10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: July 28, 2020

Statement 1 is correct. More than half (54 percent) of the world’s forests is in only five countries –the Russian Federation, Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and China, with Russia itself having 20% of the world’s forest area.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The tropical domain has the largest proportion of the world’s forests (45 percent), followed by the boreal, temperate and subtropical domains.

India has two percent of the world’s forests and has ranked third among the top 10 countries that have gained in forest areas in the last decade.

Statement 1 is correct. Istanbul Convention is the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Statement 2 is incorrect. India is not a signatory to the convention. It is a treat under the Council of Europe, an international organization with 47 members with aim to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe.

The Convention came into force on 1 August 2014 and has been signed by 45 countries and the European Union.

It is the obligation of the state to fully address it in all its forms and to take measures to prevent violence against women, protect its victims and prosecute the perpetrators.

Poland has recently decided to withdraw from the convention.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The MAUSAM mobile application has been launched recently by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

The mobile app has been designed and developed jointly by ICRISAT’s Digital Agriculture & Youth (DAY) team, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and India Meteorological Department.

Statement 2 is correct. As per the PIB release, users can access observed weather, forecasts, radar images and be proactively warned of impending weather events.

The MAUSAM mobile App has the following 5 services: Current Weather, Nowcast (three hourly warnings of localized weather phenomena), City Forecast, Warnings and Radar products.

Statement 1 is correct. Rosewood, Elephants, pangolins are among the highest seized wildlife between 2014-18.

Statement 2 is incorrect. As per the report while the poaching of both elephants and rhinoceroses has consistently declined since 2011, the amount of pangolin scales seized has increased 10-fold in just five years, and new markets, such as the trafficking of European glass eels, have emerged in the wake of strengthened controls.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have recently launched its innovation contest ‘Dare to Dream 2.0’ on the 5th death anniversary of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

-The scheme is for promoting individuals & startups for innovation in defence and aerospace emerging technologies.

-The winners will be decided after due evaluation by an expert committee. Award money, up to Rs 10 lakh for startup and Rs five lakh to individual category, will be given to the winners.

Option 1 is incorrectly matched. Darfur is a region in western Sudan. The conflict in Darfur has been in news recently, it began in 2003 when rebels launched an insurrection to protest what they contended was the Sudanese government’s disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population.

Recently people started returning home in time for this year’s planting season after a government-sponsored deal was reached two months ago. But this has led a new conflict over land rights between the people who took over the land with those who have returned.

Option 2 is correctly matched. Chengdu is the capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan province. China recently asked USA to shut its consulate in Chengdu in response to similar action by USA in Houston.

Option 3 is correctly matched. The Okavango Delta in Botswana is an inland delta formed where the Okavango River reaches the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari.

Hundreds of elephants have died mysteriously in Botswana’s famed Okavango Delta recently.

All of the above do not require prior-Environmental Clearance or Permission under the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification 2020.

Section 26 provides a list of projects that would not attract environmental clearance or permission, it includes among others:

-Removal of sand deposits on agricultural field after flood by farmers;

-Extraction or sourcing or borrowing of ordinary earth for the linear projects like roads, pipelines, etc.

-Dredging and de-silting of dams, reservoirs, weirs, barrages etc.

-Digging of well for irrigation or drinking water purpose;

–Solar Photo Voltaic (PV) Power projects, Solar Thermal Power Plants and development of Solar Parks, etc.;

–Coal and non-coal mineral prospecting.

Both statements are correct.

Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Act, 2017 was enacted to levy Compensation cess on certain notified goods and services for providing compensation to the States for the loss of revenue arising on account of implementation of the goods and services tax.

The act came into effect from the date from which the provisions of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act is brought into force (01/07/2017), for a period of five years or for such period as may be prescribed on the recommendations of the GST Council.

Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update 2020 has been released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update provides a climate outlook for the next five years, updated annually.

Highlights:

Annual global temperature is likely to be at least 1°C warmer than preindustrial levels in each of the coming 5 years and is very likely to be within the range 0.91 – 1.59°C.

Over 2020-2024, almost all regions, except parts of the southern oceans, are likely to be warmer than the recent past.

Over 2020-2024, high latitude regions and the Sahel are likely to be wetter than the recent past whereas northern and eastern parts of South America are likely to be dryer.

Over 2020-2024, sea-level pressure anomalies suggest that the northern North Atlantic region could have stronger westerly winds leading to more storms in western Europe.

In 2020, large land areas in the Northern Hemisphere are likely to be over 0.8°C warmer than the recent past.

In 2020, the Arctic is likely to have warmed by more than twice as much as the global mean.

Statement 1 is correct. As per the Sri Lankan tradition, Ashoka dispatched of several missionaries to distant regions, including his son Mahinda to Sri Lanka. Further, his daughter Sanghamitra also established “Bikhhuni Sasana” in Sri Lanka.

Statement 2 is correct. Eight years after seizing power around 270 B.C., Ashoka led a military campaign to conquer Kalinga after which he adopted Dhammaghosha (Sound of Dhamma) over Bherighosha (War siren). Major Rock Edict IV states that Dhammaghosa is ideal to the mankind and not the Bherighosa.