Daily Current Affairs MCQ- April 4, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

A rare, formerly-horned comet that astronomers have dubbed the "Mother of Dragons" is now visible after dusk in the Northern Hemisphere.

• It is officially known as Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
• It is a ‘Halley-type’ comet with an orbital period of roughly 71 years and a nucleus approximately 30 km wide.
• Composition: It is composed of ice, dust, and rocky material. When it approaches the Sun, heat causes the ice inside the comet to turn from solid to gas.
• It is classified as a Jupiter-family comet, meaning its orbit is influenced by Jupiter's gravitational pull.
• It typically reaches perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around the orbit of Mars and can become visible to observers on Earth during its close approach.
• Its closest approach to Earth will occur in June 2024.

Key facts about Comets

• Comets are ancient cosmic icebergs. They are roughly 4.6 billion years old and formed at the same time as the Sun, Earth and the other planets.
• They are made of dust and ice, which partly goes from solid to gas when the comet is warmed by the Sun.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, swell waves inundated coastal areas in central and southern districts of Kerala.

• A swell is the formation of long wavelength waves on the surface of the sea. These are composed of series of surface gravity waves.
• Formation:
• They occur not due to the local winds, but rather due to distant storms like hurricanes, or even long periods of fierce gale winds.
• During such storms, huge energy transfer takes place from the air into the water, leading to the formation of very high waves. Such waves can travel thousands of kilometres from the storm centre until they strike shore.
• Features
• Swells have a narrower range of frequencies and directions than locally generated wind waves, because swell waves have dispersed from their generation area, have dissipated and therefore lost an amount of randomness, taking on a more defined shape and direction.
• These waves can propagate in directions that differ from the direction of the wind, in contrast to a wind sea.
• Their wavelengths may rarely exceed more than 150 m. Swell wavelength, also, varies from event to event. Occasionally, swells which are longer than 700 m occur as a result of the most severe storms.
• It occurs without precursors or any kind of local wind activity.
• In India early warning systems like the Swell Surge Forecast System launched by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in 2020 — gives forewarning seven days in advance.

Hence option a is the correct answer.

Recently, the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in Bengaluru has developed a new platform called OptiDrop.

• It is an innovative microfluidic chip-based platform that simplifies and reduces the cost of studying single cells.
• It employs a novel approach that enables precise and cost-effective analysis of single cells encapsulated in droplets.
• The platform’s unique features include live data visualisation, a smaller data footprint, and a ‘closed’ system design that prevents external contamination.
• This research was supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Council (BIRAC), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
• Applications:
• This cutting-edge technology has potential applications in diagnostics, therapeutics, agriculture, and animal health.
• It helps in studying the impact on individual cells during a drug screen, environment control (water contamination counter), detection and sorting of CAR-T cells in immuno-oncotherapeutics, selection of CRISPR-modified single cells and selection of high-efficiency clones in single-cell genomics

What is C-CAMP?

• It is an initiative supported by Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India is a catalyst of cutting-edge research and innovation in the life sciences since 2009.
• It is mandated to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. It has created and fostered an entrepreneur-friendly culture in and around Academic/Research environment through its involvement in Seed Funding Schemes for Startups.

Hence both statements are correct.

Punnett squares are a way to predict the possible genetic outcomes of the offspring when two individuals with known genotypes are crossed.

• The Punnett Square is named after British geneticist Reginald Punnett.
• How it works?
• Along the top and side of the grid the possible genetic traits of one parent on one side and the other parent on the other side is listed.
• Then, you fill in the squares by combining the traits from each parent. Each square effectively represents a possible combination of traits that their offspring could inherit.
• It’s a simple way to visualise the probabilities of different traits showing up in the offspring.
• Applications
• Punnett Squares are commonly used in biology to understand inheritance patterns, like when you learn about dominant and recessive genes in school.
• It is a useful tool that helps predict the variations and probabilities resulting from cross-breeding.
• It can also be used to understand the genetic traits in the offspring of animals, including humans.
• Researchers typically use them together with Mendelian inheritance.

Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, recently launched White Rabbit Collaboration.

What is White Rabbit (WR)?

