UPSC 2017: Weekly GK and Current Affairs Quiz Jun 11 - 17

Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus) are also called white scavenger vulture or pharaoh’s chicken and are the smallest among all vultures. They are a globally endangered species on the IUCN Red List.

• The High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation (KEK) completed the much-awaited ‘rolling-in’ of the Belle-II experiment in Tsukuba, Japan,
• Belle-II is designed to study violations of the Standard Model of particle physics.

Pneumonia alone accounts for 18-19% of deaths of children under-5 years of age. While 25% of these deaths are caused by Hib pneumonia— addressed by pentavalent vaccine already under UIP—50% of the pneumonia related deaths are from pneumococcal pneumonia.PCV – Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine vaccine is going to target pneumococcal pneumonia.

Pentavalent vaccine- The pentavalent vaccine is a combination of DPT (diphtheria, Pertussis/whooping cough and tetanus), Hepatitis B and Hib vaccines. DPT and Hepatitis B vaccines are already a part of the immunisation programme. They are being replaced by pentavalent vaccine in a phased manner in the country.

Tabo Monastery is located in the Tago village of Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh.

• Other modes of transmission such as blood transfusion are being investigated.
• Zika virus is primarily transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito from the Aedes genus, mainly Aedes aegypti in tropical regions.
• Aedes mosquitoes usually bite during the day, peaking during early morning and late afternoon/evening.
• This is the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
• Sexual transmission of Zika virus is also possible.

• The Agaria are a Muslim community found in the state of Gujarat in India.

• ISRO bagged Indira Gandhi Prize for 2014

Babur has written his biography i.e. Baburnama which is also known as Tuzk-e Babri. Babur and Jahangir are the only two emperors of Mughal Empire who wrote their own biographies. Baburnama is also known to be the first true autobiography in the Islamic literature. Baburnama was written in Chagatai Turkic, which was Babur’s mother tongue.

Irrawaddy Dolphin

• Irrawaddv Dolplin is not a true river dolphin, but an oceanic dolphin that lives in brackish water near coasts, river mouths and in estuaries in South and Southeast Asia.
• It has established subpopulations in freshwater rivers, including the Ganges and the Mekong, as well as theIrrawaddv River fron which it takes its name.
• Its habitat range extends from the Bay of Bengal to New Guinea and the Philippines.
• They do not appear to venture off shore.
• Protection Status: IUNC has classified it as Vulnerable in Red Data list.
• Threats: Fishing nets, developmental projects like construction of dams, tourism and diseases.

MIKE

• MIKE stands for Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants
• Comes tinder CITES
• It was started in South Asia in 2003 with the following objective:
  • To measure levels and trends in illegal hunting of elephants.
  • To determine changes in these trends overtime.
  • To determine the factors causing or associated with these clanges and to try and assess in particular to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.
• In India, Project Elephant has been formally implementing MIKE.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on June 8-9, 2017. In this summit, India and Pakistan will become full members of the organization. The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and military organisation which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It is mainly aimed at military cooperation between the members and involves intelligence- sharing, counter-terrorism operations in Central Asia. Afghanistan, Belarus, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan have observer status.

Nilgai

• It is also called bluebuck
• It is the largest Asian antelope (family Bovidae).
• The nilgai is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent.
• It is the only one of the four Indian antelopes that is still abundant.
• It is the largest of all Asian antelopes and is one of the most commonly seen wild animals in all of India.
• IUCN Status: Least Concern

The Representation of the People Act and the FCRA bar political parties from receiving foreign funds.

• Not only does India shoulder the highest TB burden in the world, with over 2 million of the 10 million reported cases, it also accounts for the most drug-resistant patients — nearly 1.3 lakh people who do not respond to first-line drugs.
• Multidrug Resistant-Tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a version of the disease where patients do not respond to first-line drugs
• Bedaquiline and Delamanid are to be made available in India’s national healthcare system.

The overreaching vision of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) is to ensure access to some means of protective irrigation to all agricultural farms in the country, to produce ‘per drop more crop’, thus bringing much desired rural prosperity.

Topic: In a Safe Lane- The Hindu
There is some concern that the move to amend Motor vehicle Act overly emphasizes the concurrent jurisdiction of the center at the cost of State powers ,but the proposed changes comes after a long consultation exercise.

GBD is based out of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

• Bosphorus Strait that divides the continents of Europe and Asia in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul.
• The Bosphorus is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey.

Emiliania huxleyi

• One of the most successful life-forms on the planet, Emiliania huxleyi is a single-celled organism visible only under a microscope.
• Its astonishing adaptability enables it to thrive in waters from the equator to the sub-Arctic.
• Emiliania huxleyi is a species of coccolithophore (phytoplankton).
• This particular organism is plated with white calcium carbonate and, when present in large numbers, tend to turn the water a milky sheen.

The TIR Convention establishes an international customs transit system with maximum facility to move goods:

• In sealed vehicles or containers;
• From a customs office of departure in one country to a customs office of destination in another country;
• Without requiring extensive and time-consuming border checks at intermediate borders;
• While, at the same time, providing customs authorities with the required security and guarantees.

The TIR system not only covers customs transit by road but a combination is possible with other modes of transport (e.g., rail, inland waterway, and even maritime transport), as long as at least one part of the total transport is made by road.

Current Account – It deals with current, ongoing, short term transactions like trade in goods, services (invisible) etc. It reflects the nation’s net income.

For instance, if you a buy a laptop from US, it will be a current account transaction and it will be debit on current account as you have to pay to US.

There are 4 components of Current Account-

1. Goods – trade in goods
2. Services (invisible) – trade in services eg. tourism
3. Income – investment income
4. Current unilateral transfers – donations, gifts, grants, remittances

Components of Capital Account

1. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
2. Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI)
3. External Borrowings such as ECB
4. Reserve Account with the Central Bank