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

• Statement 1 is correct: BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
  • BRICS countries represent 27% of the world’s land mass, and 42% of the world’s population, 24% of global GDP, and 16% of Global trade, and produce 33% of the world’s food.
• Statement 2 is correct: In 2001, the British Economist Jim O’Neill coined the term BRIC .
  • South Africa was added in 2010.
• The chairmanship of the forum is rotated annually among the members, in accordance with the acronym B-R-I-C-S.
  • India was the chair for 2021.
• The 1st BRIC summit was held in Yekaterinburg, in Russia in 2009.

Option (c) is correct

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has withdrawn the permit under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for U.K.-based NGO Save The Children’s Indian offshoot, Bal Raksha Bharat.
• The FCRA was first enacted to regulate foreign donations  during the Emergency in 1976.
  • There were apprehensions that foreign powers were interfering in India’s affairs by pumping money into the country through independent organisations.
• Statement 1 is Correct:FCRA registration is valid for five years. NGOs are expected to apply for renewal within six months of the date of expiry of registration.
• Statement 2 is not Correct: It is implemented by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It is applicable to all associations, groups and NGOs which intend to receive foreign donations.

• Researchers have recorded the first instance of captive breeding of the Himalayan vulture (Gyps himalayensis) in India at the Assam State Zoo, Guwahati.
• Statement 1 is Correct: The Himalayan vulture mostly lives in the Himalayas on the Tibetan plateau (India, Nepal and Bhutan, central China and Mongolia).
  • It is also found in the Central Asian mountains (from Kazakhstan and Afghanistan in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east).
• Statement 2  is not Correct:It is categorised as ‘Near Threatened’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
• Statement 3 is Correct: Oriental white-backed vultures are protected in the Schedule-1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972. 

• The Union government’s  ₹72,000-crore Great Nicobar Project may see 9.64 lakh trees felled to enable the construction of a trans-shipment port, an international airport, and township development.
• Statement 1 is Correct: Great Nicobar is the southernmost island of the Nicobar Islands Archipelago.
• It is a region of evergreen tropical forests with high biological diversity and the island itself is home to nearly 650 species of flora and 330 species of fauna.
• Statement 2 is Correct: Andaman and Nicobar are separated from each other by the ‘Ten Degree Channel’.
• The Great Nicobar Island lies between the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in a tectonically sensitive zone.

Water vapour depends on both temperature and precipitation. In the warm and wet tropics, it may account for four per cent of the air by volume, while in the dry and cold areas of desert and Polar Regions, it may be less than one per cent of the air. Since polar regions have a cold climate and poor precipitation, the capacity of the air as well as the moisture available as lesser, leading to a lower water vapour content.

Statement 1: When the wind blows moist air over a cool surface the air will cool and advection fog will form. Advection fog is very common at sea when tropical winds pass over cooler waters and on land when a warm front passes over heavy snow. Statement 2: Sea fog forms when the condensation nuclei are salt. Salt is, of course, very common near the ocean where it is kicked up into the atmosphere by the breaking waves. Salt is a unique condensation nucleus in that it will allow fog to form when the humidity is as low as 70%.

The Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2023 was passed recently by the Lok Sabha. It aims to boost ease of doing business and living in India. It aims to redefine regulations in the country by decriminalizing minor offenses under 42 Acts, thereby reducing compliance. The Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry presented the proposed legislation in Parliament in December of the previous year.

Rainfall is not the only criteria that the IMD relies on to declare the monsoon’s onset. Windspeeds of a minimum strength and depth in the atmosphere, the Outgoing Longwave Radiation — a measure of cloudiness — and rainfall appearing to be consistent and well distributed over Kerala, are important criteria.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Green manures are crops grown specifically for maintaining soil fertility and structure. They are normally incorporated back into the soil, either directly, or after removal and composting. There are three main varieties of green manure, including Dhaincha, Cowpea, Sunhemp. Also some crops such as summer moong, mash pulses and guar act as green manure.
Punjab’s per hectare fertiliser consumption, which is around 244 kg, is one of the highest in the country and is also higher than the national average. Growing green manure can curtail this consumption to a large extent by 25 to 30% and can save huge input cost for the farmers.
Also, even the PH level of the soil in several parts of the state is more than 8.5 and 9 per cent and green manure is beneficial to maintain it at the required level which is 7 per cent.

As many as 120 people died in Kerala due to heatwave till June-end, the highest in the country, said a Health Ministry statement in the Lok Sabha. Gujarat saw 35 deaths due to heatwaves. It is followed by Telangana with 20.