Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 16, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

India, through a newly-floated state-owned company, inked a pact with an Argentine firm mid-last year to jointly prospect lithium in the South American country that has the third largest reserves of lithium.

• The new company, Khanij Bidesh India Ltd was incorporated in August, 2019 by three state-owned companies, NALCO, Hindustan Copper and Mineral Exploration Ltd, with a specific mandate to acquire strategic mineral assets such as lithium and cobalt abroad
• It is also learnt to be exploring options in Chile and Bolivia, two other top lithium-producing countries.
• Lithium, the silver-white alkali metal is a crucial building block of the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), laptops and mobile phones.
• Currently, India is heavily dependent on import of these cells and the move to ink sourcing pacts for lithium is seen as another salvo in the front against China, a key source of both the raw material and cells.
• Hence both statements are correct.

India launched the 40^th scientific expedition to Antarctica.

• This Indian expedition marks four decades of country’s scientific endeavour to the southern white continent.
• The 40th expedition journey will be flagged off from Goa on January 5, 2021, with 43 members onboard.
• The chartered ice-class vessel MV Vasiliy Golovnin will make this journey and will reach Antarctica in 30 days. After leaving behind a team of 40 members, it would return to India in April 2021. On return, it will also bring back the winter team of the preceding trip.
• The Indian Antarctic expeditions began in 1981. The first trip comprised of a team of 21 scientists and support staff led by Dr SZ Qasim.
• The Indian Antarctic programme has now credited to have built three permanent research base stations in Antarctica—named Dakshin Gangotri, Maitri, and Bharati. As of today, India has two operational research stations in Antarctica named Maitri and Bharati.
• The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa, manages the entire Indian Antarctic program.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The 16th century Ramateertham temple turned into a political war zone with a triangular fight among leaders of the TDP, the BJP and the ruling YSR Congress Party as they tried to get maximum political mileage with regard to the vandalism of the idol of Lord Rama at the Kodandarama Swamy temple.

• The idol of Lord Rama atop the historic Ramateertham temple, located 12 km from Vizianagaram, was vandalised on December 29. A part of the idol was identified in a small pond on December 31.
• Ramateertham is a village panchayat in Nellimarla mandal of Vizianagaram district in Andhra Pradesh in India. It is about 12 km from Vizianagaram city.
• Ramateertham is one of the places made sacred by a traditional connection with Lord Sree Rama.
• The famous ancient temple of Ramachandra Swamy can be found here. The beautiful idols of Lord Ramachandra Swamy, Sita and Lakshmana in Silver kavachas can be seen at this temple.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constructed a composite Digital Payments Index (DPI) to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

• The RBI-DPI has been constructed with March 2018 as the base period.
• The DPI for March 2019 and March 2020 work out to 153.47 and 207.84 respectively, indicating appreciable growth.
• The RBI-DPI comprises five broad parameters, including Payment Enablers, Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors and Supply-side factors, Payment Performance and Consumer Centricity,” the banking regulator said.
• RBI-DPI shall be published on RBI’s website on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of 4 months.
• The digital payments ecosystem is currently dominated by large technology players including Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, and recently launched WhatsApp Payments.
• India’s UPI payments had shot up 82 per cent in the current fiscal year’s Q2 along with a 99 per cent jump in value from the year-ago period, according to the Worldline India Digital Payments report.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Karnataka Forest Department, along with the Bat Conservation India Trust (BCIT), is on a war footing to save the Kolar Leaf-Nosed Bat from extinction.

• It is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae.
• Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and caves.
• It is endemic to India. It is found in only one cave in Hanumanahalli village in the Kolar district of Karnataka, and its population is less than 200 individuals.
• It is currently evaluated as critically endangered by the IUCN.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Ministry of Education, Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Ministry of Textile, Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of I&B and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have jointly launched Toycathon-2021 and Toycathon Portal.

