Current Affairs for Competitive Examinations: November 4, 2022
Competitive exams like UPPSC, UGC NET, SBI, MPPSC and so on include a current affairs section in the question papers. Most candidates fail to clear the exam as they face difficulty in attempting this section of the question paper. However, scoring well in this section becomes easy if the candidates keep themselves updated with the news around the world.
Our Embibe specialists have curated the latest events from around the world and are included in this article.
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Current Affairs: Science and Technology
Smiling Sun
Recently, the NASASun Twitter handle shared an image of the sun seemingly ‘smiling’. Captured by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory, the image has dark patches on the sun’s surface resembling eyes and a smile.
NASA explained that the patches are called coronal holes, which can be seen in ultraviolet light but are typically invisible to our eyes.
What Are Coronal Holes?
These are regions on the sun’s surface from where fast solar wind gushes out into space.
Because they contain little solar material, they have lower temperatures and thus appear much darker than their surroundings.
Coronal holes can last between a few weeks to months.
The holes are not a unique phenomenon, appearing throughout the sun’s approximately 11-year solar cycle.
Significance of Coronal Holes:
While it is unclear what causes coronal holes, they correlate to areas on the sun where magnetic fields soar up and away without looping back down to the surface as they do elsewhere.
Scientists study these fast solar wind streams because they sometimes interact with the earth’s magnetic field, creating what’s called a geomagnetic storm, which can expose satellites to radiation and interfere with communications signals.
This phenomenon showed the sun spewing vast solar wind streams, capable of triggering a mild solar storm on earth.
What Happens During a Geomagnetic Storm?
Geomagnetic storms relate to earth’s magnetosphere – the space around a planet that is influenced by its magnetic field.
When a high-speed solar stream arrives at the earth, in certain circumstances, it can allow energetic solar wind particles to hit the atmosphere over the poles.
Such geomagnetic storms cause a major disturbance of the magnetosphere as there is a very efficient exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding earth.
Question:
Recently, NASA shared an image of the “smiling sun”, which is a phenomenon associated with
A. Solar prominences
B. Solar flares
C. Radio wave flux
D. Coronal holes
Answer: D
Current Affairs: National
North India’s First Hyper-Scale Data Center
Uttar Pradesh CM recently inaugurated north India’s first hyper-scale data centre Yotta. Yotta D1 has been built at the cost of ₹5,000 crores and spread over an area of 3,00,000 square feet at the upcoming Data Centre Park in Greater Noida.
What Is a Data Centre?
Data Centre is a dedicated secure space within a centralised location where computing and networking equipment is concentrated for the purpose of collecting, storing, processing, distributing or allowing access to large amounts of data.
What Is This Used for?
It provides Network infrastructure (connects servers, etc., to end-user locations), Storage infrastructure (to store data), and Computing resources (to provide processing, memory, etc., that drive applications).
Rationale:
These data centres are required to protect digital sovereignty in the connected world.
The data centre will increase the data storage capacity of the country, which until now stood at 2%.
This is despite India having 650 million internet users in the world from India, using 20 per cent of data.
Question:
North India’s first hyper-scale data centre was recently inaugurated in which of the following cities?
A. Delhi
B. Noida
C. Chandigarh
D. Shimla
Answer: B
Current Affairs: Technology
Lab Grown Diamonds
Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal appreciated the Gujarat Government for spearheading several wide-ranging initiatives to promote the Lab Grown Diamonds Sector.
What Are Lab-Grown Diamonds?
The only difference between lab-grown and natural diamonds is that instead of digging the earth, it is created in a lab under a machine.
Lab-made diamonds are developed from a carbon seed placed in a microwave chamber and superheated into a glowing plasma ball.
The process creates particles that crystallise into diamonds in weeks.
Types:
There are two types of lab-grown diamonds–CVD and HPHT.
India particularly specialises and leads in the chemical vapour decomposition (CVD) technology certified as the purest type of diamond.
Facts:
Nine out of 10 diamonds in the world are estimated to be polished in Surat. Currently, 25-30 per cent of diamond polishing units in Surat service lab-grown diamonds.
India alone witnessed a sharp rise in lab-grown diamond exports worth $443 million, which rose 102 per cent year-on-year.
Question:
Which of the following in India is the largest producer of Lab Grown Diamonds?
A. Mumbai
B. Ahmedabad
C. Surat
D. Pune
Answer: C
Current Affairs: International
WHO Releases First-Ever List of Fungal Infections
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published a report highlighting the first-ever list of fungal “priority pathogens” – a catalogue of the 19 fungi that represent the greatest threat to public health.
What Is Fungal Priority Pathogens List?
The FPPL is the first global effort to systematically prioritise fungal pathogens, considering the unmet research and development (R&D) needs and the perceived public health importance.
It includes 19 fungi that represent the greatest threat to human health. The UN body warned that some strains are increasingly drug-resistant and are growing at an alarming rate.
Emerging from the shadows of the bacterial antimicrobial resistance pandemic, fungal infections are growing and are ever more resistant to treatments, becoming a public health concern worldwide.
Three Priority Categories:
The WHO FPPL list is divided into three categories: critical, high and medium priority.
The critical group includes Candida auris, which is highly drug-resistant and has caused a number of outbreaks in hospitals worldwide, as well as Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Candida albicans.
