UPSC Quiz – 2024 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 30th September 2024

·       It is also considered the longest river to exclusively flow within the borders of a single nation.

·       Its basin drains an area of 698,265 square miles (1,808,500 sq.km).

·       It is located on the Yangtze River in China’s Hubei Province.

·       It is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station.

·       The dam was completed in 2012 after nearly two decades of construction.

·       Its staggering dimensions—2,335 metres (7,660 feet) long and 185 metres (607 feet) high—make it the largest dam ever built.

·       The dam’s reservoir has a capacity of 40 cubic kilometres (about 10 trillion gallons) of water, which can produce up to22,500 megawatts of electricity.

·       Beyond its hydroelectric capabilities, the dam is intended to increase the Yangtze River’s shipping capacity and reduce the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space.

·       More than three-fourths of the river’s course runs through mountains.

·       The Yangtze has eight principal tributaries. On its left bank, from source to mouth, these are the Yalung, Min, Jialing, and Han rivers; those on the right bank include the Wu, Yuan, Xiang, and Gan rivers.

·       It is a ribbon of land about 14 kms in length and 100 metres wide along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

·       It was designated as a demilitarised border zone after the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and troops from Gaza in 2005 and runs from the Mediterranean to the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.

·       The Corridor was originally established under the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty as a 100-meter-wide buffer zone.

·       The zone was later expanded beginning during the Second Intifada to be several hundred meters wide. It covers the entire 8.7-mile-long border.

·       The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is within the Philadelphi Corridor.

·       In 2005, as part of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, Egypt and Israel signed an agreement by which Egypt would secure the border between Egypt and Gaza to prevent the smuggling of weapons into the Strip.

·       Egypt maintains a one-kilometer-wide buffer zone on its side of the border, with plans to expand it.

·       It is annually published by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

·       It is a reliable tool for governments across the world to assess the innovation-led social and economic changes in their respective countries.

·       Top performer: Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, Singapore and the United Kingdom

·       Fastest 10-year climbers: China, Turkiye, India, Vietnam and the Philippines.

India’s Performance

·       India has been on a rising trajectory, over the past several years in the Global Innovation Index (GII), from a rank of 81 in 2015 to 40 in 2023.

·       India’s strengths lie in key indicators such as  Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services exports (at 1st place, globally), venture capital received and intangible asset intensity.

·       India’s unicorn companies also secure the country the 8th rank globally.

·       Volcanoes with enigmatic type of eruptions are unusually rich in iron.

·       Iron-rich magma found in extinct volcanoes could be a potent source of rare earth elements.

·       Ol Doinyo Lengai is an active volcano that erupts the runniest lava on Earth.

·       Ol Doinyo Lengai, situated in Tanzania is the only volcano that expels carbonatite lavais in the world.

·       There are records of Ol Doinyo Lengai eruptions going back to the 1880s, and the volcano has been periodically active ever since.

·       Carbonatite is extremely thin and saturated with alkali elements such as calcium and sodium.

·       It is a native to India and is an important food legume crop in the peninsular region.

·       The cultivation of horse gram is predominantly concentrated in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

·       It is a pulse crop that can thrive in rain-fed and semi-arid conditions, making it a valuable asset for small-scale farmers.

·       The leguminous plant enriches the soil organic carbon content and supports the growth of the succeeding crop.

·       It is a source of protein (17.9– 25.3 %), carbohydrates (51.9–60.9 %), essential amino acids, energy, low content of lipid (0.58–2.06 %), iron, phosphorus, iron and vitamins such as carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin C.

·       Horse gram has antioxidant and osmolyte biosynthesis qualities which makes it a sturdy crop to thrive in extreme heat and long periods of drought.

·       It has a dual function protein that exhibits both lectin and lipoxygenase-like functions that enhances pests and pathogens resistance characteristics of horse gram.

·       Due to the presence of beneficial bioactive compounds, horse gram possesses anti-diabetic and anti-ulcer qualities and helps in controlling obesity.