10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: August 1, 2020

Jezero Crater is the landing site for the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.

NASA chose Jezero crater as the landing site for the Perseverance rover because scientists believe the area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta.

More than 3.5 billion years ago, river channels spilled over the crater wall and created a lake. Scientists see evidence that water carried clay minerals from the surrounding area into the Crater Lake. Conceivably, microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times. If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments.

Statement 1 is correct. The Blue Heart Campaign is a global awareness raising initiative to fight human trafficking and its impact on society.

It seeks to encourage involvement from governments, civil society, the corporate sector and individuals alike, to inspire action and help prevent this heinous crime.

It was launched by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2019. All proceeds to the Blue Heart Campaign go to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Blue Heart Campaign is currently supported by governments, private sector, NGOs, goodwill ambassadors and concerned individuals around the world.

India currently is not a member to the campaign.

Both statements are correct.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 of Agenda 2030 seeks to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”. Target 12.3 of that goal aims to “by 2030, halve the per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reduce food losses along production and supply chains including post-harvest losses”.

SDG target 12.3 has two components, Losses and Waste that should be measured by two separate indicators.

Sub-Indicator 12.3.1.a: The Food Loss Index (FLI) focuses on food losses that occur from production up to (and not including) the retail level. It measures the changes in percentage losses for a basket of 10 main commodities by country in comparison with a base period. The Food Loss Index has been developed by FAO.

Sub-Indicator 12.3.1.b: The Food Waste Index (FWI), a proposal for measuring Food Waste, which comprises the retail and consumption levels, is under development. UN Environment is taking the lead on this sub-indicator.

Natesa or Natesha is Lord of Dance form of Shiva. Natarja is another dancing form of Shiva. It is found in various sculptures and archeological sites across the Indian subcontinent.

Recently a 9^th-10^th century rare Prathihara style idol of Lord Shiva – Natesa’, stolen in 1998 from Ghateshwar Temple, Baroli, Rajasthan has been repatriated to the Archeological Survey of India by the Indian High Commission in London.

Both statements are correct.

UN-Habitat launched Waste Wise Cities Campaign in 2018 with a call for action in sustainable solid waste management in cities.

Under the initiative, UN-Habitat invites cities to join the Waste Wise Cities. To join, cities are requested to confirm their commitment to follow the Key Principles, which assist them on their way to becoming a Waste Wise City.

UN-Habitat partners with local governments to implement the Waste Wise Cities Tool, which is based on the monitoring methodology for waste SDG indicator 11.6.1 (Proportion of urban solid waste regularly collected and with adequate final discharge out of total urban solid waste generated, by cities), and provides an image of waste flows and amounts in the city.

Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a Singapore-based-NGO aims to invest up to USD 100m on environmental projects in India. It will use UN-Habitat Waste Wise Cities (WWC) Tool to map waste flows and assess potential plastic leakage from waste management system.

A new research supported by NASA’s astrobiology programme has developed a novel and broader definition of life – called Lyfe– a definition that encapsulates life on Earth but also the possibility of “life not as we know it” elsewhere on the board.

The researchers developed the term lyfe and outlined ‘four pillars’ of the term’s definition. These four pillars (dissipation, autocatalysis, homeostasis, and learning) can be used to identify any system that could be defined as living. Based on these criteria, the authors discuss Life (e.g. life as we know it on Earth) as a single instance of the broader phenomenon dubbed Lyfe.

Perseverance rover of NASA has the primary goal of finding signs of past life on Mars.

Finding ‘life as we know it’ would be a rarest of rare case and would mean a life based on biology analogous to that found on Earth. Other possibility would be to find ‘life not as we know it’!

Lyfe offers a novel perspective on what we consider to be a ‘living state’ and could aid our understanding of what to look for in the search for life beyond Earth.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Bal Gangadhar Tilak never became president of Indian National Congress.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Tilak breathed his last, after a brief illness, in Bombay on August 1, 1920. Non-cooperation-Khilafat was launched by Khilafat committee on 31^st August 1920. The programme was approved by Congress at a special session in Calcutta in September 1920.

Statement 3 is correct. In 1897, Tilak was arrested and tried for sedition before the Bombay High Court. Dinshaw Davar, the lawyer who secured him bail, later became the judge and passed a sentence on him in 1908.

Tilak was arrested in 1908 and charged with sedition for second time. Initially, Jinnah appeared for Tilak and applied for bail, but this was rejected by Justice Davar.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah successfully defended Tilak in the latter’s third sedition trial in 1916.

The report, ‘The Toxic Truth: Children’s exposure to lead pollution undermines a generation of potential’ has been launched by UNICEF in collaboration with Pure Earth, an international non-profit organization.

Around 1 in 3 children – up to 800 million globally – has blood lead levels at or above 5 micrograms per decilitre (µg/dL), a level that the World Health Organization have stated it requires global and regional interventions.

Nearly half of these children live in South Asia.

It notes that lead is a potent neurotoxin which causes irreparable harm to children’s brains. It is particularly destructive to babies and children under the age of five as it damages their brains before they have had the opportunity to fully develop, causing them lifelong neurological, cognitive and physical impairment.

The report notes that informal and substandard recycling of lead-acid batteries is a leading contributor to lead poisoning in children living in low and middle-income countries

The monthly Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) is a production volume index. ICI measures collective and individual performance of production in selected eight core industries viz. Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.

It is compiled and released by Office of the Economic Adviser (OEA), Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), and Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

Statement 2 is correct. Refinery Products has highest weightage in Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI).

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Snow Leopard occupies the high mountains of twelve countries extending from the Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan and the Syr Darya through the mountains of Pamir, Karakorum, Kunlun, and the Himalaya to southern Siberia, as well as the Russian Altai, Sayan and Tannu Ola Mountains.

Statement 2 is correct. Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia) is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List with decreasing population trend and Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

It has been reported that Uttarakhand is set to open the country’s first snow leopard conservation center at the entry point of Gangotri National Park.