Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 26, 2022

ANSWER: D

• Global spiritual master and founder of The Art of Living, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been conferred with Suriname’s highest civilian honour, the ‘Grand Cordon – honorary order of the yellow star (Ere-Orde van de Gele Ster) by The President of Suriname, Mr Chandrikapersad Santokhi for his humanitarian work.
• He has become the first Asian to receive the award.
• The award is usually given to the heads of state, this is the first time it has been awarded to a spiritual leader.

ANSWER: C

• The central government has introduced some changes in the nation’s flag code by permitting the Indian national flag to fly both day and night and be machine-made besides using polyester fabric.
• The development came as the government will launch a ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ (hoisting of flag in every home) programme as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ to celebrate the 75th Independence Day of India from August 13 to 15.

What Are the Changes?

• The display, hoisting and use of the Indian national flag is ruled by the Flag Code of India, 2002 and the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971.
• The Flag Code of India has been additionally amended through an order on July 20, 2022. The clause (xi) of paragraph 2.2 of Part-II of the Flag Code of India, 2002 shall now be read as follows- (xi) “where the Flag is displayed in open or displayed on the house of a member of the public, it may be flown day and night”.
• Earlier, the national flag of India was allowed to be flown from sunrise to sunset, irrespective of the prevailing weather conditions.
• Similarly, paragraph 1.2 of Part-I of the Flag Code of India, 2002 shall now be read as follows- 1.2. “The National Flag shall be made of hand spun and hand woven or machine made, cotton/ polyester/ wool/ silk khadi bunting.”
• Previously, machine-made and polyester flags were not allowed to be used.

‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ Programme

• The ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ is being celebrated to commemorate the 75 years of a progressive independent India. As part of this celebration, the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ programme has been launched to motivate citizens to hoist the tricolour in their homes for three days that is from August 13 to 15.
• According to the official statement, over 20 crore tricolours would be hoisted atop the houses for three days, from August 13 to 15. Government and private establishments will also be involved.

ANSWER: A

• Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will not be accepting the Banga Bibhushan award, the highest civilian honour conferred by the West Bengal government,
• The Banga Bibhushan was introduced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 2011.
• It is the higher one among the Banga Samman honours, the other being the Banga Bhushan.
• While Amartya Sen have declined the award, another Nobel laureate from the state, Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee — who shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer — is said to have accepted the honour.
• Banerjee is among 16 Banga Bibhushan and 20 Banga Bhushan recipients this year.

ANSWER: D

• Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public in a bid to tame runaway inflation that has further eroded the country’s unstable currency.
• The unprecedented move was announced by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to boost confidence in the local currency.
• Trust in Zimbabwe’s currency is low after people saw their savings wiped out by hyperinflation in 2008 which reached 5 billion, according to the IMF.
• The central bank disbursed 2,000 coins to commercial banks.
• The first batch of the coins was minted outside the country but eventually they will be produced locally, according to the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, John Mangudya.
• Any individual or company can buy the coins from authorised outlets such as banks, according to an announcement by the country’s central bank.

ANSWER: B

• Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched the ‘Smart E-Beat’ system at the office of the Commissioner of Police, Gurugram and flagged off 119 motorcycle riders of the police connected with this system.
• With this initiative, the police claimed to improve patrolling, detecting crime, monitoring the police personnel on the beat, improving police-public relations and finding out their real-time location.
• According to the police, this is a GIS-based system, with the introduction of this system police riders monitoring will be done more effectively.
• This system will be integrated with Emergency Response Sport System in future so that apart from ERV, this rider can also reach for help on calls received on phone number-112.
• This system will work as a secure, digital, smart and real time patrolling solution.

ANSWER: D

• Recently, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) announced third tranche of Rs 6,000 crore for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project.
• The JICA — which has been supporting the project for the Bullet Train project — signed a loan agreement with the Government of India to provide an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan of 100,000 million Japanese Yen (approx. INR 6,000 Crore) as Tranche 3 for the Construction of Mumbai Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR).
• The loan agreement was signed between Mr. Rajat Kumar Mishra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India and Mr. Watanabe Jun, Senior Representative, JICA India.
• The JCA had earlier in 2017 extended a loan package of JPY 250,000 million (approximately INR 18,000 crore) package that JICA had committed in 2017.
• National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is the Executing Agency of the Project.
• In the first phase, the bullet train will cover 508 kilometres between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
• The operating speed of the bullet train will be 320 kilometers per hour and maximum speed will be 350 kilometers per hour.

ANSWER: B

• Amid the death of nearly 1000 bovines, the government on Monday sent a special team to Gujarat and Rajasthan to assess the situation and measures taken to control the Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD).
• The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD) has also issued advisories to all states and UTs for taking the bio-security measures to contain the spread of this infectious disease.
• Lumpy skin is a viral disease spread by mosquitoes, flies, lice, and wasps by direct contact among the cattle, and through contaminated food and water.
• The main symptoms are fever in animals, discharge from the eyes and nose, salivation from the mouth, soft blisters like nodules all over the body, reduced milk production, and difficulty in eating, which sometimes lead to the animal’s death.
• The official said that directions were issued to ICAR-NIHSAD, Bhopal and ICAR-NIVEDI Bangalore to carry out the epidemiological investigation in the affected states.
• The ring vaccination strategy was communicated to be carried out in and around the affected area with available Goat pox vaccine (Uttarakashi strain) in cattle and buffalo.

ANSWER: B

• Savita Kanswal, a 26-year-old girl from Lonthru village in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi, has become the first woman in India who has successfully climbed Mt. Everest and Mt. Makalu in just 16 days.
• Her passion started in Class 11 when she got a chance for a 10-day Adventure Foundation Course. It was the course where her love for mountains began.
• She has done her mountaineering course from the NIM (Nehru Mountaineering Institute), Uttarkashi.
• She climbed Mt. Everest (8848 m) on May 12, 2022. On the 16th day, she climbed Mt. Makalu (8485 m) on May 28, 2022.
• Even she climbed Mt. Lhotse becoming the first woman from Uttarakhand and second from India to climb successfully.

ANSWER: A

• A museum of wood culture — which will display the use and evolution of wood in architecture, furniture, sculpture, and various art forms — is set to come up in a few months at Shamshi in Bhuntar in the district. The museum was sanctioned last year to the Parvati Forest Division.
• Under the project, the premises of the furniture workshop at Shamshi, which was established as a wood-based industry workshop in 1965, saw major renovation works, including repairs, upgrade of the campus and entrance, and installation of new technologies such solar kiln, last year.
• Deputy Conservator of the division Aishwarya Raj says that people visiting the museum will be able to get to know about the process of furniture making and various other forms of wood use through 3D models, images and interactive pictorial representation.
• They will be informed about the evolution of wood science and its uses; hardwood and softwood; defects, treatments and sources of raw materials; new technologies being used in the industry; and sustainable forestry.

ANSWER: A

• According to the ADB, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a loan of around Rs 770 crore to fund a safe drinking water and sanitation project in Himachal Pradesh.
• The loan has been provided under the Himachal Pradesh Rural Drinking Water Improvement and Livelihood Project.
• More than 90 per cent of the state’s rural population had access to drinking water, but the water supply infrastructure was old and had deteriorated over the time, resulting in inefficient and poor service.
• The ADB project will connect 75,800 households to the service, providing uninterrupted water supply to about 3.7 lakh residents in 10 districts.
• According to the Jude Kohlhase, ADB Unit Head of Project Administration on Urban Development and Water for South Asia, “The project meets the objectives of the Jal Jeevan Mission, a national flagship programme of the Union Government, which aims to provide piped water to all rural households by 2024,”.