Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) was established in July 1989 by the Group of Seven (G-7) Summit in Paris, initially to examine and develop measures to combat money laundering.
• The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terror financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
• The FATF has developed a series of Recommendations that are recognised as the international standard for combating of money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.They form the basis for a coordinated response to these threats to the integrity of the financial system and help ensure a level playing field.
• First issued in 1990, the FATF Recommendations were revised in 1996, 2001, 2003 and most recently in 2012 to ensure that they remain up to date and relevant, and they are intended to be of universal application.
• The FATF's decision making body, the FATF Plenary, meets three times per year.

Explanation :

• AGR is the usage and licensing fee that telecom operators are charged by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
• Telecom operators are required to pay license fee and spectrum charges in the form of ‘revenue share’ to the Centre. The revenue amount used to calculate this revenue share is termed as the AGR.
• According to the DoT, the calculations should incorporate all revenues earned by a telecom company – including from non-telecom sources such as deposit interests and sale of assets. The companies, however, have been of the view that AGR should comprise the revenues generated from telecom services only and non-telecom revenues should be kept out of it.
• Currently, telecom operators pay 8% of the AGR as license fee, while spectrum usage charges (SUC) vary between 3-5% of AGR.

Explanation :

• Mt. Aconcagua is the highest mountain in South America (6,961 meters); the highest mountain in the Western and Southern Hemispheres; and the highest mountain outside Asia.
• Aconcagua lies within Aconcagua Provincial Park in the province of Mendoza in the Republic of Argentina. The mountain lies completely within Argentina and, unlike many other Andean peaks, does not sit on the international border with Chile.
• The mountain was formed by the collision of the Nazca Plate and the South American Plate during the relatively recent Andean orogeny or period of mountain building.
• It is of volcanic origin, but it is not itself an active volcano.

Explanation :

• On 3^rd February, 2020, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced thatit had discovered a new natural gas field with 80 trillion standard cubic feet (tscf) of shallow gas resources.
• The reservoir, named ‘Jebel Ali’, is located between the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which along with five other emirates form the UAE.
• The gas find is the largest since the discovery of the Galkynysh field in Turkmenistan in 2005. At 80 tscf, the new reservoir would now be ranked the fourth largest by size in the Middle East, behind the North Field in Qatar, South Pars in Iran, and the Bab field in Abu Dhabi. The Qatari and Iranian fields are part of the same deposit.

Impact

• The Jebel Ali reserve contains shallow gas, which refers to organic gas found just beneath the earth’s surface. The nature of the gas means the cost of the production is much lower than that for reaching deeper resources.
• Further, the discovery is expected to reduce the UAE’s dependence on gas supplies for electricity from Qatar, a nation with which the former has had a bitter standoff since 2017.

Explanation :

• The Blue Dot Network (BDN) was formally announced on 4^th November, 2019 at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok, Thailand.
• It is formed by USA, Japan and Australia to prevent small countries from debt trap of China. It's actually a Michelin Guide organisation.
• The aim of this initiative is to evaluate and certify nominated infrastructure projects based upon adherence to commonly accepted principles and standards to promote market-driven, transparent, and financially sustainable infrastructure development in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world.
• It is a multi-stakeholder initiative to bring together governments, the private sector and civil society to promote high-quality, trusted standards for global infrastructure development.
• The network is “ratings mechanism” that would grade infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific region on different parameters to ensure transparency and is planned as direct counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• However, unlike the BRI, the BDN would not offer public funds or loans for the project.

Explanation :

• On 1^st February, 2020, Maldives was officially readmitted to the Commonwealth, taking the count of the bloc's membership countries back to 54.
• Maldives joined the Commonwealth in 1982, and withdrew its membership in 2016, after being threatened with suspension over its human rights record and lack of progress on democratic reform.
• After due diligence, which included country assessment and consultations in accordance with the rules and procedures agreed by the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Kampala in 2007, Maldives has been re-admitted.
• The country will now be part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali, Rwanda in June, 2020.

Explanation :

• The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is a trade pact signed by the U.S.A, Canada and Mexico, which made it easier for companies in those three countries to move goods and supplies across North America’s borders.
• The agreement took effect on January 1, 1994, and essentially eliminated tariffs on most goods traded among the three nations.
• The United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) is an updated version of the nearly 25-year-old, trillion-dollar North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It includes major changes on cars and new policies on labor and environmental standards, intellectual property protections, and some digital trade provisions.
• The USMCA was proposed by United States President Donald Trump and was signed by President Trump, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 30, 2018 as a side event of the 2018 G20 Summit in Buenos Aires.

Explanation :

• The Oslo Accords are a set of agreements between the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C.,in 1993 and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995.
• Oslo I, formally known as the Declaration of Principles (DOP), established a timetable for the Middle East peace process. It planned for an interim Palestinian government in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank.
• Oslo II, officially called the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza, expanded on Oslo I. It included provisions for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from six West Bank cities and about 450 towns. Additionally, the pact set a timetable for elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.
• On May 4, 1994, the first phase of the Oslo Accords was implemented, as Israel and the PLO signed the Cairo Agreement, giving the Palestinians control over Gaza and Jericho.

Details of Oslo Accords:

• Israel to withdraw from Jericho and Gaza, and eventually the West Bank.
• Five years of limited autonomy for Palestinians in those areas.
• Election of Palestinian Legislative Council within nine months.
• Establishment of a Palestinian police force.
• The question of Jerusalem was left undecided.

Explanation :

• Hypersonic weapons refer to weapons that travel faster than Mach 5 and have the capability to maneuver during the entire flight.
• Hypersonic weapons incorporate the speed of a ballistic missile with the maneuvering capabilities of a cruise missile.
• These missiles are capable of delivering conventional or nuclear payloads at ultra-high velocities over long ranges.
• Hypersonic missiles are delivered in two ways: (1) they can be fired from the last stages of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) or Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) and skip along the top of the atmosphere using specialized jet engines to accelerate to hypersonic speeds; or (2) they can be launched independently or released from a bomber—similar to cruise missiles—before accelerating to ultra-high speeds.
• Hypersonic vehicles typically consist of a Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, or Scramjet propulsion system to enable such high speeds.

Explanation :

• The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is the Indian Ocean counterpart of the Pacific El Nino and La Nina.
• It is defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between two areas (or poles, hence a dipole) – a western pole in the Arabian Sea (western Indian Ocean) and an eastern pole in the eastern Indian Ocean south of Indonesia.
• The IOD is one of the key drivers of Australia's climate and can have a significant impact on agriculture. This is because events generally coincide with the winter crop growing season.
• The Indian Monsoon is invariably influenced by the IOD.
• The IOD has three phases: neutral, positive and negative. Events usually start around May or June, peak between August and October and then rapidly decay when the monsoon arrives in the southern hemisphere around the end of spring.

Positive Event:

• warmer sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean relative to the east
• easterly wind anomalies across the Indian Ocean and less cloudiness to Australia's northwest
• less rainfall over southern Australia and the Top End

Negative Event:

• cooler sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean relative to the east
• winds become more westerly, bringing increased cloudiness to Australia's northwest
• more rainfall in the Top End and southern Australia