Current Affairs Quiz , 23 Nov 2018

1) The Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur is located on the banks of which of the following rivers?

a) Indus
b) Ravi
c) Beas
d) Jhelum

Answer: b
• India Pak commit to Kartarpur corridor.
Kartarpur Corridor:
• Kartarpur Corridor is a proposed border-corridor between India and Pakistan connecting the holy shrine of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib to the holy shrine of Kartarpur Sahib (also referred to as Kartarpur Gurdwara) states of Punjab in India and Pakistan.
• The main goal of this proposed corridor is to facilitate the crossing of religious devotees to visit the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, located in Narowal District, Pakistan, 120 km from Lahore but only three kilometres from the Indian side of the border.
• The corridor, once built, will give Indian pilgrims an easy access to the shrine in Kartarpur.
• The gurudwara in Kartarpur is located on the bank of river Ravi in Pakistan.
• A bridge will need to be constructed over the Ravi and there shall be no need for passports or visas.
• India had first proposed the Kartarpur Sahib corridor in 1999 when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore.

2) Which of the following chemicals are used in cloud seeding to induce artificial rain?

a) Acetone
b) Silver iodide
c) Sodium permanganate
d) Formic acid

Answer: b
• Nod for Cloud seeding to clear Delhi air.
Major highlights:
• Officials in the Environment Ministry have approved a project led by scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to induce artificial rain via cloud seeding to clear smog in Delhi.
• However, the success of the endeavour depends on the presence of a minimum quantity of rain-bearing clouds.
• The project will have an aircraft fly into the clouds and inject silver iodide.
• It will further lead to the formation of ice crystals that will make the clouds denser, cause them to condense into rain and settle atmospheric dust enough to clear the sky.
• While cloud seeding is not new to India, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have experimented with it in limited trials through the decades to address droughts.
• This is the first time it will be tried during the winters, when there are barely enough monsoon clouds on the horizon.
• China has been using cloud seeding to create rains for many years. The US, Israel, South Africa and Germany have also used the technology.
Cloud Seeding:
• Cloud seeding is the process of combining different kinds of chemical agents, including silver iodide, dry ice and even common table salt, with existing clouds in an effort to thicken them and increase the chance of rainfall.
• The process also involves changing the amount and type of precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances (mostly salts) into the air.
• The dispersion is done from aircraft.

3) Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to moon, will comprise of which of the following components?

a) Orbiter
b) Lander
c) Rover
d) All of the above

Answer: d
• Chandrayaan 2’s landing sensors to be tested at artificial site at Challakere.
• The Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander’s sensors are set to undergo a crucial test as the mission races towards a planned take-off in around two months.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to fly the sensors on an aircraft over its artificial lunar site at Challakere.
• It will see how they will function and guide the Chandrayaan-2 landing craft when it starts descending on the lunar terrain.
• The test on ground, called the Lander Sensor Performance Test or LSPT, will be conducted at ISRO’s new R&D campus in Chitradurga district.
Chandrayaan 2 Mission:
• Chandrayaan 2, India’s second mission to the moon is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander, and Rover.
• After reaching the 100 Km lunar orbit, the lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter.
• After a controlled descent, the lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a rover.
• The Chandrayaan 2 weighing around 3290 kg and would orbit around the moon and perform objectives of remote sensing the moon.
• The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, minerology, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signature of hydroxyl and water ice.

4) Sentinelese tribe, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, is found in which of the following states in India?

a) Jharkhand
b) Tamil Nadu
c) Andaman and Nicobar
d) Maharashtra

Answer: c
• The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in India.
• As North Sentinel Island is part of the Andaman Islands, the Sentinelese are considered to be one of the Andamanese peoples.
• Unlike other tribes in the Andamanese Islands, the Sentinelese appear to have consistently refused any interaction with the outside world.
• As an isolated group, they likely lack genetic immunity to common viruses, such as influenza and measles.
• Andaman is home to five “particularly vulnerable tribes”. They are Jarawas, North Sentinelese, Great Andamanese, Onge and Shompen.

5) Ortolan Bunting, a bird recently spotted in Karnataka, belongs to which IUCN category?

a) Least concern
b) Critically endangered
c) Near threatened
d) Vulnerable

Answer: a
• The Ortolan or Ortolan bunting is a bird in the bunting family.
• IUCN Status: Least Concern.
• The bird is a native of most of European countries and western Asia.
• Recently it has been spotted at Kenjar Coastal Karnataka.