Daily Current Affairs Quiz: January 19, 2024

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: D

• Prime Minister recently commemorated Thiruvalluvar Day, honoring the memory of the great Tamil sage, Saint Thiruvalluvar.

About Saint Thiruvalluvar

• Thiruvalluvar, also known as Valluvar, holds a significant place in Tamil culture, standing as one of its most distinguished literary figures.
• Living during the Sangam era of Tamil classical culture, Thiruvalluvar is revered as a poet, philosopher, and a wise man.
  • The Sangam era, known for its eminent poets, witnessed the emergence of the earliest Tamil literature, which has endured for over 2,000 years.
  • , his masterpiece, consists of couplets covering various aspects of life, including morality, politics, the economy, and love.
  • It contains 1330 couplets (kurals) that are divided into 133 sections of 10 couplets each.
  • Widely regarded as a unique and highly esteemed piece of Tamil literature, Thirukkural is considered one of the greatest works on ethics and morality, known for its universality and secular nature.

ANSWER: C

• Global Firepower’s Military Strength Rankings for 2024 was released recently.
• It assesses 145 countries, taking into account more than 60 factors such as the number of troops, military equipment, financial stability, geographic location, and available resources.
• These factors together determine a PowerIndex score, where lower scores indicate stronger military capabilities.
• The United States has the most powerful military globally, followed by Russia and China in second and third place, respectively.
• India holds the fourth position.
• Pakistan is at number 9 while Bhutan has the least powerful military in the world.
• The report includes 145 countries and also examines how each nation’s ranking has changed from one year to the next.

ANSWER: B

• The 9th edition of the Pakke Paga Hornbill Festival (PPHF) commenced in the town of Seijosa in Arunachal Pradesh’s Pakke Kessang district recently.
• This year’s theme, Domutoh Domutoh, Paga hum Domutoh, translates to ‘Let Our Hornbills Remain’ in Nyishi, emphasising the critical need to preserve the iconic birds.
• Seijosa is located near the Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR), which is home to four species of hornbills: Wreathed, Great Indian, Oriental Pied and the endangered Rufous-necked.
• The area is the traditional homeland of the Nyishi people, the largest tribal group in Arunachal Pradesh.
• The first-ever PPHF was held on January 16-18, 2015.
• PPHF was declared a ‘state festival’ by then-Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu in 2019.
• The aim was to recognise the role played by the Nyishi in conserving hornbills in PTR.
  • The Nyishi had formerly hunted hornbills and used their bills to craft traditional headgear.
  • They had later turned hornbill conservationists.

ANSWER: C

• At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a panel of health industry leaders discussed the importance of preplanning for the outbreak of a hypothetical “Disease X”.

About Disease X

• Disease X is not a specific disease but is the name given to a potential novel infectious agent.
• It represents an illness which is currently unknown but could pose a serious microbial threat to humans in the future.
• It is necessary to be prepared because there is a vast reservoir of viruses circulating among wildlife which could become a source of a new infectious disease to which humans do not have immunity.
• In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) added Disease X to a list of pathogens that are a top priority for research, alongside known killers like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola.
• The WHO has warned that Disease X could result in 20 times more fatalities than COVID-19.

ANSWER: D

• An Indian vulture was spotted in the skyline of Thane recently.
• A vulture has not been spotted over two decades in the city.

About Indian vulture

• Scientific name- Gyps indicus
• The Indian vulture or long-billed vulture is a bird of prey native to the Indian subcontinent.
  • Countries include- India, Pakistan and Nepal
• It is an Old World vulture belonging to the family of Accipitridae.
• It is a medium-sized vulture with a small, semi-bald head with little feathers, long beak, and wide dark colored wings.
• Females of this species are smaller than males.
• Threat –Poisioning by feeding on carcasses of cattle administered Diclofenac (a veterinary drug)
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list- Critically Endangered

ANSWER: C

• India’s first Graphene Centre “India Innovation Centre for Graphene (IICG) has been established at Makers Village Kochi by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Govt. of Kerala alongwith Tata Steel Limited.
• It aims to foster R&D, product innovation and capacity building in the area of Graphene and 2D material systems.
• It will also support MeitY ‘s Graphene-Aurora program which aims to fill the gap between R&D and commercialization by providing a complete facility to startup and industry.

ANSWER: D

• The largest event in the Civil Aviation sector in Asia, the four-day “Wings India 2024” extravaganza, kickstarted at Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad.
• Spanning across commercial, general, and business aviation, the theme for the show is “Connecting India to the World in Amrit Kaal: Setting the Stage for India Civil Aviation @2047”.