Daily Current Affairs Quiz 21 April 2023

a) India

Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik inaugurated a Millets Food Festival of the member countries of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Mumbai.
It includes a variety of cuisines made of different millets prepared by chefs from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Uzbekistan, Russia and India.

d) It is a fungus originated in South America threatening food security to the wheat fields.

It is a fungus first reported in South America.
· The fungus is destroying South American wheat crops and it is spreading worldwide.

· The pathogen affects the crop in a disease known as ‘wheat blast’.

· It infects wild and cultivated grasses, most notably rice and wheat.

· This fungus has the potential to affect not only wheat but also other major food crops.

· The pathogen is also resistant to fungicides.

· Rice blast fungus is a hemiobiotrophic pathogen meaning that initially, the fungus establishes a biotrophic relationship with its host (i.e., invades a few cells, steals nutrients, but does not kill host cells).

· Eventually, the fungus becomes necrotrophic, destroying plant tissue.

· Infection starts when three-celled conidia from the pathogen adhere to the host’s surface.

· Initial attachment of conidia and other fungal structures is mediated by mucilage.

· Cell to cell movement is achieved through plasmodesmata.

· After colonization of the host and infection of aerial parts, lesions are formed and sporulation takes place.

· These are the source of primary inoculum that enables the disease to reinitiate.

Magnaporthe oryzae, a fungus infects wild and cultivated grasses in South America are now spreading to Asia and Africa.

b) Shillong

The G20 Space Economy Leaders Meeting was organized in Shillong in April 2023. The Meeting is being organised under India’s G20 presidency by the Department of Space, Government of India.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be organizing the precursor event of this meeting.

a) Ministry of Agriculture

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar launched a mobile app named ‘Saathi Portal’ (Seed Traceability, Authentication and Holistic Inventory). It will be used to address the challenges of seed production, quality seed identification and seed certification. It is known as the ‘best seed-rich farmer’. On this occasion, the minister said that the government is trying to overcome the challenges of the agriculture sector through various schemes and programmes.

c) Tezpur University Assam

Indian Army has entered into an agreement with Tezpur University (Assam) to teach the Chinese language to military personnel. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Mahendra Rawat told that this training is being done to the military personnel according to the demand of the situation. This training will be of 4 months duration. Tezpur University was established in 1994.