Daily Current Affairs Quiz: September 07, 2023

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: D

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: A

• Mexico’s Maya train project has been described as a “megaproject of death” — it imperils the Yucatán peninsula’s rich wilderness, ancient cave systems and indigenous communities.
• The Tribunal for the Rights of Nature said the project caused “crimes of ecocide and ethnocide”.

ABOUT ECOCIDE

• Ecocide, derived from Greek and Latin, translates to ‘killing one’s home’ or ‘environment’.
• There is no accepted legal definition of ecocide, but Ecocide as defined by the Stop Ecocide Foundation.
  • Ecocide is the “unlawful or wanton acts committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts.”

• Biologist Arthur Galston in 1970 is credited be the first to link environmental destruction with genocide, which is recognised as an international crime, when referring to the S. military’s use of Agent Orange (a herbicide) during the Vietnam War.
• British Lawyer Polly Higgins proposed that the Rome Statute should be amended to treat crimes against nature on par with crimes against people.
• Ecocide is a crime in 11 countries, with 27 other nations mulling laws around criminalising environmental damage that is wilfully caused and harms humans, animals and plant species.

ANSWER: B

• The country’s first UPI ATM was launched

• Hitachi Payment Services has introduced ‘the country’s first-ever UPI-ATM as a White Label ATM (WLA) in association with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• The UPI-ATM offers a seamless and secure cash withdrawal process without the need for a physical card.
• UPI-ATM operates through QR-based UPI cash withdrawals.
• UPI-ATM is accessible to UPI users who have a UPI application installed on their Android or iOS devices.

ANSWER: B

• The Malaviya Mission – Teachers Training Programme was launched by the University Grants Commission at Kaushal Bhawan, New Delhi recently.
• The Portal of the Programme was also launched and its information brochure was released.
• Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) have also been renamed as Madan Mohan Malaviya Teachers’ Training Centre.

ABOUT THE MALAVIYA MISSION – TEACHERS TRAINING PROGRAMME

• Organised by the University Grants Commission, in association with the Ministry of Education, the MMTTP aims to provide tailored training programmes for teachers.
• This programme will work for the capacity building of faculty members in higher educational institutions.
• Programme will ensure continuous professional development and help in building capacities of 15 lakh teachers of HEIs through 111 Malaviya Mission centres across India in a time-bound manner.
• Capacity building under the Malaviya Mission will be mapped to the credit framework to ensure career progression pathways for educators.

ANSWER: C

• As per NASA, Comet Nishimura could become visible to the naked eye in second week of September.
• The comet was discovered in mid-August by amateur astronaut Hideo Nishimura.
• Since then, the comet, officially called C/2023 P1 Nishimura, has increased in brightness as it went forward on its path in the inner solar system.
• The comet is angularly near the Sun so even if it is visible, you will only be able to spot it early before sunrise or late before sunset.
• The comet completes an orbit around the Sun once every 435 years.

WHAT ARE COMETS?

• Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust that orbit the Sun.
• They are leftovers from the formation of the solar system.
• Typically, they range from a few kilometres to tens of kilometres wide.
• But as they orbit closer to the Sun, they spew out gases and dust, which forms the tails that they are famous for.

ANSWER: D

• The World Heritage Site Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh’s Raisen district has become India’s first solar city.
• It has a capacity of 3 megawatts in Nagauri near Sanchi, which will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 13,747 tonnes.
• This is equivalent to more than 2,38,000 trees.

ANSWER: A

• The International Day of Clean Air for blue skies is annually observed on 7^th of September.
• The theme for this year is ‘Together for Clean Air’. It aims to highlight the urgent need for stronger partnerships, increased investment, and shared responsibility for overcoming air pollution.

ANSWER: C

• The Chamba Welfare Association, a local NGO, has urged the CM to introduce direct helicopter service from Chamba district to the Manimahesh shrine.
• Currently a helicopter service is available from Bharmour to Gaurikund helipad, 2-3 km below the sacred Manimahesh lake.

ABOUT MANIMAHESH YATRA

• The Manimahesh Lake is situated 26 kilometers from Bharmour in the Budhil valley, one of the chief pilgrimage spots in Himachal Pradesh.
• The lake is situated at an altitude of 13,000 feet at the foot of the Kailash peak (18,564 ft).
• Every year, on the eighth day of the light half of the moon in the month of Bhadon, a fair is held at this lake, which attracts thousands of pilgrims who assemble here to take a dip in the holy water.
• Lord Shiva is the presiding deity of this fair / jatra.
• He is believed to reside in Kailash.
• A rock formation in the shape of a Shivling on Kailash is considered to be the manifestation of Lord Shiva.
• The snowfield at the base of the mountain is called Shiva’s Chaugan by the local people.