Daily Current Affairs MCQ- April 4, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

MIT researchers recently built an augmented reality headset called X-AR that lets users see hidden objects inside a box or under a pile.

About Augmented Reality (AR):

• It is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli and delivered via technology.
• It overlays digital content onto real-life environments and objects. 
• AR works by superimposing digital information onto real-world objects to create a 3D experience that allows users to interact with both the physical and digital worlds. 
• It incorporates three features: a combination of digital and physical worlds, interactions made in real time, and accurate 3D identification of virtual and real objects.
• Unlike Virtual Reality (VR), which creates its own cyber environment, AR adds to the existing world as it is.

What is Virtual Reality (VR)?

• It is a simulated 3D environment that enables users to explore and interact with a virtual surrounding in a way that approximates reality as it is perceived through the users' senses. 
• The environment is created with computer hardware and software, and the users need to wear devices such as helmets or goggles (Virtual Reality headsets or helmets) to interact with the environment. 

Hence both statements are correct.

Home Minister recently paid his tributes to Veer Savarkar on his death anniversary.

About Veer Savarkar:

• He was born in 1883 near Nasik in Maharashtra.
• He was the first to acknowledge the mutiny of 1857 as the first struggle for Independence and wrote the book 'The History of the War of Indian Independence'.
• He was a passionate promoter of Hindutva since childhood.
• He was sentenced to 50 years in the cellular jail of Andamans, also known as Kala Pani, for revolting against the Morley-Minto reforms (Indian Councils Act 1909) in 1911.
• After his release from jail, he worked on the abolishment of untouchability in Ratnagiri.
• Serving as the president of the Hindu Mahasabha political party, he opposed the Quit India movement in 1942.
• He founded the organizations Abhinav Bharat Society and Free India Society.
• He was a critic of the Indian National Congress and its acceptance of India's partition.
• He was also a critic of Mahatma Gandhi and called him a 'hypocrite'. In 1948, he was charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The first Bodoland International Knowledge Festival recently began in Assam’s Kokrajhar district.

Bodo Peace Accord 2020:

• It is a tripartite accord signed in 2020 by representatives of Bodo organizations with the Central and Assam governments.
• The Bodo parties to the agreement include the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), the United Bodo People’s Organisation (UBPO), and all four factions of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB).
• It presents a new model of power-sharing and governance in Assam under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
• Features:
• Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) which comprises four districts -Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri will be renamed the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).
• The number of seats in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) will be increased from 40 to 60 without adversely affecting the existing percentage of reservation for tribals”.
• It promises more legislative, executive, and financial powers to the BTC in respect of 40 subjects already transferred to it and eight additional subjects.
• The Assam government will set up a Bodo-Kachari Autonomous Council, which will be a satellite council for the focused development of Bodo villages outside the BTR.
• The Indian government will expedite the process of granting Hills tribe status to Bodos living in Hills areas.
• It also promises Scheduled Tribe status to Bodos living in the hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao. 
• The Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police will be appointed in consultation with the BTC authority.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

India recently dispatched Mirage-2000 fighters and other aircraft to participate in the 'Cobra Warrior' exercise in the United Kingdom.

About Exercise Cobra Warrior:

• It is a multilateral exercise in which Air Forces from Finland, Sweden, South Africa, USA, and Singapore would also participate alongside UK’s Royal Air Force and Indian Air Force.
• The aim of the exercise is to participate in diverse fighter aircraft engagements and learn from the best practices of various Air Forces.
• IAF is participating in the exercise with five Mirage 2000 fighters, two C-17 Globemaster, and an IL-78 mid-air refueller aircraft.

Other Exercises between India and the United Kingdom:

• Konkan Shakti-Tri services exercise
• Ajeya warrior-Army exercise

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Japanese Prime Minister recently said that Japan will purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles from the United States.

