10 PM Current Affairs Quiz : August 11, 2018

There are 18 Biosphere Reserves in India. Statement 1 is incorrect

The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was the first reserve from the country to be included in the World Network of Biosphere Reserve. Statement 2 is correct

GSAT-11 is heaviest satellite to date and most ambitious for digital communication. Statement 1 is correct. It was scheduled to launch from French Guiana but was recalled.

Earlier it was intended to use Indian rocket but upgrading a GSLV-Mk2 engine take more time and bigger Mark 3 was also not available in time.

It is based on the new I-6K Bus and carry 40 transponders in the Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies. Statement 2 is correct

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region that is both a significant reservoir of biodiversity and is threatened with destruction.

The concept of Biodiversity Hotspots was introduced by Norman Myers in 1988 in the article “The Environmentalist”.

To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot on Myers 2000 Edition, a region must meet two strict criteria’s:

• Species Endemism: It must contain at least 0.5% or 1,500 species of vascular plants as endemics.
• Degree of Threat: It has to have lost at least 70% of its primary vegetation.

Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) is a global program that provides funding and technical assistance to nongovernmental organizations to protect Biodiversity Hotspots.

Conservation International (CI) has taken the responsibility of protecting these incredible places and to designate new places as Biodiversity Hotspots

Hortinet is an integrated traceability system developed by APEDA

It is launched for providing Internet based electronic services to the stakeholders for facilitating

farm registration, testing and certification of Grape, Pomegranate and Vegetables for export

from India to the European Union in compliance with standards.

Farmer Connect App

To harness the potential of mobile technology, APEDA has developed a mobile app to allow

farmers to apply online to facilitate their farm registration, tracking the status of application &

approvals by State Government and Lab sampling by authorized Laboratories.

This new Mobile app will assist State Horticulture/ Agriculture Department to capture real time

details of farmers, farm location, products and details of inspections like date of inspection,

name of inspecting directly from field. After registration and approval of farm, farmer gets

approval information.

This mobile app initiative is expected to increase the accessibility and reach of the Traceability

software system among the farmers and other stakeholders.

The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is a

permanent organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) which serves to promote

cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. At 16–17 June 2004 SCO summit, held

In order to protect the rich aquatic biodiversity of river Ganga from escalating anthropogenic

pressures, development of a Turtle sanctuary in Allahabad along with a River Biodiversity Park at Sangam have been approved under Namami Gange programme.