ENGLISH QUIZ 19.01.2020

1. The country’s first-of-its-kind a month-long exhibition on ‘Indian Heritage in Digital Space’ was inaugurated in which city of India?

A. New Delhi

B. Bengaluru

C. Hyderabad

D. Jaipur

2. Joint exercise of coastal guards “Sahyog-Kaijin” is between India and which county?

A. USA

B. Japan

C. Russia

D. France

3. To modernize Assam’s Ferry transport service on the Brahmaputra river the Government of Assam and Government of India has signed 88 million USD agreement with which organization?

A. Asian Development Bank (ADB)

B. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

C. World Bank (WB)

D. New Development Bank (NDB)

4. India’s high-power communication satellite GSAT-30 was successfully launched from which space station?

A. Satish Dhawan Space Center

B Space Application Center

C. Vikram Sarabhai Space Center

D. Indian Space Research Organization

5. Which Indian scientist has been awarded the “Merck Young Scientist Award 2019” for doing remarkable research in chemical science?

A. Shakya Sinha Sen

B. Bipul Bihari Saha

C. Shiv Prakash Singh

D. Divya Sharma

6. Which Railway Zone of the Indian Railways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with State Bank of India (SBI) for ‘doorstep banking’?

A. Central railway

B. South Central Railway

C. Northern Railway

D. North East Railway

7. Who is appointed as the Queen’s Counsel for courts of England & Wales?

A. V.k. Johri

B. Rajesh Ranjan

C. Harish Salve

D. Rajendr Singh

8. How many million dollar loan agreement was signed by World Bank and Government of India for the implementation of Assam Inland Water Transport Project?

A. 80 million

B. 83 million

C. 85 million

D. 88 million

9. Which state started red-listing of orchids?

A. Arunachal Pradesh

B. Uttar Pradesh

C. Madhya Pradesh

D. Rajasthan

10. Who has won gold medal in Rome Ranking Series?

A. Babita Phogat

B. Vinesh Phogat

C. Sakshi

D. None of these

11. Consider the following statements:

1. India to invite Imran Khan for Shanghai Council meet.

2. The 2019 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held at Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on 21-22 May 2019.

3. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)I was founded in June 2000 by China, Russia, and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A. 1 and 2 are correct

B. 1 and 3 are correct

C. 2 and 3 are correct

D. All of the above

12. Consider the following statements related to Bru refugees:

1. Bru refugees from Mizoram to settle down in Tripura,

2. A conflict with the majority Mizos in 1985 made influential organisations like the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (students’ union) demand that the Brus, labelled a non-indigenous tribe, be deleted from Mizoram’s electoral rolls.

3. The Brus community is also known as Reangs.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A. 1 and 2 are correct

B. 1 and 3 are correct

C. 2 and 3 are correct

D. All of the above

13. Consider the following statements:

1. World Health Organization has released a list of 13 urgent global health challenges for 2020.

2. World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.

Which of the above statement/statements are correct?

A. 1 only

B. 2 only

C. Both 1 and 2

D. Neither 1 nor 2

14. Consider the following statements related to Henley Passport Index 2020:

1. Global Risks Report 2020 has been released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

2. It is based on the work of the Global Risk Network; the report describes changes occurring in the global risks landscape from year to year and identifies global catastrophic risks.

3. This is the first time in the report’s 10-year-history that all of the top five issues that are likely to impact the world this year are environmental.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

A. 1 and 2 are correct

B. 1 and 3 are correct

C. 2 and 3 are correct

D. All of the above

15. Consider the following statements:

1. UN lowers India’s growth forecast for FY20 to 5.7%

2. It has also forecast a growth rate of 6.3 percent for the fiscal beginning in 2021.

Which of the above statement/statements are correct?

A. 1 only

B. 2 only

C. Both 1 and 2

D. Neither 1 nor 2

ANSWERS:-

Answer: 1) A

Explanation

The Union Minister Prahlad Singh Patel launched a month-long special exhibition ‘Indian Heritage in Digital Space’ and a first international heritage symposium in New Delhi. Visitors will be able to see the recreations of the socio-cultural life and traditions of Hampi, architectural and conjectural reconstructions of several important structures.

