10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz | July 7 2021

• Britain’s King George V on December 12, 1911, at his coronation announced the transfer of the seat of the Government of India from Calcutta to the ancient Capital of Delhi. 
• These 20 years-long projects of Central Vista development were led by architects Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker. It was completed in 1927 and inaugurated by Viceroy Lord Irwin. 
• Central Vista is 3.2 kilometre area in Delhi housing Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, North and South Blocks, Rajpath, India Gate, National Archives and the then princes’ houses around India Gate. 
• In the 1962 Master plan of Delhi, site was declared a heritage precinct as an “important site to meet the aspirations of a rich culture”. 

Read more: Central Vista Project 

Source: The Indian Express 

First National Judicial Pay Commission 

• It was constituted in 1996, pursuant to the order of the Supreme Court of India in All India Judges Association case. 

• It was headed by Justice K. Jagannatha Shetty, former Judge of the Supreme Court. 
• It was also referred to as the Justice Shetty Commission. 
• The commission gave a comprehensive report in the year 1999, covering not merely the pay structure, allowances and conditions of service of Judicial Officers but also various other aspects concerning the Courts and judicial administration. 

Source: Article 

In 2015 did the Indian government declare the heatwave a natural disaster under the National Disaster Management Act of 2005. 

IMD declares a heatwave based on temperature. A heatwave is proclaimed when the highest temperature at a station surpasses 45°C; if it exceeds 47°C, it is referred to as a severe heatwave. Heatwaves in coastal and hilly locations are declared using similar criteria. 

The human body reacts to a combination of heat and humidity known as the ‘wet-bulb temperature’. Only a few humans can tolerate a wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35°C because their bodies can no longer cool themselves.  

• Many regions of India now experience wet-bulb temperatures exceeding 32°C during certain parts of the year. However, we are not declaring such days to be heatwaves, endangering the lives of people engaged in manual labour. 

Source: Times of India 

• Quad-plus formulation (Including Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam apart from Quad members)  

Source: Article 

• IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. It was established in 1988 by UNEP and WMO (World Meteorological Organization) to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments related to climate change.  

• India is also a member of IPCC. IPCC itself does not conduct any research nor does it monitor climate related data or parameters. Instead, thousands of scientists from all over the world contribute to the work of IPCC on a voluntary basis. 
•  IPCC has so far published five Assessment Reports (AR) and will publish the sixth report (AR6) in 2021-22. IPCC also publishes special reports like “IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC”. For its outstanding work, it has also received Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. 
• IPCC established National Green House Gas Inventories Program (NGGIP) to provide methods for estimating national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions to and removals from the atmosphere. The guidance produced by the NGGIP is used by countries that are party to the UNFCCC to estimate the emissions and removals that they report to the UNFCCC. 

Source: Article 

• Social media companies are prohibited from hosting or publishing any unlawful information. This information is “in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries, etc”. 
• If such information is hosted or published the government can take down such information within 24 hours. The user will be given a notice before his/her content is taken down. 
• Traceability mechanism: This provision requires the social media platforms to compulsorily identify the first originator of the information in India, upon government or court order. 
• Social media platforms are classified into two categories 

• Social media intermediaries – Platforms that have a limited user base. 
• Significant social media intermediaries – These are the platforms with a large user base. 

Source: Times of India 

Recently, a rare Melanistic Leopard (commonly known as Black Panther) has been recorded in Navegaon-Nagzira Tiger Reserve (NNTR) of Maharashtra. 

Strategically, the Tiger Reserve is located in the heart of central Indian Tiger landscape which contributes almost one sixth of the total tiger population of the country. 

Sightings of the black leopard were earlier reported in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve and the Pench Tiger Reserve in Maharastra.  

Source: The Indian Express

After the cases of Delta Variant of Covid-19 continuously rising, a new variant called Lambda Variant (LV) is emerging as a new threat. The strain was first identified in Peru in December 2020. Now around 81% of samples found to be carrying it in Peru. India has not yet reported any case of this new variant.  

The LV has greater infectivity than the Alpha and Gamma variants (known to have originated in the UK and Brazil respectively). 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) designated this variant seventh and the newest Variant of Interest (VOI). 

Source: The Indian Express 

• NIPUN Bharat Mission aims to improve foundational literacy and numeracy of children in the age group of three to nine years. 

Key Features of the Mission: 

• Implementation: The mission will be implemented by the Union Education Ministry in collaboration with states through the flagship school education program Samagra Shiksha. 
• Target: The mission has set a target that by 2026-27, every Class 3 child should be able to read with understanding at the rate of at least 60 words per minute. Further, the child should be able to read and write numbers up to 9,999 and solve simple multiplication problems. 
• Survey: A National Achievement Survey of Class 3 students will be conducted to set a baseline to track the future progress of the mission. 
• Mother Tongue: The mission also emphasizes the importance of using a child’s mother tongue in teaching, a principle of the National Education Policy 2020. 

Source: Article 

• Statement 1 is correct  
• Statement 2 is incorrect: It is listed as Least Concern (LC) under IUCN red list.