Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 09, 2022

ANSWER: B

• Google announced the launch of Startup School India (SSI) as part of the Google for Startups initiative.
• This is a platform under which Google will bring together investors, successful entrepreneurs and programmers that startups from the smaller cities can to tap into and learn from the best.
• The idea of creating the Startup School India is to reach out to more and more startup Google aims to reach out to at least 10,000 startups with this programme.
• The SSI will be a nine-week program, delivered virtually, will feature fireside chats between Google leaders and trailblazing collaborators from across the startup ecosystem spanning fintech, D2C, B2B and B2C e-commerce, language, social media & networking, job search and many more.
• With close to 70,000 startups, India is the third largest birthing ground for startups in the world.
• The programme is also aimed for startups that come from smaller cities and are looking for some knowledge sharing that will help them in their next stage.
• Almost 90 per cent of all startups fail within the first five years of their journey – mostly for the same key reasons – unmanaged cash burn, flawed demand assessment, ineffective feedback loops or lack of leadership.

ANSWER: C

• A team from National Monuments Authority lead by Shri Tarun Vijay, Chairman, National Monuments Authority, submitted a report on declaring Mangarh hillock in Rajasthan as a monument of National Importance in the year of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, to Minister of State for Culture Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi.
• This report carries relevant details about the Mangarh hillock and recommendations by National Monuments Authority.
• According to Minister of State for Culture Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, that the unsung heroes and Mangarh hillock haven’t received the importance in history which they deserved.
• He also said 1500 Bhil tribal freedom fighters were brutally killed by the British army on 17th November 1913.
• To pay our tribute to them, on the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav we will positively take forward the report submitted by NMA Chairperson, Shri Tarun Vijay.
• The Union Minister reiterated that younger generation is unaware of their sacrifice and Mangarh hillock, it will be our responsibility to highlight significance of and provide information about Mangarh Hillock.

ANSWER: D

• Indian Navy’s stealth frigate INS Tarkash, visited Djibouti as part of her long-range overseas deployment followed by Maritime Partnership Exercise with Sudan Navy.
• The ship is on a deployment to Rio de Janerio, Brazil, which is intended to coincide with the Independence Day enabling her to hoist the tricolour in South America on the occasion as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
• The Indian Navy maintains continuous presence in the Gulf of Aden region as part of its mission-based deployment philosophy.
• INS Tarkash also conducted a Maritime Partnership Exercise with Sudan Navy ships Almazz (PC 411) and Nimer (PC 413) in the Red Sea near the Sudan Naval Base.
• The exercise included manoeuvres, flying operations for vertical replenishment, visit and board operations, and communication procedures. It provided opportunity for exchange of professional experiences and strengthening maritime cooperation between the two countries.
• INS Tarkash is a state-of-the-art platform and has a weapon-sensor fit that enables her address threats in all dimensions.
• The ship is part of the Indian Navy’s Western Fleet and functions under the operational command of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.

ANSWER: C

• Kharchi Puja is a festival where the 14 gods that comprise the dynastic deity of the Tripuri community are worshipped in the state of Tripura in northeast India. The rituals are observed for a whole week in the temple dedicated to the 14 gods which is located in the state’s capital city of Agartala. The festival is celebrated on the 8th day of the new moon in the month of July. It can also sometimes fall in the month of June or August.

Origin of the Festival

• The word ‘’kharchi’’ means ‘’earth’’ and is derived from the word ‘’khya’’. It is also derived from the words ‘’khar’’ which means ‘’sin’’ and ‘’chi’’ which means ‘’cleaning’’. So, it is a festival where there is a ritual cleaning of the earth. This is a festival that worships the earth, along with the 14 dynastic deities, and has tribal origins. However, it is celebrated by both tribal and non-tribal communities.

Mythology Behind the Festival

• According to the mythology behind the festival, the earth mother or mother goddess menstruates during this time, which is called Ama pechi or Ambu bachi. The soil is not ploughed during these days since the earth is considered to be unclean during the period of menstruation of the mother goddess. The Kharchi puja is conducted to ritualistically clean out the earth after her menstruation is over.

Rituals

• The rituals associated with the Kharch puja lasts for 7 days. On the day of the puja, from the temple premises in Agartala, the idols of the 14 deities are carried to the Saidra river, which is considered to be holy. After a dip in the river, they are carried back to the temple. After the ritual bath, the idols are decorated with flowers and vermillion paste on their foreheads.

ANSWER: C

• The Environment Ministry notified yet another draft for demarking 46,832 sq km areas across five states sans Kerala as the Ecologically Sensitive Areas (ESA) of the Western Ghats.
• A global biodiversity hotspot, the Western Ghats – parts of which are inscribed in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List – are the origin of Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery and a number of other rivers and extends over a distance of approximately 1,500 km from Tapti River in the north to Kanyakumari in the south through six states namely, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• Originally, the Madhav Gadgil-led committee had recommended designating the entire region as Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) — more than 1 lakh sq kms — in the 522-page report submitted to the Environment Ministry in 2011 while the Kasturirangan panel, constituted soon after that had diluted it to about 50 per cent area.
• The Environment Ministry had constituted a High-Level Working Group to study the ecology, environmental integrity and holistic development of the Western Ghats. It was to address the balance between protection of environment / biodiversity and aspirations of the communities. It had submitted its report on April 15, 2013 wherein it had identified approximately 37 per cent of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive covering an area of 59,940 sq kms.
• The first draft notification was issued on March 10, 2014 that mentioned ESA for other states as recommended by the High-Level Working Group (13,108 sq kms) and for Kerala, mentioned the area as recommended by the state (9,993.7 sq kms). That was followed by consultation with stakeholders, including states and there came a series of drafts, last of which expired on June 30.
• This time round, the latest draft notified on July 6 has recommended an ESA totaling to 46,832 sq km sans Kerala’s. It comprises 449 sq kms in Gujarat, 17,340 sq kms in Maharashtra, 1,461 sq km in Goa, 20,668 sq kms in Karnataka and 6,914 sq kms in Tamil Nadu.

