10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz | April 22 2021

The USCIRF (US Commission on International Religious Freedom) has recommended classifying India as a Country of Particular Concern(CPC). It is due to the worst violations of religious freedom in India in 2020.

Recommendation by USCIRF:

• The US administration should impose targeted sanctions on Indian individuals and entities for ‘severe violations of religious freedom’.
• The US administration should promote interfaith dialogue and the rights of all communities at forums such as Quadrilateral [the Quad].
• The US Congress should raise issues in the U.S-India bilateral space by hosting hearings, writing letters, and constituting Congressional delegations.

But the recommendations given by the USCIRF are non-binding on the US Government.

Read more: USCIRF Recommends “Country of Particular Concern” Tag for India

• Exercise Khanjar is a Joint Special Forces Military Exercise between India and Kyrgyzstan.
• Initiated in: The exercise was started in the year 2011. This is the Eighth Edition of the Exercise.
• Aim: The exercise aims to boost the strategic partnership between India and Kyrgyzstan. It also focuses on high-altitude, mountains and counter-extremism drills.

Read more: “Exercise Khanjar” – A military exercise between India and Kyrgyzstan

• Chimeras are organisms that are made up of the cells of two distinct species.
• Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the US have for the first time created the first monkey embryo containing human cells.
• This particular field of research is called “chimera research”.

Read more: chimera research

The Government of India has announced the fourth phase of its New Covid-19 vaccine policy. This phase expands its vaccination coverage to everyone aged 18 and older from May 1.

• Under the new rules, the Centre will automatically receive only 50% of vaccines produced by manufacturers.
• The remaining 50% can be acquired by the states directly or by private hospitals and industrial establishments at a price.

Read More: India’s “New Covid-19 vaccine policy”

The concept of principled distance entails a state to maintain equal distance from all religion. It meant peaceful coexistence of all religions or inter-religious toleration and also meant equal feeling of respect towards all established religions and their practices. Indian secularism allows for principled state intervention in all religions. Such intervention betrays disrespect to some aspects of every religion. 

Statement 1 and 2 are correct.

Non-fungible tokens or NFTs are cryptographic assets on blockchain with unique identification codes and metadata that distinguish them from each other. Unlike cryptocurrencies, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency.

Statement 3 is incorrect. A bitcoin is fungible — by trading one for another bitcoin, and nothing in value changes hands. NFTs, on the other hand, are a class of cryptocurrency assets in which each item, or token, is entirely unique.

Most NFTs are part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin or dogecoin, but its blockchain also supports these NFTs.

# NFTs can be anything digital (such as drawings, music, your brain downloaded and turned into an AI), but a lot of the recent trend is around using the tech to sell digital art.

Parosmia is a medical term. It describes a condition in which affected individuals experience distortions in the sense of smell. A person with parosmia is able to detect certain odours. But they might experience the smell of certain things as different and often unpleasant. People who are recovering their sense of smell following a loss from a virus or an injury typically experience parosmia.

# Ageusia is a condition, characterized by a complete loss of taste function of the tongue.

# Anosmia is the partial or complete loss of the sense of smell. This loss may be temporary or permanent.

Statement 1 is correct. Agriculture irrigation accounts for nearly 78% followed by domestic use 6%, industries 5% of water resources use in India.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Only about half of India’s gross cropped area (198 million hectares) is irrigated. Groundwater contributes about 64 per cent, canals 23 per cent, tanks 2 per cent and other sources 11 per cent to irrigation.

# As per the UN’s report on Sustainable Development Goal-6 (SDG-6) on “Clean water and sanitation for all by 2030”, India achieved only 56.6 per cent of the target by 2019. 

# As per the Niti Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index (2019), 75 per cent households in India do not have access to drinking water on their premises and India ranks 120th amongst 122 countries in the water quality index.

Both statements are correct.

Article 124 of the Constitution states that there shall be a Supreme Court of India consisting of a Chief Justice of India and, until Parliament by law prescribes a larger number, of not more than seven other Judges.

Parliament last year passed the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill to increases the number of judges in Supreme Court number from 30 to 33.

The Judges remain in office until they reach the retirement age — 65 for Supreme Court judges and 62 for high court judges.

The kafala, or sponsorship, system defines the relationship between foreign workers and their local sponsor, or kafeel, which is usually their employer. It is found in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—as well as Jordan and Lebanon.

Under this system, the state gives local individuals or companies sponsorship permits to employ foreign laborers. It was created to supply cheap, plentiful labor in an era of booming economic growth, and its defenders argue that it benefits local businesses and helps drive development.

The system has become increasingly controversial, and there is growing recognition that it is rife with exploitation. The lack of regulations and protections for migrant workers’ rights often results in low wages, poor working conditions, and employee abuse.