Current Affairs Quiz , 10 Nov 2018

1) Which of the following became the first state in India to treat Hepatitis-C patients through oral medicine?

a) Kerala
b) Tamil Nadu
c) Odisha
d) Haryana

Answer: d
• Haryana has emerged as the first state in India to treat Hepatitis-C patients through oral medicine.
• Hepatitis C is an infectious liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus.
• It spreads when blood of a healthy individual comes in contact with an infected person’s blood. This may happen through multiple means, with blades used by barbers being the primary one.
• The market cost of medicine and treatment for hepatitis C is about Rs 28,000 to Rs 30,000. However, Haryana State Government will provide it free of cost.
• Haryana will be the first state where 35 to 40 health tests would be conducted for everyone by visiting houses of all residents. The state health department will also maintain the record of these tests.

2) A memorial of the Korean queen Heo Hwang-ok is located in which of the following cities in India?

a) Puri
b) Nagpur
c) Ayodhya
d) Varanasi

Answer: c
• A memorial of the Korean queen Heo Hwang-ok is located in Ayodhya, India.
• Heo Hwang-ok is a legendary queen mentioned in the 13th-century chronicle SamgukYusa.
• In 2001, a Korean delegation, which included the North Korean ambassador to India, inaugurated a memorial dedicated to her in Ayodhya.

3) The world’s first AI news anchor was launched in

a) Germany
b) China
c) U.S.A
d) Sweden

Answer: b
• Calling it a “world first”, Xinhua news agency this week debuted a pair of virtual news anchors amid a state-directed embrace of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
• China in 2017 unveiled plans to become a world leader in AI and other high-tech fields, though it has since toned down the rhetoric amid a trade war with the United States.
• The digital anchors offer certain advantages over humans, such as being able to work 24 hours a day and to quickly disseminate breaking news.

4) Benarghatta National Park is located in which of the following Indian states?

a) Andhra Pradesh
b) Telangana
c) Karnataka
d) Tamil Nadu

Answer: c
• ESZ around Benarghatta National Park to be cut down.
• Bannerghatta National Park, near Bangalore, Karnataka, was founded in 1970 and declared as a national park in 1974.
• In 2002 a portion of the park, became a biological reserve, the Bannerghatta Biological Park.
• There are ancient temples in the park for worship and it is a destination for trekking and hiking.
• An ecologically sensitive area is one that is protected by the government given the sheer number of species, plants and animals endemic to the region.
• They are areas notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India around Protected Areas, National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
• According to the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the government can prohibit industrial operations such as mining, sand quarrying and building thermal power plants in sensitive areas.
• Purpose of asserting ESZ as a no-development zone:
o The prime objective of the ESZ is to set up a kind of shock absorber for the protected areas which will also act as a transition zone from areas of higher protection (parks, reserves, etc.) to areas involving lesser protection (urban settlements, industrial zones, etc.)

5) The Global Cooling Summit was recently held in which of the following cities?

a) Mumbai
b) Ahmedabad
c) New Delhi
d) Chennai

Answer: c
• Two-day Global Cooling Innovation Summit will be held in New Delhi
• The summit is a first-of-its-kind solutions-focused event that will bring together leaders from around the world to explore concrete means and pathways to address the climate threat that comes from the growing demand from room air conditioners.
• The event is jointly organized by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, along with Rocky Mountain Institute, Alliance for An Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), Conservation X Labs and CEPT University.
• The summit will also see the launching of Global Cooling Prize— Mission Innovation challenge that aims to spur development of a residential cooling solution that has at least five times (5x) less climate impact than today’s standard.
• Global Cooling Prize is a competition with global reach and participation to achieve dramatic breakthroughs in cooling technologies.
• The objective of this competition would be to develop a cooling technology that requires radically less energy to operate, utilizes refrigerantswith no ozone depletion potential and with low global warming potential, and has the potential to be cost-effective at scale.