ANSWER: B

• A green agriculture project funded by the FAO’s Global Environment Facility (GEF) will help with the conservation of critical biodiversity in DNP.
  • GEF is a partnership of 18 agencies and 183 countries to address the world’s most challenging environmental issues related to biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, chemicals, and international waters.
• DNP lies in the Jaisalmer and Barmer districts of Rajasthan.
• Landform: sand dunes, craggy rocks and compact Salt Lake bottoms.
• Climate: Extreme hot, arid region of very low rainfall zone.
• Flora: Thorn forest, Khejritree etc.
• Fauna: Blackbuck, Chinkara, Indian Fox, desert fox, Great Indian Bustard, etc.

ANSWER: C

• Sarnia Suluhu Hassan became the first female President of Tanzania.
• Tanzania, country in East Africa, includes the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, and Mafia.
• Boundaries: Bordered by the Indian Ocean and Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique.
• Geographical features: East African Rift System runs in two north-south-trending branches through mainland Tanzania.
• Volcano: Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa.
• Lakes: Lake Victoria (the world’s second-largest freshwater lake) in the north, Lake Tanganyika in the west, and Lake Nyasa in the southwest.

ANSWER: B

• Ministry of Culture inaugurated Photo exhibition on Baolis of Delhi on occasion of World Heritage Day.
• Baoli is a reservoir, man-made water tanks in which water can be stored.
• Baoli is commonly used in Gujarat, Rajasthan and parts of North India.
• A typical baoli usually consists of three elements, the well in which the water is collected, the flight of steps to reach the ground water through several stories and interconnected pavilions.
• Generally, Baolis are U – shaped but L – shaped rectangular or octagonal stepwells are also not uncommon.
• Stepwells located in the edge of the habitation like towns or satellite villages are mostly secular structures.

ANSWER: D

• Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) in Meghalaya has opposed the State government’s deal with Assam to resolve boundary dispute.
• ADCs are institutions of local governance created under Sixth Schedule with Executive, Legislative and Judicial powers.
• Sixth Schedule consists of provisions for administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
• There are 10 areas — three in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram each and one in Tripura that are registered as autonomous districts.
• As per the Sixth Schedule, each ADC must have at least 30 members.

ANSWER: D

• As per a new study, an imbalance in nitrogen availability has been reported across the globe, with some places having an excess and others a shortage.
• Nitrogen (N) is one of the building blocks of life and is essential for all plants and animals to survive.
• Without nitrogen plants grow slowly and produce smaller flowers and fruits.
• Nitrogen is also a core component of amino acids (building blocks of proteins) and of nucleic acids (building blocks of genetic material RNA and DNA).
• When excessive nitrogen accumulates in the streams, inland lakes and coastal bodies of water, it could result in eutrophication, leading to harmful algal blooms, dead zones and fish kills.

Nitrogen Cycle

• Movement of nitrogen between the atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere in different forms is called the nitrogen cycle.
• Bacteria in the soil “fix” atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which plants need in order to grow. > Other bacteria convert the ammonia into amino acids and proteins. Then animals eat the plants and consume the protein.
• Nitrogen compounds return to the soil through animal waste. Bacteria convert the waste nitrogen back to nitrogen gas, which returns to the atmosphere.

About Nitrogen

• Earth’s atmosphere constitutes 78 percent of Nitrogen gas. In its gaseous form, nitrogen is colorless, odorless and generally considered as inert at normal temperatures and pressures.
• In liquid form it looks similar to water.

ANSWER: A

• As per IMD, quantitatively, monsoon seasonal rainfall from June to September is likely to be 99 percent of the Long Period Average (LPA).
  • LPA of rainfall is the rainfall recorded over a particular region for a given interval (like month or season) average over a long period like 30 years, 50-years etc.
  • It acts as a benchmark while forecasting the quantitative rainfall for that region for a specific month or season.
• Large excess, excess, normal, deficient, large deficient rainfall are categories of rainfall used to describe realised rainfall averaged over various temporal scales like daily, weekly, monthly etc for spatial scales like districts, states operationally.
• Major factors governing inter-annual variation of south west monsoon are El nino Southern oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD).
  • ENSO is a periodic fluctuation (i.e., every 2-7 years) in sea surface temperature (El Nino) and air pressure of the overlying atmosphere (Southern Oscillation) across the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
  • IOD refers to the difference in sea-surface temperatures in opposite parts of the Indian Ocean. During positive IOD, monsoon rainfall is considerably good as compared to the negative IOD period.

ANSWER: D

Key launches during the conference:

• A ‘virtual hub for collaborations on urban transformation’ in partnership between Smart Cities Mission and world Economic Forum to leverage emerging technologies and innovations.
• Urban Outcomes Framework 2022, Artificial Intelligence Playback for Cities & AMPLIFI (Assessment and Monitoring Platform for Liveable, Inclusive and Future-ready urban India) portal.
• Also MoHUA stated that all smart cities will get Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC) by August 15, 2022.
  • ICCC provide services to dtizens in areas of traffic management, health, water etc.
  • 80 smart cities already have ICCC.

About Smart Cities Mission (SCM)

• It is a centrally sponsored scheme (launched in 2015) to drive economic growth and improve quality of life of people by enabling local area development and harnessing technology.
• 100 cities have been selected through a two-stage National competition.
• Central Government to provide financial support to the extent of 48000 crores over 5 years i.e. on an average 100 crores per city per year.
• An equal amount is to be provided by State/Urban Local Bodies. Emphasis has been given on public private partnerships.
• Implementation: By a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPY) created for the purpose.
• Period of implementation of SCM has been extended up to June 2023.