Daily Current Affairs MCQ- April 2, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

A recent study highlighted that due to factors like climate change and geological shifts, Earth's changing rotation may prompt clocks to skip a second, potentially necessitating a "negative leap second" around 2029.

• It is used as a measure to combat the long-term slowdown in the Earth’s rotation which is caused by the constant melting and refreezing of ice caps.
• It is added every now and then to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) in order to synchronize a clock worldwide with the Earth’s ever slowing rotation.
• The system of leap seconds was introduced in the early 1970s. So far, there have been 27 positive leap seconds have been added.
• UTC consists of a time scale that combines the output of more than 300 highly precise Atomic clocks worldwide. Atomic clocks are very accurate and are stable within 1 second over a period of millions of years.
• On the other hand, the Astronomical Time known as Universal Time (UT1) refers to the Earth's rotation around its own axis and determines the length of a day.
• Reason for addition: The Earth's rotation around its own axis is not regular, as sometimes it speeds up and sometimes it slows down, due to various factors including the moon’s gravitational Earth-braking forces that often results in ocean tides.
• As a result, Astronomical Time (UT1) gradually falls out of synch with Atomic time (UTC), and as and when the difference between UTC and UT1 approaches 0.9 seconds, a “Leap Second” is added to UTC through Atomic clocks worldwide.
• A leap second is normally inserted either on June 30 or December 31.

What is Negative Leap second?

• It is a second that is subtracted from our clocks to keep them in sync with the Earth's rotation.
• Till date, no negative leap second has been introduced because, in the last few decades the Earth's rotation has generally been a bit slow.
• The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) monitors the Earth's rotation and takes decisions on when to add or subtract a leap second.
• Since Earth is spinning faster than usual recently so timekeepers had thought of using negative leap seconds for the first time.
• In other words, they thought of subtracting leap seconds from our clocks to synchronise them with Earth's rotation.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Reserve Bank of India is considering establishing a Digital India Trust Agency (DIGITA) to combat cyber fraud and illegal lending apps.

• It will be responsible for stopping illegal lending apps from popping up.
• It will enable the verification of these digital lending apps and will maintain a public register of these verified applications.
• Any app which will not carry the “verified” tag of DIGITA, will be considered unauthorised.
• Significance: This will create an important and much-needed checkpoint in the fight against online financial fraud.

What is digital lending?

• It is a remote and automated lending process, largely by use of seamless digital technologies.
• It involves lending through web platforms or mobile apps, utilising technology in customer acquisition, credit assessment, loan approval, disbursement, recovery and associated customer service.
• It generally involves three parties – a lender, a lending service provider (including a digital lending platform) and a borrower.
• It includes products like Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), which is a financing option (or simply a short-term loan product).
• It allows one to buy a product or avail a service without having to worry about paying for it immediately.

An international team of scientists, including from India, has discovered strong evidence indicating the presence of ozone on Jupiter’s moon Callisto.

• It is a gas composed of three atoms of oxygen. It is both a natural and a man-made product that occurs in the Earth's upper atmosphere (Stratospheric ozone) and lower atmosphere (the troposphere).
• Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O₂).
• The "ozone layer," approximately 6 to 30 miles above the Earth's surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface.

Key facts about Callisto:

• It is one of Jupiter’s largest moons and the third-largest moon in the Solar System after Ganymede and Titan.
• Composition: It is primarily composed of water ice, rocky materials, sulphur dioxide, and some organic compounds. These substances make the moon a potential candidate for supporting life in the Solar System beyond the earth.
• Its surface is heavily cratered, indicating a long history of being struck by asteroids and comets. It also lacks the extensive seismic activity seen on some of Jupiter’s other moons, such as Io and Europa.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an updated Seasonal outlook for hot weather season (April to June) 2024 and Monthly outlook for April 2024 for rainfall and temperature in New Delhi.

