Daily Current Affairs Quiz: August 18, 2022

ANSWER: C

• The 9th India-Thailand Joint Commission Meeting concluded in Bangkok. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand Don Pramudwinai, and India’s Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar.
• Both sides discussed advancing contacts in political, economic, security as well as defence, connectivity and health domains.
• Both sides also discussed cooperation within the ASEAN and BIMSTEC. Dr Jaishankar said that India and Thailand also shared their perspectives on the Indo-Pacific.
• S Jaishankar arrived in Thailand yesterday to attend India-Thailand Joint Commission Meeting.
• Both the countries are celebrating 75 years of establishment of diplomatic relations. He began his Thailand visit by meeting the Indian community.
• Addressing the Indian community in Bangkok, Dr. Jaishankar said that India’s relationship with the ASEAN has emerged as a key cornerstone of India’s foreign policy.

ANSWER: D

• NASA’s giant new SLS rocket arrived at its launchpad in Cape Canaveral ahead of a planned flight to the Moon in less than two weeks.
• It will be the maiden voyage of the Artemis program — America’s quest to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
• Artemis 1is aiming to send an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon using a combination of the never-flown Space Launch System rocket, along with the once-flown Orion spacecraft.
• It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon, and the spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.
• Starting in 2024, astronauts will travel aboard Orion for the same trip, and the following year, at the earliest, Americans will once again set foot on the Moon.
• The SLS rocket, in development for more than a decade, is 98 meters (322 feet) tall.
• The Orion capsule will fly to the Moon and 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) beyond it — further than any previous crewed spacecraft.
• On the way back through Earth’s atmosphere, traveling at 40,000 km per hour (25,000 mph), Orion’s thermal shield will have to withstand a temperature that is half that of the surface of the sun.
• Liftoff for the Artemis 1 mission is scheduled for August 29 at 8:33 am (1233 GMT). If it has to be postponed due to bad weather, the backup dates are September 2 and 5.
• After the 42-day trip, the capsule is supposed to splash down in the Pacific and be picked up by a US Navy vessel.
• In 2024, an Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to take astronauts up to orbit the Moon but without landing on it and Artemis 3, a mission scheduled for 2025 at the earliest.
• The last time people walked on the Moon was with the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
• While the Apollo program featured only white male astronauts, NASA says the Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

About

• NASA’s Artemis mission is touted as the next generation of lunar exploration, and is named after the twin sister of Apollo from Greek mythology.
• Artemis is also the goddess of the moon.
• It is the first in a series of increasingly complex missions that will enable human exploration to the Moon and Mars.
• Space Launch System (SLS) rocket: It is the most powerful rocket in the world — and travels 2,80,000 miles from the earth for over four to six weeks during the course of the mission.

ANSWER: C

• India’s first nocturnal zoo will be set up in Kukrail forest area as the U.P. government has decided to set up a night safari and biodiversity park on the lines of Singapore in the state capital.  There are 13 day safaris in the country but no night safari.
• The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting held at Lok Bhawan under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
• Minister of Tourism and Culture Jaiveer Singh said the night safari would be developed in 350 acres in the Kukrail forest area, spread over 2027.46 hectares. The zoological park will be set up in 150 acres.
• Train and jeep rides with local guides will also be provided at the night safaris. Apart from this, facilities like canopy walk, camping activity, mountain bike track, wall climbing, tree-top restaurant, nature trail and food court will also be developed
• There are plans to make a leopard safari in 75 acres of land, bear safari in 60 acres area and tiger safari in 75 acres. The animals will not be kept in a cage but will roam free as they do in the wild.
• It will be an open-air nocturnal zoo which will be open only at night. A modern theme park will be built for tourists during the day.
• In setting up the zoological park and night safari, only open areas which are not currently in use will be used without impacting the existing flora and fauna. The Kukrail forest area will be connected to the outside world with four-lane roads so that there is no inconvenience to the tourists.