Indian Heritage in Digital Space:

• The visitors will be able to see the recreations of the socio-cultural life and traditions of Hampi, architectural and conjectural reconstructions of several important structures and experience demystification of many murals in the exhibition.
• The initiative of the use of technology in heritage is very important as it should not be limited to research only
• The exhibition aims to reach people in a way that they get a chance to know and understand the unseen aspects of heritage sites easily.
• It also introduces the history and features of heritage through the use of technology.
• A person who comes to the museum is guided by the use of technology so that it enriches their experience of the visit.
• This special exhibition showcase adaptation and infusion of technologies being developed under the Indian Digital  Heritage (IDH) initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India in the cultural heritage domain of the country.

Answer: 2) B

Explanation

Indo-Japan joint-exercise Sahyog-Kaijin began on 16 January 2020 at the Chennai port. This is the 19th edition of the exercise that is being conducted between the two Coast Guards. The exercise is aimed at further strengthening bilateral ties and mutual understanding between the two coast guards. It also aims to enhance interoperability in communication, search and rescue procedures and sharing of best practices.   During the exercise, various activities including official calls reciprocal visit onboard ships, sporting events like basketball matches, cultural interactions will be carried out. Professional interactions between personnel of both the coast guards will be organized. The exercise mainly focuses on search and rescue, anti-piracy and pollution response.

Chennai port

• Chennai Port is the second largest port in India after Mumbai Port.
• It is more than 125 years old.
• It was also the major travel port before becoming the main container port.
• Its container transportation in 2008 was over 1 million TEUs.
• It is currently ranked 91st largest container port in times to come.

Answer: 3) C

Explanation

The Government of India, the Government of Assam and the World Bank signed a loan agreement of $88 million here today to help modernize Assam’s passenger ferry sector that runs on its rivers including the mighty Brahmaputra. There are over 361 ferry routes across Brahmaputra river in Assam. These routes act as a crucial means of transport to 1000s of commuters in both rural and urban areas of the valley. The aim of Assam Inland Water Transport Project (AIWTP) is to help Assam improve its ferry infrastructure and strengthen institutions operating inland water transport. It also aims at introducing new and energy efficient vessels with least disturbance to nature. The project also includes cargo transport vessels in the route. The inland water transport is the most sustainable water transport for Assam. This is mainly because it provides low-cost and low-carbon options.

Inland Waterways

• Around 15 waterways are operating in Assam. They operate on rivers such as Barak, Beki, Lohit, Doyang, Kopili, Subansiri, Aai, Dihing, Dikihow, Puthimari, Gangadhar, Jinjiram and Tiwang. It is important to develop these water ways as they are connected to Bay of Bengal through the Brahmaputra and will help increase exports of locally produced goods of north east.

Answer: 4) D

Explanation

GSAT-30: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch ‘GSAT-30’ from French Guiana on January 17, 2020. The launch of the communication satellite will be ISRO’s first satellite launch of the year 2020. The satellite with an approximate weight of 3357 kg will have a mission life of more than 15 years. GSAT 30 will serve as a replacement to INSAT-4A spacecraft services with enhanced coverage. The satellite will be launched along with the European Space Company’s telecommunication satellite- Eutelsat Konnect.

GSAT 30: All you need to know

• The Indian space agency is collaborating with the European aerospace company Arianespace to launch GSAT-30 communication satellite.
• The satellite will be launched along with the European Space Company’s telecommunication satellite- Eutelsat Konnect.
• The launch will mark Ariane V launch vehicle’s 107th flight. The launch vehicle will first place the GSAT-30 in its designated orbit, followed by the release of Konnect. The full mission is expected to last for about 38 minutes and 25 seconds.
• GSAT 30 is India’s communication satellite, which has been configured to provide communication services from geostationary orbit in C and Ku bands.

