Current Affairs Quiz Today – 06th Jan 2021

ANS: (D) 1, 2 and 3

Explanation:

• The GCC is a regional grouping of six countries surrounding the Persian Gulf i.e, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
• Its headquarters is located at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• It is a political and economic union consisting of all Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except for Iraq.

ANS: (B) 2 only

Explanation

• The Ministry of Railways has launched an exclusive portal to promote and develop the railways’ freight business – Freight Business Development Portal.
• Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) starts at Sahnewal (Ludhiana) in Punjab and ends at Dankuni in West Bengal. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • The EDFC route has coal mines, thermal power plants and industrial cities. Feeder routes are also being made for these.
  • The EDFC route covers Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
  • The World Bank is funding a majority of the EDFC.
• The Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) is around 1,500-km. WDFC starts from Dadri in Uttar Pradesh to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Mumbai, touching all major ports along the way. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The WDFC covers Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
  • It is being funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

ANS: (C) Both 1 and 2

Explanation

• The Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) is an integral part of the global waterbird monitoring programme, the International Waterbird Census (IWC), coordinated by Wetlands International.
  • The AWC is jointly coordinated by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Wetlands International. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• It was initiated in 1987 in the Indian subcontinent and has grown rapidly to cover major regions of Asia, from Afghanistan eastwards to Japan, Southeast Asia and Australasia.
• The census covers the entire East Asian – Australasian Flyway and a large part of the Central Asian Flyway. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  • The East Asia – Australasia Flyway extends from Arctic Russia and North America to the southern limits of Australia and New Zealand. It encompasses large parts of East Asia, all of Southeast Asia and includes eastern India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  • The Central Asian Flyway (CAF) covers a large continental area of Eurasia between the Arctic and Indian Oceans and the associated island chains.

ANS: (A) 1 and 4 only

Explanation:

• Channapatna toys – Karnataka
• Etikoppa Toys and Kondapalli Bommalu (Toys) – Andhra Pradesh
• Sawantwadi toys refer to handmade works of art made of wood in Sawantwadi, a town in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra.

ANS: (B) 2 and 3 only

Explanation

• The Grand Renaissance Dam is being constructed by Ethiopia on the river Blue Nile.
  • Given the dam’s location on the Blue Nile tributary, it would allow Ethiopia to gain control of the flow of the river’s waters. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • Blue Nile is a tributary of the Nile river and it carries about two-thirds of the river’s water volume and most of the silt.
• The River Nile is in Africa. It originates in Burundi, south of the equator, and flows northward through northeastern Africa, eventually flowing through Egypt and finally draining into the Mediterranean Sea. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The Nile River is the longest river in the world. The Nile has a length of about 6,695 kilometers (4,160 miles).
  • The Nile basin is huge and includes parts of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo (Kinshasa), Kenya.
• The Nile River forms an arcuate delta as it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Deltas with triangular or fan-shape are called arcuate (arc-like) deltas. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• The Nile is formed by three principal streams: the Blue Nile, the Atbara, and the White Nile.