About Tomahawk missile:

• It is an American-made long-range cruise missile used for deep land attack warfare.
• It can be launched from a ship or submarine and can deliver its warhead precisely to a target at a long range.
• They are designed to fly at extremely low altitudes at high subsonic speeds.
• It has an accuracy of about 5 meters (16 feet).
• The 5.6-meter (18.4-foot-) long missile has a range of up to 2,400 km (1,500 miles) and can travel as fast as 885 km (550 miles) per hour.
• The missile is powered by a solid propellant during its launch phase. Thereafter it is powered by a turbofan engine that does not emit much heat, which makes infrared detection difficult.
• It is capable of twisting and turning like a radar-evading fighter plane.
• There are several variants of the Tomahawk missile, each with specialized capabilities.

Hence both statements are not correct.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) recently announced that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would be the chief guest and keynote speaker at the 8th Raisina Dialogue.

About Raisina Dialogue:

• It is India’s premier conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the global community. 
• It is held annually since 2016 in New Delhi.
• The Dialogue is structured as a multi-stakeholder, cross-sectoral discussion involving heads of state, cabinet ministers, and local government officials, who are joined by thought leaders from the private sector, media, and academia.
• It is organized by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

A team of astronomers from the National Centre of Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) Pune; Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahmedabad; and the University of Oxford recently discovered several ‘elusive dying radio galaxies’.

About Radio Galaxies:

• Radio Galaxies, also known as radio-luminous galaxies or radio-loud galaxies, are a particular type of active galaxy that emits more light at radio wavelengths than at visible wavelengths.
• These happen through the interaction between charged particles and strong magnetic fields related to supermassive black holes at the galaxies’ center.
• Radio galaxies are driven by non-thermal emissions.
• They are much bigger than most of the other galaxies in the universe. 
• There are two broad classes of radio galaxies:
• Core-halo radio galaxies:
• They exhibit radio emission from a region concentrated around the nucleus of the galaxy.
• The region of radio emission is comparable in size to the optically visible galaxy.
• Lobed radio galaxies:
• They display great lobes of radio emission extending, in some cases, for millions of light years beyond the optical part of the galaxy.
• Some radio galaxies have a single lobe, but more often, the lobes are double, arrayed on both sides of the optical galaxy.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Kamioka Liquid Scintillator Antineutrino Detector (KamLAND) experiment in Japan has found no evidence that neutrinos are their antiparticles.

• Neutrinos are mysterious particles, produced copiously in nuclear reactions in the Sun, stars, and elsewhere.
• They also "oscillate"-- meaning that different types of neutrinos change into one another.
• A neutrino is a fermion that interacts only via weak interaction and gravity.
• Probing oscillations of neutrinos and their relations with mass is crucial in studying the origin of the universe.
• Neutrinos are created by various radioactive decay; during a supernova, by cosmic rays striking atoms etc.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, four police personnel from Red Hills including a sub-inspector were suspended after an inquiry report found that they had let off a group of men who had smuggled into the city two orangutans.

• These are exclusively arboreal which means they live among the trees of tropical rainforests.
• According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are three species of orangutans: Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli.
• They feast on wild fruits like lychees, and figs, and slurp water from holes in trees.
• Orangutans can live up to 50 years, but they have a relatively low reproductive rate because females only give birth once every 5-10 years.
• Conservation status
• IUCN: Critically Endangered

Hence both statements are not correct.

Recently, the Madhya Pradesh state government approached the supreme court seeking a stay on an Eastern River Canal Project execution.

• It is one of the tributaries of the Yamuna River and the most pollution-free river in India.
• It originates at the Singar Chouri peak on the northern slopes of the Vindhya mountains.
• On its south, east and west, the basin is bounded by the Vindhyan mountain ranges and on the northwest by the Aravallis.
• The Hadauti plateau in Rajasthan occurs in the upper catchment of the Chambal River to the southeast of the Mewar Plains.
• Tributaries: Banas, Kali Sindh, Sipra, Parbati, etc.
• Major Dams on the River: Gandhi Sagar Dam, Rana Pratap Sagar Dam, Jawahar Sagar Dam.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.