Daily Current Affairs MCQ- August 30, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released a graph of the temperature variation between the moon’s surface and a point around 8 cm below as measured by an instrument named ChaSTE probe.

• The Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) is a temperature probe.
• It can be driven into the moon’s surface using a motor to a depth of up to 10 cm. It has 10 sensors.
• It measured the temperature profile of the lunar topsoil around the South Pole to understand its thermal behaviour.
• It was developed by the Space Physics Laboratory of ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), together with the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.
• Its findings reflect this variation between the moon’s surface, which is covered by a patina of loose rocks and dust called the lunar regolith, and 10 cm under it.
• Its data show that at the moon’s surface (where the lander is located, a point between the craters Manzinus C and Simpelius N), the temperature is 40-50 degrees C. But just under 80 mm under, it plunges to around -10 degrees C.
• Significance of the findings
• The temperature variation indicates that the moon’s topsoil is a powerful thermal insulator, in keeping with previous findings.
• It adds credence to the idea that it can be used to build habitats for humans to shield them from frigid conditions and harmful radiation.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Union Ministry of Textiles released the guidelines of the GREAT scheme.

• Grant for Research and Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT) Scheme focuses on supporting individuals and companies to translate prototypes to technologies & products, including commercialization.
• Aim: To provide much-needed impetus for the development of the technical textiles startup ecosystem in India, especially in niche sub-segments such as bio-degradable and sustainable textiles, high-performance and speciality fibres, and smart textiles.
• Funding:
• Under this scheme grant-in-aid of up to Rs 50 lakh for up to a period of 18 months will be provided.
• The textile ministry will additionally provide 10 per cent of total grant-in-aid to incubators.
• Only a minimum of 10 per cent contribution has to be made by the incubatee.
• All of this is being done by incubators like IITs, NITs, Textiles Research Associations, and Centres of Excellence.
• The textiles ministry has also given a nod to 26 institutes for upgrading their laboratory infrastructure and training of trainers in the application areas of technical textiles.
• The scheme will be commensurate with the National Technical Textiles Mission.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Union Cabinet recently approved the Promotion of Research & Innovation in Pharma-MedTech sector (PRIP) scheme with an outlay of ₹5,000 crore for five years.

About PRIP Scheme:

• The objective of the PRIP scheme is to transform the Indian Pharma MedTech sector from cost-based competitiveness to innovation-based growth by strengthening the research infrastructure in the country.
• The aim of the scheme is to promote industry-academia linkage for R&D in priority areas and to inculcate the culture of quality research and nurture our pool of scientists.
• Rs 5,000 crore will be spent in five years (2024-28) under the PRIP scheme, and companies will be given incentives for research.
• The six focus areas of the scheme are 
• new chemical entities, including biological and phytopharmaceuticals;
• complex generics and biosimilars;
• precision medicines such as gene therapy and stem cells;
• medical devices using artificial intelligence and machine learning;
• orphan drugs;
• anti-microbial resistance;
• It focuses on two components:
• Strengthening research infrastructure through Centres of Excellence (CoE) in the seven existing National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs), Institutes of national importance at a tentative cost of Rs. 700 crore over a period of five years. 
• Government engagement with nine established pharmaceutical companies with an outlay of Rs. 125 crores over five years, an aid of Rs. 100 crores to 30 research projects on high-potential products and funding to 125 research projects among startups.
• An Empowered Committee under the chairmanship of CEO, NITI Aayog, with the secretary-level representation of Pharmaceuticals, Health, ICMR, DBT, CSIR, AYUSH and DST, will provide guidance for the implementation of this ambitious scheme by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Hence both statements are correct.

Taiwan scrambled its aircraft, naval ships, and land-based missiles recently after spotting 11 Chinese military aircraft that breached the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait.

About Taiwan Strait:

• Taiwan Strait, also called Formosa Strait, is a 180-kilometre-wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia.
• The strait extends from southwest to northeast between the South and East China Seas.
• The narrowest part is 130 km wide.
• It reaches a depth of about 230 feet (70 m) and contains the Pescadores Islands (which are controlled by the government of Taiwan). 
• The chief ports are Amoyin mainland China and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. 
• Median line of the Taiwan Strait:
• It is the informal dividing line in the Taiwan Strait between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. 
• It came about during the Cold War as a way to try and delineate the two opposing sides and reduce the risk of clashes.
• No agreement or treaty ever solidified its status. But over the decades, it helped keep Taiwan and China's militaries apart.

