10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: February 22, 2020

Explanation: In order to protect the migratory species throughout their range countries, a Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), has been in force, under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme. Also referred to as the Bonn Convention, it provides a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats and brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures throughout a migratory range. The convention complements and co-operates with a number of other international organizations, NGOs and partners in the media as well as in the corporate sector. Under this convention, migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I and Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Migratory species that need or would significantly benefit from international co-operation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention.

Explanation: EDFC is part of India’s Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) program. It involves the construction of a 1,839km-long freight line extending from Ludhiana in Punjab to Dankuni in West Bengal. The Objective of EDFC is to support freight movement on the Eastern Corridor, which starts in West Bengal, and passes through the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Haryana before ending at Punjab. World Bank has offered to give financial assistance to the last remaining portion of the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) between Sonnagar and Dankuni, which India is originally slated to construct in the private public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Explanation: A new award called the Food Planet Prize, established by the Curt Bergfors Foundation in Stockholm (Sweden), will award two annual $1million awards: the first will be given to an existing scalable solution for sustainable foods. The second will be awarded for innovative initiatives that could transform the global food sector. Nominations for The Food Planet Prize are now open, with the first prizes awarded later in 2020. The nominations will be evaluated by an international jury of leading scientists, policymakers, and entrepreneurs.

Explanation: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been ranked first in the Nature Ranking Index-2020. The rankings are based on total research output which the institutions have carried out from December 01, 2018 to 30th November, 2019. Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, has been ranked second. CSIR-New Delhi has achieved the top position with 142 counts (C) and a share percentage (SP) of 87.74 while IISC-Bengaluru stands second with 211 counts and 83.61 in share percentage. The total research output indicated the counts which mean total citations in numbers and shares which mean the sharing percentage per article. The top subjects so associated with the research work includes: Earth and Environmental Sciences, Physical Science, Chemistry and Life Sciences.

Explanation: A paper that has been accepted for publication in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society has proposed an extraordinary measure to protect 25 million people and important economic regions of 15 Northern European countries from rising seas as a result of climate change: a mammoth Northern European Enclosure Dam (NEED) enclosing all of the North Sea. The scientists have proposed the construction of two dams of a combined length of 637 km — the first between northern Scotland and western Norway, measuring 476 km and with an average depth of 121 m and maximum depth of 321 m; the second between France and southwestern England, of length 161 km, and average depth of 85 m and maximum depth of 102 m.