ANSWER: C

• The International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned in its latest report that global solar PV manufacturing capacity has increasingly moved from Europe, Japan and the United States to China over the last decade, with the second-largest economy’s share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels exceeding 80 per cent.
• The IEA Special Report on Solar PV Global Supply Chains states that China has invested over USD 50 billion in new PV supply capacity – ten times more than Europe – and created more than 300 000 manufacturing jobs across the solar PV value chain since 2011.
• China’s share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels (such as polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules) exceeds 80 per cent.
• According to, IEA report This is more than double China’s share of global PV demand. In addition, the country is home to the world’s 10 top suppliers of solar PV manufacturing equipment.
• The report highlighted how government policies in China have shaped the global supply, demand and price of solar PV over the last decade. Chinese industrial policies focusing on solar PV as a strategic sector and on growing domestic demand have enabled economies of scale and supported continuous innovation throughout the supply chain.
• These policies have contributed to a cost decline more than 80 per cent, helping solar PV to become the most affordable electricity generation technology in many parts of the world. However, they have also led to supply-demand imbalances in the PV supply chain.
• According to the IEA, global capacity for manufacturing wafers and cells, which are key solar PV elements, and for assembling them into solar panels (also known as modules), exceeded demand by at least 100 per cent at the end of 2021.
• By contrast, production of polysilicon, the key material for solar PV, is currently a bottleneck in an otherwise oversupplied supply chain. This has led to tight global supplies and a quadrupling of polysilicon prices over the last year.
• Solar PV products are a significant export for China. In 2021, the value of China’s solar PV exports was over USD 30 billion, almost 7 per cent of China’s trade surplus over the last five years.
• In addition, Chinese investments in Malaysia and Viet Nam also made these countries major exporters of PV products, accounting for around 10 per cent and 5 per cent respectively of their trade surpluses since 2017.
• The total value of global PV-related trade – including polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules – exceeded USD 40 billion in 2021, an increase of over 70 per cent from 2020.

ANSWER: C

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will launch the first-ever ‘Artificial Intelligence in Defence’ (AIDef) symposium and exhibition organised by the Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.
• The event will feature an exhibition to showcase the cutting-edge AI-enabled solutions developed by the services, research organisations, Industry and start-ups and innovators and the launch of AI products for the market.
• The 75 newly-developed AI products/technologies, having applications in defence, will be launched, as part of the celebrations marking 75 years of Independence ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and to promote ‘Aatmanirbharta’ initiative in Defence.
• The products are in the domains of automation/unmanned/robotics systems, cyber security, human behaviour analysis, intelligent monitoring system, logistics and supply chain management, speech/voice analysis and Command, Control, Communication, Computer and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems and operational data analytics.

ANSWER: C

• State-led Union Bank of India launched a Metaverse-based virtual lounge where it will showcase its products to customers virtually. The lender is the first Indian bank to open a virtual shop for publicity.
• Uni-verse, the Metaverse virtual lounge of the bank, hosts the bank’s product information and videos in the initial phase.
• Uni-verse will deliver a unique experience of banking to the customers who can roam around the lounge, get information of the bank’s deposits, loans, government welfare schemes, and digital initiatives as if they are experiencing the real world. This initiative is in partnership with Tech Mahindra.
• US-based JPMorgan Chase & Co achieved that feat earlier this year in February.
• In simple words, Metaverse is an evolved form of internet. The technology enables real-life experiences and situations with Augmented Reality (AR). Users can do nearly every task using Metaverse. They can visit different stores, enquire and hold conversations with different Metaverse users.

ANSWER: A

• JUARE (Joint United Action for Resilience in Emergencies), a theatrical genre in which the methods of dealing with disasters have been presented very effectively, has made it to the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records after being staged simultaneously at 206 places of the district by school students on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5.
• Apart from this, it was staged at 14 places in six other districts — Mandi, Bilaspur, Chamba, Una, Sirmaur and Hamirpur.
• The district administration had set the target of training 25,000 people simultaneously by staging a play together for its entry in the Asia and India Book of Records. However, the data collected revealed that 61,498 persons participated in the event.
• NDMA chairman PM had provided 10-point guidelines related to disaster management and JUARE covers most of these.
• JUARE is a unique initiative of District Disaster Management Kullu to spread awareness to deal with various types of calamities and to avoid loss when disaster strikes. Its objective is also to create a task force locally consisting of local people, including women and children.

 ANSWER: C

• The State government presented a case for the inclusion of Una in the Amritsar Kolkata Industrial Corridor (AKIC) project at the meeting of the Apex Monitoring Authority for National Industrial Corridor Development Programme (NICDP) in Delhi.
• Una is just 80 km from the Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh industrial area and has the potential of becoming another industrially-developed district. Una district is well connected with a road and rail network and the state government has already proposed a Bulk Drug Park and an EV Park there.
• Una district has the state’s first Food Park and seven developed industrial areas, besides a few upcoming industrial areas with a total land parcel of around 2,000 acres. The inclusion of Una under the AKIC project will help provide impetus to industrial development in the district and will also provide economic boost to neighbouring districts comprising almost 50 per cent of the state’s population”.
• Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), a joint venture between the state government and the National Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (NICDC) Limited, was being formulated. The master plan for trunking infrastructure had been prepared by a professional agency hired by the NICDC. He apprised the meeting that in the BBN area projects of ‘national importance’ such as the Medical Devices Park (300 acres) and the Defence Park (800 acres) had been grounded.