10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: November 1,2020

Superconductivity is a phenomenon displayed by some materials when they are cooled below a certain temperature, known as the superconducting critical temperature.
Below a certain “critical” temperature, materials undergo transition into the superconducting state, characterized by two basic properties: firstly, they offer no resistance to the passage of electrical current.
When resistance falls to zero, a current can circulate inside the material without any dissipation of energy. Secondly, provided they are sufficiently weak, external magnetic fields will not penetrate the superconductor, but remain at its surface. This field expulsion phenomenon is known as the Meissner effect, after the physicist who first observed it in 1933.
# A group of researchers at University of Rochester, Intel corporation and University of Nevada in the U.S. have created a material that is superconducting at 15 degrees Celsius. But it needs ultrahigh pressure of about 2 million atmospheres to achieve this transition.

Both statements are incorrect.
The 2020 edition of the India Energy Forum by CERAWeek is its fourth edition. The event is hosted by IHS Markit. The theme of this edition is “India’s Energy Future in a world of Change”.
It is not an intergovernmental summit, rather the event will convene an international group of speakers and a community of over a a thousand delegates from India and over 30 countries, including from regional energy companies, energy-related industries, institutions and governments.

K.R. Narayanan was elected as Vice President in 1992, he went on to become President in 1997.
The Pokhran-II tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army’s Pokhran Test Range in May 1998. It was the second instance of nuclear testing conducted by India; the first test, code-named Smiling Buddha, was conducted in May 1974.
The Kargil war was fought between India and Pakistan between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LOC).
The time period for Tenth FYP was 2002-07.

Air Quality Index is a tool for effective communication of air quality status to people interms, which are easy to understand. It transforms complex air quality data of various pollutants into a single number (index value), nomenclature and colour.
There are six AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe. Each of these categories is decided based on ambient concentration values of air pollutants and their likely health impacts (known as health breakpoints). AQ sub-index and health breakpoints are evolved for eight pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb).

Statement 1 is incorrect. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) is promoting nuclear disarmament. ICAN is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in more than 100 countries and has been a leader in efforts that resulted in 122 United Nations member countries concurring with a draft agreement on the prohibition of nuclear weapons in 2017.
Statement 2 is correct. International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize 2017 “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.”

Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile, flowing west from Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
Oaxaca is in Mexico; it was in news recently as the Khadi Oaxaca collective was mentioned by the Prime Minister in Mann Ki Baat.
Baku, the capital and commercial hub of Azerbaijan, is a low-lying city with coastline along the Caspian Sea.

Fourth World Conference on Women in September 1995 took place in Beiing that came out with thee Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a progressive blueprint for advancing women’s rights.
The document identifies 12 critical areas of concern. In each critical area of concern, the problem is diagnosed and strategic objectives are proposed with concrete actions to be taken by various actors in order to achieve those objectives. In this way, the BPfA becomes a comprehensive guide to understanding and combatting the key barriers to gender equality.

In order to commercially exploit the products and services emanating from Indian Space Programme, the “NewSpace India Limited (NSIL)” was incorporated in March 2019, as a wholly-owned Government of India under the administrative control of Department of Space (DOS).
Statement 1 is incorrect. NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) is a Central Public Sector Enterprise of Government of India and commercial arm of ISRO.
ISRO chairperson is not NSIL head, the current NSIL’s Chairman and Managing Director, G. Narayanan, was earlier a Deputy Director at ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Thiruvananthapuram.
Statement 2 is correct. NSIL will be the nodal agency for carrying out PSLV production through Indian Industry under consortium route. The Industry consortium will be responsible for producing, assembling and integrating the launch vehicle.
NSIL will be responsible for providing launch services to global satellite customers, on-board SSLV, PSLV, GSLV and GSLV-MkIII launchers.

Alcohol for human consumption has been kept outside the purview of GST in India at present. These goods are subject to existing State levies.
Petroleum Products such as petroleum crude, motor spirit (petrol), high speed diesel, natural gas and aviation turbine fuel etc. are also kept outside the purview of GST in India.
At present, electricity is not subject to GST and power companies pay multiple taxes on capital goods and other inputs like excise duty, customs duty etc.

Clavius is one of the largest crater formations on the Moon and the second largest crater on the visible near side.
NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has confirmed, for the first time, water on the sunlit surface of the Moon. This discovery indicates that water may be distributed across the lunar surface, and not limited to cold, shadowed places.
SOFIA has detected water molecules (H2O) in Clavius Crater, one of the largest craters visible from Earth, located in the Moon’s southern hemisphere.