Key Facts about Taiwan:

• It is an island territory in East Asia, between the East China Sea in the north and the South China Sea in the south.
• The Republic of China (ROC) is the official name of the territory and government of Taiwan.
• Taiwan's main island is located east off the southeastern coast of the People's Republic of China, separated by the Taiwan Strait and 370 km (230 mi) north of Luzon Island (Philippines).
• It shares maritime borders with China, Japan and the Philippines.
• Capital: Taipei
• Languages: Spoken languages are Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua; official) and Taiwanese (Taiwanese Hokkien); regional languages are Hakka and Formosan languages.
• Religion: The main religions are Buddhism (35%) and Taoism (33%).

Hence both statements are correct.

The American space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is launching a groundbreaking technology demonstration known as the Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) to the Space Station.

• It is approximately the size of a standard refrigerator.
• It will be secured to an external module on the International Space Station to conduct its demonstration with Laser Communications Relay Demonstration LCRD.
• The ILLUMA-T along with the LCRD (Launched in December 2021) will complete Nasa’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system.
• Once ILLUMA-T is on the space station, the terminal will send high-resolution data, including pictures and videos to LCRD at a rate of 1.2 gigabits-per-second.
• It is scheduled to launch on SpaceX’s 29th Commercial Resupply Services mission for NASA.
• After its launch, ILLUMA-T will be installed on the station’s Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility (JEM-EF).

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

Recently, scientists suggested rerouting railway track running through the Hollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary.

• The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary renamed on 25 May 2004, formerly known as the Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary or Hollongapar Reserve Forest.
• It is an isolated protected area of evergreen forest located in Jorhat district of Assam, 
• Vegetation: The upper canopy of the forest is dominated by the Hollong tree, while the Nahar dominates the middle canopy. The lower canopy consists of evergreen shrubs and herbs.
• Fauna:
• The sanctuary has a rich biodiversity and is home to the only apes in India, the western Hoolock as well as the only nocturnal primate found in the northeast Indian states, the Bengal slow loris.
• Also it is home to Stump-tailed macaque, northern pig-tailed macaque, eastern Assamese macaque, rhesus macaque, and capped langur etc

Hence option (b) is the correct answer.

A large flightless bird named Takahe, which was believed to be extinct decades ago, has made a comeback to the forests of New Zealand's South Island. 

About Takahe Bird:

• It is hailed as one of the world’s rarest creatures native to New Zealand.
• They have been an intrinsic part of New Zealand's ecosystem since the prehistoric Pleistocene era, as evidenced by fossil remains.
• Their population nosedived during the late 1800s when European settlers came along with their animal companions— stoats, cats, ferrets and rats. 
• The birds had been formally declared extinct in 1898. It was rediscovered in 1948 in several remote valleys on New Zealand’s South Island, and their numbers have been steadily growing since then.
• Features:
• They are large, stout birds with vibrant plumage.
• They have predominantly blue feathers on their bodies, green wings, and a large red beak.
• Their legs are pink, and they have a white undertail.
• Size: They grow up to the size of a large hen and can weigh as much as 3kg.
• Breeding: They breed only once a year, raising one to two chicks.
• Lifespan: They live up to 18 years in the wild and 22 years in sanctuaries.
• Diet: They live on a high-fibre diet of starchy leaves and seeds.

Hence option d is the correct answer.

About the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission:

• The Mission aims to address the pressing health challenges posed by sickle cell disease, particularly among the tribal population, will mark a crucial milestone in the Government’s ongoing efforts to eliminate sickle cell disease as a public health problem by 2047. 
• Objectives of the Mission:
  • Provision of affordable and accessible care to all SCD patients
  • To ensure quality of care for SCD patients
  • To reduce the prevalence of SCD
• Health promotion- Awareness generation & pre-marital genetic counselling
  • Prevention: Universal screening and early detection
  • Holistic Management & continuum of care: Management of persons with sickle cell disease at primary, secondary and tertiary health care levels; treatment facilities at tertiary health care facilities Patient support system Community adoption.

About Sickle Cell disease:

• Sickle cell disease is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders that affect haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen through the body.
• The red blood cells are disc-shaped and flexible enough to move easily through the blood vessels. If people have sickle cell disease, their red blood cells are crescent or “sickle” shaped. 
• These cells do not bend or move easily and can block blood flow to the rest of their body leading to serious problems, including stroke, eye problems, infections, and episodes of pain called pain crises.
• As per the Census 2011, India has an 8.6% tribal population, which is 67.8 million across the Indian states. 
• The MoHFW tribal health expert committee report has listed sickle cell disease as one of the 10 special problems in tribal heath that affect the tribal people disproportionately, thus making this an important intervention. 
• The program will be carried out in a mission mode covering the entire population from zero to 18 years of age and shall incrementally include the entire population up to 40 years as a part of National Health Mission.
• In the initial stage, the mission would prioritise its intervention in high prevalence and tribal states/UT, the plan would subsequently expand to include all states/UTs in a phase-wise manner with an incremental approach.
• The mission aims to cover 7 crore people with screening, counselling for prevention and care for people with SCD in three and half years.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, Scientists have found evidence to suggest that the universe is replete with low-frequency gravitational waves – ripples in the fabric of space-time, predicted by Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity more than 100 years ago.

