10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: August 27, 2020

Both statements are correct.

NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness recently released the first Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020.

-Gujarat emerged as the top-performing state in the ‘Coastal States’ category, followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

-In the category of ‘Landlocked States’, Rajasthan is the best-performing state. Among ‘Himalayan States’ and ‘City-States’, Uttarakhand and Delhi are the top performing states respectively.

The index ranked states on four key parameters: Policy, Business Ecosystem, Export Ecosystem and Export Performance.

Statement 1 is correct. As per the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, a mentally-ill person shall have the right to make an advance directive that states how he wants to be treated for the illness during a mental health situation and who his nominated representative shall be.

Statement 2 is correct. The act provides that every person shall have the right to access mental health care and treatment from services run or funded by the government.  The right to access mental health care includes affordable, good quality of and easy access to services.

# “Kiran” helpline number of Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry for mental health support, 1800-599-0019, to offer support in 13 languages.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC)–Transport Initiative for Asia (TIA) Project description:

Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU)

Financier: International Climate Initiative (IKI)

Countries: Regional Programme with country components in China, India and Vietnam as well as a regional/global component.

Lead executing agency: China: Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Department of Atmospheric Environment, India: National Institute for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), Vietnam: Ministry of Transport, Department for Environment

Overall term: 2019 to 2024

The programme will be jointly implemented by GIZ, the World Resources Institute (WRI), the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the International Transport Forum (ITF), Partnership on Sustainable Low Carbon Transport (SLOCAT), Agora Verkehrswende and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).

The India Component is be implemented by six consortium organizations, all except SLoCaT, it has been launched recently by NITI Aayog.

Statement 2 is correct. In each of the partner countries, the consortium supports the design and information of stakeholder processes and the development of selected climate protection measures.

Its objective is to decarbonise transport through long-term, multi-stakeholder, integrated sectoral strategies in Countries in Asia.

Statement 1 is correct. Each Health ID will be linked to a health data consent manager (such as NDHM) which will be used to seek the patient’s consent and allow for seamless flow of health information from the Personal Health Records module.

Health ID will be unique to every person and they have the option to link all their health records to this ID. One can also choose to create multiple IDs as modules for storing different segments although it is preferred and recommended that Health ID.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The process of generation of Health ID has voluntary usage of AADHAAR. This shall require a notification under Section 4 of AADHAAR Act. In addition, all Government financed health benefit schemes that require mandatory use of Aadhaar will have to notify under Section 7 of AADHAAR Act.

One can create your health account using basic demographic details along-with digitally authenticable Mobile Number or Email ID.

# The National Health Authority has released the Draft Health Data Management Policy of the National Digital Health Mission to provide adequate guidance and to set out a framework for the secure processing of personal and sensitive personal data of individuals who are a part of the national digital health ecosystem.

Statement 1 is incorrect. National Testing Agency (NTA) has been established as a premier, specialist, autonomous and self-sustained testing organization to conduct entrance examinations for admission/fellowship in higher educational institutions.

National Testing Agency (NTA) is a registered society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. It is chaired by an eminent educationist appointed by the Ministry of Education.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Union Cabinet recently approved the proposal to set up the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) for recruitment to non-gazetted posts in government and public sector banks. The CET will be held twice a year and score will be valid for three years.

Statement 1 is correct. This policy envisages that the extant 10+2 structure in school education will be modified with a new pedagogical and curricular restructuring of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18 as shown in the representative figure:

Statement 2 is correct. A common guiding set of National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) will be developed by 2022, by the National Council for Teacher Education.

The standards would cover expectations of the role of the teacher at different levels of expertise/stage, and the competencies required for that stage. It will also comprise standards for performance appraisal, for each stage, that would be carried out on a periodic basis. The NPST will also inform the design of pre-service teacher education programmes.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is a global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator brings together governments, scientists, businesses, civil society, and philanthropists and global health organizations (the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEPI, FIND, Gavi, The Global Fund, Unitaid, Wellcome, the WHO, the World Bank and Global Financing Facility).

The ACT-Accelerator is organized into four pillars of work: diagnostics, treatment, vaccines and health system strengthening.

Statement 2 is correct. COVAX Facility is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

COVAX is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

# A collaboration between Serum Institute of India (SII), Gavi and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced recently will ensure up to 100 million doses of AstraZeneca or Novavax’s candidate vaccines, if successful, will be available to low- and middle-income economies through the COVAX Facility at just US$ 3 per dose.

# In June Gavi launched the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), a financing instrument aimed at supporting the participation of 92 lower- and middle-income economies in the COVAX Facility.

Option 1 is incorrectly matched. SalivaDirect is a saliva-based laboratory diagnostic test developed by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health to determine whether someone is infected with the novel coronavirus.

It is not an antibody test. SalivaDirect test involve three steps — collecting saliva without preservative buffers, proteinase K treatment and heat inactivation, and duplex RT-qPCR virus detection.

Option 2 is correctly matched. Sputnik V is a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by Russian researchers using two different types of adenovirus vectors (rAd26 and rAd5) for the first and second vaccination.

Option 3 is incorrectly matched. Covishield is a potential COVID-19 vaccine under trial in India by Serum Institute of India. It has been developed by the Oxford University.

Starlink is the satellite constellation network that the private spaceflight company SpaceX is developing to provide low-cost internet to remote locations.

SpaceX has launched 655 Starlink satellites till now. SpaceX plans to have as many as 12,000 satellites in the low Earth orbit (LEO) Starlink project.

Current satellite internet works using large spacecraft that orbit 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above a particular spot on the Earth. But at that distance, there are generally significant time delays in sending and receiving data. By being closer to Earth (LEO) and networking together, Starlink’s satellites are meant to carry large amounts of information rapidly to any point on Earth.

Spent rockets, satellites and other space trash have accumulated in orbit increasing the likelihood of collision with other debris. NASA space debris expert Don Kessler observed that, once past a certain critical mass, the total amount of space debris will keep on increasing: collisions give rise to more debris and lead to more collisions, in a chain reaction.

The collisions create more debris creating a runaway chain reaction of collisions and more debris known as the Kessler Syndrome.

This cascade of collisions first came to NASAs attention in the 1970’s when derelict Delta rockets left in orbit began to explode creating shrapnel clouds.

# Down’s syndrome is a genetic disorder caused when abnormal cell division results in extra third genetic material from chromosome 21.

# Stockholm syndrome refers to feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim towards a captor.