10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz : February 10 2021

Extradition is the recognised international mechanism for the timely return of fugitives from foreign countries. It is defined as the “delivery of an accused or convicted individual from the country he is found in, to another country that requests his extradition”.

At present, India has bilateral extradition treaties with following countries:

India has assisted Afghanistan in construction of Salma Dam, which is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam project located on the Hari River in Chishti Sharif District of Heart.

Recently India and Aghanistan have signed a Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] for the construction of the Lalandar [Shatoot] Dam in Afghanistan. The project is a part of the New Development Partnership between India and Afghanistan.

The Lalander [Shatoot] Dam would meet the safe drinking water needs of Kabul City, provide irrigation water to nearby areas, rehabilitate the existing irrigation and drainage network, aid in flood protection and management efforts in the area, and also provide electricity to the region.

Statement 1 is correct. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is an international treaty that recognizes the human rights of children, defined as persons up to the age of 18 years.

The Convention establishes in international law that States Parties must ensure that all children – without discrimination in any form – benefit from special protection measures and assistance; have access to services such as education and health care; can develop their personalities, abilities and talents to the fullest potential; grow up in an environment of happiness, love and understanding; and are informed about and participate in, achieving their rights in an accessible and active manner.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history. More countries have ratified the Convention than any other human rights treaty in history – 196 countries have become State Parties to the Convention as of October 2015. The United States of America has not ratified the Convention.

India ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992.

Statement 1 is correct. Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy and Geological Survey of India are two agencies which are involved in mineral exploration.

AMD has exclusive right to conduct exploration for uranium, and other prescribed substances such as thorium, beryllium, lithium, zirconium, niobium, tantalum, rare-earths and others like ilmenite and rutile.

Statement 2 is incorrect. In response to media reports on discovery of Lithium reserves in Karnataka, AMD has clarified that exploration efforts have so far established 1600 tonnes lithium in inferred category (low level of confidence) in Allapatna – Marlagalla sector in Srirangapatna taluk, Mandya district, Karnataka.

This is a preliminary estimate and requires further exploration efforts to convert the estimated resources to exploitable category with high degree of confidence level and explore the possibility of augmenting Li resources in the area.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India has launched ‘National Monsoon Mission’ (NMM) with a vision to develop a state-of-the-art dynamical prediction system for monsoon rainfall on different time scales.

MoES has bestowed the responsibility of execution and coordination of this mission to the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune. For this national mission, IITM is collaborating with NCEP (USA), MoES organisations and various academic institutions/organizations under NMM.

Statement 2 is correct. The overall objective of NMM is to improve the monsoon prediction over India on all time scales and hence it is implemented for the whole country which includes all the States and UTs.

Following are the targets of Monsoon Mission:

–Development of a seamless prediction system using monsoon mission model, on different time scales, like Seasonal (for whole Monsoon season), Extended range (up-to 4 weeks), Short range prediction (up-to 5days).

–Initiate and coordinate working partnership between Indian and foreign institutes to develop a system for prediction of extremes and climate applications

–Develop and implement system for climate applications having social impacts (such as agriculture, flood forecast, extreme events forecast, wind energy,etc.)

–Advanced data assimilation system for preparing high quality data for model predictions

Employees’ State Insurance Scheme of India is an integrated social security scheme tailored to provide social protection to workers and their dependents, in the organised sector, in contingencies, such as, sickness, maternity and death or disablement due to an employment injury or occupational hazard.

The ESI Act, (1948) applies to following categories of factories and establishments in the implemented areas:

–Non-seasonal factories using power and employing ten or more persons

–Non-seasonal and non-power using factories and establishments employing twenty or more persons.

ESI Scheme, like most of the Social Security Schemes the world over, is a self-financing health insurance scheme. Contributions are raised from covered employees and their employers as a fixed percentage of wages.

An interesting feature of the ESI Scheme is that the contributions are related to the paying capacity as a fixed percentage of the workers wages, whereas, they are provided social security benefits according to individual needs without distinction.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India has recently published a Climate Change report entitled “Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region” which covers all the aspects of regional climate change including the climatic extremes across India.

The preparation of this report was led by the Center for Climate Change Research (CCCR) at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune.

Based on the available climate records, the report documents that the surface air temperature over India has risen by about 0.7 °C during 1901–2018 which is accompanied with an increase in atmospheric moisture content. The sea surface temperatures in the tropical Indian Ocean have also increased by about 1 °C during 1951–2015.

Statement 1 is correct. Ethanol is a clear, colorless alcohol made from a variety of biomass materials called feedstocks (the raw materials used to make a product). Fuel ethanol feedstocks include grains and crops with high starch and sugar content such as corn, sorghum, barley, sugar cane, and sugar beets.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Octane number, measure of the ability of a fuel to resist knocking when ignited in a mixture with air in the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine. Ethanol has a higher-octane number than gasoline, providing premium blending properties.

# Government has notified scheme for extending financial assistance to project proponents for enhancement of ethanol distillation capacity or to set up distilleries for producing 1st Generation (1G) ethanol from feed stocks such as cereals (rice, wheat, barley, corn & sorghum), sugarcane, sugar beet etc.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Trans fats, or trans-fatty acids, are a form of unsaturated fat.

They are found in two forms — natural, which occur in some animal products and aren’t considered harmful, and artificial, which are hydrogenated vegetable oils and have serious health consequences.

Natural, or ruminant, trans fats occur in the meat and dairy from ruminant animals, such as cattle, sheep, and goats. They form naturally when bacteria in these animals’ stomachs digest grass.

Statement 2 is correct. People consuming trans fats instead of other fats or carbs experienced a significant increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol without a corresponding rise in HDL (good) cholesterol and may increase risk of heart disease.

# In December 2020, the FSSAI had capped TFAs in oils and fats to 3% by 2021, and 2% by 2022.

United Arab Emirates has put a probe called Hope in orbit around the planet, making it only the fifth spacefaring entity to do so after the US, the Soviet Union, Europe and India.

The satellite carries three instruments that will observe, among other targets, how neutral atoms of hydrogen and oxygen – remnants from Mars’ once abundant water – leak into space.

On Wednesday, it will be the turn of China with its Tianwen-1 orbiter to reach Mars. Next week, on Thursday 18 February, the Perseverance robot of USA is set to arrive on Mars.