Daily Current Affairs Quiz: September 22, 2022

ANSWER: D

• The Defence Ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding, MoU, with Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank under the SPARSH- System for Pension Administration initiative with an objective to cover seventeen lakh, defence pensioners, across the country.
• System for Pension Administration (RAKSHA) (SPARSH) is being implemented by Ministry of Defence for meeting the pension sanction and disbursement requirements for Armed Forces viz. Army, Navy, Air Force and Defence Civilians.
• Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar said that seventeen lakh pensioners out of the total thirty-two lakh defence pensioners will be added with SPARSH by the end of this month.
• The Defence Secretary highlighted that the average time in pension settlement has come down significantly to about 16 days.
• The Ministry said that the MoU will onboard more than 14 thousand bank branches as Service Centres to provide an effective medium for pensioners to perform profile update requests, register grievances and seek redressal, pensioner data verification and many more.
• So far, the SPARSH initiative has crossed one million pensioners onboard mark and disbursed 11 thousand 6 hundred crore rupees in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

ANSWER: A

• Veteran Assamese swimmer Elvis Ali Hazarika – has become the first from the North East to cross the North Channel.
• The North Channel is the strait between north-eastern Northern Ireland and south-western Scotland.
• Elvis and his team clocked a timing of 14 hours 38 minutes to achieve this feat.
• With this, Elvis has become the oldest Indian swimmer to cross the North Channel.

About the North Channel:

• The North Channel starts north of the Isle of Man, where the Irish Sea ends, and flows northwest into the Atlantic Ocean.
• The narrowest part of the strait lies between Mull of Kintyre and Torr Head. The width of the channel here is 19 kilometers.
• The deepest part is known as Beaufort’s Dyke.
• The North Channel is a part of the marine area and International Hydrographic Organisation officially classifies it as the “Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland”.

ANSWER: B

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the National Conference of Environment Ministers held in Gujarat through video conferencing.
• He will also address the gathering on the occasion.
• Taking forward the spirit of cooperative federalism, Conference is being convened to create further synergy amongst the Central and State Governments in formulating better policies on various issues.
• The two-day Conference being organized on 23rd and 24th September will have six thematic sessions with topics focusing on LiFE, Combating Climate Change (Updating State Action Plans on Climate Change for Mitigation of Emissions and Adaptation to Climate Impacts), PARIVESH (Single Window System for Integrated Green Clearances), Forestry Management, Prevention and Control of Pollution, Wildlife Management, and Plastics and Waste Management.

ANSWER: D

• Hurricane Fiona was headed northward after it bore down on the tiny Turks and Caicos archipelago September 20, and caused severe damage to Puerto Rico and then the Dominican Republic.
• Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 18, dumping huge amounts of rainfall on it, and then on the Dominican Republic.
• A public health emergency was declared by US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra for Puerto Rico, which allows the freeing up of federal funds and equipment to assist the island.
• The power category 3 storm dumped heavy rains, triggering floods on the Caribbean archipelago.
• The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that the hurricane had moved 75 miles north of Turks and Caicos and was strengthening with wind speeds of 125 mile per hour.

Categorization of Hurricanes:

• Hurricanes are categorized on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates them on a scale of 1 to 5 based on wind speed.
• Hurricanes that reach category three or higher are classified as major hurricanes.

ANSWER: C

• The Union Cabinet has approved the second tranche of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme on ‘National programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules’ for achieving manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt scale in High Efficiency Solar PV Modules.
• The national programme on High Efficiency Solar PV Modules aims to build an ecosystem for manufacturing of high efficiency solar PV modules in India reducing import dependence in the area of Renewable Energy.
• It will strengthen the Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative and generate employment.
• The Tranche-2 scheme of High Efficiency Solar PV Modules has been approved with an outlay of 19,500 crore rupees for achieving manufacturing capacity of Giga Watt scale.
• About 65 thousand Mega Watt per annum manufacturing capacity of fully and partially integrated solar PV modules will be installed.
• The scheme will bring direct investment of around 94 thousand crore rupees.
• The scheme will generate direct employment for around 2 lakh persons and indirect jobs to around eight lakh persons.
• The Cabinet also approved modifications in Programme for Development of Semiconductors and Display Manufacturing Ecosystem India.
• Under modified programme, a uniform fiscal support of 50 per cent of Project Cost shall be provided across all technology nodes for setting up of Semiconductor Fabs or semicondutor fabrication plant.
• Given the niche technology and nature of compound semiconductors and advanced packaging, the modified programme shall also provide fiscal support of 50 per cent of Capital Expenditure.
• Earlier there were an incentive in range of 30 to 50 per cent are provided for three schemes related to semiconductor, display and compound semiconductor and packaging schemes.
• Under the modified program and uniform incentive of 50 per cent will be applied to these three schemes.

