Daily Current Affairs Quiz: 7 May 2021

ANSWER: A

Why in News:

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare has conferred a land area in the Andaman and Nicobar with organic certification. This is the first large contiguous territory conferred with the organic certification under the ‘Large Area Certification’ (LAC) scheme.

This is a scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification program.

Note: PGS is a process of certifying organic products. It ensures that their production takes place in accordance with laid-down quality standards for organics.

KEY POINTS:

About Large Area Certification Scheme:

• The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under its flagship scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY) has launched the Large Area Certification Scheme.
  • Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana(PKVY)was launched in 2015 with the aim to support and promote organic farming. This in turn results in the improvement of soil health.
• Purpose: The purpose is to provide a unique and quick organic certification to harness the potential land areas for organic products.

Process for Large Area Certification:

• Firstly, under the LAC, each village in the area is considered as one cluster/group. Documentations are simple and maintained village-wise.
• Secondly, all farmers with their farmland and livestock need to adhere to the standard requirements. After verification, they will get certified as a group. Once issued they don’t need to go under conversion period.
• Thirdly, certification is renewed on annual basis through annual verification. Annual verification is a process of peer appraisals as per the process of PGS-India.

ANSWER: D

Why in News ?

Global agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, GAVI and others have launched the Immunisation Agenda 2030 or IA2030 during World Immunisation Week.

World Immunisation Week:

• It is celebrated every year in the last week of April. It aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
• The theme for 2021: Vaccines bring us closer.

KEY POINTS:

About Immunisation Agenda 2030(IA2030):

• The Immunisation Agenda 2030(IA2030) sets an ambitious, overarching global vision and strategy for vaccines and immunisation for the decade 2021–2030.
• Vision: IA2030 envisions“A world where everyone, everywhere, at every age, fully benefits from vaccines for good health and well-being.”
• Based on: The IA2030 is based on the learning’s from Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP). IA2030 has a target to address the unmet targets of the GVAP.
  • The GVAP was developed to help realize the vision of the “Decade of Vaccines (2011–2020)”.
  • GVAP was launched in 2012 with the aim to prevent millions of deaths by 2020. The GVAP aims to achieve this through more equitable access to vaccines for people in all communities.
• Core Principles: The IA 2030 strategy is guided by four core principles: it puts people in the centre. The strategy is led by countries. They will implement the strategy through broad partnerships and data.

ANSWER: B

Why in News?

Indigenously-developed Tejas Aircraft has been cleared to carry fifth-generation Python-5 air-to-air missile as part of its weapons package.

KEY POINTS:

About Python-5:

• Python-5 is a fifth-generation air-to-air missile (AAM) manufactured by Israeli Rafael Advanced Defence Systems.
• The Python-5 Missile was first used in the 2006 Lebanon war. During the war, it destroyed two Iran made UAVs.

Key Features:

• Firstly, the missile can be launched from very short to beyond-visual ranges with greater kill probability and excellent resistance.
• Secondly, Python-5 is capableof “lock-on after launch” (LOAL). The missile also has a full-sphere/all-direction (including rearward) attack ability.
• Thirdly, the missile also features an advanced seeker with an electro-optical and imaging infrared homing seeker. This seeker scans the target area for hostile aircraft, then locks on for the terminal chase

ANSWER: B

May 7th is World Athletics Day 2020.

• The basic target of World Athletics Day is to promote the participation of young people in athletics.
• World Athletics Day is organized by the International Athletics Federation (IAAF). World Athletics Day was celebrated for the first time in 1996.

Objectives of World Athletics Day

• Popularizing sports among the youth
• Giving a boost to Athletics and making it the primary sport in schools and institutions
• Increasing public awareness about sports and also impart education to youngsters about the importance of sports
• To establish an important link between the youth, sport, and environmental conservation

International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) was established in Stockholm (Sweden) on July 17, 1912. The IAAF is the leading organization of world athletics.

ANSWER: B

Why in News?
The CSIR Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology has developed VINCOV-19, which may be the first specific drug for the treatment of COVID-19, which contains therapeutic antibodies.

Key Points:

• The Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) has approved clinical trials for the VINCOV-19 in Phases I and II, and it is expected to be tested in Delhi and Rajasthan soon.
• The VINCOV-19 is a series of antibodies collected from horses after they were given inactivated Corona virus injections.
• After the results of phase I and II are released, it is expected to be approved for emergency use.
• It works better when given early in the infection.

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology or CCMB is an Indian fundamental life science research establishment that operates under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

It is located in Hyderabad.

ANSWER: C

Why in News?
The researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (Australia) have mapped the Osteocytes for the first time.

Osteocytes

• They are oblate shaped bone cells. They are found in bone tissues. They live as long as the organism lives. There are more than 42 billion Osteocytes in human body.
• The Osteocytes do not divide.
• Their average half-life is twenty-five years.
• Osteocytes are the most abundant cell present in bones.
• These osteocytes form a network similar to the neurons in the brain. There are more than 23 trillion connections between 42 billion osteocytes. This network is responsible for monitoring bone health.
• It responds to ageing. Also, they send signals to other cells in the bone to build or break down an old bone. The disease such as osteoporosis is caused due to imbalance in these processes.

ANSWER: C

Why in News?
More than one hundred and seventy Caspian seals were washed up dead over the shores of Caspian Sea in Russia. Experts believe that the seals might have died due to industrial pollution or might have got caught in the nets.

Caspian seal

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status – endangered
• It is the only mammal living in the Caspian Sea

The endemic species has for decades suffered from overhunting and industrial pollution in the sea, and their number is now estimated at less than 70,000, down from more than 1 million in the early 20th century.

Caspian Sea

• The world’s largest inland body of water.
• Shared by five riparian states — Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkmenistan.
• The major rivers—the Volga, Ural, and Terek—empty into the northern Caspian, with their combined annual flow accounting for about 88 percent of all river water entering the sea.

Caspian Sea has vast oil and gas reserves.

ANSWER: C

Why in News?
The Belgian Government sites were recently knocked offline due to DDoS attack. Several government sites and Internet Service Providers of the public sector of the country were hit hard by DDoS.

What is DDoS?

DDoS is Distributed Denial of Service. It is a cyber threat that seeks to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server. This is done by controlling a network of malware infected devices.

This is like an unexpected traffic jam arriving at a destination.

Working of DDoS

• The attack is carried out with a network of Internet connected devices. Malware is first sent to infect a network of computers and other devices.
• These infected devices and computers are called bots. A group of such bots in the DDoS are called Botnet.
• First a Botnet is established in DDoS attack. Now the attacker is able to send direct instructions to each bot in the Botnet. The Bots will then send requests to the targeted IP address.

The server eventually becomes overwhelmed and results in denial of service to the normal traffic.