Daily Current Affairs Quiz: December 20, 2023

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: B

• Centre government has set up secure e-mail for 10,000 users in critical ministries.
• In the wake of cyberattacks, the Centre has set up a secure e-mail set-up for 10,000 users in critical ministries and departments.
• The e-mail system that works on Zero Trust Authentication (ZTA) has been designed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
  • NIC works under the purview of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• The 10,000 emails span across 17 union ministries and departments.

ABOUT ZTA

• ZTA is a security concept and framework that operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify.”
• This approach to cybersecurity is a significant shift from traditional security models that operated under the assumption that everything inside an organization’s network should be trusted.
• In contrast, Zero Trust assumes that trust is never granted implicitly but must be continually evaluated and authenticated, regardless of the user’s location or the network’s perimeter.
• Implementation of Zero Trust requires technologies like identity and access management (IAM), data encryption, endpoint security, and network segmentation tools.

ANSWER: C

• The World Bank released its latest Migration and Development Brief.

 MAJOR FINDINGS

• It reveals a continuing growth in remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in 2023, albeit at a slower pace compared to previous years.
• Remittances to LMICs grew by an estimated 3.8 per cent in 2023, reaching a total of USD669 billion.
• Resilient labour markets in advanced economies and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries played a pivotal role in supporting migrants’ ability to send money home.
• India saw the highest amount of remittance inflows in the world in 2023 at USD 125 billion.
  • India was followed by Mexico, China, the Philippines, and Egypt.
• USA continued to be the largest source of remittances.
• Economies where remittance inflows represent substantial shares of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) — highlighting the importance of remittances for funding current account and fiscal shortfalls — are Tajikistan, Tonga, Samoa, Lebanon, and Nicaragua.
• The report suggests a potential risk of a decline in real income for migrants in 2024 due to global inflation and low growth prospects.

ANSWER: B

• The United Nations has declared 2024 the International Year Of Camelids to highlight the significant importance of camelids in the lives of people across the world.
• According to the Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO), camelids influence the lives of millions of households in more than 90 countries.
• As a group Camelids include alpacas, Bactrian camels, dromedaries, guanacos, llamas, vicuñas which together help in ensuring food security, nutrition and economic growth especially for Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
• Camelids are a source of milk and meat which helps people fight hunger.
• They also provide fibre which can be used for clothing and shelter.
• Camelids are also used by people as a means of transportation.
• Camelids are known to survive in harsh conditions.

ANSWER: A

• The Yogmaya Temple in Mehrauli is a historically important monument believed to be standing at the site of an ancient temple that is said to have come up during the period of the Mahabharata but of which no trace exists anymore.
• Also called Jogmaya temple.
• A noble in the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar II by the name of Lala Sidhu Mal built the temple between 1806 and 1837.
• The area was known as Yoginipura in ancient Jain texts and Prithviraj Chauhan himself was said to have patronised a Yogini temple here shortly before his city’s destruction.
• Lala Sidhu Mal, also known as Sed Mal, built his temple on the site where an ancient Yogini Temple is believed to have existed.
• The Emperor ordered an offering to be given at Yogmaya temple on his son’s release from British prison in Allahabad.
  • Placing flowers at both holy sites (other being Qutubuddin Dargah) became a yearly tradition known as Phool Walon ki Sair, and it continues to this day as the capital’s most prominent display of Hindu-Muslim unity.

SPACE

ANSWER: B

• TEMPO is NASA’s first Earth-observation satellite in geostationary orbit and has developed further from previous polar-orbiting satellites provided daily observations to provide 10 to 12 daily scans.
• It stands for -Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution or widely known as TEMPO.
• It aims to measure atmospheric pollution from Canada’s oil sands to the Yucatán Peninsula.
• It also gets data from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
• The TEMPO instrument is a UV-visible spectrometer, and the first ever space-based instrument to monitor air pollutants hourly across the North American continent during daytime.
• It collects high-resolution measurements of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants, data which will revolutionize air quality forecasts.
• The data gathered by TEMPO will be shared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enhance air quality forecasting.
• NASA and Intelsat are nurturing hopes for TEMPO’s functionality extending up to 10-15 years.

ANSWER: D

• International Human Solidarity Day is a significant observance held annually on December 20^th.
• The roots of this day trace back to December 22, 2005, when the UN General Assembly acknowledged solidarity as a fundamental value of the twenty-first century through Resolution 60/209.
  • This recognition led to the establishment of the World Solidarity Fund to combat poverty.

ANSWER: B

• India’s largest airline IndiGo made history by “becoming the first Indian airline to carry 100 million passengers in a single calendar year.”
• This remarkable milestone solidifies IndiGo’s position in the aviation industry and underscores its significant contribution to air travel in the country.
• With this development IndiGo has joined a select group of carriers globally.