10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz | May 11 2021

• Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has developed an anti-COVID drug named 2-deoxy-D-glucose(2-DG). 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) is an anti-Covid oral drug. It has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of DRDO in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL)

• The drug helps in the faster recovery of hospitalised patients. Further, it also reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.
• A higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG also showed RT-PCR negative conversion in Covid-19 patients.

• It separates the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands from each other 

• Statement 1 is correct: When the magma is runny and thin, gases can easily escape it. In such cases, the magma will flow out towards the surface. However, if the magma is thick and dense and gases cannot escape it, it builds up pressure inside resulting in a violent explosion.
• Statement 2 is correct: According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most common cause of death from a volcano is suffocation, making people with respiratory conditions such as asthma and other chronic lung diseases susceptible.
• Statement 3 is correct: Volcanic emissions reaching the stratosphere can have a cooling effect on global temperatures.

• The most significant climate impacts from volcanic injections into the stratosphere come from the conversion of sulphur dioxide to sulphuric acid, which condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulphate aerosols
• The aerosols increase the reflection of radiation from the Sun back into space, cooling the Earth’s lower atmosphere or troposphere.
• Bigger eruptions during the past century have caused a decrease in temperature of 0.27 degree Celsius or more on the Earth’s surface for up to three years.

• Statement 1 is correct: Yes. Bennu is a Near Earth Object. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth’s neighborhood.

• Statement 2 is correct: Bennu likely broke off from a much larger carbon-rich asteroid about 700 million to 2 billion years ago. It likely formed in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and has drifted much closer to Earth since then.
• Statement 3 is incorrect: NASA’s NEAR was the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid and also was the first to land on one.

Read more: Asteroid Bennu

• Short-lived climate pollutants are climate pollutants that remain in the atmosphere for a much shorter period of time than carbon dioxide (CO2). Though short-lived they have the potential to warm the atmosphere many times greater than CO2.
• Several short-lived climate pollutants like black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons. These alone are responsible for up to 45% of current global warming.

Recently Indian PM paid tributes to Gopal Krishna Gokhale on his birth anniversary. He was born on 9 May 1866

Contributions of GK Gokhale:

• He visited Ireland and made Irish nationalist Alfred Webb to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1894.
• He published a daily newspaper Jnanaprakash.
• He served as Secretary of the Deccan Education Society.

• In 1905, he founded the Servants of India Society. The Society trained people to be selfless workers so that they could work for the common good of the people.
• He was also elected as the President of the Indian National Congress in 1905 in Banaras session.
• Gokhale was instrumental in the formation of the Minto-Morley Reforms of 1909, which eventually became law.
• Gokhale was a mentor to both Mohammed Jinnah and Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi even wrote a book called, ‘Gokhale, My Political Guru’

• Shuvuuia deserti small bird-like nocturnal dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago
• It was a pheasant-sized, two-legged Cretaceous Period dinosaur weighing about as much as a small house cat.
• It has an excellent night vision and superb hearing to hunt in total darkness.
• It lacks strong jaws and sharp teeth like many carnivorous dinosaurs
• It also has a bird-like and lightly built skull and many tiny teeth like the grains of rice

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released a report titled “Nature in a Globalised World: Conflict and Conservation”.

Key Findings of the Nature in a Globalised World Report:

• Armed Conflicts have numerous negative effects on nature. These include:

• Direct killing of wildlife for food or trade
• Degradation of ecosystems as both a tactic and a consequence of war

• Disruption of conservation, e.g. through attacks on protected area staff and other conservationists.

• Civil unrest and military exercises pose a risk to more than 200 Endangered species. This includes even the iconic species such as the Critically Endangered Eastern gorilla.

Read more: Nature in a Globalised World Report

• India had concurrent elections for the first two decades after independence. The first general elections held simultaneously to Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assemblies of the States in October 1951.
• The upcoming elections were also simultaneous one with few exceptions.
• To implement one nation one election the following Articles of Constitution and legislations have to be amended.

1. Clause (2) of Article 83 provides for the terms of Lok Sabha (five years from the date appointed). Similarly, Article 172(1) regards the term of Legislative Assemblies.
2. Articles 85(2)(b) and 174(2)(b) provides for the dissolution of Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies respectively.
3. Further, the Indian constitution has no provision for extension of the term unless a proclamation of Emergency is in operation.

• PMGKAY was first announced in 2020 as a part of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package(PMGKP). It aims to help the poor to fight the battle against Covid-19.

• Aim: The scheme is aimed at providing each person who is covered under the National Food Security Act(NFSA) with an additional 5 kg of grains (wheat or rice) for free. This is given over and above their monthly entitlement
• Duration of the Scheme: The scheme was announced in 2020 for three months till July 2020. Later it was extended till November 2020.

• However, the scheme is functional once again. Under this new phase, around 80 crore beneficiaries would be covered for the months of May and June 2021.

• Its nodal Ministry is the Ministry of Finance.

Read more: Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana(PMGKAY)