10 PM Current Affairs Quiz #15 August 19, 2019

Explanation: Prime Minister Modi would receive the Order of Zayed, the highest civil decoration of the UAE which was conferred earlier in April 2019 in recognition of the distinguished leadership of Prime Minister Modi for giving a big boost to bilateral relations between the two countries. The award in the name of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE, acquires special significance as it was awarded to Prime Minister Modi in the year of the birth centenary of Sheikh Zayed.

Explanation: Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the sun’s surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that impact life on Earth.
In order to unlock the mysteries of the corona, but also to protect a society that is increasingly dependent on technology from the threats of space weather, we will send Parker Solar Probe to touch the Sun.
In 2017, the mission was renamed for Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. In the 1950s, Parker proposed a number of concepts about how stars-including our Sun-give off energy. He called this cascade of energy the solar wind, and he described an entire complex system of plasmas, magnetic fields, and energetic particles that make up this phenomenon. Parker also theorized an explanation for the superheated solar atmosphere, the corona, which is – contrary to what was expected by physics laws — hotter than the surface of the sun itself. This is the first NASA mission that has been named for a living individual.

Explanation: Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles and most food packaging.
We produce roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year and half of it is disposable! World-wide only 10-13% of plastic items are recycled. The nature of petroleum based disposable plastic makes it difficult to recycle and they have to add new virgin materials and chemicals to it to do so. Additionally there are a limited number of items that recycled plastic can be used.
Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds its way into the ocean. Although plastic will not biodegrade (decompose into natural substance like soil,) it will degrade (break down) into tiny particles after many years. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.
These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream and the latest research has found them to disrupt the Endocrine system which can cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and many other ailments.
Harsh Vardhan, the then Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, said on World Environment Day 2018 (June 5) that the country would try to “phase out” single-use plastic by 2022.

Explanation: The government, once every five years or so, conducts a livestock census, counting all domesticated animals. The 20th livestock census was conducted last year (the 19th was in 2012, and the first in 1919). Growth in the number of animals for each of the livestock categories was significantly lower than the output growth reported by the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) between these two censuses. For example, the number of cattle was nearly unchanged in this period, but milk continued to grow at an annualized rate of well above 5 per cent. Similarly, the annual pace of growth in mutton output (4 per cent) was higher than the rate of growth in the number of goats and sheep (up only 1 per cent annually), and pork output grew faster than the number of pigs (which fell 20 per cent from the 2012 level).

Explanation: The GAAR first was proposed as part of the Direct Taxes Code Bill, 2009. Broadly based on South Africa’s regime introduced in 2006, the GAAR would have empowered the tax authorities to declare an arrangement as impermissible if it was entered into with the purpose of obtaining tax benefits and if it lacked commercial substance or satisfied certain other conditions.
Before the GAAR was proposed in 2009, India’s tax laws did contain other specific anti-avoidance measures. Over the years, the Indian courts established general parameters and principles outlining whether a transaction or scheme would be considered to be tax avoidance/tax evasion (as opposed to tax planning) under the tax law, and the tax authorities have challenged various forms of transactions entered into by taxpayers, including cross-border transactions.
The 2009 legislation ultimately was not enacted, and GAAR provisions again were proposed in Finance Act 2012, but ultimately were omitted from the 2012 legislation. New provisions incorporating changes recommended by the Shome Committee (a committee of experts set up by the Indian government to provide final recommendations on the GAAR) were enacted as part of Finance Act 2013 and were to be applicable from 1 April 2015. Finance Act 2015, however, delayed the effective date of the GAAR for two years, and the GAAR finally became effective as from 1 April 2017.