Daily Current Affairs MCQ - April 16, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

• Ken and Betwa rivers originate in MP and are the tributaries of Yamuna. 

  • Ken meets with Yamuna in Banda district of UP and with Betwa in Hamirpur district of UP.

• Recently, the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh signed a memorandum of agreement to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project (KBLP), the National Perspective project Plan for interlinking of rivers.

  • The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is the river interlinking project that aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken river in MP to Betwa in UP to irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand region. 

  • The project involves building a 77-metre tall and a 2-km wide Dhaudhan dam and a 230-km canal.

• The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is a multi-stakeholder global partnership of national governments, UN agencies and programmes, multilateral development banks and financing mechanisms, the private sector, and knowledge institutions.

  • The Prime Minister of India launched CDRI during his speech at the UN Climate Action Summit on 23rd September 2019. 

• It aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks to support sustainable development.

• The CDRI Secretariat is based in New Delhi, India. Hence, 

• The largest source of climate financing in India is public funding, which is routed through budgetary allocation and several funds and schemes related to climate change established by the Government of India such as National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) and National Adaptation Fund (NAF).

• The Government of India also provides funding through eight missions established under the National Action Plan for Climate Change.

  • The government has established a Climate Change Finance Unit (CCFU) in the Ministry of Finance, which is the nodal agency for all climate change financing matters.

  • However, public funding in India is inadequate and misused. For example, NCEF funds have been used to meet budgetary shortfalls in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MoNRE).

  • Additionally, there is no assessment of climate relevance of publicly funded projects in India, making it difficult to evaluate climate action's financial allocation.

• Global collaboration for the world's largest radio telescope took formal shape with an Intergovernmental Council's constitution. The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) project, spanning two continents and involving the participation of 20 countries, is expected to be ready for carrying out observations towards the end of this decade.

• Headquartered and controlled from the UK, the SKA is not a single telescope but will be an array of antennas strategically designed and set up in South Africa and Australia.

• SKA will allow astronomers to look deeper into the universe and unravel secrets about its evolution. Among its goals are: studying the universe and its evolution, the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism, and dark energy and evolution of galaxies. Scientists are also optimistic that the SKA will be able to detect very weak extra-terrestrial signals and search for molecules that support life.

• Unlike optical telescopes, radio telescopes can detect invisible gas and, therefore, they can reveal areas of space that may be obscured by cosmic dust.

• India is participating in SKAO. through the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). 

• The Indian team was among the first to submit and get the design approval of a highly sophisticated Telescope Manager (TM), nicknamed "nervous system", of the SKA observatory. The Indian team has now been chosen to lead the TM system's construction, which will be responsible for end-to-end operations of SKAO.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently said that it will give small investors direct access to its government securities trading platform.

What are government securities, or g-secs?

These are debt instruments issued by the government to borrow money. The two key categories are treasury bills – short-term instruments that mature in 91 days, 182 days, or 364 days, and dated securities – long-term instruments that mature anywhere between 5 years and 40 years.

But can't retail investors already invest in g-secs?

Small investors can invest indirectly in g-secs by buying mutual funds or certain life insurance firms' policies.

So what is the need for the current proposal, then?

The g-sec market is dominated by institutional investors such as banks, mutual funds, and insurance companies. These entities trade in lot sizes of Rs 5 crore or more.

So, there is no liquidity in the secondary market for small investors who would want to trade in smaller lot sizes.

Like bank fixed deposits, g-secs are not tax-free.

They are generally considered the safest form of investment because the government backs them. So, the risk of default is almost nil.

However, they are not completely risk free, since they are subject to fluctuations in interest rates.

Eravikulam National Park is located along the Western Ghats in the Idukki district of Kerala.

• The terrain consists of high-altitude grasslands interspersed with sholas. Anamudi, 2,695 meters, the highest peak in south India is inside this park.

The Grasshopper Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is initiating the Red List Assessment of grasshoppers in India for the first time.

The assessment will include a new grasshopper species discovered recently in the Eravikulam National Park in Kerala's Idukki district.

None of the Indian grasshopper species have been listed in the Red Data Book. The Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of biological species' global conservation status.

Various regions of the country are celebrating traditional new year today in the form of Ugadi, Gudi Padava, Chaitra Sukladi, Cheti Chand, Vishu, Puthandu and Bohag Bihu.

• According to the Luni-Solar calendar, the first day of the full moon of Chaitra is the beginning of the Hindu new year.

• People of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana call it 'Ugadi', and in Karnataka, it is 'Yugadi'.

• Maharashtra is celebrated as 'Gudi Padwa', and in Tamil Nadu, it is observed as 'Puthandu'.

• In Kerala, the day is celebrated as 'Vishu', In Punjab it is 'Vaisakhi' and in Odisha, it is called 'Pana Sankranthi'.

• In West Bengal, it is called 'Poila Boishakh' and in Assam, 'Bohag Bihu'.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi also extended his greetings on the beginning of the new Samvat Year 2078 and wished for happiness and joy in everyone's life.

Scientists have developed an electronic nose with biodegradable polymer and monomer that can detect hydrogen sulphide (H2S), a poisonous, corrosive, and flammable gas produced from swamps and sewers.

• H₂S is the primary gas produced from the microbial breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen, and this necessitates easy detection of its emission from sewers and swamps.

• Responding to this challenge, scientists from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bangalore, an autonomous institute of the DST have developed an exceptionally sensitive and selective H₂S Gas sensor developed by impersonating the neuron responsible for identification of airborne molecules or olfactory receptor neuron (ORN).

• The fabricated sensor consists of a heterostructure consisting of two layers –

  • the top layer is a monomer and is realized with a novel chemical tris (keto-hydrazone), which is both porous and contains H₂S specific functional groups. The bottom layer is the active channel layer that plays a key role in altering charge carriers' current and mobility.

The Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India launched the “MANAS” App to promote wellbeing across age groups.

• MANAS which stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System was endorsed as a national program by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC).

• MANAS is a comprehensive, scalable, and national digital wellbeing platform and an app developed to augment mental well-being of Indian citizens.

• MANAS App integrates various government ministries' health and wellness efforts, scientifically validated indigenous tools with gamified interfaces developed/researched by various national bodies and research institutions.

• MANAS was initiated by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to India's Government. It was jointly executed by NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC Pune and C-DAC Bengaluru.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has called on buyers to bid for natural gas from the Deepwater fields of the KGDWN-98/2 block off India's east coast.

• ONGC is set to supply about 2 Million Metric Standard Cubic Metres per Day (MMSCMD) of natural gas from the fields starting at the end of June.

• The ramping up of production from the KG-DWN 98/2 block by ONGC is a key component of the government’s plan to boost domestic production with the block expected to reach peak production of 15 MMSCMD by 2024.

• This would account for about a 20 per cent increase above the company’s current production level of about 70 MMSCMD.

• Natural gas production from the Krishna Godavari basin is a key part of India’s plans to reduce import dependence by boosting domestic production.

• India currently imports about half of its natural gas requirements of 175 MMSCMD.