Prelims 2021 Current Flash Cards 20Th November 2020 by IAS Toppers | 2020-11-20 18:15:00

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Prelims 2021 Current Flash Cards 20th November 2020 By IAS Toppers | 2020-11-20 18:15:00

# Question 1

International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) is a Technology Collaboration Programme of which organisation?

Answer:

International Smart Grid Action Network is a Technology Collaboration Programme (TCP) of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Detailed Answer:

Enrich Your Learning:

International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN)

The co-operative programme was formally established in 2011 and is an initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM). ISGAN seeks to support governments and industry with insight and recommendations to high-level decision-makers. It closely co-operates with Mission Innovation, a global initiative that promotes the acceleration of the clean energy transition. It is an international platform for the development and exchange of knowledge and expertise on smarter, cleaner, and more flexible and resilient electricity grids (“Smart Grids”). It provides an important channel for the communication of experience, trends, lessons learned, and visions in support of clean energy objectives as well as new flexible and resilient solutions for Smart Grids.

Key Accomplishments

Trusted partner and center of expertise for a growing number of smart grid-related activities and events such as India Smart Grid Week and European Utility Week. It has signed a cooperation agreement with Mission Innovation (MI) Challenge 1 on Smart Grids. Webinars organized by the ISGAN Academy, highly recognized public, Knowledge Transfer workshops, and thematic knowledge exchange events.

Goals

To accelerate the development and deployment of smarter, cleaner and more flexible electricity grids around the world. It leverages high-level government leadership and industry technology innovation to support greater national ambition in developing and deploying smart grids in member country markets and regions.

Key Activities

Analytical reports Policy recommendations Technical workshops, dialogues Work on the ground in specific regions or countries Communication tools ISGAN Awards of Excellence

# Question 2

A term ‘TOI-700 d’ was recently appeared in news. It is a) Planet OR b) Comet

Answer:

Planet

Detailed Answer:

Enrich Your Learning:

Goldilocks zone:

Why in news?

NASA has recently reported the discovery of an Earth-size planet, named TOI 700 d orbiting its star in the “goldilocks zone”.

Any rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star is an exciting find for the scientists who search for the possibility of alien life.

What is Goldilocks zone?

“Goldilocks zone” is the habitable zone or the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets. Our Earth lies in the Sun’s Goldilocks If Earth were where the dwarf planet Pluto is all its water would freeze; on the other hand, if Earth were where Mercury is, all its water would boil off.

Exoplanet TOI 700 d:

The planet measures 20% larger than Earth. It orbits its star once every 37 days and receives an amount of energy that is equivalent to 86% of the energy that the Sun provides to Earth. The star TOI 700, is an “M dwarf” located just over 100 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado, is roughly 40% of our Sun’s mass and size, and has about half its surface temperature. The star has three planets orbiting around it and TOI 700 d is the outermost planet, and the only one in the star’s habitable zone.

How was it discovered?

The planet was found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, launched in 2018. Very few such Earth-size planets have been found so far and the find was confirmed by the Spitzer Space Telescope, which sharpened the measurements that TESS had made, such as orbital period and size. NASA will try to identify whether the planets have atmosphere and determine their compositions in future missions.

# Question 3

ASEAN agreed to strengthen partnership with which countries and formation of ASEAN Plus Three came in existence?

Answer:

ASEAN agreed to strengthen partnership with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of Korea (Korea) and Japan in 1997 and formed ASEAN Plus Three.

Detailed Answer:

Enrich Your Learning:

ASEAN Plus Three (APT)

ASEAN Plus Three cooperation began in December 1997 and institutionalized in 1999 when the Leaders issued a Joint Statement on East Asia Cooperation at their Third ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Manila. The Joint Statement for the first time determined the main objectives, principles and further directions of APT countries cooperation. ASEAN agreed to strengthen partnership with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of Korea (Korea) and Japan to address mutual issues and concerns in energy security, natural gas development, oil market studies, oil stockpiling, and renewable energy. The ASEAN Plus three leaders expressed greater resolve and confidence in further strengthening and deepening East Asia cooperation at various levels and in various areas, including energy, transport, and information and communications technology (ICT). ASEAN Plus Three includes the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam) plus the PRC, Japan, and Korea. Though the APT framework preceded the Asian financial crisis (it emerged from the Asia-Europe meetings), most consider the APT framework ‘the EAEG’ by another name.

Background

In 1990, Malaysia proposed the creation of an East Asia Economic Caucus composed of the members of ASEAN, China, Japan, and South Korea. It intended to counterbalance the growing US influence in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Asia as a whole. However, the proposal failed because of strong opposition from the US and Japan.

# Question 4

Define the term: Learning poverty.

Answer:

Learning poverty means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10.

Detailed Answer:

Enrich Your Learning:

Learning poverty:

World Bank has introduced the new concept of learning poverty. Learning poverty is defined as being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. It starts with the share of children who haven’t achieved minimum reading proficiency (as measured in schools) and adjusts it by the proportion of children who are out of school (and are assumed not to read proficiently). The data show that 53% of all children in low- and middle-income countries suffer from learning poverty. World Bank Group announced a new operational global learning target to cut the learning poverty rate by at least half by 2030.

# Question 5

What do you know about ‘DTrack’? Describe briefly.

Answer:

DTrack is used by hackers to attack financial and research centres in India. It can perform a host of operations such as uploading and downloading files, and executing key processes that are integral to businesses.

Detailed Answer:

Enrich Your Learning:

DTrack

DTrack is used by hackers to attack financial and research centres in India. It is flagged by cyber- security firm Kaspersky. It's earlier version– ATMDtrack was designed to hack ATMs in India. The malware was designed to be planted on the victim’s ATMs, where it could read and store the data of cards that were inserted into the machines. Later a version of it was used to attack the banking system in South Korea as well as for the infamous WannaCry ransom worm attacks across the globe.

What does DTrack do?

At least 180 versions of DTrack virus identified by Kaspersky Lab. that include following capabilities: Keylogging Retrieving browser history Gathering host IP addresses, information about available networks and active connections Listing all running processes Listing all files on all available disk volumes

Avoid DTrack and its variants

The hackers need to gain at least partial control over the internal network in order to launch a cyber-attack. This means that the target organisations may have a number of security issues, such as:

Weak network security policies Weak password policies Lack of traffic monitoring

Steps companies can take to avoid malware attack

Tighten their network and password policies Use traffic monitoring software Use antivirus solutions

Why in news?

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has admitted that one of its computers has been attacked by malware.

Researchers have identified that the malware which infected the computer at Kudankulam nuclear power plant was DTrack. Dtrack samples were found to infect computers in 18 states in India. A fourth of all affected systems were in Maharashtra (24 per cent), Karnataka (18.5 per cent) and Telangana (12 per cent). The other major states include Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Kerala, and West Bengal.