Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Gravitational lensing occurs when a huge amount of matter - a galaxy cluster, for example - creates a gravitational field that magnifies light from objects behind it.
• The Milky Way today forms the equivalent of one Sun every year, but in the past, that rate was up to 100 times greater. NASA now plans to look billions of years into the past in order to understand how our Sun formed.
• The NASA program aimed at using gravitational lensing via its James Webb telescope(scheduled to launch in 2021) is called Targeting Extremely Magnified Panchromatic Lensed Arcs and Their Extended Star Formation (TEMPLATES). So, both the given statements are correct.

Source:Civil Services Chronicle Online

Explanation :

• The 28^th BASIC Ministerial meeting on Climate Change was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil between 14 -16 August, 2019.
• These countries expressed their concern for climate change and its adverse effects. They reaffirmed their commitment to the successful implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change-UNFCCC, its Kyoto Protocol and its Paris Agreement,based on the recognition of the needs and special circumstances of developing countries.

BASIC Countries

• The BASIC countries-Brazil, South Africa, India and China are a bloc of four large newly industrialized countries formed by an agreement in November, 2009.
• These nations have a common position on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and raising the massive funds that are needed to fight climate change.
• These four countries put together has one-third of world’s geographical area and nearly 40% of the world’s population.

Source: Civil Services Chronicle Online

Explanation :

• On 19^th August, 2019, Iceland unveiled a plaque to its Okjokull ice sheet, the first of the country’s hundreds of glaciers to melt away due to climate change. It is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier
• A ceremony to unveil the plaque was attended by scientists and locals at the glacier in west-central Iceland, which in 2014 no longer fulfilled the criteria to be classified as a glacier after melting throughout the 20^th century. 
• To have the status of a glacier, the mass of ice and snow must be thick enough to move by its own weight. For that to happen, the mass must be approximately 40 to 50metres (130 to 165 feet) thick.
• Iceland’s Vatnajokull National Park, which was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in July, 2019, is home to, and named after, the largest ice cap in Europe.

Source: Civil Services Chronicle Online

Explanation :

• On 17^th July, 2019, WHO declared  Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which surfaced in August 2018, an international emergency.
• The declaration raises the outbreak’s visibility and public health officials hope it will awaken the global community to combat the spread of the fatal disease.
• The outbreak, the second largest in history, started in August 2018 and is affecting two provinces in DR Congo - North Kivu and Ituri.

Ebola Virus:

• The genus Ebolavirus is a virological taxon included in the family Filoviridae. The members of this genus are called ebolaviruses.
• There are six known ebolavirus strain according to the regions: Sudan, Tai Forest, Bundibugyo, Reston,Zaire and Bombali ebolavirus.
• The Zaire Ebolavirusis the most dangerous of the six ebolavirus species which are the causative agents of Ebola virus disease.
• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a rare but severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• Ebola is considered a zoonotic virus, meaning that it originated in animals and then spread to humans.

Source: Civil Services Chronicle Online

Explanation :

• The report of the panel on 'Offshore Rupee Market' headed by former RBI deputy governor Usha Thorat has been made public on 8^th August, 2019.
• The panel was set up by the RBI in February, 2019, to examine the issues related to the offshore rupee markets in depth and recommend appropriate policy measures for incentivizing non-residents to access the onshore foreign exchange market.
• It has recommended that the "competent authorities may examine the issue of taxation" with the objective of overcoming gaps between tax regime in India and other major international financial centres (Singapore, Hong Kong and London) to the extent possible, and thereby incentivising non-residents to hedge in the onshore market.
• Another major suggestion is that the know Your Customer(KYC) registration may be centralised across the financial market with uniform documentation requirement.

Source: Civil Services Chronicle Online

Explanation :

Explanation:

• The corridor- often dubbed as the “Road to Peace” is underway construction over River Ravi and will connect Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur (Narowal district) with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India (Gurdaspur district).
• The construction of the corridor will allow visa-free access to pilgrims from India.
• Kartarpur Sahib was established in 1522 by Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev.
• India is intended for making the corridor operational in November 2019, given the historic importance of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.
• India had first proposed Kartarpur Sahib Corridor in 1999 when then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took bus ride to Lahore.

Explanation :

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is an international body set up by the terms of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), which was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on December 2, 1946. In 1982, the IWC adopted a moratorium on commercial whaling. Currently, Japan, Russia, and a number of other nations oppose this moratorium.

Explanation :

Commonly known as paddy frogs, this is the first known species of this genus was originally described from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Micryletta aishani is currently endemic to Northeast India but it could very well be present in the neighboring regions of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Explanation :

El Salvador has, in a historic move, recognised forests as living entities. Its citizens, will now be required to preserve forests.

Explanation :

There are some cases where the land gets damaged because of natural disasters, including drought and Tsunami. In those cases, there isn’t a lot that people can do except work to try and help rehabilitate the land after it has already been damaged by nature.