• This is a special kind of hackathon where students and teachers from schools and colleges, design experts, toy experts and startups will get together to crowd source ideas for developing toys and games that are based on Indian culture & ethos and local folklore & heroes.
• While this will greatly help India develop into a global hub for toys and games, it will also help our children to understand the ethos and values of Indian culture as envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020.
• The Toycathon is based on nine themes viz. Indian Culture, History, Knowledge of India and Ethos; Learning, Education and Schooling; Social and human values; Occupations & specific fields; Environment; Divyang ; Fitness and sport; Out of the box, creative and logical thinking and Rediscovering/redesigning traditional Indian toys
• The Toycathon will have 3 variants of tracks of Junior Level, Senior Level and Start up Level and will allow participation of students and teachers from schools, colleges and universities apart from startups and toy experts.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

More than 225 Google engineers and other workers have formed a union, capping years of growing activism at one of the world’s largest companies and presenting a rare beachhead for labour organizers in staunchly anti-union Silicon Valley.

• The new union, called the Alphabet Workers Union after Google’s parent company, Alphabet, was organized in secret for the better part of a year and elected its leadership last month.
• The group is affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, a union that represents workers in telecommunications and media in the United States and Canada.
• But unlike a traditional union, which demands that an employer come to the bargaining table to agree on a contract, the Alphabet Workers Union is a so-called minority union that represents a fraction of the company’s more than 260,000 full-time employees and contractors.
• Workers said it was primarily an effort to give structure and longevity to activism at Google, rather than to negotiate for a contract.
• Alphabet was created through a restructuring of Google on October 2, 2015, and became the parent company of Google.
• Hence both statements are correct.

India has started exports of Moringa powder, keeping in mind its rising global demand and nutritional properties, the commerce ministry said. Two tonne of organic certified Moringa powder were sent to the US through air consignment on December 29, 2020.

• Moringa (botanical name Moringa oleifera) is a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree of the family Moringaceae, native to the Indian subcontinent. India is the largest producer of moringa.
• More generally, moringa grows in the wild or is cultivated in Central America and the Caribbean, northern countries of South America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and various countries of Oceania.
• Common names include moringa, drumstick tree, horseradish tree, and ben oil tree or benzolive tree.
• Globally, the demand for Moringa products, such as Moringa Leaf Powder and Moringa Oil, has been witnessing healthy growth for its nutritional, medicinal, culinary uses.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

A long standing demand of the Shiv Sena for renaming Aurangabad city in Maharashtra as Sambahji Nagar has resurfaced over the last few days. The controversy has led to a war of words between the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Shiv Sena and Congress, and the BJP.

• Aurangabad is a city in Maharashtra. It is the administrative headquarters of Aurangabad district and is the largest city in the Marathwada region.
• The entire area is covered by the Deccan Traps lava flows of Upper Cretaceous to Lower Eocene age.
• The city is known as a major production center of cotton textile and artistic silk fabrics.
• In 2019, the Aurangabad Industrial City (AURIC) became the first greenfield industrial smart city of India under the country's flagship Smart Cities Mission.
• Paithan, the imperial capital of the Satavahana dynasty (1st century BCE–2nd century CE), as well as Daulatabad or Dēvagirī, the capital of the Yadava dynasty (9th century CE–14th century CE), are located within the limits of modern Aurangabad.
• Aurangabad was built in 1610 by Malik Ambar of the Nijamshahi dynasty. It was renamed Aurangabad by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb when he made it the capital of the Deccan region of the Mughal Empire.
• Aurangzeb, who lived in Aurangabad until his death, tortured and killed Chhatrapati Sambahji Maharaj, son of the Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
• Tourist destinations like the Ajanta and Ellora caves lie on its outskirts, both of which have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1983.
• Historically, there were 52 Gates in Aurangabad, some of them extant, because of which Aurangabad is nicknamed as the "City of Gates".
• Hence both statements are correct.

The expert committee constituted by Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, has concluded that SwasthVayu may be used on Covid-19 patients who require oxygen supplementation up to 35%.

• To address the shortages of ventilators in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) scientists indigenously designed and developed the non-invasive bi-level positive airway pressure ventilator –SwasthVayu.
• SwasthVayu developed by CSIR-NAL is a microcontroller based precise closed-loop adaptive control system with a built-in biocompatible “3D printed manifold and coupler” with HEPA filter (Highly Efficient Particulate Air Filter).
• These unique features help to alleviate the fear of the virus spread. It has features like CPAP, Bi-Timed, Spontaneous / AUTO modes with provision to connect Oxygen concentrator or Enrichment unit externally.
• CSIR-NAL has commercialized this technology with six private companies.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.