• It was established in 1875. It is the National Meteorological Service of the country and the principal government agency in all matters relating to meteorology and allied subjects.
• The Director General of Meteorology is the Head of this organization.
• There are 6 Regional Meteorological Centres, each under a Deputy Director General with headquarters at Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi, Calcutta, Nagpur and Guwahati.
• Mandate
• To take meteorological observations and to provide current and forecast meteorological information for optimum operation of weather-sensitive activities like agriculture, irrigation, shipping, aviation, offshore oil explorations, etc.
• To warn against severe weather phenomena like tropical cyclones, norwesters, dust storms, heavy rains and snow, cold and heat waves, etc., which cause destruction of life and property.
• To provide meteorological statistics required for agriculture, water resource management, industries, oil exploration and other nation-building activities.
• To conduct and promote research in meteorology and allied disciplines.
• Nodal ministry: Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)
• Headquarter: New Delhi.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Supreme Court recently sought responses from the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Centre on a plea seeking a comprehensive count of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips in elections.

About Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT):

• It was first introduced in India in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
• It is an independent system that consists of two parts, namely, a VVPAT Printer and VVPAT Status Display Unit (VSDU) attached to the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), that allow the voters to verify that their votes are cast as intended.
• When a vote is cast, a slip is printed containing the serial number, name, and symbol of the candidate and remains exposed through a transparent window for 7 seconds.
• Thereafter, this printed slip automatically gets cut and falls into the sealed drop box of the VVPAT.
• How is VVPAT used for verification?
• The results of EVMs can be verified using the slipskept in the drop boxes of VVPAT machines.
• VVPAT can be accessed by the polling officials, but not by the voters.
• The paper slips are deemed to be more authoritative than EVM tallies in cases where VVPAT slips are utilised to verify votes.
• Voter verification, however, is only done in extreme circumstances, such as when there are accusations of fraud or miscalculation.
• The ECI has the authority to request that votes be verified using VVPAT slips in response to such complaints.
• At the moment, the VVPAT slips are counted in a randomly-selected polling station in each Assembly constituency or Parliamentary constituency, depending upon the nature of the elections being held.
• The ECI has clarified that EVMs and VVPATs are separate entities and are not connected to any network.
• These machines are developed by the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL).

Hence option c is the correct answer.

SEBI recently launched a new version of the SEBI Complaint Redress System (SCORES 2.0).

What is SCORES?

• SCORES is a web-based centralized grievance redress system of SEBI launched in 2011.
• SCORES enables investors to lodge and follow up on their complaints and track the status of redressal of such complaints online from anywhere.
• This enables market intermediaries and listed companies to receive complaints online from investors, redress such complaints, and report redressal online.
• An investor who is not familiar with SCORES or does not have access to SCORES can lodge complaints in physical form at any of the offices of SEBI.
• Such complaints would be scanned and also uploaded in SCORES for processing.
• What types of complaints can be registered in the SCORE portal? 
• Complaints can be lodged on SCORES for any issues covered under the Sebi Act, Securities Contract Regulation Act, Depositories Act, and rules and regulations and provisions ofthe Companies Act, 2013.
• Entities against which complaints are handled by SEBI include:
• Listed companies / registrar & transfer agents
• Brokers / stock exchanges
• Depository participants / depository
• Mutual funds
• Portfolio Managers
• Other entities (KYC Collective investment scheme, Merchant banker, Credit rating, Foreign institutional investor etc)

Key Features of SCORES 2.0:

• It will feature reduced and uniform timelines for redressal of investor complaints, which is 21 calendar days from the date of receipt of the complaint.
• An auto-routing of complaints to the concerned regulated entity will be facilitated to eliminate time lapses, if any, in the flow of complaints.
• Designated bodies will have to monitor the timely redressal of investors’ complaints.
• There will be two levels of review. The first review will be by the ‘designated body’ if the investor is dissatisfied with the resolution provided by the concerned regulated entity. The second review will be by SEBI if the investor is still dissatisfied after the first review.
• If there is non-adherenceto the prescribed timelines by the regulated entity, then there would be auto-escalation of the complaint to the next level.
• SCORES 2.0 will be integrated with the KYC Registration Agency database for easy registration of the investor on SCORES.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Natural gas has been called a ‘bridge fuel’ for countries looking to transition away from coal and oil dependency, and as they pursue a pathway towards renewables and electrification.

About Bridge Fuel:

• Bridge fuel is a commonly-used term for a fuel that will power society with the least environmental cost while we deploy non-polluting, renewable energy.
• The goal of using a bridge fuel is to replace the bulk of today’s fossil-fuel-dependent energy sources as we transition to a cleaner and more renewable energy economy that is free of greenhouse gas emissions.
• The length of the bridge and the energy source used to build the bridge are both topics of debate.
• Many people consider natural gas a bridge fuel because it produces less greenhouse gas during the combustion process.
• However, additional considerations for a bridge fuel include whether it increases national energy independence while reducing pollution-related costs.

