10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: March 19, 2020

Appropriation Bill is a money bill that allows the government to withdraw funds from the Consolidated Fund of India to meet its expenses during the course of a financial year. As per article 114 of the Constitution, the government can withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund only after receiving approval from Parliament. The government usually introduces the Appropriation Bill in the Lok Sabha after discussions on Budget proposals and Voting on Demand for Grants. The defeat of an Appropriation Bill would necessitate resignation of a government or a general election. However, this has never happened in India till date.

Environmental organisations from across central and Eastern Europe have criticised a major project intending to link three rivers and provide seamless navigation between three of Europe’s peripheral seas. The Danube-Oder-Elbe Canal intends to connect the Danube, Oder and Elbe rivers and thus provide another navigable link from the Black Sea to the North and Baltic Seas.

Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) was launched by the Government of India in 2018. It is funded and managed by the Defence Innovation Organization (DIO). It primarily aims at creation of an ecosystem to foster innovation and technology development in Defence and Aerospace by engaging Industries including MSMEs, start-ups among others. It also provides grants/funding to carry out R&D which has good potential for future adoption for Indian defence and aerospace needs.

Recently, Astronomers have observed an exoplanet (planet which orbits a star outside the solar system) named Wasp-76b where they suspect it rains iron instead of water. Wasp-76b is an exoplanet that is twice the width of our Jupiter. Its name comes from the UK-led Wasp telescope system that detected it four years ago. It is 640 light-years from the Earth and is so close to its star that it takes just 43 hours to complete one revolution. According to researchers, the iron rain happens because the exoplanet always presents the same face to the star which is called as tidally locked. Earth’s Moon also does exactly the same thing as we only ever see one side.

Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) is a set of stratified actions that are taken once the pollution level reaches a certain specified limit. It works only as an emergency measure. Under GRAP, there are 4 stages of pollution – Moderate to Poor, Very Poor, Severe and Severe+ or Emergency and action are listed that need to be undertaken as the levels are breached. The categories have been made on the basis of PM 2.5 and PM 10 in the atmosphere. The GRAP is implemented by the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA).