Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 23, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

There are dozens of ways to pick stocks, but few have been as unconventional -- or as successful -- as the coordinated short-squeeze being deployed by Reddit’s army of day traders. Now, Wall Street is scanning the matter.

• Short squeeze is a term used by market participants to refer to a phenomenon where short sellers in a stock who have placed their bets on a stock’s fall, rush to hedge their positions or buy the stock in the event of an adverse price movement, in order to cover their losses.
• This leads to a sharp rise in demand for the share, and huge rally in share prices.
• In order to cover his loss, the trader who was initially short on the stock, starts buying the stock, which leads to a sharp rise in the share price of the stock.
• This phenomenon, where the short seller is buying the stock to cover her loss, is referred to as short squeeze in market parlance.
• It leads to a dramatic rise in share price, far beyond its fundamentals.
• Hence both statements are correct.

A former Israeli fighter pilot, an American technology entrepreneur and a Canadian investor will be part of the crew of the first entirely-private orbital space mission.

• The three men are paying $55 million each to fly aboard a SpaceX rocket for an eight-day visit to the International Space Station, organised by Houston-based spaceflight firm Axiom.
• The Axiom Mission 1 (AX 1) flight is being arranged under a commercial agreement with NASA.
• The mission will be led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who now works for Axiom space.
• While private citizens have travelled to space before, the AX 1 mission will be the first to use a commercially built spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon 2, best known for flying its first two crews to the ISS late last year.

Is this the first time civilians have been launched into space

• No, private civilians have travelled to the space station before.
• Since 2001, Russia has been selling rides to the ISS to wealthy businessmen around the world. They travelled onboard the Russian Soyuz aircraft along with professional cosmonauts and NASA astronauts.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports launched a breakthrough Reference Material for use in chemical testing in the field of anti-doping synthesized by collaborative efforts of National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Guwahati.

• This Reference Material (RM), has been identified by NDTL as one of the rarely available RMs globally and would be used to strengthen anti-doping measures in all World Anti Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratories.
• The MoU between NDTL and NIPER Guwahati was signed in August 2020 which proposes to synthesize 20 rarely available Reference Materials (RMs) during a period of 3 years.
• The availability of these RMs would help the anti-doping laboratories to strengthen their testing capacity. This will help in the greater cause of promoting fair play in sports.
• National Dope Testing Laboratory (Ndtl) is an autonomous body under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. It is based in Delhi.
• It is the only laboratory in the country responsible for human sports dope testing.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare addressed the event on Restoring Cross Border Mobility by World Economic Forum’s Common Trust Network through Video Conference.

• As countries around the world work to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and restart their economies, they all face the challenge of how to reopen their borders and allow travel and commerce to resume while protecting their populations’ health.
• To address this challenge, The Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum have launched the Common Trust Network in collaboration with a broad voluntary network of public and private stakeholders.
• The Common Trust Network is designed to
  • empower individuals with digital access to their health information,
  • make it easier for individuals to understand and comply with each destination’s requirements, and
  • help ensure that only verifiable lab results and vaccination records from trusted sources are presented for the purposes of cross-border travel and commerce.
• The Common Trust Registry: The Common Trust Network is enabled by a global registry of trusted laboratory and vaccination data sources, standard formats for lab results and vaccination records, and standard tools to make those results and records digitally accessible.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister for Environment and French Minister for Ecological Transition launched the Indo-French Year of the Environment.

• The basic objective is to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in sustainable development, increase the effectiveness of actions in favour of global environment protection and give them greater visibility.
• The Indo-French Year of the Environment over the period 2021-2022 would be based on five main themes: environmental protection, climate change, biodiversity conservation, sustainable urban development, and the development of renewable energies and energy efficiency.
• It is also a platform for engaging in discussions on critical areas of collaboration relating to environment and allied areas.
• From the Indian side, it will be coordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) along with the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and other concerned Ministries/Departments/Organisations.
• A joint screening committee will also be set up to finalise the calendar of the events for the Indo-French Year of the Environment.
• India-France alliance is the main pillar of the International Solar Alliance launched by PM Narendra Modi.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Asaddudin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), and CPI leader Binoy Viswam have filed dissent notes to the parliamentary standing committee’s report on the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019 on the grounds that it does not take into account their concerns over privacy violations.

• The Bill proposes DNA sampling and profiling of citizens accused of crime or reported missing, and storing their unique genetic information for administrative purposes.
• The objective of the Bill is limited to the establishment of a regulatory board to regulate the use of DNA technology in consonance with international standards.
• Hence both statements are correct.

A formal MoU signing ceremony was held between Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India and M/s. Nissenken Quality Evaluation Centre Japan.

• The objective of the MoU is to provide required support to textile’s trade and industry for ensuring quality as per the requirement of Japanese buyers through Testing, Inspection & Conformity Assessment.
• It is expected that the MoU will strengthen the bilateral trade by enhancing India’s export of Textile and Apparels (T&A) to Japan, which is the third largest export destination of the world.
• The Textiles Committee was established in the year 1963 by an Act of Parliament.
• It is a statutory body under the Ministry of Textiles to ensure quality of all textiles and textile products for domestic and export markets.
• The Textiles Committee is the only body providing for all the quality related needs of the entire Textiles Value Chain (TVC) in an integrated format on a pan-India basis.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Framework for Strategic Partnership between the International Energy Agency (IEA) members and the Government of India was signed.

• It aims to strengthen mutual trust and cooperation & enhance global energy security, stability and sustainability. This partnership will lead to an extensive exchange of knowledge and would be a stepping stone towards India becoming a full member of the IEA.
• The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation.
• It was established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.
• The IEA is made up of 30 member countries.
• In addition, the IEA family also includes eight association countries which includes Brazil, China and India.
• Three countries are seeking accession to full membership, Chile, Israel and Lithuania.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) observed the International Customs Day, 2021.

• The theme for this year as given by World Customs Organisation (WCO) is “Customs bolstering Recovery, Renewal and Resilience for a sustainable supply chain”.
• January 26 is celebrated as the International Customs Day (ICD). It is the day designated to honour the custom officials and agencies for their function in taking care of the flow of goods across the world borders.
• It was on January 26, 1953 that the Customs Cooperation Council (CCC) had held its inaugural session in Brussels which was attended by representatives from 17 European countries.
• International Customs Day was created by CCC in 1983. In 1994, CCC was renamed as World Customs Organization (WCO).
• WCO is the only international body looking after international customs and matters concerning border control.
• WCO has head-quarter in Brussels, Belgium.
• WCO currently has custom organizations from 182 countries as its members.
• More than 98% of world trade is administered by WCO.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

National Informatics Centre services Incorporated (NICSI) will celebrate 25 years of its establishment here on 28 January 2021.

• National Informatics Centre services Incorporated (NICSI) is a Public Sector Enterprise under National Informatics Centre(NIC), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.
• NICSI started its journey in the ICT service industry on 29th August 1995.
• Providing end-to-end IT solutions for e-governance projects for Central and State Governments and other PSUs across India, NICSI extends its services to the International level too in certain projects.

On the occasion, The Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology will launch:

• Tejas – a Virtual Intelligence tool (NIC&NICSI-CEDA) that extracts critical information from data to make its meaningful information for policy decisions and improving efficiency in government services and citizen delivery;
• e-Auction India – to cater to electronic forward and reverse auction requirements of the Govt. organisations serving online 24x7;
• Work from Anywhere Portal – a virtual environment, provisioned shall empower employees access routine applications like eoffice, calendar, mail, and other departmental applications and communicate across through Video Conferencing;
• NIC Products Portfolio for International Offering to augment Digital India branding through promotion of productized software applications at global level.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.