Solution (b)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the ‘RBI Retail Direct’ scheme.

It will be a one-stop solution to facilitate investment in government securities (G-secs) by individual investors.

Retail investors (individuals) will have the facility to open and maintain the ‘Retail Direct Gilt Account’ (RDG Account) with the RBI.

The online portal will give registered users access to primary issuance of G-secs and access to Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching system (NDS-OM). NDS-OM is an electronic, screen based, anonymous, order driven trading system for dealing in G-secs.

With this scheme RBI seeks to democratize the ownership of government debt securities beyond banks and managers of pooled resources such as mutual funds.

The current G-sec market is dominated by institutional investors which are large market actors such as banks, mutual funds and insurance companies. These entities trade in lot sizes of Rs 5 crore or more.

This scheme will make the process of G-sec trading smoother for small investors therefore it will raise retail participation in G-secs and will improve ease of access.

Article Link: RBI Retail Direct scheme to woo individual investors for G-secs

Solution (d)

A new global framework for managing nature through 2030 is released by UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The framework guides actions worldwide to preserve and protect nature and its essential services to people.

This new framework will be the global guiding force to protect nature and to retain its essential services for humans from 2020 to 2030.

The new framework has 21 targets to be met by 2030. Some of them are:

• 50% of greater reduction in the rate of introduction of invasive alien species and their inpact
• Reducing nutrients lost to the environment by atleast half, and pesticides by atleast two thirds and eliminating discharge of plastic waste.
• to bring at least 30 per cent of land and sea under the world’s protected areas
• redirecting, repurposing, reforming or eliminating incentives harmful for biodiversity

The new frameworks have four goals to achieve by 2050:

• to halt the extinction and decline of biodiversity
• to enhance and retain nature’s services to humans by conserving
• to ensure fair and equitable benefits to all from use of genetic resources
• to close “the gap between available financial and other means of implementation and those necessary to achieve the 2050 Vision”

Article Link: UN: $200 billion increase in fund flow to developing countries for managing nature

Solution (d)

India’s first cryptogamic garden housing nearly 50 species of lichens, ferns and fungi was inaugurated in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district.

The site is chosen because of its low pollution levels and moist conditions which are conducive for the growth of these species.

Cryptogams represent the non-seed bearing plants. Cryptogamae means “hidden reproduction” referring to the fact that no seed, no flowers are produced.

Algae, bryophytes (moss, liverworts), lichens, ferns and fungi are the best-known groups of cryptogams that require moist conditions to survive.

Algae comprise the most primitive organisms which are predominantly aquatic, both in marine as well as freshwater habitats.

Bryophytes are the simplest and primitive land plants that occupy an intermediate position between algae and pteridophytes. Lichens are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and algae.

Ferns are the largest living group of primitive vascular plants while fungi is a kingdom of usually multicellular eukaryotic organisms that are heterotrophs.

Article Link: India’s first cryptogamic garden opens in Dehradun

Solution (c)

The Paracel Islands are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea.

The archipelago is approximately equidistant from the coastlines of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Vietnam; and approximately one-third of the way from central Vietnam to the northern Philippines.

The archipelago includes about 130 small coral islands and reefs, most grouped into the northeast Amphitrite Group or the western Crescent Group.

The archipelago includes Dragon Hole, the deepest underwater sinkhole in the world

The archipelago is surrounded by productive fishing grounds and a seabed with potential, but as yet unexplored, oil and gas reserves.

Article Link: China ‘drove away’ US warship entering Paracel Islands

Solution (a)

Indian scientists have discovered a new plant species in Antarctica. The species is named Bryum bharatiensis – after the country’s name and India’s Antarctic station Bharati.

Polar biologists of the Central University of Punjab were on Indian Antarctic Mission 2016-17 when Felix Bast, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Botany, stumbled upon a new native species of moss on rocks near Bharati station at Larsemann Hills, East Antarctica.

Since plants need nitrogen, along with potassium, phosphorus, sunlight and water to survive, scientists wondered how did the moss survive in the Antarctic landscape of rock and ice.

This is the first time a plant species has been discovered in the four decades of the Indian Antarctic mission, which began in 1981.

Article Link: Moss on ice: Indian scientists’ discovery may change what we know about Antarctica