Daily Current Affairs Quiz: 2 June 2021

ANSWER: C

WHY IN NEWS ?

• CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune has launched a new technique called SWASTIIK to disinfect water by using natural oils. It was launched because, water-borne diseases have increased India’s disease burden.
  • About SWASTIIK Technology
• This method can eliminate harmful bacteria and antibiotic-resistant strains, economically. It integrates Indian traditional knowledge of Ayurveda to disinfect water and offer possible health benefits of natural oils. It uses hydrodynamic cavitation; combines chemistry, biology, & chemical engineering along with natural resources like natural oils & plant extracts to disinfect water. Thus, method has increased the efficiency and reduced cost of water treatment.

ANSWER: B

WHY IN NEWS ?

• Union Cabinet approved Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) on Sustainable Urban Development between India and Japan by suspending the existing MoU of 2007 on Urban Development.

How MoC will be implemented?

• To implement and strategize programmes on cooperation under MoC, a Joint Working Group (JWG) will be constituted. JWG will meet once in a year in Japan as well as in India, alternately. Cooperation under MoC will continue for a period of 5 years, which can be auto-renewed for 5 years at a time.

Significance of the MoC

• It will promote strong, deep and long-term bilateral cooperation with respect to Sustainable Urban Development between India and Japan. It is expected to create employment opportunities in listed areas of sustainable urban development including Urban Planning, affordable housing, rental housing, Smart Cities Development, Urban Flood Management, water management, Sewerage & Waste Water Management etc.

Objective of MoC

• It seeks to facilitate and strengthen India-Japan technical cooperation in field of Sustainable urban development and other listed areas which will be mutually identified by both the countries. It will also enable exchange of key learning’s and best practices in listed areas.

ANSWER:  A

WHY IN NEWS ?

• BRICS foreign ministers meeting was held virtually on June 1, 2021.

Agenda of the meeting

• During the minister’s meet, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted significant principles which were guiding BRICS.
• He also referred to international law and UN Charter which recognises sovereign equality of all states and respects territorial integrity.
• According to him, desired change can be achieved only by conducting policies in line with these principles.

Who hosted the meeting?

• BRICS meeting was hosted by India in its capacity as chair of BRICS. It was attended by Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov; Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi; Minister of International Relations of South Africa, Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor; and Foreign Minister of Brazil, Carlos Alberto Franco.

Significance of meeting

• BRICS foreign ministers, for the first time, have agreed on common goal of “reforming the multilateral system”. They also agreed, such reform should cover all key multilateral institutions, including-

• UN and its principal organs such as UN general assembly, UN Security Council etc.
• International financial architecture such as IMF & World Bank
• Multilateral trading system such as WTO & UNCTAD and
• Global health governance system along with WHO.

BRICS ministers agreed to bring in new life on discussions regarding reform of UN Security Council.

Key deliverables by India

• India put forward four key deliverables including, reform of multilateral system, use of digital and technological solutions to achieve SDGs, counter-terrorism cooperation and enhancing people-to-people cooperation apart from BRICS cooperation on COVID-19 pandemic

ANSWER: D

WHY IN NEWS ?

• Microsoft has launched first ever “Asia Pacific Public Sector Cyber Security Executive Council”. It was launched with the aim of building strong communications channel to address cyber threats and to share best practices among participating countries.
  • Asia-pacific cybersecurity Council
• Cybersecurity Council comprises of policy makers and influencers from countries like Indonesia, Korea, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, and Thailand. It is supported by cybersecurity professionals. Council was set up with the aim of accelerating public-private partnerships in cybersecurity, and share threat intelligence.

Why this council was set up ?

• Council was set up to build strong coalition and to strengthen cyber security defense. It was launched in the view that; these countries experience higher-than-average encounter rate of malware and ransomware attacks. They experience 1.6 times higher malware attacks and 1.7 times higher ransomware attacks as compared to other countries.

ANSWER: A

WHY IN NEWS ?

• New Zealand has become the latest country to sign “space agreement with NASA” with the objective of boosting nascent space industry of New Zealand.
  • Key Points
• New Zealand is the eleventh signatory to Artemis Accords.
• Artemis Accords is a blueprint for space cooperation and supporting NASA’s plan to return humans to moon by 2024. It also supports NASA’s plan of launching historic human mission to Mars.

Why New Zealand signed the accord ?

