Daily Current Affairs Quiz: November 10, 2023

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: C

• Scientists have discovered a black hole that is 10 times larger than the one in our Milky Way galaxy and also the oldest one.
  • Black holes are very dense objects with such intense gravity that even light cannot escape, if it strays too close.
  • They are formed when massive stars die or there is a direct collapse of gases.
• The new black hole is a record breaker: the most distant yet observed in X-rays.
• These new findings confirmed the claims that there were super-massive black holes existed at the dawn of the universe.

• NASA’s James Webb Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory teamed up over the past year to make the observations.
• They used a technique called gravitational lensing to magnify the region of space where this galaxy, UHZ1, and its black hole are located.
• The age of this black hole can be estimated to be around 13.2 billion years, considering the universe’s age to be 13.7 billion years.
  • Thus it dates back to 470 million years after the Big Bang.

ANSWER: B

• Under the scheme notified by government on January 31, 2013, any company registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, can form an electoral trust.
• Under Section 17CA of the Income-tax Act, 1961, any citizen of India, a company registered in India, or a firm or Hindu Undivided Family or association of persons living in India, can donate to an electoral trust.
• The electoral trusts have to apply for renewal every three financial years.
• They must donate 95% of contributions received in a financial year to political parties registered under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• The contributors’ PAN (in case of a resident) or passport number (in case of an NRI) is required at the time of making contributions.
• The electoral trusts route is transparent on contributors and beneficiaries.
• Where there is only one contributor and one beneficiary of a particular trust, the public can know for sure who is funding whom.

ANSWER: C

• Minister of Cooperation recently launched the ‘Bharat Organics’ brand of the newly created National Cooperative Organics Ltd (NCOL) and asserted that it will emerge as the most “trusted” brand in India and abroad.

• NCOL’s logo, website and brochure were also launched.
• Initially, NCOL will sell the organic products in India and later will market in other countries.

ABOUT NCOL

• NCOL has been established under the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002.
  • NCOL is one of the three new cooperatives the government has set up recently.
  • The other two cooperatives work in the field of certified seeds and exports.
• National Dairy Development Board is the chief promoter.
• NCOL aims to cover the entire supply chain of organic products through cooperative networks by undertaking various activities like aggregation, certification, production, testing, procurement, storage, processing, branding, packaging, labeling, marketing, etc for the ultimate benefit of farmer members.

CURRENT STATUS

• Organic agriculture is practiced in 190 countries on 749 lakh hectares of land and India ranks 4th globally in organic agricultural land and first in number of producers as per 2020 data.
• India has 27 lakh hectares of land under certified organic certification, including cultivable and wild harvest areas.
• The country produced 29 lakh tonnes of certified organic products in 2022-23, as per the official data.

ANSWER: D

• The Hanle and Merak observatories in Ladakh spotted a phenomenon uncommon in India — an intense red aurora.
  • Auroras are patterns of bright lights in the sky that are seen when particles ejected by the Sun interact with the magnetic field around the Earth.
  • The phenomenon is usually visible closer to the poles.
• Hanle is an ideal place to observe the phenomenon as it is India’s only dark sky reserve — an area where special measures are taken to reduce artificial light pollution.
  • It is located 4500 metres above sea level.
• Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO), operated by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, used an All-sky Camera to capture this extraordinary event.
• The red-coloured auroral activity, an unusual spectacle was attributed to a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) event, a rare atmospheric phenomenon that paints the sky in vivid shades of red, contrasting the more common green and blue curtains of light typically associated with auroras at higher latitudes.
  • The SAR event was triggered by a geomagnetic storm, a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere caused by a solar storm.

ANSWER: D

• The World Science Day for Peace and Development is celebrated annually on November 10^th.
• It is a day to acknowledge the role of science in society and highlights the significant role of involving the public in debates surrounding the effects of new scientific innovations and to create awareness among people.
• The theme for 2023 is Building Trust in Science.
• The origin of World Science Day for Peace and Development is linked to the positive outcomes that emanated from the 1999 World Conference on Science in Budapest, Hungary.
• These achievements led UNESCO to formally declare the celebration of this day in 2001.