10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: August 17, 2020

Statement 1 is incorrect. Membership to the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was earlier limited to 121 countries, which were partially or entirely located within the tropics. It is now open to all UN member countries.

Till now, 87 countries have signed the Framework Agreement of the ISA and of these 67 have deposited their instruments of ratification.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The launch of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was announced by Prime Minister of India and President of France on 30th November 2015, at the 21st session of United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris, France.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have granted an Emergency Use Authorization for SalivaDirect, a saliva-based test for COVID-19.

Statement 1 is incorrect. It has been developed by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health in collaboration with the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Statement 2 is correct. It is an RT-PCR based test. Collecting and testing saliva samples involves three steps: collecting saliva without preservative buffers, proteinase K treatment and heat inactivation, and duplex RT-qPCR virus detection.

All of the above are correct statements.

The National Biopharma Mission (NBM) is an industry-Academia Collaborative Mission for accelerating biopharmaceutical development in the country.

The mission will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). It was approved in 2017 at a total cost of Rs 1500 crore and is 50% co-funded by World Bank loan.

The Government has launched Innovate in India (i3) programme under the mission to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector.

The program is promoting entrepreneurship by supporting small and medium enterprises for indigenous product development (Novel Cell lines, indigenously developed Biologics, devices and Raw materials for Biologics manufacturing) and through establishment of shared facilities and Technology Transfer Offices.

All of the above are the functions of the Central Water Commission.

Central Water Commission is a premier Technical Organization of India in the field of Water Resources and is presently functioning as an attached office of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Its functions include:

-To carry out techno-economic appraisal of irrigation, flood control and multipurpose projects

-To collect, compile, analyse and publish the hydrological and hydro-meteorological data relating to major rivers

-To provide flood forecasting services to all major flood prone inter-state river basins of India

-Monitoring of selected major and medium irrigation projects

-To initiate studies on socio-agroeconomic and ecological aspects of irrigation projects

-To conduct studies on dam safety aspects for the existing dams and standardize related instrumentation for dam safety measures.

Google in association with the Central Water Commission (CWC) have started a flood forecasting initiative. Any user in the affected region having an Android smartphone with location services enabled will receive these alerts.

Statement 1 is correct. Water has a much higher heat capacity than air, meaning the oceans can absorb larger amounts of heat energy with only a slight increase in temperature.

Water’s specific heat capacity is 4200 Jkg-1K-1 and Air’s is 993 Jkg-1K-1 therefore water has 4.23 times more specific heat capacity.

The specific heat capacity is the amount of energy that must be added, in the form of heat, to one unit of mass of the substance in order to cause an increase of one unit in its temperature.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Water is an unusual liquid and has unique properties. Water does indeed expand when warms, and it contracts when it cools, but not at all temperatures. An oddity occurs between 4 and 0 degrees Celsius (about 40- and 32-degrees Fahrenheit).

Between the temperatures of 32 F (0 C) to 40 F (4 C), liquid water actually contracts with increasing temperature.

National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) aims to liberate citizens from the challenges of finding the right doctors, seeking appointment with them, payment of consultation fee, making several rounds of hospitals for prescription sheets

Statement 1 is correct. Every person in the country will get a digital health ID which is basically a digital format of all his/her health records which will be linked to the registry of doctors and health facilities across the country.

The platform has been planned to improve efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of health service delivery. The health ID will be in the form of a mobile application of website.

Statement 2 is incorrect. National Health Authority (NHA) will design, build, roll-out and implement the NDHM. The scheme would first be tested in the Union Territories of Chandigarh, Ladakh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

Both statements are correct.

Union Minister of Youth and Sports recently launched the nation-wide initiative of Fit India Youth Clubs to promote fitness as part of the Fit India Movement.

Under this initiative, 75 lakh volunteers of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and National Service Scheme, along with Scouts and Guides, National Cadet Corps and other youth organizations will come together to register as Fit India Youth Clubs in every block in the country, under the aegis of a district unit.

Members of the club will motivate people from the community to take up fitness activities their daily routine. Additionally, the clubs will organize and encourage schools and local bodies to organize one community fitness programme every quarter.

One of the first initiatives that will be taken up by the Fit India Youth Clubs is to popularise the Fit India Freedom Run, which begins from August 15 to October 2. 

Inverted duty structure (IDS) is a situation where the rate of tax on inputs used is higher than the rate of tax on the finished good.

It also refers to a situation where import duty on finished goods is low compared to the import duty on raw materials that are used in the production of such finished goods. When the import duty on raw materials is high, it will be more difficult to produce the concerned good domestically at a competitive price.

The term ‘Inverted Tax Structure’ under GST refers to a situation where the GST rate on inputs purchased (or inward supplies) is more than the GST rate on finished goods (or outward supplies).

Ramcharitmanas is an epic poem in the Awadhi language, composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Goswami Tulsidas.

Little is known about Tulsidas’s life. He lived most of his adult life at Varanasi. The Ramcharitmanas was written between 1574 and 1576/77 during the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar (1556-1605 CE).

At the age of five years, Rambola (Tulsidas) was adopted by Narharidas, a Vaishnava ascetic of Ramananda’s monastic order who is believed to be the fourth disciple of Ramananda.

Section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 provides for exemption from disclosure of information:

(a) information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence;

(b) information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;

(c) information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;

(d) information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

(e) information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;

(f) information received in confidence from foreign Government;

(g) information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes;

(h) information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;

(i) cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers; (shall be made public after the decision has been taken)

(j) information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest