Current Affairs Quiz , 01 Jan 2019

1) Which of the following monument/(s) have been declared as monuments of national importance in 2018 by Archaeological Survey of India?

a) Hathi Khana
b) Neemrana Baori
c) Group of Temples at Ranipur Jharail
d) All of the above

Answer: d
• The 125-year-old Old High Court Building in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and two Mughal-era monuments in Agra — Haveli of Agha Khan and Hathi Khana — are among the six monuments declared protected and of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2018.
• The ancient Neemrana Baori in Rajasthan’s Alwar district; the Group of Temples at Ranipur Jharail in Odisha’s Bolangir district; and the Vishnu Temple in Kotali, Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand, are the three other monuments that have been listed.

2) Ultima Thule is a trans-Neptunian object and the farthest object in the Solar System to be visited by which spacecraft?

a) New Horizon
b) Osiris Rex
c) Parker
d) Juno

Answer: a
• (486958) 2014 MU69, nicknamed Ultima Thule is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt
• With an orbital period of 298 years and a low inclination and eccentricity, it is classified as a classical Kuiper belt object.
• With the New Horizons space probe’s flyby on 1 January 2019, 2014 MU69 became the farthest object in the Solar System visited by a spacecraft, and is believed to be the most primitive, both bodies being planetesimal aggregates of much smaller building blocks.

3) Which of the following state governments has recently announced the creation of an Adhyatmik Vibhag (spiritual department)?

a) Gujarat
b) Uttar Pradesh
c) Madhya Pradesh
d) Rajasthan

Answer: c
• The new Madhya Pradesh government headed by the Congress’ Kamal Nath said that it is going to create an Adhyatmik Vibhag (spiritual department) by merging several existing departments.

4) National Nritya Shiromani Award 2019 was recently bagged by

a) Uday Shankar
b) Anindita Neogy Anaam
c) Pandit Birju Maharaj
d) Shovana Narayan

Answer: b
• Internationally-acclaimed US-based Kathak dancer Anindita Neogy Anaam will be felicitated with the National Nritya Shiromani award for her preservation and promotion of Kathak dance in India and at a global level in a weeklong 10th International Dance and Music Festival at the Sarla Bhawan Art Centre in Cuttack

5) Which of the following organisations have launched Samwad to constantly engage youngsters across India to capture their scientific temperament?

a) DRDO
b) CSIR
c) ISRO
d) IISc

Answer: c
• As part of the enhanced outreach programme of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a new platform named “Samwad with Students” (SwS) was launched