10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: July 30, 2020

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Dassault Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Egypt and Qatar are other countries operating the Dassault Rafale aircraft.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The policy has emphasized mother tongue/local language/regional language as the medium of instruction at least till Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.

Sanskrit to be offered at all levels of school and higher education as an option for students, including in the three-language formula. The classical languages and literatures of India to be available as options to students. No language will be imposed on any student.

Statement 2 is correct. NEP 2020 envisages a shift from summative assessment to regular and formative assessment, which is more competency-based, promotes learning and development, and tests higher-order skills, such as analysis, critical thinking, and conceptual clarity.

All students will take school examinations in Grades 3, 5, and 8 which will be conducted by the appropriate authority. Board exams for Grades 10 and 12 will be continued, but redesigned with holistic development as the aim.

A new National Assessment Centre, PARAKH (Performance Assessment, Review, and Analysis of Knowledge for Holistic Development), will be set up as a standard-setting body.

A new and comprehensive National Curricular Framework for School Education, NCFSE 2020-21, will be developed by the NCERT.

Statement 3 is correct. The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

The Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund is an initiative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), launched in 2009 to provide incremental grant resources to developing member countries impacted by a major natural disaster.

ADB has recently approved USD 3 million grant to India from its Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund to further support the government’s emergency response to COVID-19 pandemic.

Previously in April, ADB had approved USD 1.5 billion COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support (CARES) programme to support India in its immediate pandemic response efforts.

All of the above are zoonotic diseases.

Animals can sometimes carry harmful germs that can spread to people and cause illness – these are known as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. Zoonotic diseases are caused by harmful germs like viruses, bacterial, parasites, and fungi.

Ebola virus disease is considered to be zoonotic, with occasional spillovers to humans, apes, and possibly other animals. Fruit bats belonging to the Pteropodidae family are thought to be the natural hosts of the Ebola virus.

As per World Health Organisation, all available evidence for COVID-19 suggests that SARS-CoV-2 has a zoonotic source with its ecological origin in Bat populations.

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and rarely, Borrelia mayonii. It is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks.

Option 1 is correct. The Christchurch Call is an action plan that commits governments, international organizations and Internet players to take a series of measures, in particular:

Developing tools to prevent the downloading of terrorist and violent extremist content; combating the causes of violent extremism; improving transparency in the detection and removal of content; and ensuring that the algorithms designed and used by businesses do not direct users towards violent extremist content, so as to reduce their viral nature.

Option 2 is correct. The Budapest Convention on cybercrime is the first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet and other computer networks, dealing particularly with infringements of copyright, computer-related fraud, child pornography and violations of network security. It was drawn up by the Council of Europe.

Option 3 is correct. The Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace proposes a vision for regulation in cyberspace and the major associated principles: the practicability of international law, responsible behavior of States, State monopoly of legitimate use of violence, recognition of the specific responsibilities of private stakeholders, particularly as regards preventing security failures and refrain from using certain practices which may damage stability in cyberspace.

Both statements are correct.

Section 70A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 was amended in 2008 to provide for the Central Government to, by notification published in the Official Gazette, designate any organisation of the Government as the national nodal agency in respect of Critical Information Infrastructure Protection.

National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) was set up in 2014 and designated as the National Nodal Agency in respect of Critical Information Infrastructure Protection.

Its mandate includes to:

-Protect and deliver advice that aims to reduce the vulnerabilities of critical information infrastructure, against cyber terrorism, cyber warfare and other threats.

-Identification of all critical information infrastructure elements for approval by the appropriate Government for notifying the same.

“Critical Information Infrastructure” is defined under the act as the computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank headquartered at Beijing, China is a multilateral development bank that aims to support the building of infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region.

India is the largest recipient of the funds from the AIIB. India has so far received $4.35 billion from the bank.

Statement 2 is correct. India (with 7.62% voting shares) is second largest voting power after China (26.06%), in AIIB.

Both are potential advantages of the Aerial Seeding.

Aerial seeding is a technique of sowing seeds by spraying them through aerial mechanical means such as a drone, plane or helicopter. The seeds are covered with a mixture of clay, compost, char and other components – are sprayed on the ground.

Advantages: Aerial application allows seeding to be done when it is physically impossible to use ground equipment, such as when crops are present or the soil is too wet for regular equipment.

-Aerial application does not cause soil compaction, hence preventing soil runoff.

Soil compaction occurs when soil particles are pressed together, reducing pore space between them. Heavily compacted soils contain few large pores, less total pore volume and, consequently, a greater density.

The causes of soil compaction in agriculture are the use of heavy machineries, tillage practice, inappropriate choice of tillage systems, as well as livestock trampling.

One Health is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment.

“One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach — working at the local, regional, national, and global levels — with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.”

It has recently gained more importance due to onslaught of new zoonotic diseases.

One Health issues include zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety and food security, vector-borne diseases, environmental contamination, and other health threats shared by people, animals, and the environment.

Both statements are correct.

Recently a detailed report ‘Status of Tigers Co-predators and Prey in India’ on Tiger Census has been released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

The Jim Corbett Tiger Reserve leads the Tiger population in country with 231 Tigers within the tiger reserve and 266 tigers utilizing the tiger reserve.

India’s tiger population now stands at 2967 which is 70 percent of the global tiger population.