10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: October 11th,2020

Statement 1 is correct. CNG is compressed natural gas. Natural Gas is mainly composed of methane, it emits less air pollutants — carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter — than petrol or diesel.
H-CNG is a blend of hydrogen and CNG, the ideal hydrogen concentration being 18%. Tests by the Automotive Research Association of India and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) have found that compared to conventional CNG, use of H-CNG can reduce emission of carbon monoxide up to 70%, besides enabling up to 5% savings in fuel.
Statement 2 is correct. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has recently allowed use of H-CNG (18% mix of hydrogen) in CNG engines. A notification for amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, for inclusion of H-CNG as an automotive fuel has been published by the Ministry.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has also developed specifications (IS 17314:2019) of Hydrogen enriched Compressed Natural Gas (H-CNG) for automotive purposes, as a fuel. Certain CNG-engine were tested to understand the emission reduction using H-CNG as compared to ‘neat’ CNG.

Statement 1 is correct. The region is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians.
After the end of World War I and the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the new Soviet rulers established the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region, with an ethnic Armenian majority, within the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan in the early 1920s.
In 1988, towards the end of Soviet rule, Azerbaijani troops and Armenian secessionists began a violent war which left the de facto independent state in the hands of ethnic Armenians when a truce was signed in 1994.
Negotiations have so far failed to produce a permanent peace agreement
Statement 2 is incorrect. It is a landlocked mountainous region.

A monopsony is a market condition in which there is only one buyer, the monopsonist. It is a market structure in which a single buyer substantially controls the market as the major purchaser of goods and services offered by many would-be sellers.
An oligopoly is a market structure in which a few firms dominate. When a market is shared between a few firms, it is said to be highly concentrated.
A monopoly contains a single firm that produces goods with no close substitute.

Scheme objectives have been interchanged in the given statements.
Vigyan Jyoti Scheme is intended to create a level-playing field for the meritorious girls in high school to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in their higher education. It also offers exposure for girl students from the rural background to help to plan their journey from school to a job of their choice in the field of science.
Knowledge Involvement in Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN): women scientists are being encouraged to pursue research in frontier areas of science and engineering, on problems of societal relevance and to take up S&T-based internship followed by self-employment.

In tourism, travelling for business is referred to as MICE tourism; which stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conference/ Conventions and Exhibitions/ Events.
It is also referred to as the Meetings Industry. The travel sellers specializing in MICE are usually affiliated with large corporate agencies because it requires advance planning and organization. There are Conventions and Visitor Bureau (CVB), India Convention promotion Bureau (ICPB) and others, which are working for the promotion of MICE in India.

Belarus is a landlocked country bordered by Russia – its former imperial master – to the east and Ukraine to the south. To the north and west lie EU and NATO members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

# President Lukashenko, an ally of Russia, nicknamed “Europe’s last dictator”, has been in power for 26 years.
# Recently, there has been an opposition movement, demanding new, democratic leadership and economic reform. They say Lukashenko rigged the 9 August election – officially, he won by a landslide.

Global commons have been traditionally defined as those parts of the planet that fall outside national jurisdictions and to which all nations have access.
International law identifies four global commons, namely the High Seas, the Atmosphere, the Antarctica and the Outer Space. These resource domains are guided by the principle of the common heritage of mankind.
The international conventions and treaties to govern global commons include:
– United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 and instruments governed by the International Maritime Organization and UNEP’s Regional Seas Conventions to govern the high seas;
– Antarctic Treaty System (ATS) ensuring the protection of the Antarctica fauna and flora;
– A multitude of international environmental treaties that administer and protect the atmosphere and deal with the air pollution and atmospheric depletion, like the UNFCCC and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer;
– The Treaty on Principles governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space.

The presence of the Cat Que virus has been largely reported in Culex mosquitoes in China and in pigs in Vietnam.
The domestic pigs are considered to be the primary mammalian hosts for CQV.
CQV belongs to the Simbu serogroup and infects both humans and economically important livestock species. Humans can get infected through mosquitoes as well.
# In a study published in July in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, scientists from the Pune-based Maximum Containment Laboratory and ICMR-National Institute of Virology have noted the presence of antibodies against the Cat Que virus (CQV) in two human serum samples.

Sustainable Development Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. SDG Target 12.3 seeks to halve global food waste at retail and consumer levels, as well as to reduce food loss during production and supply. In order to measure food waste and losses, two indices have been proposed: Food Waste Index (FWI) and Food Loss Index (FLI).
Statement 1 is correct. The Food Loss Index examines the food loss along supply activities such as production, handling & storage, and processing. It focuses on food losses that occur from production up to (and not including) the retail level. It measures the changes in percentage losses for a basket of 10 main commodities by country in comparison with a base period.
Statement 2 is incorrect. To monitor SDG Target 12.3, Food and Agriculture Organization has created the Food Loss Index (FLI). The focus of the indicator is on percentages of food removed from the supply chain.
Further, the Food Waste Index is currently in development at UN Environment. The FWI will measure tons of wasted food per capita, considering a mixed stream of products from processing through to consumption.

Public Debt denotes liabilities payable by the Central Government, which are contracted against the Consolidated Fund of India, as provided under Article 292 of the Constitution of India. It has been further classified under two heads, i.e., Internal Debt and External Debt.
Internal debt of the Central Government consists of marketable securities and nonmarketable securities.
– Marketable securities include fixed tenor and fixed/ floating rate dated securities, and short-term borrowings through treasury bills.
– Nonmarketable securities in internal debt are the special Central Government securities issued to National Small Savings Fund (NSSF), securities issued to international financial institutions, special securities issued against securitisation of balances under postal insurance and annuity funds (POLIF and RPOLIF), compensation & other bonds, special securities issued to public sector banks/ EXIM Bank and 14-day Intermediate Treasury Bills.