Daily Quiz | 21 March 2024

Explanation:

• The Planetary Boundaries Framework was not introduced by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It was proposed by a group of Earth system scientists led by Johan Rockstrom in 2009. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• There are nine identified planetary boundaries which include climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, freshwater use, land-system change, chemical pollution, atmospheric aerosol loading, and novel entities. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The Planetary Boundaries Framework suggests that once a boundary is crossed, it could lead to abrupt and irreversible environmental changes with severe consequences. This concept highlights the importance of staying within these boundaries to ensure the sustainability of the planet. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• Hence, only two of the statements given above are correct.

Explanation:

• Naval Detachment Minicoy will be commissioned as INS Jatayu, an upgraded naval base, marking an important milestone in the Indian Navy’s resolve to incrementally augment security infrastructure at the strategic Lakshadweep Islands.
• India has operated a naval detachment on Minicoy, the southernmost atoll of the Lakshwadeep archipelago, since the 1980s; INS Jatayu will be the country’s second naval facility in Lakshadweep. In 2012, the Navy commissioned its first base on the islands, INS Dweeprakshak in Kavaratti.
• Lakshadweep, which translates to ‘a hundred thousand islands’ in Sanskrit and Malayalam, is a 36-island archipelago located between 220 and 440 km from Kochi.
•  The Lakshadweep are part of a chain of coralline islands in the Indian Ocean that includes the Maldives to the south and the Chagos archipelago farther south of the equator.

Explanation:

• Ladakh is now regarded as a separate Union Territory “without legislature” following the deletion of Article 370 in August 2019 and the subsequent implementation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. UTs, like as New Delhi and Pondicherry, have their own legislative assemblies.
• The organisations like the ABL and the KDA have demanded that Ladakh be included under the Sixth Schedule. This Schedule contains provisions regarding the administration of tribal areas in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. At present, Ladakh is not a part of Sixth Schedule. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.
• Inclusion under this Schedule would allow Ladakh to create Autonomous District and Regional Councils (ADCs and ARCs) — elected bodies with the power to administrate tribal areas. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The ADCs and ARCs may also constitute village councils or courts to decide disputes between parties from Scheduled Tribes, and appoint officers to oversee the administration of the laws they enact.
• The Schedule also gives ARCs and ADCs the power to collect land revenue, impose taxes, regulate money lending and trading, collect royalties from licences or leases for the extraction of minerals in their areas, and establish public facilities such as schools, markets, and roads. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Special provisions under Article 371 would allow protections to be extended to the local population of Ladakh, while stopping short of the widespread autonomy that is provided to ADCs and ARCs under the Sixth Schedule.

Explanation:

• Japanese architect Riken Yamamoto was declared winner of the 2024 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest international award in the field, which is sometimes referred to as the “Architecture Nobel”.
• The prize has been awarded every year since its founding in 1979, and Yamamoto is the ninth laureate from Japan.

Explanation:

• Geoscientists, or scientists who study the Earth, use the geologic time scale (GTS) to measure the history of the planet.
• The GTS (since the formation of Earth, roughly 4.54 billion years ago) is divided, in descending order of duration, into aeons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.
• The GTS is based on chronostratigraphic classification. Stratigraphy is a branch of geology that deals with the study of rock layers (or strata). Chronostratigraphy (“chrono”: relating to time) is an aspect of stratigraphy that deals with the relation between rock strata and the measurement of geological time. Hence, statement 1 is correct.