Current Affairs Quiz 20 August 2025

Correct Answer: (a)
Explanation:
• Statement 1: “Hatchling sightings are rare due to dense mangrove terrain.”
◦ True. Dense vegetation, tidal waters, and cryptic behavior of crocodiles make hatchlings difficult to observe in Sundarbans.
◦ Therefore, even a small number of sightings is ecologically significant.
• Statement 2: “Their presence is considered the most critical indicator of breeding success.”
◦ True. Adults and juveniles can survive for years, but hatchlings directly reflect recent and successful breeding/nesting.
◦ Indicates effective protection of nesting sites and habitat quality.
• Statement 3: “High hatchling survival ensures ecosystem resilience against climate change.”
◦ False.
▪ Hatchling survival is threatened by predation, tidal surges, salinity, and climate variability.
▪ Climate resilience depends on long-term recruitment, adult survival, and habitat adaptation — not just hatchling survival.
Key Insight: Hatchling sightings = breeding success indicator, but climate resilience requires more complex ecological stability.

Correct Answer: (d)
Explanation:
• Statement 1: “Nearly half of stunted children are already small at birth, linking stunting to maternal health.”
◦ True.
◦ Maternal malnutrition, anemia, and poor antenatal care directly cause low birth weight → pre-disposing children to stunting.
◦ NFHS data: ~45% of stunting originates in utero.
• Statement 2: “Children of uneducated mothers have higher stunting rates compared to those of educated mothers.”
◦ True.
◦ Mother’s education improves knowledge of nutrition, hygiene, health service utilization.
◦ Data: Stunting among children of uneducated mothers ~40% vs <20% in mothers with >12 years schooling (NFHS-5).
• Statement 3: “Teenage pregnancies exacerbate the stunting cycle due to adolescent mothers’ biological immaturity.”
◦ True.
◦ Teenage mothers still growing → competition for nutrients between mother and fetus.
◦ Early marriage & pregnancy perpetuate intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.
Key Insight: Stunting is not just post-birth; it is an intergenerational problem rooted in maternal health, education, and age at childbirth.

Correct Answer: (a)
Explanation:
• Assertion (A): “The Young Bengal Movement is the first radical intellectual movement in modern India.”
◦ True.
◦ 1820s–1840s, led by Henry Derozio and his students.
• Reason (R): “It combined Western liberal thought with Indian reformist zeal and critiqued orthodoxy, caste, and colonial injustices.”
◦ True.
◦ Adopted values: rationalism, liberty, human equality; challenged idolatry, caste taboos, and orthodoxy.
◦ Also critiqued colonial exploitation — an early seed of political consciousness.
Key Insight: Their radicalism was precisely because they fused Enlightenment liberalism with Indian reform — making R the valid explanation for A.

Correct Answer: (b)
Explanation:
• Statement 1: “The Bill provides a national-level framework, replacing varied state regulations.”
◦ True.
◦ Moves away from fragmented state-wise laws, centralizing regulation under one framework.
• Statement 2: “It makes a clear legal distinction between games of skill and games of chance.”
◦ False.
◦ Unlike earlier Supreme Court jurisprudence (rummy, fantasy sports = skill), the Bill bans all real money gaming without distinction.
• Statement 3: “The Bill broadly prohibits all forms of real money gaming (RMG).”
◦ True.
◦ Includes poker, rummy, fantasy sports → hence controversial because it overturns “skill vs chance” distinction.

Correct Answer: (c)
Explanation:
• Designed for navigation (1569 by Gerardus Mercator).
• Preserves angles & shapes locally (conformal projection).
• Accurate for direction (loxodromes = straight lines).
• Distorts area (Greenland appears as big as Africa).
• Distorts distance (not equidistant).
Key Insight: Mercator is useful for marine navigation, not for depicting true size or distances.