Daily Current Affairs Quiz: August 09, 2023

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: B

• The fossil remains of 167-million-years-old long-necked, plant-eating dicraeosaurid dinosaur have been discovered in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.
• Scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and the Geological Survey of India (GSI) managed to unearth the prehistoric findings.
  • The fossils were collected from the Jaisalmer region in 2018 and a group of six researchers from the two institutes, spent almost five years studying them.
• It is named as ‘Tharosaurus indicus’– the nomenclature paints a vivid picture—’Thar desert’, the very cradle of discovery, and ‘Indicus’, an ode to its country of origin, India.
• The discovery of the fossils, of all the places in India, suggests that the country also played a small yet unexpected part in the dinosaur evolution cycle.
• Researchers said since the fossils were found in rocks dated to be around 167 million years old, it makes Indian sauropod not only the oldest known dicraeosaurid but also globally the oldest diplodocoid (broader group which includes dicraeosaurids and other closely related sauropods).
• Previously, dicraeosaurid dinosaurs fossils have been discovered in North and South America, Africa and China but never in India.

ANSWER: A

• For more than 2,000 years, Hinduism, Buddhism and the shamanic Himalayan religion of Bon have venerated.
• These are ancient fossils of ammonites, a type of mollusk, a class of extinct sea creatures related to modern squids.
• Originating from a single remote region in northern Nepal — the Kali Gandaki River Valley of Mustang — Shaligram stones are viewed primarily as manifestations of the Hindu god Vishnu.
• Because they are not human-made, but created by the landscape, they are believed to have an intrinsic consciousness of their own.
• As a result, Shaligrams are kept in homes and in temples, where they are treated as both living gods and active community members.
• However, climate change and gravel mining are altering the course of the river, which is making it harder to find Shaligrams.

ANSWER: A

• The Perseid Meteor Shower, one of the most spectacular celestial events of the year, is set to peak on the nights of August 11 and 12.
• This meteor shower, which has been active since July 17, will continue until September 1, but the best views are expected during its peak period.
• Originating from the Comet 109 P/Swift-Tuttle, the Perseid Meteor Shower is named after the constellation Perseus, from where it appears to radiate.
  • The Swift-Tuttle comet has an orbital period of 133 years.
• This year’s Perseid Meteor Shower promises to be particularly breathtaking, with an estimated 50 to 100 meteors visible per hour.
• The Perseid meteors streak across the sky at 37 miles per second, or about 133,000 miles per hour.
• The friction between these fast-moving objects and the atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere causes them to heat up and burn, appearing as breathtaking streaks of light to observers on the ground.

ANSWER: A

• The central government will be soon investigating the possibility of ‘Havana Syndrome’ in India.

About Havana syndrome

• The mysterious illness ‘Havana’ came to the public attention in 2016 after several diplomats at the American embassy in Havana began complaining of being sick.
• Their symptoms included migraines, nausea, memory lapses, dizziness, hearing sounds without any external noise, balance issues and vertigo.
  • Some of the officials claimed that their symptoms lasted for months.
• According to reports, thousands of alleged cases of the mysterious condition have been reported by diplomats, spies, and US officials across the world including Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Beijing, and Havana, among others over the past few years

ANSWER: A

• The United Nations’ (UN) International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is observed on August 9^th each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s Indigenous population.
• It is also known as World Tribal Day.
• Theme for World Tribal Day 2023 is “Indigenous Youth as Agents of Change for Self-determination.”
• It was first proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1994.

ANSWER: D

• CJI D.Y. Chandrachud announced in open court that the Supreme Court would appoint an all-woman committee of three former High Court judges, headed by Justice Gita Mittal, former Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, to provide a “healing touch” in violence-torn Manipur.
• Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, a retired Bombay High Court judge, and Justice Asha Menon, a former Delhi High Court judge, will be the members of the committee.
• This will be a broad-based committee which will be constituted to supervise, intervene and monitor relief and rehabilitation, restoration of homesteads, religious places of worships, better relief work, etc.

ANSWER: B

• Indian women’s compound team comprising Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Parneet Kaur, and Aditi Gopichand Swami, secured India’s inaugural Gold medal at the World Archery Championship in Berlin.
• Aditi Gopichand Swami became the youngest-ever senior world champion and the first Indian to win an individual compound gold medal at the World Archery Championships at the age of 17.

ANSWER: B

• The famous religious site of Baridhar in Arki sub-division of Solan would be developed as a tourist spot.
• A master plan has been prepared to develop Baridhar as a key religious pilgrimage centre where a ropeway would be set up from Svava village to Baridhar. The detailed project report of this ropeway was being prepared.
• It is said that the Pandava spent the last year of their exile at this place in the caves of the hill and forest.
• A temple dedicated to Lord Shiva is also situated here and local people call him BaraDev.