Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon- September 21

Statement 2 is Incorrect: In the year 2008, the Company was awarded ‘MINIRATNA’ status.

ANTRIX ➢Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), incorporated on 28 September 1992 (under the Companies Act, 1956), is a wholly owned Government of India Company under the administrative control of Department of Space (DOS).

➢Antrix is the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).  Antrix promotes and commercially markets the products and services emanating from the Indian Space Programme.

➢Thecurrent business activities of Antrix include:

➢Provisioning of communication satellite transponders to various users,

➢Providing launch services for customer satellites,

➢ Marketing of data from Indian and foreign remote sensing satellites,

➢ Building and marketing of satellites as well as satellite sub-systems,

➢ Establishing ground infrastructure for space applications, and

➢ Mission support services for satellites.

Statement 3 is Incorrect: India’s first Hyperloop project will come up in Andhra Pradesh, connecting its city centres, Vijayawada and Amaravati.

Statement 1, 2 and 4: is Correct:

• Hyperloop Technology is a system of magnetically levitating capsules (pods) that are sent at high speeds through low-pressure tubes.
• Hyperloop Technology is brainchild idea of technology entrepreneur Elon Musk who dubs it as fifth mode of transportation.
• Hyperloop envisages a ‘tube modular transport system’ that runs free of friction. It is still in trial stages in different countries.

Statement 1, 2 and 3 is Correct:

• Ethereum is a rising star of the cryptocurrency world. Closing in on the original digital currency bitcoin, it has swiftly become the second most valuable of the new payment methods.
• Like bitcoin, it is a decentralised payment network, with its own cryptograpic currency, that allows anonymous payments to be sent across the internet without the need for a bank or other third party.
• Transactions are stored in a decentralised ledger, the blockchain, and are visible for everyone on the network to see.
• One of the biggest mysteries in the technology world is who created bitcoin. The infamous pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto has plagued cryptocurrency users and journalists who have sought to unmask the inventor. Unlike bitcoin, ethereum’s creator has always been in the open.
• A Canadian citizen born in Russia,VitalikButerin is its creator.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)– a diverse group of communicable diseases that prevail in tropical and subtropical conditions in 149 countries – affect more than one billion people and cost developing economies billions of dollars every year. Populations living in poverty, without adequate sanitation and in close contact with infectious vectors and domestic animals and livestock are those worst affected.

Some prominent examples of NTDs include-Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, Dengue and Chikungunya, Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease), Leishmaniasis, Leprosy (Hansen’s disease), Lymphatic filariasis,Rabies, Soil-transmitted helminthiases (Kala-Azar), Yaws (Endemic treponematoses) etc.

• Azolla is an aquatic floating fern, found in temperate climate suitable for paddy cultivation. The fern appears as a green mat over water.
• The Blue Green Algae cyanobacteria (Anabaena azollae) present as a symbiont with this fern in the lower cavities actually fixes atmospheric nitrogen.
• The rate of nitrogen fixed is around 25 kg/ha.
• As green manure, Azolla is grown alone for two to three weeks in flooded fi Afterwards, water is drained out and Azolla fern is incorporated in the field before transplanting of paddy.
• Dry Azolla flakes can be used as poultry feed and green Azolla is also a good feed for fish.
• Azolla can be supplemented with regular feed of the animal @ 2-2.5 kg of azolla per cattle. It can be used as a bio-fertilizer and as a mosquito repellent.

Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs are more efficient than Compact Fluorescent (CFL) and traditional incandescent bulbs because LED bulbs produce light by running an arc of electrical current between two electrodes. This method of generating light is a more efficient than generating light by the heating of tungsten filaments in incandescent/halogen bulbs and exciting mercury gas by electricity in CFL bulbs.

Statement 1 and 3 is correct:

• CERN as an organisation is world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory. It is situated in North West suburbs of Geneva on France-Swiss Border.
• It has 22 member states & four associate member states (including India and Pakistan) and three International Organisations have observer status.
• India has become an Associate member of CERN and not a Full member.