ANSWER: A

• The Bihar government is set to introduce a “no-bag day” rule in schools and a mandatory games period at least once a week to reduce the burden on students.
• The weekly”no-bag day” will have task-based practical classes.
• At least once a week, students will come to school only with their lunch boxes. They do not need to carry books.
• The day will be devoted to practical and experiential learning.
• The objective of such a policy is to engage students in various activities which can positively impact their learning.
• The new initiative by the state government is in line with the National Education Policy 2022 and it would be implemented across private and government run schools.
• Players of the state, according to their position at the national-level sporting events, are provided with a subsidiary grant to avail the facility of sports kits, and treatment and enrolment in the course of the National Institute of Sports.
• Adding Rs 21.02 lakh was provided as a subsidiary grant to 70 players in 2020-21 Sportspersons from Bihar won six medals in the recently concluded World Championship of Arnis Games in the Philippines.

ANSWER: D

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the Board of Trustees of PM CARES Fund and said the component would be used to respond to distress situations and not just as relief assistance.
• The Prime Minister welcomed the trustees for becoming an integral part of the PM CARES Fund. The meeting was attended by trustees of the PM CARES Fund — Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and newly nominated trustees, including former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas, former Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda, and Emeritus Chairman of Tata Sons Ratan Tata.
• The Trust further decided to nominate the following eminent persons for the constitution of the Advisory Board to PM CARES Fund — former Comptroller and Auditor General of India Rajiv Mehrishi, former chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murthy, co-founder of Teach for India and former CEO of Indicorps and Piramal Foundation Anand Shah.
• On the occasion a presentation was made on the various initiatives undertaken with the help of the PM CARES Fund, including the PM CARES for Children scheme, which is supporting 4,345 kids who lost their parents to Covid.

ANSWER: A

• World Alzheimer’s Day was observed on September 21.
• Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. It is a progressive brain disease which results in loss of memory and thinking skills. It destroys the brain cells which causes memory loss, memory changes, erratic behaviour, and loss of body functions.
• This year the theme for world Alzheimer’s month 2022 is – know dementia, know Alzheimer’s.

ANSWER: A

• The “world’s longest extradosed single-span bridge”, which is slated to be constructed on 620-feet-high pillars (approximately equal to the height of three Qutub Minars) near Shakaral on the Kaithlighat-Dhalli stretch of the Parwanoo-Shimla four-laning project, is set to become another tourist attraction.
• There will be only two pillars in this 280-m-long single-span extradosed cable bridge to be constructed at a cost of Rs 600 crore in three years and the height of the bridge (top of the pillar) from the ditch will be 826 feet, said National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regional officer Abdul Basit.
• He said the bridge would be built by the state-of-the-art technology on the Shakral-Dhalli section of the stretch by Gawar Infrastructure Company, Gurgaon.
• “This will be the world’s first extradosed bridge with a span length of 280 m, surpassing the 275-m-long span extradosed bridge in Japan, as per information collected from Google,” said detailed project report (DPR) consultant, Intercontinental Techno Consultant, Neeraj Choudhary.
• He said the new highway would bypass Shimla and reduce the distance between Kaithlighat and Dhalli from 40.1 km to 28.4 km. The stretch would be constructed in two sections. The Kaithlighat-Shakral (17.46 km) section would be constructed by the HP Singla group while the Shakral-Dhalli (10.98 km) section would be constructed by Gawar Infrastructure Company.
• The total cost of the project is Rs 3,915 crore, which includes the construction of five tunnels measuring 5.14 km in length and five major and one minor bridge, besides 22 viaducts.
• The length of the longest and shortest tunnels is 2.66 km and 242 m, respectively. The bypass would be linked at seven points with Shimla city.

ANSWER: C

• Education Minister Govind Singh Thakur inaugurated the National Rafting Championship at Pirdi in Kullu.
• It will be organised in Beas River.
• Nearly 200 players from 11 different states are participating in the championship.
• Rafting is an Adventure sports.
• River Beas from Manali to Bhuntar, a stretch of 50 km with a number of rapids, is most popular for recreational river rafting runs.
• For safety reasons rapids of rivers in Himachal Pradesh have been graded in accordance with international guidelines.
• It has been categorised in six categories ranging from easy moving water for beginners to Un-runnable water for only experts.