10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #71 January 25, 2020

Explanation: A new snake eel species residing in the Bay of Bengal has been discovered and documented this month (January) by the Estuarine Biology Regional Centre (EBRC) of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) at Gopalpur-on-sea in Odisha. This new marine species has been named Ophichthus kailashchandrai to honour the vast contributions of Dr. Kailash Chandra, Director of ZSI, to Indian animal taxonomy. Ophichthus kailashchandrai is the eighth species of the Ophichthus genus found on the Indian coast. It is the fifth new species discovered by the Gopalpur ZSI in the last two years. In 2019, two new species of marine eel, Gymnothorax andamanensesis and Gymnothorax smithi were been discovered by this ZSI centre.

Explanation: India is in preliminary discussions to be a part of the East Asian Observatories Consortium of eight countries committed to build large telescopes and pool resources. There have been no talks with India’s Science and Technology department so far but organizations such as the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, which is part of several mega-science collaborations, have had talks with scientists from member organizations. Having India join the group, which now consists of China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea as full members and Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia as ‘observers’, could mean the establishment of new kinds of telescopes — one proposed being in Tibet — that could aid the observation of new black holes and throw light on cosmic phenomena.

Explanation: India’s ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI-2019) has slipped from 78 to 80 compared to the previous year, said Transparency International on Thursday, while questioning the “unfair and opaque political financing” in the country. Its score of 41 out of 100 remains the same. In democracies like India and Australia, unfair and opaque political financing, undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, has resulted in stagnation or decline in the control of corruption, observed the report. The latest CPI report has revealed that a majority of countries are showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.

Explanation: India has climbed eight places to 72nd rank in the 2020 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), which was topped by Switzerland, the US and Singapore. Sweden (4th), Denmark (5th), the Netherlands (6th), Finland (7th), Luxembourg (8th), Norway (9th) and Australia (10th) complete the top 10 league table. “Although more could be done to improve the country’s educational system (68th in Formal Education), India’s key strength relates to growing (44th) talent, due to its levels of lifelong learning (40th) and access to growth opportunities (39th),” the GTCI report said. The country’s highest-ranked sub-pillar is employability, but the ability to match labour market demand and supply stands in contrast to the country’s poor “mid-level skills”, which result in a mediocre score in vocational and technical skills, news agency PTI said. The GTCI report compiled by INSEAD in collaboration with human resource firm Addeco and Google was released in Davos, Switzerland.

Explanation: Sagarmatha Sambad is a multi-stakeholder, permanent global dialogue forum with headquarters at Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a joint collaborative initiative of Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA) and the Policy Research Institute (PRI). The dialogue aims to deliberate on the most prominent issues of global, regional and national significance. It is slated to be held biennially, with the first summit at Kathmandu in April, 2020 with the theme ‘Climate Change, Mountains and the Future of Humanity’.