Answer: 5) A

Explanation

A senior scientist Sakya Singha Sen from National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) Pune, has been awarded “Merck Young Scientist Award 2019” for doing remarkable research in chemical science. Sen and his research team specializes in main group chemistry and involves in the synthesis of compounds with main group element and their catalytic application. All the catalysts currently used mostly belong to precious metals platinum, palladium, iridium etc. These are very expensive and their abundance in the earth is very less. Merck is a science and technology company operating worldwide.Merck Young Scientist Award is given to researchers with less than ten years of experience with expertise in solving some of the toughest problems in chemical sciences.

Answer: 6) B

Explanation

The South Central Railways (SCR) zone of the Indian Railways has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and State Bank of India(SBI) for providing doorstep banking services in 585 Railway Stations of the South Central Railway Zone. According to the signed MoU, SBI will be providing direct pickup of cash facility from the 585 Railway Stations under the Zone i.e Doorstep Banking from all the railway stations on South Central Railway Zone will enable bother free collection of traffic earnings by State Bank of India and will avoid delay in transmission of traffic cash earnings. Apart from the increasing step of financial transactions and digitization on payment of cash earnings of the Indian Railways, the newly introduced facility of doorstep banking will lower the difficulties faced earlier by the Railway Authorities.

Answer: 7) C

Explanation

Senior Advocate Harish Salve has been appointed the Queen’s Counsel for the courts of England and Wales. This was announced by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Justice Department. The title of Queen’s Counsel is usually awarded to lawyers possessing demonstrated skill and expertise in the conduct of advocacy. Advocate Salve served as a Solicitor General for India until 2002.He is known for representing India before the International Court of Justice in the Kulbhushan Jadhav extradition case.

Answer: 8) D

Explanation

The Government of India, the Government of Assam and the World Bank signed a loan agreement of $88 million here to help modernize Assam’s passenger ferry sector that runs on its rivers including the mighty Brahmaputra. A majority of Assam’s more than 361 ferry routes cross the Brahmaputra or serve its islands, providing a crucial means of transport to thousands of commuters in both the urban and rural areas of the Brahmaputra Valley. The Assam Inland Water Transport Project (AIWTP) will help Assam improve the passenger ferry infrastructure and its services and strengthen the capacity of the institutions running the inland water transport. The Assam Inland Water Transport Project will help develop a modern, efficient and safe river transport system for the large volume of passengers and cargo carried by the vessels. Assam has the largest network of navigable waterways in India.

Answer: 9) A

Explanation

Arunachal has become the first state in the country to initiate the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) ‘red listing’ at the state level after it inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the IUCN.As per the MoU, the state government will collaborate with the IUCN in carrying out red-list assessment of the orchids in the state. The IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. The project will be spread across 12 months, during which workshops on red list assessment will be conducted by experts from the IUCN.

International Union for Conservation of Nature : Headquarters: Gland, Switzerland

CEO: Grethel Aguilar

Answer: 10) B

Explanation

Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat won the first gold medal of the 2020 season at the Rome Ranking Series event in Rome on January 17, 2020. Vinesh downed two tough Chinese rivals on her way to the 53kg gold medal bout in which she overpowered Ecuador’s Luisa Elizabeth Valverde 4-0. She won by technical superiority against Khrystyna Bereza (10-0) and Lannuan Luo (15-5) before getting the better of Qianyu Pang (4-2).

Answer: 11) A

Explanation

Recently the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will be invited to participate in the Heads of Government Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that will be hosted in India 2020. The 2019 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held at Bishkek (Kyrgyz Republic) on 21-22 May 2019.

About Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)

• It was founded in June 2001 by China, Russia, and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
• It aimed to cooperate against non-traditional security challenges, in particular fighting the so-called “three evils” of terrorism, separatism, and extremism.
• Unsurprisingly, the decision to accept both India and Pakistan as full member states in 2017 was received with scepticism by experts both inside and outside the region.
• The fact that the SCO also strives to strengthen mutual trust and good neighbourly relations between its member states.
• Since becoming a full-time member of the SCO in 2017, both India and Pakistan have participated in multiple meetings of SCO and the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) despite hostilities and tension in Kashmir.
• The official working languages of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation are Chinese and Russian.

About Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure

• It is a permanent organ of the SCO which serves to promote cooperation of member states against the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism.
• It’s headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan,
• The Head of RATS is elected to a three-year term. Each member state also sends a permanent representative to RATS.

Answer: 12) B

Explanation

Union Home Minister has presided over the signing of a quadripartite pact of the MHA with the State governments of Tripura, Mizoram and leaders of Bru community to permanently settle to internally displaced Bru people in Tripura.

About the Bru people

• The Brus community is also known as Reangs.
• These people are scattered across the states of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura.
• In the state of Mizoram, they inhabit small pockets of Mamit, Lunglei and Lawngtlai districts.
• However, the biggest chunk is in Mamit bordering North Tripura district of Tripura.

What is the conflict between the Mizos and the Brus?

• A conflict with the majority Mizos in 1995 made influential organisations like the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (students’ union) demand that the Brus, labelled a non-indigenous tribe, be deleted from Mizoram’s electoral rolls.
• This led to an armed movement by the extremist Bru National Liberation Front, which killed a Mizo forest official on October 21, 1997.
• Many Bru villages were burnt down and allegedly raped and killed.
• Thousands of Brus fled to North Tripura where they were given shelter in six relief camps, three each in the Kanchanpur and Panisagar subdivisions.
• Most of the refugees were from Mamit and a few from Kolasib and Lunglei.

Answer: 13) C

Explanation

The World Health Organization has released a list of 13 urgent global health challenges for 2020.A new entrant to the list of 13 potential threats is the lack of access.

These 13 potential threats/challenges are:

1. Climate Crisis
2. Delivering Health in Conflict and Crisis
3. Healthcare Equality
4. Expanding Access to Medicines
5. Infectious Diseases
6. Preparing for Epidemics
7. Earning Public Trust
8. Harnessing New Technologies such as genome editing and artificial intelligence.
9. Rise of Antimicrobial Resistance
10. Dangerous Products like unsafe food, and unhealthy diets
11. Investing in People Who Defend Our Health
12. Keeping Teens Safe as more than one million adolescents aged 10 to 19 years die every year
13. Clean Water, Sanitation, Hygiene as about one in four health facilities globally lack basic water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services.

About World Health Organization

• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.
• It’s headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group.

Answer: 14) D

Explanation

The Global Risks Report 2020 has been released by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

About the Global Risks Report

• It is based on the work of the Global Risk Network; the report describes changes occurring in the global risks landscape from year to year and identifies global catastrophic risks.
• This is the first time in the report’s 10-year-history that all of the top five issues that are likely to impact the world this year are environmental.

Top 10 risks by likelihood as per the latest report:

1. Extreme weather events.
2. Failure of climate change mitigation and adaption.
3. Major natural disasters.
4. A massive incident of data fraud/theft.
5. Large scale cyber-attacks.
6. Man-made environmental damage and disasters.
7. Large-scale involuntary migration.
8. Major Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse.
9. Water crises.
10. Asset bubbles in a major economy.

Highlights of the report

• The “top five global risks in terms of likelihood” in the next 10 years were:
• Extreme weather events with major damage to property, infrastructure and loss of human life.
• Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation by governments and businesses.
• Human-made environmental damage and disasters, including environmental crime, such as oil spills and radioactive contamination.
• Major Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse with irreversible consequences for the environment, resulting in severely depleted resources for humankind as well as industries.
• In the previous decade, economic and financial crises were some of the most dangerous.
• The report states that global temperatures are set to rise by 3°C toward the end of this century.
• This is “twice what climate experts have warned is the limit to avoid the most severe economic, social and environmental consequences”.

Answer: 15) C

Explanation

United Nations World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) 2020 has lowered its GDP growth estimate for India to 5.7 per cent in the current fiscal (from 7.6 per cent forecast in WESP 2019) and lowered its forecast for the next fiscal to 6.6 per cent (from 7.4 percent earlier). It has also forecast a growth rate of 6.3 percent for the fiscal beginning in 2021. According to the UN study, one in five countries will see per capita income stagnate or decline this year, but listed India among few countries where the per capita GDP growth rate could exceed 4 percent level in 2020.