[Mission 2022] QUIZ – 2021: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 27 October 2021 – INSIGHTSIAS

Solution: c)

International Energy Agency (IEA) has invited India to become its full-time member – a proposal if accepted will require New Delhi to raise strategic oil reserves to 90 days requirement.

India, in March 2017, became an associate member of the Paris-based body which advises industrialised nations on energy policies.

India’s current strategic oil reserves equal 9.5 days of its requirement.

Also, a member of IEA has to show “a demand restraint programme to reduce national oil consumption by up to 10%.”

The IEA was founded in 1974 by industrialised countries – within the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – in response to the oil embargo.

As a result, countries seeking to become members of the IEA must also be members of the OECD and hold 90 days of oil imports as commercial stocks.

But over the years, the IEA’s mission has expanded substantially and today the agency is working with major economies around the world to enhance energy security and to help accelerate their clean energy transitions.

It is best known for the publication of its annual World Energy Outlook.

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Solution: c)

The Pandora Papers, published recently, once again expose the illegal activities of the rich and the mighty across the world. The Pandora Papers investigation is “the world’s largest-ever journalistic collaboration, involving more than 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 countries”. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has researched and analysed the approximately 12 million documents in order to unravel the functioning of the global financial architecture which helps illicit financial flows, in turn enabling the rich to throw a cloak over their incomes and activities.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), is an independent global network of 280 investigative journalists and over 100 media organizations spanning more than 100 countries.

The ICIJ investigates a broad range of matters concerning “cross-border crime, corruption, and the accountability of power.”

Over the years, ICIJ has released dozens of investigations – including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers.

ICIJ is fully funded by donations.

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Solution: d)

Rajasthan — with the top-most share of over 17% in value of mineral production in the country, was the first to notify silicosis as an ‘epidemic’ in 2015, under the Rajasthan Epidemic Diseases Act, 1957.

Silicosis is part of the pneumoconiosis family of diseases, described by the policy as “occupational diseases due to dust exposure… are incurable, cause permanent disability and are ‘totally preventable by available control measures and technology’ (emphasis added)”.

Solution: d)

Public Account of India accounts for flows for those transactions where the government is merely acting as a banker. This fund was constituted under Article 266 (2) of the Constitution.

Examples of those are provident funds, small savings and so on. These funds do not belong to the government. They have to be paid back at some time to their rightful owners. Because of this nature of the fund, expenditures from it are not required to be approved by the Parliament.

Solution: d)

The Asian Premium has its origins in the late 1980s when Saudi Arabia, adopted a marker based price system for its oil exports – West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for the US, Brent for Europe and Dubai/Oman for Asia.

India has long pushed for Middle eastern countries to remove the “Asian premium” that Asian countries have to pay for crude oil as key oil producers set higher prices for India than for the US and European countries.

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