The high group includes a number of other fungi from the Candida family as well as others such as Mucorales, a group containing the fungi that cause mucormycosis or “black fungus”, an infection which rose rapidly in seriously ill people–particularly in India–during COVID-19.
The medium group lists a number of other fungi, including Coccidioides spp and Cryptococcus gattii.
Who Is at Greater Risk?
The invasive forms of these fungal infections often affect severely ill patients and those with significant underlying immune system-related conditions.
Populations at the greatest risk of invasive fungal infections include those with cancer, HIV/AIDS, organ transplants, chronic respiratory disease, and post-primary tuberculosis infection.
Question:
WHO releases the first-ever list of fungal infections divided into how many priority categories?
A. One
B. Two
C. Three
D. Four
Answer: C
Current Affairs: Agriculture
Glyphosate
The Centre has officially restricted the use of the widely used herbicide, glyphosate, fearing risk to human and animal health.
From now, glyphosate will be applied only through pest control operators (PCOs).
PCOs are licensed to use deadly chemicals for treating pests such as rodents.
What is Glyphosate?
Glyphosate is a broad-spectrum systemic herbicide and crop desiccant.
It is an organophosphorus compound, specifically a phosphonate, which acts by inhibiting the plant enzyme 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase.
It is used to kill weeds, especially annual broadleaf weeds and grasses that compete with crops.
Glyphosate has been majorly used in tea plantations in India, where it is applied to control herbicides. The chemical is also used on non-crop areas to control unwanted growth.
These include areas alongside irrigation channels, railway sidings, fallow land, bunds, farm borders, parks, industrial and military premises, airports, power stations, etc.
The use of glyphosate rose manifold once Ht BT cotton started getting cultivated illegally in India.
Fact:
Glyphosate is already banned in some countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer published a study in 2015 that said glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
Question:
The Indian government has officially restricted the use of which of the following widely used herbicides, fearing risk to human and animal health?
A. 2, 4-D
B. Carfentrazone
C. Glyphosate
D. Durango
Answer: C
Current Affairs: Environment and Ecology
Amur Falcon Hunting Banned in Manipur
The hunting, killing and sale of Amur falcons have been banned by the district magistrates of Tamenglong and Senapati districts in Manipur, with the orders issued on 29th October.
About Amur Falcons?
The migratory birds, which summer in Siberia, Mongolia and East China between May and September, arrive in Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in October, with over two lakh coming to Manipur alone.
At the end of November, they leave for their winter home in South Africa, where they stay till April.
Locally this bird is known as Akhuipuina.
Laws Related to The Hunting of Migratory Birds:
The Manipur Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972: “The Act has made it clear that these migratory birds cannot be hunted, sold or killed. Those who disobey it will be pulled up”.
The migratory bird is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and included under Schedule IV.
Hunting of the birds or possessing their meat is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years or a fine of up to ₹5,000.
IUCN – Least Concern
Question:
Which of the following northeastern states recently banned hunting the migratory Amur falcons?
A. Arunachal Pradesh
B. Manipur
C. Assam
D. Tripura
Answer: B
Current Affairs: National
Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) Asia Pacific Conference
Goa hosts the three-day Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) Conference from 1st to 3rd November 2022.
Detail:
Across the three days, delegates and exhibitors from the Asia Pacific region and beyond will be discussing and collaborating on the key issues that will help shape the future of Asia’s aviation industry and turn the Complete Air Traffic System(CATS) Global Council’s vision for the skies of 2045 into a reality.
Conference also covers digitalisation and automation as key enablers in delivering CANSO’s vision for future skies.
Delegates will also be able to view first-hand some of the cutting-edge technology that will help modernise Air Traffic Management in the region.
CANSO – the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation – is the global voice of the air traffic management (ATM) industry and is shaping our future skies.
Its members support over 90% of the world’s air traffic and include air navigation service providers, airspace users and operators, manufacturers and aviation industry suppliers.
CANSO looks at global Air Traffic Management performance by connecting the industry to share knowledge, expertise and innovation.
About the Airports Authority of India:
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is responsible for the provision of Air Navigation Services over the Indian continental airspace and adjoining oceanic airspace, delegated to India by ICAO.
Question:
The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) Conference for 2022 is being organised in which state/UT?
A. Delhi
B. Goa
C. Pondicherry
D. Rajasthan
Answer: B
Current Affairs: Defence
Ballistic Missile Defence Interceptor
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted a successful maiden flight-test of Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptor AD-1 missile with a large kill altitude bracket from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha on November 02, 2022.
The flight-test was carried out with the participation of all BMD weapon system elements located at different geographical locations.
About The Missile:
The AD-1 (Air Defence) is a long-range interceptor missile designed for both low exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.
The missile is propelled by a two-stage solid motor and equipped with an indigenously developed advanced control system and a navigation and guidance algorithm to precisely guide the vehicle to the targets that move at very high speeds.
Facts:
The development of anti-ballistic missiles is said to have started by the DRDO around the 2000s in view of the development of ballistic assets by Pakistan and China.
Phase-1 of the programme is said to have been completed towards the end of the 2010s and consisted of the advanced air defence systems and air defence systems based on the Prithvi missile.
The second phase, according to sources, focuses on the development of anti-ballistic defence systems like the US’s Theatre High-Altitude Area Defence system, which can neutralise intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
The AD-II, capable of neutralising missiles of even higher ranges, is also said to be under development.
Question:
AD-1 (Air Defence) missile, developed and tested by DRDO, is a/an
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