10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: April 27, 2020

UNCTAD’s Trade and Development Report launched in 1981, is issued every year for the annual session of the Trade and Development Board. The Report analyses current economic trends and major policy issues of international concern, and makes suggestions for addressing these issues at various levels.

Statement 1 is incorrect: The UNCTAD Trade and Development report proposes the establishment of an International Developing Country Debt Authority (IDCDA).

Statement 2 is correct: The International Developing Country Debt Authority (IDCDA) will oversee the implementation and lay the institutional and regulatory foundations for a more permanent international framework to guide sovereign debt restructurings in future. This could follow the path of setting up an autonomous international organisation by way of an international treaty between concerned states. Essential to any such international agreement would be the swift establishment of an advisory body of experts with entire independence of any creditor or debtor interests.

In October 2000, the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), in its Resolution 2000/35 established the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), a subsidiary body with the main objective to promote “… the management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests and to strengthen long-term political commitment to this end…” based on the Rio Declaration, the Forest Principles, Chapter 11 of Agenda 21 and the outcome of the IPF/IFF Processes and other key milestones of international forest policy. The Forum has universal membership, and is composed of all Member States of the United Nations and specialized agencies.

Commodity Markets Outlook report is published by World Bank every year in the month of April and October. The report provide market analysis for major commodity groups such as energy, metals, agriculture, precious metals, oil, fertilizers among others.

Barak is an Indian-Israeli Long Range surface-to-air missile. It is nuclear capable ballistic missile. It has maximum speed of Mach 2 with maximum operational range of 70 km (which has been increased to 100 km). It is jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and DRDO.

Explanation: Statement 1 is incorrect. Mutual funds are made of pool of securities like stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other assets. These are are professionally managed and issued by financial sector companies called asset management companies.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Value of a mutual fund is always calculated at the end of the market day. This is because the market value of securities changes on a daily basis. The value of mutual fund doesn’t fluctuate during market hours, but it is settled at the end of each trading day. Hence, the NAV of a mutual fund also changes daily.

Option 1 is incorrect. Lop Nur is a dried salt lake in China.

Option 2 is correct. Aden is the temporary capital city of Yemen while the original capital Sana’a is controlled by the Houthis.

Option 3 is correct. Bougainville is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. In November 2019 a non-binding referendum was held to decide whether Bougainville should be a sovereign state independent from Papua New Guinea. The result was in favour of sovereignty for the island, with 98% of the votes supporting secession.

All statements are correct. The programs under Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog are:

Atal Tinkering Labs-Creating problem solving mindset across schools in India.

Atal Incubation Centers-Fostering world class startups and adding a new dimension to the incubator model.

Atal New India Challenges-Fostering product innovations and aligning them to the needs of various sectors/ministries.

Mentor India Campaign- A national Mentor network in collaboration with public sector, corporates and institutions, to support all the initiatives of the mission.

Atal Community Innovation Center- To stimulate community centric innovation and ideas in the unserved /underserved regions of the country including Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

ARISE-To stimulate innovation and research in the MSME industry.

Latitude 38° N roughly demarcates the boundary between North & South Korea.  The line was chosen at the Potsdam Conference (July 1945) as an army boundary, north of which the U.S.S.R. was to accept the surrender of the Japanese forces in Korea and south of which the Americans were to accept the Japanese surrender.

17th parallel was the rough boundary between North Vietnam & South Vietnam.

49th parallel is the boundary between USA and Canada.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Gregor Johann Mendel is the founder of the modern science of genetics. It was Charles Darwin, a British naturalist who proposed the theory of biological evolution by natural selection.

Statement 2 is incorrect. As per this theory, those variations in the genotype (the entire complex of genes inherited from both parents) that increase an organism’s chances of survival and procreation are preserved and multiplied from generation to generation at the expense of less advantageous variations

Statement 1 is correct. Ex Pitch Black a biennial multinational large force employment warfare exercise was hosted by Royal Australian Air Force.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Indian Air Force took part in the exercise for the first time in 2018. The 2020 exercise which India was to participate in has been postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Statement 1 is correct. The PCI was established under the PCI Act of 1978 for the purpose of preserving the freedom of the press & preserving/improving the standards of news reporting. It is a statutory, quasi-judicial authority (adjudicates on complaints) functioning as a watchdog of the press, for the press and by the press.
Statement 2 is incorrect. The Press Council is headed by a Chairman, who has by convention, been a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India. The Chairman is selected by the Speaker of the LokSabha, the Chairman of the RajyaSabha and a member elected by the PCI.

Statement 1 is correct. Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 (A/H1N1) was the most common cause of human influenza (flu) in 2009 and the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The pandemic is believed to have killed up to 12-17 million people in the India, it referred to as the Bombay Influenza or the Bombay Fever in India.

Statement 1 is incorrect.  The Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (nuclear weapons) is known as the New START Treaty.

Statement 2 is incorrect.  It was signed in in 2010 and is due to expire in 2021.

Statement 1 is incorrect. It is based on plasma transplant (which contains antibodies) to a diseased person.

Statement 2 is incorrect. People who’ve recovered from a disease have antibodies to the disease in their blood. Therefore only they can be the donor food convalescent plasma therapy.