QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 7 January 2021

Solution: c)

What is avian influenza or bird flu?

It is a highly contagious viral disease caused by Influenza Type A viruses which generally affects poultry birds such as chickens and turkeys. There are many strains of the virus – some of them are mild and may merely cause a low egg production or other mild symptoms among chickens, while others are severe and lethal.

How does the bird flu spread?

Wild aquatic birds such as ducks and geese are the natural reservoir of Influenza A viruses and the central players in the ecology of these viruses.

Many birds carry the flu without developing sickness, and shed it in their droppings. Since birds excrete even while flying, they provide “a nice aerosol of influenza virus, shedding it all over the world”

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Solution: d)

Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt agreed to resume negotiations to resolve their decade-long complex dispute over the Grand Renaissance Dam hydropower project in the Horn of Africa.

Spearheaded by Ethiopia, the 145-meter-tall (475-foot-tall) Grand Renaissance Dam hydropower project, when completed, will be Africa’s largest. The main waterways of the Nile run through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt, and its drainage basin runs through several countries in East Africa, including Ethiopia, the portion where this dam is being constructed.

The construction of the dam was initiated in 2011 on the Blue Nile tributary of the river that runs across one part of Ethiopia.

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Solution: d)

This year, the season’s first cold wave gripped Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh along with parts of Uttar Pradesh, east Madhya Pradesh and Odisha around Christmas. The spell intensified towards the year-end and covered greater geographical areas, as the mercury hovered below 5 degree Celsius over most of these places.

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Solution: b)

The IMD declares a cold wave, when the minimum temperatures show a departure of 5 to 6 degrees from normal. This also holds true, when the temperatures fall below 0 degrees, anywhere. A fall in minimum temperature below 7 degrees from normal is declared as a severe cold wave condition.

To avoid an adverse reaction to the cold wave, the IMD shared a list of recommendations, one of which was avoiding alcohol as it “reduces your body temperature”. 

According to a study jointly conducted by the Thermal Physiology and the Medicine Division, US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, alcohol can decrease the core temperature of the body and increase the risk of hypothermia during cold exposure.

Hypothermia is a severe medical condition where the body loses heat before it can generate it, resulting in a dangerously low body temperature. While normal body temperature lies at around 37 degrees Celsius, the body temperature of a person suffering from hypothermia drops to below 35 degrees Celsius.

Heavy alcohol consumption is often linked to an increased risk of hypothermia and other conditions linked to extreme cold weather.

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Solution: c)

The BASIC countries are a bloc of four large newly industrialized countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – formed by an agreement on 28 November 2009.

BASIC countries broadly have common position on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and raising the massive funds that are needed to fight climate change.