Daily Current Affairs Quiz: April 12, 2022

ANSWER: C

• Currently a Member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Dr Manoj Soni has been appointed the chairman of the country’s premier government recruiting agency.
• He has been associated with the Swaminarayan sect’s Anoopam Mission, at Mogri in Anand district, since a young age and received diksha (initiation)as a nishkarma karmayogi (selfless worker) on Jan 10, 2020.
• Dr Soni has been appointed to replace the previous UPSC chairman Pradip Kumar Joshi.
• Prior to this assignment, Soni has also served as the vice-chancellor of two universities and has earned several national and international awards and recognitions.

ANSWER: B

• Eastern Zonal Council, comprising the states of Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand, will hold a meeting on April 26 in Kolkata.
• Idea of zonal council was mooted by the first Prime Minister of India to “develop the habit of cooperative working” among these States.
• Five Zonal Councils were set up vide Part-Ill of the States Re-organisation Act, 1956.
• Chairman – Union Home Minister
• Members-Chief Minister and two other Ministers as nominated by the Governor from each of the States and two members from Union Territories included in the zone.

ANSWER: C

• Centre has reduced the maximum stock limit of raw Jute to 500 quintals for Jute balers (from 750 quintals) and 50 quintals for traders (from 150 quintals).
• It will prevent hoarding of raw jute in the market and ease its supply to mills at a reasonable price.

About Jute

• Jute, also known as golden fibre, is a soft, flexible and hard-wearing bast fibre obtained from the plants Corchorus olitorius (White Jute) and Corchorus capsularis (Tossa Jute).
• It is native to the Indian subcontinent.
• Jute is included in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) regime of the country.
• Temperature: Between 25-35°C.
• Rainfall: Around 150-250 cm.
• Soil Type: Well-drained alluvial soil.
• Top Jute Producing States: West Bengal > Bihar > Assam > Andhra Pradesh > Odisha.
  • It is mainly concentrated in eastern India because of the rich alluvial soil of Ganga-Brahmaputra delta.
• The world’s largest jute producing countries are India, Bangladesh, China and Thailand.
• India is the largest producer of Jute contributing 50% of raw jute and 40% of jute goods.
• It is known as the golden fibre because it is one of the longest and most used natural fibre for various textile applications.
• It is used in making gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and other artefacts.
• Due to its high cost, it is losing market to synthetic fibres and packing materials, particularly nylon.

ANSWER: B

• Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change chaired the 20th NTCA in Arunachal Pradesh.
• It released the three reports
  • Tiger Reintroduction and Supplementation in Wild Protocol
  • Forest Fire Audit protocol for tiger reserve
  • Technical manual on Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of tiger reserve. MEE exercise in tiger reserves was initiated in 2006 and four cycles have been completed.
• National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• It was established in 2005following the recommendations of the Tiger Task Force.
• It was constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,as amended in 2006, for strengthening tiger conservation, as per powers and functions assigned to it.
• It approves the Tiger Conservation Plan prepared by the State Governments.

ANSWER: C

• Pinaka Mk-1 (Enhanced) Rocket System (EPRS) and Pinaka Area Denial Munition (ADM) rocket systems have been successfully flight-tested by Defence Research and Development Organisation and Indian Army at Pokhran.
• The new Pinaka ER gives it a range of around 70 km, over the 45 km existing range of the missile which has been with the Indian forces for nearly a decade.
• The Pinaka is a Multi-Barrel Rocket-Launcher (MBRL) system which can fire a salvo of 12 rockets over a period of 44 seconds.

ANSWER: A

• Government has announced that nearly 2,71,000 persons will be trained over five years under the scheme.
• PM-DAKSH yojana is a skill development scheme from Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• Started from 2020-21, it aims to provide free training to persons from SCs/OBCs, Safai Karamcharis etc. through Up-skilling/Reskilling, Short Term Training Programme (focus on self-employment), Long Term Training Programme and Entrepreneurship Development Program.
• Implementation is through 3 Corporations:
  • National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation
  • National Backward Classes Finance & Development Corporation
  • National Safai Karamcharis Finance & Development Corporation

ANSWER: D

• Celebrated each year on April 10 on the occasion of the birth anniversary of German physician Dr Christian Friedrich Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy.
• Homeopathy is based on two unconventional theories
  • “Like cures like”—the notion that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people.
  • “Law of minimum dose”—the notion that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness.
• Steps taken for promotion by Indian government
  • Creation of AYUSH Ministry
  • Setting up of National Commission of Homeopathy (2021)

ANSWER: B

• Recently, President Ramnath Kovind inaugurated the annual Madhavpur Mela. It is a five-day cultural fair that is held in Madhavpur, the coastal village, located 60 kilometers south of Porbandar.
• This festival celebrates the marriage of Lord Krishna with Rukmini.
• This marriage is said to have taken place in Madhavpur.
• It is said that Rukmini was from the present-day Arunachal Pradesh.
• On Ram Navami, Madhavpur Mela begins.
• Ram Navami is the day that marks the birth of Lord Rama.
• A Madhavrai temple of the 15th-century marks the site of this fair.
• Every year during this event a cultural fair is also held.
• A chariot is decorated colourfully and it carries the idol of Lord Krishna around the village.
• The festivities are usually held for a period of five days.

ANSWER: D

• India’s first indigenously developed polycentric prosthetic knee – Kadam was launched by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), the Above Knee Prosthesis was developed in association with Society for Biomedical Technology (SBMT) and Mobility India.
• Kadam will help people with above-knee amputees to walk in comfortable gait.
• Kadam has multiple axes hinge joints for rotation which provide greater control over the prosthesis and gives a maximum knee flexion of 160 degrees to make it easy to sit in cramped spaces like buses and autos.
• The design includes high durable stainless steel and aluminium alloy along with hard chrome plated EN8 pins and high fatigue life polymer bushings, which was developed by a team at TTK Centre for Rehabilitation Research and Device Development (R2D2) at IIT-M.
• The Kadam prosthetic knee is suitable for both short and long residual limbs after transfemoral (above-knee) amputation and comes with a patented 4-bar geometry that provides stability even on uneven terrain and improved ground clearance.