10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #46 December 24, 2019

Explanation: The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is an autonomous, statutory body created by IRDA Act, 1999. It was created based on the recommendations of the Malhotra Committee. It is headquartered in Hyderabad. The functions of IRDA include (a) regulating the insurance industry and protect the customers (b) promotion of competition to enhance customer satisfaction and (c) lowering premiums for ensuring the financial security of the insurance sector.

Explanation: The Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) was launched by the Ministry of Power in 2015 to help turn around the poor financial situation of state discoms. The distribution companies (Discom) losses which had progressively reduced in the first couple of years since the rollout of UDAY scheme in 2015 have rebounded in the financial year 2019. The discoms have also missed the year 2019 UDAY target to bring down their Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses to 15%.The Book losses of discoms has also reduced from Rs 51,000 crore in the financial year 2016 to Rs 15,132 crore in 2018.However, the losses in 2019 have increased to Rs 28,036 crore vis-a-vis 2018.

Explanation: The ‘Nagpur Resolution- A holistic approach for empowering citizens’ was adopted during the Regional Conference on ‘Improving Public Service Delivery – Role of Governments’, in Nagpur, Maharashtra. The conference was organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra.

Explanation: Water hyacinth is a free-floating perennial aquatic plant (or hydrophyte) native to tropical and subtropical South America. They are considered as Invasive alien species. The one plant of water Hyacinth is capable of duplicating itself every nine days. Hence, it has spread rapidly to other parts of the world. India has also been infested by this weed. Researchers from Assam have used the invasive plant water hyacinth to produce carbon nanoparticles. These extremely tiny (less than 10 nanometres) particles can be used for detecting herbicide pollution.

Explanation: Jigyasa is a student-scientist connect programme launched by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS). The programme aims to connect school students and scientists as well as to extend the student’s classroom learning to avery well-planned research laboratory based learning. The programme has been inspired by Prime Minister’s vision of a new India and “Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR)” of the scientific community and institutions. The programme is also expected to inculcate the culture of inquisitiveness and scientific temper on the minds of children and school teachers.