Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 7-8, 2024

Notes:
IIT Bombay and the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) have partnered to develop a ship trajectory prediction tool to improve maritime safety. This tool focuses on disabled ships, offering early warnings and facilitating rescue operations. Integrated with IRS’s Emergency Response System, it aims to enhance response times by locating drifting vessels and rerouting nearby ships. Professors Behera and Srineash emphasize its alignment with national safety goals and industry-academia collaboration.

Notes:
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) declared Jharkhand’s mica mines child labor-free on July 5, 2024. This milestone marks the first successful effort to cleanse a supply chain of child labor. The initiative began 20 years ago, involving state and central governments, civil society, and local authorities. Around 20,000 children were previously employed in mica mining but have since been rehabilitated and enrolled in schools.

Notes:
Reformist leader Masoud Pezeshkian has been elected Iran’s new president, winning a run-off against Saeed Jalili on July 6, 2024. The election followed President Ebrahim Raisi’s death in a helicopter crash. Pezeshkian secured 53.7% of the votes in the run-off. Only 40% of the 61 million eligible voters participated, the lowest turnout since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Iranian president’s term is four years.

Notes:
A lone female gharial has been spotted for over three years in Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. Gharials, or Gavialis gangeticus, are freshwater crocodiles once widespread across South Asia but now found mainly in fragmented populations in Nepal and northern India. They are critically endangered, with a global population reduced to a few hundred. Males can reach 20 feet, while females grow up to 15 feet.

Notes:
The Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir across the Cauvery River recently breached the 100-foot mark, with a maximum level of 124.80 feet. Located in Mandya, Karnataka, the gravity dam was constructed between 1911 and 1931. Named after Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV and designed by Sir M. Visvesvaraya, its primary purposes are irrigation, hydroelectric power, and drought mitigation. The reservoir covers 130 sq. km.