UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 21st JULY 2021

Solution (d)

Pagasus spyware:

• It is a spyware tool developed by an Israeli firm, the NSO Group. Pegasus works by sending an exploit link, and if the target user clicks on the link, the malware or the code that allows the surveillance is installed on the user’s phone. 
• Once Pegasus is installed, the attacker has complete access to the target user’s phone.
• Pegasus infections can be achieved through so-called “zero-click” attacks, which do not require any interaction from the phone’s owner in order to succeed.
• Human Rights activists, journalists and lawyers around the world have been targeted with phone malware sold to authoritarian governments by an Israeli surveillance firm.

Budapest Convention:

• It is the first international treaty seeking to address Internet and computer crime (cybercrime) by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques, and increasing cooperation among nations. 
• Since it entered into force, important countries like Brazil and India have declined to adopt the Convention on the grounds that they did not participate in its drafting. 
• It is the first multilateral legally binding instrument to regulate cybercrime. 
• Since 2018, India has been reconsidering its stand on the Convention after a surge in cybercrime, though concerns about sharing data with foreign agencies remain

Article Link: How Pegasus infects

Solution (a)

Manas: 

• It is a national park, UNESCO Natural World Heritage site, a Project Tiger reserve, an elephant reserve and a biosphere reserve in Assam.
• Located in the Himalayan foothills, it is contiguous with the Royal Manas National Park in Bhutan.
• The park is known for its rare and endangered endemic wildlife such as the Assam roofed turtle, hispid hare, golden langur and pygmy hog.

Bannerghatta: 

• It is a national park located near Bangalore in Karnataka.
• It was founded in 1970 and declared as a national park in 1974.
• The park is part of a wildlife corridor for elephants which connects the Biligiriranga Hills and the Sathyamangalam forest.

Keoladeo: 

• It is located in Bharatpur, Rajasthan. It was declared national park in 1982.
• It is a famous avifauna sanctuary that hosts thousands of birds, especially during the winter season. Over 350 species of birds are known to be resident.
• It is also a World Heritage Site.

Article Link: Nil to 48 in 20 years; Assam’s Manas sees amazing rise in tiger numbers

Solution (b)

The Mid Day Meal Scheme was launched in the year 1995 as a centrally sponsored scheme. It comes under the Ministry of Education.

The objective of this scheme is to enhance the enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improve nutritional levels among school going children studying in Classes I to VIII of Government, Government – aided schools, Special Training centres (STC) and Madarasas and Maktabs supported under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The scheme provides that every child within the age group of six to fourteen years studying in classes I to VIII who enrolls and attends the school, shall be provided hot cooked meal.

The scheme guidelines envisage to provide cooked mid-day meal with 450 calories and 12 g of protein to every child at primary level and 700 calories and 20 g of protein at upper primary level. This energy and protein requirement for a primary child comes from cooking 100 g of rice/flour, 20 g pulses and 50 g vegetables and 5 g oil, and for an upper primary child it comes from 150 g of rice/flour, 30 g of pulses and 75 g of vegetables and 7.5 g of oil.

Article Link: Midday meals leave a long-lasting impact: study

Solution (c)

Monkfruit is a herbaceous perennial vine of the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. It is native to southern China and northern Thailand.

The monk fruit (siraitia grosvenorii), is known now throughout the world for its intensely sweet taste, and it has been used as a non-caloric natural sweetener. 

The sweet taste of monk fruit results primarily from the content of a group of cucurbitane-type triterpene glycosides known as mogrosides, and the extracted mixture of mogrosides is about 300 times sweeter than sucrose or cane sugar. 

The purified mogroside, has been approved as a high-intensity sweetening agent in Japan and the non-caloric sweet taste extract is a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) non-nutritive sweetener, flavour enhancer, and food ingredient in the USA.

The demand for monk fruit is gradually increasing in the international market. In spite of high demand, this crop is cultivated only in China. However, suitable agroclimatic conditions are available in India, particularly in Himachal Pradesh.

Article Link: India’s first monk fruit cultivation exercise begins in HP’s Kullu

Solution (b)

Bonalu is a Telangana traditional Hindu festival centered on the Goddess Mahakali.

It is celebrated in the month of Ashada Masam, which is around July and/or August. Special “poojas” (worship) are performed for Yellamma (one of the many regional forms of Mahakali) on the first and last day of the festival.

The festival is also considered a thanksgiving to the Goddess for fulfillment of vows.

Article Link: Temple committee from Hyderabad offers Bonalu to Goddess Kanaka Durga