QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 09 March 2018

Solution: a.

Saras is an indigenous light transport aircraft designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL).

The Minister of Science and Technology said that NAL proposes to get the Saras-Mk 2 (improved version of PT1) certified initially for military and subsequently for civil version. He said that Saras would be at least 20% to 25% cheaper than any imported aircraft in the same category. The improved version will be a 19-seater aircraft instead of 14-seater.

“The unit cost of the aircraft, with more than 70 per cent indigenous content, will be around Rs 40 crore to Rs 45 crore compared to Rs 60 crore and Rs 70 crore for the imported ones and has far more benefits than what the imported aircraft offer,” he said, adding that it would be ideal for regional connectivity under the Centre’s Udaan scheme.

Defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has been identified as the production agency for the military version of Saras, while the production of civil version will be given to identified private industries.

https://www.nal.res.in/cms/en/headersliderdetails?ar_id=2;

In the news: Saras’ successful test flights; PIB;

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Solution: a.

Nonagenarian (a person who is between 90 and 99 years old) architect and reputed urban planner Balkrishna Doshi has been named this year’s winner of architecture’s highest honour (considered architecture’s Nobel equivalent) — the Pritzker Prize, becoming the first Indian to do so.

The 90-year-old Mr. Doshi — one of the last living architects to have apprenticed with the Franco-Swiss trailblazer Le Corbusier — distinguished his work by committing to sustainable architecture and inexpensive housing, bringing modernist design to a country rooted in traditionalism.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-life/balkrishna-doshi-wins-pritzker-prize/article22972588.ece;

Solution: d.

• Parker Solar Probe will travel through the sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions — and ultimately providing humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.
• The spacecraft will fly through the sun’s atmosphere as close as 3.9 million miles to our star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than seven times closer than any spacecraft has come before. (Earth’s average distance to the sun is 93 million miles; Mercury’s is 42 million miles).
• Flying into the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, for the first time, Parker Solar Probe will employ a combination of in situ measurements and imaging to revolutionize our understanding of the corona and expand our knowledge of the origin and evolution of the solar wind. It will also make critical contributions to our ability to forecast changes in Earth’s space environment that affect life and technology on Earth.
• Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living With a Star (LWS) – this program emphasises science to understand aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS missions target the linkages across the interconnected system with an ultimate goal of enabling a predictive understanding.

In the news: NASA is inviting people around the world to submit their names online to be placed on a microchip aboard its historic solar probe launching this summer.

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Solution: a.

Greece is officially known as the Hellenic Republic.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=177119;

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