee to Prepare Road Map for Coal based Hydrogen Production

Solution (a)

India and the United States of America (USA) has launched the “Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)”. The CAFMD is one of the two tracks of the India-U.S. Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 partnership launched at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and US President Mr. Joseph Biden.

The dialogue will not only strengthen India-US bilateral cooperation on climate and environment but will also help to demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with inclusive and resilient economic development, taking into account national circumstances and sustainable development priorities.

Article Link: India and US launch the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)