Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• IOM, or as it was first known, the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME), was born in 1951 out of the chaos and displacement of Western Europe following the Second World War.
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.
• With 173 member states, a further 8 states holding observer status and offices in over 100 countries, IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.
• IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assistin the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people.
• The IOM Constitution recognizes the link between migration and economic, social and cultural development, as well as to the right of freedom of movement.
• IOM works in the four broad areas of migration management:
  • Migration and development
  • Facilitating migration
  • Regulating migration
  • Forced migration

Explanation :

• The Sumatran rhinoceros, also known as the hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five species of rhinoceros.
• The Sumatra rhino is the smallest of the rhinoceros species and the only rhino with two horns in Asia.
• They are now critically endangered, as per the IUCN red list.
• The Sumatran rhino once roamed as far away as the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in Bhutan and eastern India, through Myanmar, Thailand, possibly to Vietnam and China, and south through the Malay Peninsula.
• Today, the species only survives on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

Explanation :

• The Convention on Cybercrime, also known as the Budapest Convention, is the first global treaty seeking to address Internet and cybercrime by harmonising national laws, improving investigative techniques and increasing cooperation among nations.
• Its main objective, set out in the preamble, is to pursue a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against cybercrime, especially by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering international co-operation.
• The Convention and its Explanatory Report was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe at its 109th Session on 8 November 2001.
• It was opened for signature in Budapest, on 23 November 2001 and it entered into force on 1 July 2004.
• As of September 2019, 64 states have ratified the convention, while a further four states had signed the convention but not ratified it.

Explanation :

• The Kimberley Process (KP) is a multilateral trade regime established in 2003 with the goal of preventing the flow of conflict diamonds. The core of this regime is the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) under which States implement safeguards on shipments of rough diamonds and certify them as “conflict free".
• It is open to all countries that are willing and able to implement its requirements.
• KPCS imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free' and prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade.
• Under the terms of the KPCS, participating states must meet ‘minimum requirements' and must put in place national legislation and institutions; export, import and internal controls; and also commit to transparency and the exchange of statistical data.
• India is one of the founder members of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and is the Chair of Kimberley Process for the year 2019 with Russian Federation as Vice Chair. India had earlier chaired KPCS in the year 2008.

Members

• The KP has 54 participants, representing 81 countries, with the European Union and its Member States counting as a single participant.

Explanation :

• Asia-Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association(APRACA) is a regional association that promotes cooperation and facilitates mutual exchange of information and expertise in the field of rural finance.
• As of April 2019, a total of 86 institutions in 24 countries in the Asia-Pacific Region are affiliated with the APRACA as its members.

History

• The establishment of a Regional Association that promotes cooperation and facilitates mutual exchange of information and expertise in the field of rural finance was first proposed at the Regional Seminar on Agricultural Credit for Small Farmers, sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the Pacific in October 1974.
• Subsequently under the auspices of FAO, rural finance and agricultural credit institutions in the region formally launched APRACA during its first General Assembly Meeting in New Delhi, India, on October 14, 1977, held in conjunction with the third FAO Asian Conference on Agricultural Credit and Cooperatives.

Mission

• To promote the efficiency and effectiveness of rural finance and improve access to financial services through a network of knowledge sharing and learning, capacity-building, research and exchange of expertise.

Explanation :

• The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture was adopted by the Thirty-First Session of the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on 3^rd November, 2001.
• The Treaty’s truly innovative solution to access and benefit sharing, the Multilateral System, puts 64 most important crops – crops that together account for 80 percent of the food derived from plants – into an easily accessible global pool of genetic resources that is freely available to potential users in the Treaty’s ratifying nations for some uses.
• There are 146 contracting parties to the Treaty (143 states and the European Union) as of July 2019.

Aim

• Recognizing the enormous contribution of farmers to the diversity of crops that feed the world;
• Establishing a global system to provide farmers, plant breeders and scientists with access to plant genetic materials;
• Ensuring that recipients share benefits they derive from the use of these genetic materials with the countries where they have been originated.

Explanation :

• Natural uranium is composed of various isotopes, or different types of uranium. It contains approximately 99.3% of the isotope uranium-238, and has only very small concentrations, about 7%, of the fissile isotope uranium-235. An isotope is considered fissile if it can be split by a slow moving neutron.
• Uranium-235 is the most significant fissile isotope of uranium for reactor fuel and nuclear weapons.
• Uranium needs to be in a gaseous form for enrichment due to the varying chemical and physical properties the different isotopes (U-235 and U-238) have.
• Commercially, the U235 isotope is enriched to 3 to 5% (from the natural state of 0.7%) and is then further processed to create nuclear fuel.
• At the conversion plant, uranium oxide is converted to the chemical form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) to be usable in an enrichment facility.

Stages of Enrichment

• Uranium enriched to concentrations above 0.7% but less than 20% uranium-235 is defined as low enriched uranium (LEU). Most nuclear reactors use LEU that is about 3-5% uranium-235.
• Uranium enriched to more than 20% uranium-235 is defined as highly enriched uranium (HEU). All HEU is weapons-usable, but the lower the enrichment level the greater the amount of material required to achieve a critical mass - the amount of material required to build a bomb.
• States with nuclear weapons typically use so-called weapons-grade HEU, which is typically defined as 90% HEU or above, to minimize weapons’ size.

Explanation :

• NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries.
• The North Atlantic Treaty(also referred to as the Washington Treat) signed in 1949, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• NATO membership is open to “any other European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area.”
• NATO's Headquarters are located in Evere, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

Members

• Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

Explanation :

• Tonga is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago, is located in the Ring of Fire area of Pacific Ocean. It comprises 169 islands, of which 36 are inhabited.
• It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia and Vanuatu to the west.
• It is sub-divided into five administrative divisions: Eua, Haʻapai, Niuas, Tongatapu, and Vavaʻu.
• The largest island is the Tongatapu, on which the capital city of Nukuʻalofa is located.
• Geologically the Tongan islands are of two types: most have a limestone base formed from uplifted coral formations; others consist of limestone overlaying a volcanic base.

Explanation :

• Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that causes brain cells to waste away (degenerate) and dies. It is named after Alois Alzheimer.
• The disease course is divided into four stages, with a progressive pattern of cognitive and functional impairment.
• Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia - a continuous decline in thinking, behavioral and social skills that disrupts a person's ability to function independently.
• The first symptoms of Alzheimer’s vary from person to person. The possibility of Alzheimer’s increases as the age of the population increases.
• Current Alzheimer's disease medications may temporarily improve symptoms or slow the rate of decline. These treatments can sometimes help people with Alzheimer's disease maximize function and maintain independence for a time.