ANSWER: A

• Delhi will be the first in the country to bring a food truck policy on the lines of US and the UK.
• The government is in the process of finalizing the hotspots where food trucks will be allowed to park for the public.
• Even though business related to food trucks is not new to India, no state in the country has, however, made any policy to streamline this business and increase employment opportunities in this sector.
• He asserted that Delhi will be the first to do so on the lines of US and UK.
• In its Rozgaar Budget, Delhi govt. has announced various projects that can foster growth of the economy and generate 20 lakh jobs in the next five years.
• Of them, Delhi Shopping Festival and Food Truck Policy are two priority projects which will be launched soon.
• While the shopping festival will be a big opportunity for traders, shopkeepers, tourism and hospitality industry to increase their business and revenue.
• The Food Truck Policy will open avenues for growth of the capital’s night time economy.
• The Delhi Shopping Festival which is scheduled to be held from January 28 to February 26, 2023.

ANSWER: A

• The Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) has conferred its highest honour, the Fellow of the Association, on Pradeep K. Sinha, the Director of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)- Naya Raipur (NR) in Chhattisgarh.
• Considering Dr. Sinha’s contributions to the advancement of Science and Technology and Technical Education, the Executive Board of the AAIA decided to bestow the honour upon him after recognizing him among the top scientists of the world with outstanding achievements in the area of Distributed Computing.
• Sinha played a vital role in introducing new B. Tech. and M. Tech. programs in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (DSAI) in IIIT-NR, in the year 2019, making IIIT-NR one of the first institutes in the country to have such a program.
• Sinha’s professional career spans more than thirty-five years, during which his technical contributions include building premier academic institutes; building supercomputing systems and facilities; developing healthcare products and solutions; innovating ideas leading to international patents; and authoring six books in the area of Computer Science & Engineering.

About AAIA:

• Based in Hong Kong, the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) is an academic, non-profit and non-governmental organization voluntarily formed by a large group of academicians worldwide.
• It aims to build a broad AI industry, bringing together scientists and entrepreneurs related to AI applications to develop AI industries, including the AI Ocean, AI Transportation, AI Computing, AI Communication, AI Robot, AI Education, AI Agriculture, AI Finance, AI Medicine, AI Energy, and dozens of AI application fields.
• The main mission of the AAIA is to strengthen scientists in the field of AI and other fields worldwide to promote the development and application of AI through academic research, academic exchanges, science education, science exhibitions, academic conferences, academic publications, summer/winter camps and other activities.
• The fellows of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) include some of the world’s eminent academicians who come from Stanford University, Princeton University, MIT, California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Columbia University, University of Oxford etc.

ANSWER: D

• The defence minister recently handed over several indigenously-developed equipment and systems to the Army which includes F-INSAS, the Nipun mines and the Landing Craft Assault (LCA).

About 

 Future Infantry Soldier as a System(F-INSAS):

• It is a programme for infantry modernisation aimed at increasing the operational capabilityof the soldier.
• As part of the project, soldiers are being equipped with modern systems that are lightweight,all-weather-all-terrain, cost-effective and low maintenance.
• The full-gear of the F-INSAS system includes an AK-203assault rifle, which is a Russian-origin gas-operated, magazine-fed, select-fire assault rifle.
• The F-INSAS also comes with hands-free, secured advanced communications set for real-time exchange of information with the command post and fellow soldiers for enhanced situational awareness. modelled on Conceived in the 2000s, F-INSAS is one among many soldiers modernisation programmes across the world. The US has Land Warrior, while the UK has FIST (Future Integrated Soldier Technology).

 Nipun mines:

• They are indigenously designed and developed anti-personnelmines, termed by the DRDO as ‘soft target blast munition’.
• These mines are meant to act as the first line of defence against infiltrators and enemy infantry.
• They have been developed with the efforts of Armament Research and Development Establishment,a Pune-based DRDO facility, and Indian industry.
• Anti-personnel mines are meant to be used against humans as against anti-tank mines that are aimed at heavy vehicles.
• They are smaller in size and can be deployed in large numbers.

Landing Craft Assault (LCA):

• It is meant to serve as a replacement for the boats with limited capabilities currently in use in the Pangong Tso lake.
• The LCA, which has been indigenously developed by Goa-based Aquarius ShipYard Limited, is said to have better launch, speed and capacity to operate across water obstacles in eastern Ladakh.

ANSWER: D

• For the first time in India, researchers have successfully 3D printed an artificial cornea and transplanted it into a rabbit’s eye. Led by researchers from L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), Indian Institute of Technology – Hyderabad and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, the teams collaborated to develop a 3D printed cornea from the human donor corneal tissue.
• Completely indigenously developed, the product is natural and contains no synthetic components, is also free of animal residues and safe for use in humans, say researchers.