About Gravitational Waves:

• Gravitational waves were first detected in 2015 using an experiment involving Laser Interferometer Gravitational Observatory (LIGO) detectors.
• But those waves were of high frequency and believed to have been produced by the merger of two relatively small black holes that took place about 1.3 billion years ago.
• Scientists have been looking for low-frequency gravitational waves for decades. They believed that such ripples are perpetually rolling through space like background noise.
• Pairs of supermassive black holes, sitting at the centre of galaxies, merge across the universe, generating gravitational waves. This breakthrough provides enough data to suggest that there is a gravitational wave background which exists in our universe.
• To discover low-frequency gravitational waves, scientists used entirely different technologies that were carried out by radio astronomers representing five different international teams, including Indian Pulsar Timing Array (InPTA). 
• The researchers used six large radio telescopes around the world, including the one in Pune, to study objects called pulsars, distant rapidly-rotating neutron stars that emit pulses of radiation, observed from the Earth as bright flashes of light. 
• These bursts take place at exact intervals, and therefore scientists use pulsars as ‘cosmic clocks.
• After examining 25 pulsars over 15 years, Scientists have proposed that the observed inconsistencies were due to deformities caused in space-time by gravitational waves. These irregularities showed consistent effects of the presence of gravitational waves.

About LIGO:

• LIGO is an international network of laboratories that detect the ripples (gravitational waves) in space-time produced by the movement of large celestial objects like stars and planets. 
• These ripples were first postulated in Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which encapsulates our current understanding of how gravitation works. 
• The LIGO detectors are sensitive to distance changes that are several orders of magnitude smaller than the length of a proton. 
• The experiment works by releasing light rays simultaneously in both chambers. Usually, the light should return at the same time in both chambers. 
• However, if a gravitational wave passes through, one chamber elongates while the other squishes, resulting in a phase difference in the returning light rays. Detecting this phase difference confirms the presence of a gravitational wave.

What is Space-time?

• In Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein proposed that space and time don’t exist as independent entities, combining the three dimensions (height, width and depth) of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional continuum, known as space-time.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, The Government has revised the Crop Residue Management guidelines enabling efficient ex-situ management of paddy straw generated in the States of Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi.

About Crop Residue Management guidelines:

• As per the revised guidelines, techno-commercial pilot projects for Paddy Straw Supply Chain will be established under the bilateral agreement between the Beneficiary/Aggregator and Industries utilizing the paddy straw.
• The beneficiary or aggregator can be Farmers, rural entrepreneurs, Cooperative Societies of Farmers, Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Panchayats.
• The govt. shall provide financial assistance on the capital cost of machinery and equipment.
• Project proposal-based financial assistance will be extended for machines and equipment such as higher HP tractors, cutters, tedder, medium to large balers, rakers, loaders, grabbers and tele-handlers.
• State Governments shall approve these projects through project sanctioning committee.
• Funding pattern:
• The Centre and state governments will jointly provide financial support of 65 per cent of the project cost, while the industry as primary promoter of the project will contribute 25 per cent.
• The remaining 10% will be contributed by beneficiary or aggregator.
• The land for storage of the collected paddy straw will be arranged and prepared by the beneficiary as may be guided by the end use industry.

The Outcomes of the above interventions are:

• Supplementing in-situ options: The initiative will complement the ongoing efforts for paddy straw management through in-situ methods.
• Reduction in stubble burning: It is estimated that during the three-year duration of the interventions, approximately 1.5 million MT of surplus paddy straw will be collected, which would have otherwise been burnt in the fields.
• Creation of biomass collection depots: Around 333 biomass collection depots with a capacity of 4,500 MT will be established in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.
• Reduced air pollution: The project will significantly contribute to reducing air pollution caused by stubble burning, leading to cleaner and healthier environments.
• Job creation: The interventions are expected to generate employment opportunities for approximately 900,000 man-days.
• Encouraging a robust supply chain: The establishment of a paddy straw supply chain will facilitate its availability for various end-uses such as power generation, heat generation, bio-CNG, etc., by power/bio-CNG/bio-ethanol producers.
• Stimulating investments: The development of a supply chain will attract new investments in the biomass-to-biofuel and energy sectors.

Hence both statements are correct.