Daily Current Affairs Quiz: June 29, 2024

ANSWER : C

Observed annually on June 30.

• Aim : to raise awareness about asteroids and the potential hazards they pose to our planet.
• This event is held on the anniversary of the Siberian Tunguska event that took place on 30 June 1908.
• It is the most harmful known asteroid-related event on Earth in recent history.
• Resolution for celebrating June 30 as Asteroid Day was passed by United Nations.

ANSWER : A

Current Context : Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mr. Mark Rutte, has been announced as the new Secretary General of NATO .

Mark Rutte will assume his office on 1 October 2024 after the retirement of Jens Stoltenberg.

ABOUT NATO

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is a Western military alliance founded during the Cold War between the United States-led Western countries and the Soviet Union-led East European Communist countries.
• Aim : to stop the Soviet Union and its communist ideology from spreading in Europe.
• Member Countries : 32 members.
• Sweden is the 32nd member of NATO, joined on 7 March 2024.
• Headquarters: Initially, London was NATO’s headquarters, but in 1967, it was shifted to Brussels, Belgium.

ANSWER : C

Current Context : Deputy National Security Advisor Vikram Misri will be the next foreign secretary.

ABOUT

• He was born in Srinagar in 1964, holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the Delhi University’s Hindu College and an MBA from XLRI.
• He is a 1989-batch Indian Foreign Service officer and will take charge as Foreign Secretary on July 15.
• He was India’s ambassador to China between 2019 and 2021 and is known to have a good network in the Chinese establishment.
• He also served as India’s ambassador to Spain (2014-2016) and Myanmar (2016-2018).

ANSWER : D

Current Context : Union Minister of State for Science and Technology will launch two Geoportals namely Bhuvan Panchayat 4.0 and National Database for Emergency Management (NDEM 5.0).

• National level geospatial databases for these two portals are created by

ABOUT BHUVAN PANCHAYAT 4.0

• It is an online geospatial data and services dissemination platform.
• Objective: Integrate and use space-based information in governance and research initiatives for spatial planning at Gram Panchayat level.
• Developed by: NRSC, ISRO.

ABOUT NDEM 5.0

• It provides a comprehensive geospatial database for entire country for situational assessment and effective decisionmaking during disasters/ emergency situations.
• It acts as a Disaster Recovery and Data Provider node for the Integrated Control Room for Emergency Response (ICR-ER).

ANSWER : B

Current Context : UN-backed network Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has launched “Spring”, a new initiative to halt or reverse nature loss by 2030.

ABOUT SPRING INITIATIVE

• It is supported by a coalition of 200 investors managing a combined $15trn in assets.
• It will focus on companies to drive better corporate practices and political engagement on nature-related risks.
• Objective: To address systemic risk of nature loss to societies and long-term portfolio value creation by enhancing corporate practices on forest loss and land degradation.

ANSWER : A

Current Context : DRDO has successfully completed the trials of  High Speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) ‘ABHYAS’ in Chandipur, Odisha.

• With the final successful testing of 10 developmental flights of ABHYAS system, it is now ready for production and induction in the Indian armed forces.

ABOUT ABHYAS

• It is a High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT).
• Designed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment, Bengaluru.
• It is designed for autonomous flying with the help of an auto pilot, a laptop-based Ground Control System for aircraft integration, pre-flight checks, and autonomous flight.
• It offers a realistic threat scenario for practice of weapon systems.
• It has a feature to record data during flight for post-flight analysis.

ANSWER : B

Current Context : India participated at CLGF Annual Board meeting in Sri Lanka.

Theme of the meeting was “Reinforcing Social Resilience through Women’s Political Representation.”

ABOUT COMMONWEALTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT FORUM

• Established in 1995
• Headquartes : London, UK
• CLGF has actively worked in Asia to support decentralization and reforms that empower local governments, improving governance and service delivery.
• It is a organisation that unites Local Government, Ministries of Local Government, national associations of local government, and individual councils from 56 Commonwealth countries (including India).
• It is dedicated to support women’s full and active participation in public life, especially in achieving equal representation in local governance, aligning with SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

ANSWER : D

Current Context : Booker prize winner Arundhati Roy wins PEN Pinter Prize 2024.

• Arundhati Roy will receive the award in a ceremony co-hosted by the British Library on October 10.

ABOUT AWARD

• The PEN (Poet, Playwright, Editors Essayist, Novelist) Pinter is an annual award set up in 2009 by English PEN in the memory of Nobel laureate playwright Harold Pinter.
• It is awarded annually to a writer of outstanding literary merit resident in the United Kingdom.
• The award is given to writers in the English language who have produced outstanding literary work in plays, poetry, essays, or fiction.

ABOUT ARUNDHATI

• Arundhati Roy is the first Indian to win the prestigious Booker Prize in 1997 for her fiction ‘The God of Small Things’.

ANSWER : B

Current Context : Chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu laid the foundation stone of 10-Megawatt solar power project at Aghlor in Kutlehar assembly constituency of Una district.

ABOUT

• The solar plant will be constructed in an area of 19 hectares, and would be completed within three months.
• Electricity generation 73 million unit power annually and an annual income of ₹8 crore.
• This project will also help in reducing 791 tonnes of carbon emissions.
• It is the second solar power project in Una district after 32 MW Pekhubela project.
• The state government has signed an agreement with the Oil India Company for production green hydrogen and emphasis was being laid on harnessing solar energy.