Key Facts about Natural Gas:

• Natural gas is a fossil fuel. Like all fossil fuels, it is a nonrenewable resource.
• It is a mixture of gases which are rich in hydrocarbons.
• It is a colorless and odorless gas composed of 70-90% methane (CH₄). Its other ingredients include ethane (C₂ H₆) and propane (C₃ H₈).
• Possible impurities include carbon dioxide (CO₂), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and nitrogen (N).
• How did natural gas form?
• Millions to hundreds of millions of years ago, the remains of plants and animals (such as diatoms) built up in thick layers on the earth’s surface and ocean floors, sometimes mixed with sand, silt, and calcium carbonate.
• Over time, these layers were buried under sand, silt, and rock.
• Pressure and heat changed some of this carbon- and hydrogen-rich material into coal, some into oil (petroleum), and some into natural gas.
• Natural gas reserves are deep inside the earth, near other solid and liquid hydrocarbon beds like coal and crude oil.
• Uses:
• It is not used in its pure form; it is processed and converted into cleaner fuel for consumption.
• Many by-products are extracted while processing of natural gas, like propane, ethane, butane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, etc, which can be further used.
• It is mainly used as a fuel for generating electricity and heat. 
• Natural gas in compressed form is used as fuel for vehicles, which is known as CNG. 
• It is used as fuel for boilers and air conditioners worldwide.
• It is also used for making fertilizers also, mainly ammonia.
• Natural gas has been called a ‘bridge fuel’ for countries looking to transition away from coal and oil dependency.
• Hailed as a cleaner energy source than other fossil fuels, especially coal, natural gas has a lesser climate impact than coal because it emits 50 percent less CO2 into the atmosphere.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

Recently, a New York-based research lab and technology company Hume, has introduced what can be called the ‘first conversational AI with emotional intelligence’.

• It is the world’s first emotionally intelligent voice AI. It accepts live audio input and returns both generated audio and transcripts augmented with measures of vocal expression. 
• It is essentially an API that is powered by its proprietary empathic large language model (eLLM). This eLLM reportedly understands and emulates tones of voices, and word emphasis to optimise human-AI conversations.
• It is trained on human reactions to optimize for positive expressions like happiness and satisfaction. EVI will continue to learn from users’ reactions.
• By processing the tune, rhythm, and timbre of speech, EVI unlocks a variety of new capabilities, like knowing when to speak and generating more empathic language with the right tone of voice.

What is large language model?

• It is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) program that can recognize and generate text, among other tasks.
• LLMs are trained on huge sets of data—hence the name "large."
• LLMs are built on machine learning: specifically, a type of neural network called a transformer model.
• In simpler terms, an LLM is a computer program that has been fed enough examples to be able to recognize and interpret human language or other types of complex data. 

Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

Recently, the Ministry of Culture has curtailed the powers of the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) Chairman, barring him from taking any “administrative actions”.

• It was inaugurated in 1954 by the then Minister for Education, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and is registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
• It has preserved and documented a permanent collection of the highest order that reflects the vitality, complexity and unfolding patterns of contemporary, modern, folk and tribal art in India. 
• It is India's national academy of fine arts established by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in and outside the country.
• It promotes Visual Art of India in various countries of the world through Cultural Agreements and Cultural Exchange Programmes.
• The National Exhibition of Art is the most prestigious annual event of the Lalit Kala Akademi. 
• Funding: It is funded by the Ministry of Culture.
• It has regional centres situated at Chennai, Lucknow, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Garhi.
• Headquarter: New Delhi

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, researchers at Northwestern University recently outlined a new strategy to fabricate high-density and mechanically flexible Organic Electrochemical Transistor (OECTs).

• It is an emerging class of transistor based on organic superconducting materials known for their ability to modulate electrical current in response to small changes in the voltage applied to their gate electrode.
• It is a device capable of simultaneously controlling the flow of electronic and ionic currents.
• Advantages: They have various notable advantages, including promising amplification and sensing capabilities, low power consumption, low driving voltages and a versatile structure.  
• Applications: They can be used to create biosensors, wearable devices, and neuromorphic systems.

Hence both statements are correct.