• New Zealand wants to ensure, future space exploration is conducted in a safe, sustainable and transparent manner in accordance with international law. New Zealand is also interested in ensuring that minerals taken from moon or elsewhere in space are used sustainably.
  • Artemis Accords
• Artemis accords are an international agreement and American-led effort which seeks to relaunch humans to Moon by 2024. Agreement was signed by governments participating in Artemis programme with the objective of expanding and deepening space exploration. It was drafted under the aegis of NASA. It provides a framework for cooperation in civil exploration and peaceful use of Mars, Moon and other astronomical objects.  The accord was signed in October 13, 2020.

ANSWER: D

WHY IN NEWS ?

• First Human case of H10N3 bird flu was reported in eastern province of Jiangsu in China.
  • Highlights
• A 41-year-old man has become first human case of infection with H10N3 strain of bird flu. He was diagnosed of H10N3 avian influenza virus on May 28. It is still not confirmed how he was infected with virus.

What is H10N3 bird flu?

• H10N3 is a low pathogenic or less severe strain of virus in poultry. The risk of it transmitting on a large scale is also very low. In about 40 years, only 160 isolates of this virus were reported, in wild birds or waterfowl across Asia and North America. It has not been detected in chickens.

What is Influenza?

• It is commonly called as “the flu”. This infectious disease is caused by influenza viruses. Its symptoms include mild to severe fever, runny nose, sore throat, headache, coughing, muscle pain and fatigue. Symptoms usually start 1–4 days after exposure to virus and lasts for 2–8 days. It may also cause pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, encephalitis, meningitis, and worsening of pre-existing health problems like asthma.

Avian influenza or Avian flu or Bird flu

• It caused by viruses adapted to birds.  It is similar to swine flu, horse flu, dog flu and human flu. Among three types of influenza viruses namely, A, B, and C; influenza A virus is zoonotic infection which entirely affects birds.

  ANSWER: A

WHY IN NEWS ?

• Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar(IIT Ropar) in Punjab has developed a device named AmbiTag.

About AmbiTag:

• AmbiTag is the first-of-its-kind Internet of Things(IoT) device. The device will be helpful in the secure transportation of vaccines, blood and body organs, perishable products (food and dairy) among others.
• How does the device work?
  • The device records real-time ambient temperatureduring the transportation of perishable products, vaccines, and even body organs and blood.
  • The recorded temperaturehelps to know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation.
• Developed under: AWaDH (Agriculture and Water Technology Development Hub) and its Startup ScratchNest developed the device.
  • AWaDHis a research center at IIT Ropar. Established with support from the Department of Science and Technology(DST) and the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB). It carries out extensive research in the field of agriculture and water.

ANSWER: C

WHY IN NEWS ?

The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare have launched the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP).

About Horticulture Cluster Development Program (CDP)

• Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP) aims at growing and developing identified horticulture clusters to make them globally competitive.
  • A cluster is a group of enterprises. They are located within an identifiable and, as far as practicable, contiguous area and producing similar products or services.
• Nodal Agency: The nodal agency for the programme will be theNational Horticulture Board(NHB). It will implement the programme as a Central Sector Component of NHB.

Coverage:

• The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) has identified 53 horticulture clusters. Of which 12 have been selected for the pilot launch of the programme.
  • Based on the learnings from the pilot project, the programme will be scaled up to cover all the identified clusters.
• These clusters will be implemented through Cluster Development Agencies (CDAs). CDAs are appointed on the recommendations of the respective State/UT Government.

Key Features of the Programme:

• Firstly, the programme will address all major issues related to the Indian horticulture sector. This includes pre-production, production, post-harvest management, logistics, marketing and branding.
• Secondly, the programme is designed to leverage geographical specialisationand promote integrated and market-led development of horticulture clusters.
• Thirdly, the programme is expected to converge with other initiatives of the Government such as the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund.

ANSWER: A

WHY IN NEWS ?

The former judge of Supreme Court Arun Kumar Mishra on June 2, 2021, took charge as the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

• President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Justice (Retd.) Mishra as the Chairman of the NHRC based on the recommendation of a selection panel comprising of PM Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh.

Arun Kumar Mishra

• Justice Arun Kumar Mishra enrolled as a lawyer in 1978 and was elected as the youngest chairperson of India in 1998-99. Mishra has also served as the Chief Justice of Rajasthan and Calcutta High Courts.
• The Madhya Pradesh High Court is the parent High Court of Mishra as his father late Hargovind Mishra was also a judge of the MP High Court.
• Justice Kumar Mishra first became the judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in October 1999 and remained there till 2010. In November 2010, he was transferred to Rajasthan High Court as Chief Justice and he remained there till December 2012.
• After that, Mishra became the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court before being transferred to the Supreme Court as a judge in 2014.