10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: September 10, 2020

Statement 1 is correct. Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) is an industry led not for profit organisation recognised by DoT as National Telecom Standards Development Organisation (SDO).

TSDSI’s mandate is to reflect India specific requirements in various global standards forums so as to ensure addressing of these requirements in global standards, including in upcoming 5G technologies.

It also provides a platform to its members, drawn from industry (operators, manufactures, designers, and system integrators), academia, R&D, user groups, Govt. and policy/regulatory bodies to develop and contribute their innovations/IP nationally as well as at global platforms like 3GPP, ITU etc.

Statement 2 is correct. TSDSI is a constituent Standards Development Organisation (SDO) of Global Standards Collaboration (GSC) – a voluntary forum of twelve of the world’s leading information and communication technologies standards organisations.

Statement 1 is correct. Recombinant vector vaccines are live replicating viruses that are engineered to carry extra genes derived from a pathogen—and these extra genes produce proteins against which we want to generate immunity.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Polio vaccines are vaccines used to prevent poliomyelitis (polio). Two types are used: an inactivated poliovirus given by injection (IPV) and a weakened poliovirus given by mouth (OPV).

# COVID-19 vaccines under development using adenovirus as vector are recombinant vector vaccines.

The Macartney–MacDonald Line is a proposed boundary in the area of Aksai Chin. It was proposed by British Indian Government to China in 1899 via its envoy to China, Sir Claude MacDonald.

This survey was officially sent by the British to China in 1899, was not followed up, and the border remained ‘undefined’.

The Johnson-Ardagh Line surveyed in 1865, ran along the Kunlun Mountain, included Aksai Chin in Kashmir and was not communicated to China.

All of the above are in Ladakh UT.

The Mintaka Pass is a mountain pass in the Karakorum Mountains, between Gilgit-Balitistan (Pak administered) and Xinjiang in China.

The Kilik Pass, west of Mintaka Pass is a high mountain pass in the Karakorum Mountains between Gilgit-Baltistan and Xinjiang in China. The two passes were, in ancient times, the two main access points into the Upper Hunza Valley from the north.

The Kongka Pass or Kongka La is a high mountain pass of the Chang-Chemno Range on the Line of Actual Control between India and China. China considers the Kongka Pass as its boundary with India, whereas India regards Lanak Pass further east as the boundary.

Both statements are correct.

The Treaty of Amritsar, 1846 was signed between the British East India Company and the Dogra ruler Maharaja Gulab Singh. It was a formalisation of the proposals of the Treaty of Lahore, signed to conclude the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845-46 between the East India Company and the Sikh Empire.

The forces of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ran over the Kashmir Valley in 1819. The Valley remained with the Sikhs until a little after Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839. After the defeat in the Anglo-Sikh War, the Sikh Empire had to cede Kashmir to the English East India Company through the Treaty of Lahore, which was signed on March 9, 1846.

Due to Gulab Singh’s neutrality during the Anglo-Sikh War, the British granted him dominion over Jammu and Kashmir through a sale deed, which was formalized through the Treaty of Amritsar.

This treaty was signed a week after the Treaty of Lahore, on March 16, 1846. Maharaja Gulab Singh got the state from the East India Company for a sum of Rs 75 lakh.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger technology. All network participants have access to the distributed ledger and its immutable record of transactions.

With this shared ledger, transactions are recorded only once, eliminating the duplication of effort that’s typical of traditional business networks.

Blockchain is decentralized, i.e. it does not store any of its information in a central location, instead, the data is copied and spread across a network of computers.

Statement 2 is correct. No participant can change or tamper with a transaction after it’s been recorded to the shared ledger. If a transaction record includes an error, a new transaction must be added to reverse the error, and both transactions are then visible.

Statement 1 is correct. Bt cotton is an insect-resistant transgenic crop designed to combat the bollworm. Bt cotton was created by genetically altering the cotton genome to express a microbial protein from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis.

Statement 2 is correct. Genetically modified (GM) crops are those crops whose DNA has been modified by introducing alien genes in the seeds to get desired effects.

Bt cotton is the only Genetically modified (GM) crop approved in India by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee of Ministry of Environment.

Both statements are correct.

The recent ‘Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2020’ from UNICEF and partners in the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), shows the full scope of child mortality rates across the world – from newborns to adolescents, including for the first time this year, estimates for youth aged 15–24 years – as well as the progress made toward meeting the SDG targets by 2030.

The under-five mortality rate was reduced from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to 38 deaths in 2019—a 59 per cent reduction (see Table 1). One in every 11 children died before reaching their fifth birthday in 1990. By 2019, that number was reduced to 1 in 27.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of all under-five deaths in 2019 occurred in just five countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia. Nigeria and India alone account for almost a third.

The under-five mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) in India declined to 34 in 2019 from 126 in 1990.

The Golden Temple, also known as Harmandir Sahib in the city of Amritsar, Punjab, India is the preeminent spiritual site of Sikhism. The Gurdwara is built around a man-made pool (sarovar).

Construction of the Amrit Sarovar (pool of nectar) was initiated by Guru Amar Das, the third Guru, in 1570 and was completed by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru. His successor, Guru Arjan Dev began work on the building after inviting Mian Mir, the Sufi saint, to lay its foundation stone in 1588.  Three years later, the Harmandar Sahib, or Darbar Sahib got completed.

Statement 1 is correct. EASE (Enhanced Access and Service Excellence) Reforms Index independently measures progress on the Public Sector Banks (PSB) Reforms Agenda.

Statement 2 is incorrect. EASE 2.0 Index Results has been released recently by the Indian Banking Association (IBA). Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, and erstwhile Oriental Bank of Commerce were felicitated for being the top three (in that order) in the ‘Top Performing Banks’ category according to the EASE 2.0 Index Results.

# As part of the EASE Reforms, Doorstep Banking Services envisaged to provide convenience of banking services to the customers at their door step through the universal touch points of Call Centre, Web Portal or Mobile App, was inaugurated recently by the Finance Minister.