10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: May 3, 2020

Statement 1 is correct. The treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but has not entered into force, as eight out of 44 specific nations have not ratified/signed the treaty. The treaty will enter into force 180 days after the 44 states listed in Annex 2 of the treaty have ratified it.

Statement 2 is correct. China, Egypt, Iran, Israel and the United States have signed but not ratified the Treaty; India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed it.

Statement 1 is incorrect. It is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, it is scheduled to launch on 17 July 2020, and touch down in Jezero crater on Mars on 18 February 2021.

Statement 2 is correct. The Perseverance rover will seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Human Challenge study of a vaccine development has potential for reducing the time for vaccine development. But it has some serious ethical concerns. Typical vaccine trials take a long time because thousands of people receive either a vaccine or a placebo, and researchers’ track who becomes infected in the course of their daily lives.

Statement 2 is correct. A challenge study could in theory be much faster: a much smaller group of volunteers would receive a candidate vaccine and then be intentionally infected with the virus, to judge the efficacy of the immunization.

“1daysooner” initiative is registering candidates for the Human Challenge trial of COVID-19 Vaccine.

Statement 1 is correct. Copernicus is the European Union’s programme coordinated and managed by the European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the EU Member States and EU Agencies.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Copernicus is an Earth observation programme served by a set of dedicated satellites (the Sentinel families) and contributing missions (existing commercial and public satellites).

Statement 1 is incorrect. UGC was formally established in 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India.

Statement 2 is correct. It allocates and disburses, out of the Fund of the Commission, grants to Universities. It has been vested with two responsibilities: that of providing funds and that of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education.

A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a geographic area. Geofencing is a location-based service in which an app or other software uses GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device or RFID tag enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location, known as a geofence.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Remdesivir is an antiviral medication developed by the American biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences.

Statement 2 is correct. Remdesivir was originally developed to treat Ebola virus disease. Gilead Sciences later observed that remdesivir had antiviral activity in vitro against multiple filoviruses, pneumo viruses, paramyxoviruses, and coronaviruses.

Statement 1 is incorrect.  SVAMITVA scheme is a new initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Statement 2 is correct. This scheme will help in streamlining planning and revenue collection in rural areas and ensuring clarity on property rights; the scheme will also enable creation of better-quality Gram Panchayat Development Plans engaging Drone Surveying technology.

USGS, in collaboration with NASA and the Lunar Planetary Institute, has come up with the first of its kind map of the Moon called Unified Geologic Map of the Moon. It shows orthographic projections – that is, representations of 3-dimensional objects on a 2-dimensional map – of the geology of the moon’s near side and far side.

All are correctly matched.

The Paracel Islands is a disputed (China-Vietnam) archipelago located in the South China Sea.

Rakhine State is a state in Myanmar.

Chechnya is in southwestern Russia, situated on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range.

International Financial Services Centres (IFSC)

Statement 1 is correct: International Financial Services Centres (IFSC) is a jurisdiction that provides financial services to resident and non-resident Indians in foreign currencies. They are intended to provide Indian corporate with easier access to global financial markets, and to complement and promote the further development of financial markets in India.

Statement 2 is correct: GIFT (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) located in Gandhinagar is India’s first International Financial Services Centre.

Project Coswara by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore is an attempt to build a diagnostic tool for Covid-19 based on respiratory, cough and speech sounds. The word Coswara is an amalgamation of Co (from corona) and Swara (sound in sanskrit). The project is being pursued in three stages:

• Data Collection
• Modeling
• Diagnostic Tool

A Geographical Indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g. a town, region, or country). Approved by the Geneva-headquartered World Trade Organization, a GI tag recognises the place of origin of a product and the specific qualities or means of production associated with it. GI Tag acts as a certificate and it is a way of ensuring that similar products from elsewhere cannot be sold under this name. In the month of September 2019, the government allotted Geographical Indication (GI) tags to four new products from the states of Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Kerala.

• Palani Panchamirtham, a ‘prasadam’ or religious offering in temples: Palani Town, Tamil Nadu
• Tawlhlohpuan, is a fine quality fabric woven: Mizoram
• Mizo Puanchei, essentially a shawl, is considered the most colourful textile: Mizoram
• Tirur betel vine valued for its medicinal and cultural usages: Malappuram district of Kerala
• ‘Odisha rasagola’, for the delectable eastern sweet: Odisha

Kanwar Lake Bird Sanctuary is located in the Begusarai district of Bihar and was founded in the year 1987. It is spread over an area of about 68 sq km and is the largest freshwater oxbow lake in Asia. Yes, you read that right. It is generally known for its beautiful population of migratory as well as indigenous birds.

Rajasthan government has launched a new higher education model called as Resource Assistance for Colleges with Excellence (RACE). This new higher education model will help in distribution of faculties and movable assets among the government colleges at the district level to rationalize the availability of resources. The model will also create a pool for sharing of facilities.