How did they 3D print the cornea?

• Researchers made use of decellularised corneal tissue matrix and stem cells extracted from the human eye to develop a unique biometric hydrogel that was used as the background material for 3D printing the cornea.
• According to Dr Sayan Basu and Dr Vivken Singh, lead researchers at LVPEI, this innovation can be extremely useful for treating diseases such as corneal scarring or keratoconus.
• It is a made-in-India product by an Indian clinician-scientist team and the first 3D printed human cornea that is optically and physically suitable for transplantation. The bio-ink used to make this 3D printed cornea can be sight-saving for army personnel at the site of injury to seal corneal perforation and prevent infection during war-related injuries or in a remote area with no tertiary eye care facility.”
• Dr Falguni Pati, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering at IIT-Hyderabad, added “we used a biomimicking approach to provide an optimised micro-environment for stromal regeneration while maintaining the curvature and thickness of the bio-printed cornea to facilitate surgical implantation. We are hopeful about the positive outcome of India’s first 3D bioprinted corneal graft.”

ANSWER: C

• Bursa Malaysia Berhad will launch its Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) exchange later this year which will enable companies to purchase voluntary carbon credits from climate-friendly projects and solutions.
• The VCM exchange can serve as an important lever in realizing Malaysia’s net-zero greenhouse gas emissions aspiration, as well as support the private sector’s voluntary climate commitments and decarbonization journey.
• Participation in the VCM will allow companies to offset their carbon emission footprint and meet their voluntary climate goals.
• The VCM exchange will allow buyers and suppliers to transact high-quality carbon credits at transparent prices.
• Bursa Malaysia also intends to offer standardized carbon credit products for trading via a rules-based VCM exchange.
• There will be distinct product categories for carbon credits derived from nature-based solutions and technologies that reduce or remove carbon emissions. The VCM exchange will aggregate carbon credits that share similar traits and fundamentals, with vintages 2016 onwards.
• To ensure the high integrity of carbon credits offered through the VCM exchange, Bursa Malaysia will adopt the Verified Carbon Standard or Verra.
• Verra is a widely recognized standard in the voluntary carbon market, accounting for nearly 70% of voluntary carbon credit issuances globally.

About

• Bursa Malaysia is the stock exchange of Malaysia.
• It is based in Kuala Lumpur and was previously known as the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE)

ANSWER: A

• Kullu Chief Medical Officer Dr Sushil Chander Sharma has been honoured with the Life-Time Achievement Award. The award was presented to him by Education Minister Govind Singh during the district-level Independence Day.
• Dr Sushil has been dedicated to the healthcare of the district for the past almost two decades.
• The Kullu Regional Hospital had received various awards during the tenure of Dr Sushil. The first award of ‘Kayakalp’ in 2017-18 was received by then Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda for top performance in the state. He again received the first award of ‘Kayakalp’ of the hospital in 2021-22 from the Chief Minister in Shimla.
• The District Hospital has been awarded a certificate by the Ministry of Health, New Delhi, for qualifying the NQAS at the national level and the hospital is receiving Rs 30 lakh every year for three years.
• In 2019, the CMO has also got the state’s first award for making the most cards in Ayushman Bharat and Himcare schemes. The hospital was awarded a silver medal at the national level in the TB-free campaign.
• During his tenure as the District Health Officer and later as the CMO, Dr Sushil had done ‘Kayakalp’ (transformation) of the Kullu hospital.

ANSWER: A

• Dr Rachna Gupta, Member of the Himachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (HPPSC), was appointed Chairperson of the commission.
• The state government also issued the notification for the filling three vacant posts of members in the commission. The three persons appointed members are IAS Officer Rakesh Sharma, who today sought superannuation, Col Rajesh Kumar Sharma (retd) and Prof Om Prakash Sharma.
• Dr Gupta’s term as member of the HPPSC was to end in January 2023. Her appointment will be for a period of six years or till the age of 62, whichever is earlier.
• Dr Gupta, before assuming the post of member HPPSC, was editor of a vernacular daily. The term of Chairperson of the HPPSC Dr Ajay Kumar got over on August 6.