10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #57 January 9, 2020

Explanation: Samsung-backed Star Labs has unveiled Neon, the world’s first “artificial humans”. Neon is a humanoid AI chatbot. It aims to deliver a personalised experience with an AI. It has the ability to show emotions and intelligence.

Explanation: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched NetSCoFAN (Network for Scientific Co-operation for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition)
NetSCoFAN: It is a network of research & academic institutions working in the area of food & nutrition. It would comprise of eight groups of institutions working in different areas. These areas are:
•biological,
•chemical,
•nutrition & labelling,
•food of animal origin,
•food of plant origin,
•water & beverages,
•food testing, and
•Safer & sustainable packaging.
Function: To identify research gaps in respective areas and collect, collate and develop database on food safety issues for risk assessment activities.

Explanation: National Disaster Response Fund
•It is a fund managed by the Central Government for meeting the expenses for emergency response, relief and rehabilitation due to any threatening disaster situation or disaster.
•National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) was renamed as National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) on in 2010 with the enactment of the Disaster Management Act in 2005
Features:
•Constituted to supplement the funds of the State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) in case there is a calamity of severe nature.
•Located in the “Public Accounts” of Government of India under “Reserve Funds not bearing interest”
Monitoring:
•Relief activities for calamities associated with drought, hailstorms, pest attacks and cold wave /frost: Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
•All other natural calamities: Ministry of Home Affairs

Explanation: Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC)
•It is a body under ISRO to coordinate Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
•It will be established in three years at Challakere (“Science City”), in Chitradurga district of Karnataka.
•At present, it works from a temporary place at the ISRO Headquarters, Antariksh Bhavan, Bengaluru.
Functions:
•Pursuing future human space missions,
•Developing engineering systems for survival and safe return of the crew from space,
•Selecting and training astronauts.

Explanation: India Meteorological Department (IMD) released State of the Climate Report-2019
Key takeaways from State of the Climate Report-2019
•The past decade was the hottest on record for India.
•2019 was the seventh warmest year since 1901.
•The annual rainfall in 2019 was 109% of the long period average for 1961–2010
•Five cyclones were recorded from the Arabian Sea- the highest number of Arabian Sea cyclones since 1902. The normal number is one per year.
•Extreme weather events killed about 1,630 persons in 2019.
State of Global Climate 2019- released by the World Meteorological Organization
•The global average temperature in 2019 (January to October) was about 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period.
•Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a record level of 407.8 parts per million in 2018 and continued to rise in 2019.
•In October 2019, the global mean sea level reached its highest value since the beginning of the high-precision altimetry record (January 1993).