10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: December 23, 2020

The President of the United States of America conferred the highest decoration, The Legion of Merit, Degree Chief Commander, to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 December 2020.
The Legion of Merit, in the highest degree of the Chief Commander, is a prestigious award conferred by the President of the United States, typically upon Heads of State or Heads of Government of other countries.
The Legion of Merit, Degree Chief Commander, was also awarded to the Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison, and former (not incumbent) Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe.
The US had last awarded Legion of Merit to late Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on September 18, 2020 as the senior most Royal in the Middle-East for bridging divides in the restive region.

Both statements are incorrect.
The United Nations, United Kingdom and France co-hosted the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, in partnership with Chile and Italy. It marked the fifth anniversary of the Paris Agreement, and provided a platform for government and non-governmental leaders to demonstrate their commitment to the Paris Agreement and the multilateral process.
The summit is positioned as a “sprint to Glasgow,” where the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is scheduled to take place from 1–12 November 2021.

In partnership with Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), The Lancet has published global health estimates from the GBD study since 2010. In December 2018, the World Health Organisation and the IHME announced a formal partnership to collaborate to produce a single set of global health estimates to strengthen the validity of the GBD.
Statement 1 is correct. 1.67 million deaths were attributable to air pollution in India in 2019, 17.8% of the total deaths in the country, the majority of which were from outdoor particulate air pollution (0•98 million) and household air pollution (0•61 million).
Household air pollution is decreasing in India resulting in 64% reduction in the death rate attributable to it from 1990 to 2019, whereas the death rate from outdoor particulate air pollution has increased during this period by 115%.
Statement 2 is correct. Lost output from premature deaths and morbidity attributable to air pollution accounted for economic losses of US$28•8 billion and $8•0 billion, respectively, in India in 2019. This total loss of $36•8 billion was 1•36% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP).

The International Solar Alliance was launched jointly by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and the President of France during COP21 in Paris. It aims to contribute to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement through rapid and massive deployment of solar energy.
Prime Minister of India announced a global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019. The CDRI is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and academic and knowledge institutions.
The governments of Sweden and India, with support from the World Economic Forum (WEF) launched the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) at the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September, 2019. The group is open for both government and business leaders and aims to enable the transition of heavy industry towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Statement 1 is incorrect. First-ever National Startup Awards (‘NSA’) were concluded in October 2020, to recognize and reward outstanding startups and ecosystem enablers that are building innovative products or solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation, demonstrating measurable social impact.
Statement 2 is incorrect. It is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce. Only DPIIT registered startup entities are eligible for participation.

Option 1 is incorrectly matched. DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) is a national platform for school education, an initiative of National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT).
DIKSHA was developed based on the core principles of open architecture, open access, open licensing diversity, choice and autonomy as outlined in the Strategy and Approach Paper for the National Teacher Platform
Option 2 is correctly matched. Manodarpan is an initiative of Ministry of Education covering a wide range of activities to provide psychosocial support to students, teachers and families for Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing during the COVID outbreak and beyond.
Option 3 is correctly matched. The Department of School Education and Literacy has launched a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training Programme called NISHTHA.
NISHTHA is a capacity building programme for “Improving Quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher Training”. It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage.

Both statements are correct.
The Government of India and the World Bank recently signed a $500 million project to build safe and green national highway corridors in the states of Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
The Green National Highways Corridors Project will support MoRTH construct 783 km of highways in various geographies by integrating safe and green technology designs such as local and marginal materials, industrial byproducts, and other bioengineering solutions. The project will help reduce GHG emissions in the construction and maintenance of highways.
The $500 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a maturity of 18.5 years including a grace period of five years.

The India International Science Festival 2020 is being organised by Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with Ministry of Earth Sciences, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Vijnana Bharati (VIBHA).
The sixth edition of this festival will take place from December 22 -25, 2020 with the theme ‘Science for Self-Reliant India and Global Welfare’. It aims to celebrate the achievements of India’s scientific and technological advancements with students and innovators.

Natural gas as its name indicates is a Gaseous fuel, consisting of 87-92% of Methane with a small percentage of other higher hydrocarbons.
PNG, CNG & LNG are different forms of Natural gas under varied temperature & pressure.
Piped Natural Gas (PNG) is generally under atmospheric temperatures but the pressure can up to as high as 90 Kg/cm2 in transmission lines and limited to less than 24 Kg/cm2 in City Gas grids due to risk involved in movement of high-pressure gas inside crowded cities/towns.
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) means natural gas used as fuel for vehicles, typically compressed to the pressure ranging from 200 to 250 kg/cm2 in the gaseous state.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is liquid form of Natural gas, generally intended for transportation of large volumes through ships, where cross country pipelines are not feasible. There will be high degree of economy in transportation logistics due to large scale of operations involved.

Statement 1 is correct. Historically, the Great Indian Bustard was distributed throughout Western India, spanning 11 states, as well as parts of Pakistan. Its stronghold was once the Thar desert in the north-west and the Deccan plateau of the peninsula. Today, its population is confined mostly to Rajasthan and Gujarat. Small populations occur in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The biggest threat to this species is hunting, which is still prevalent in Pakistan. This is followed by occasional poaching outside Protected Areas, collisions with high tension electric wires, fast moving vehicles and free-ranging dogs in villages. Other threats include habitat loss and alteration as a result of widespread agricultural expansion and mechanized farming.
Statement 2 is correct. Great Indian Bustard (Choriotis nigriceps) is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection)Act, 1972 and as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.