• It is a technology developed at CERN, in collaboration with institutes and companies, to synchronize devices in the accelerators down to sub-nanoseconds and solve the challenge of establishing a common notion of time across a network.
• White Rabbit Switches provides sub-nanosecond synchronization accuracy, which formerly required dedicated hard-wired timing systems, with the flexibility and modularity of real-time Ethernet networks.
• It achieves sub-nanosecond accuracy in Ethernet based networks.
• A White Rabbit network may be used solely to provide timing and synchronization to a distributed electronic system, or to provide both timing and real-time data transfer.
• First used in 2012, the application of this fully open-source technology has quickly expanded outside the field of particle physics.
• In 2020, it was included in the worldwide industry standard known as Precision Time Protocol (PTP), governed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
• A key distinctive feature of White Rabbit is that it is open source and based on standards.
• Companies and institutes can therefore adapt it to their needs and incorporate it in their products and systems.
• White Rabbit is used in the finance sector as well as in many research infrastructures, and it is currently being evaluated for application in the future quantum internet.
• The technology could also play a key role in the future landscape of global time dissemination technologies, which currently rely heavily on satellites.
• White Rabbit Collaboration:
• It is a membership-based global community whose objective is to maintain a high-performance open-source technology that meets the needs of users and to facilitate its uptake by industry. 
• The WR Collaboration will provide dedicated support and training, facilitate R&D projects between entities with common interests and complementary expertise, and establish a testing ecosystem that fosters trust in products that incorporate the open-source technology. 

Hence option c is the correct answer

The Allahabad High Court recently observed that orders issued by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, are subject to appeal solely to the Supreme Court and not the High Court.

About Contempt of Court:

• Constitutional Provisions: Article 129 of the Constitution says that the Supreme Court shall be the ‘Court of Record’ and it has all the powers of such courts including the power to punish for contemptof itself. Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts.
• According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt. 
• Civil contempt means wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
• On the other hand, criminal contempt means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which
• scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
• prejudices, or interferes with, or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
• interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
• A contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, or with both, provided that the accused may be discharged or the punishment awarded may be remitted on apology being made to the satisfaction of the court.
• What is not contempt of court?
• Fair and accurate reporting of judicial proceedings will not amount to contempt of court. Nor is any fair criticism on the merits of a judicial order after a case is heard and disposed of.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Supreme Court recently issued notice in an appeal against two Kerala High Court verdicts that held that Muslim women have the absolute right to unilateral and extra-judicial divorce through Khula under Islamic law.

About Khula:

• 'Khula' is a practice within Islamic law that empowers Muslim women to unilaterally seek separation from their husbands. 
• It is expressly mentioned in the Quran.
• This is designed to safeguard women's rights and operate within the parameters of Islamic law.
• The process involves the wife initiating the divorce by formally requesting it from the court, providing a valid reason such as incompatibility, abuse, or neglect.
• In the 'Khula' process, there is also the possibility of the woman returning the 'Mehr' or reaching a financial settlement with her husband as part of the agreement for ending the marriage.
• Following a 'Khula' divorce, the husband assumes responsibility for the education and financial support of the children.

What is Talaq?

• 'Talaq' occurs when the husband initiates the divorce.
• According to Muslim law, once a man pronounces 'Talaq,' the marriage is immediately terminated.
• But unlike Khula, wherein a Muslim woman needs to formally give a reason for the divorce, in Talaq, a Muslim man can divorce his wife with or without any cause, and there is no specific procedure for it.
• After taking a 'Talaq', a Muslim man has to repay his former wife her dowry and property, if any, owned by her.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

A six-year-old project to return giant tortoises to the wild in Madagascar could result in thousands of megaherbivores re-populating the island for the first time in 600 years.

• It is the second-largest species of land tortoise in the world, after the Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra).
• It can live for 100 years and has a fascinating history.
• This tortoise evolved from ancestors of Aldabrachelys abrupta, one of two giant tortoises that inhabited Madagascar for 15 million years.
• Four million years ago, the Aldabrachelys abrupta lineage migrated, likely via a combination of drifting with floating vegetation and assisted by their natural buoyancy and good swimming abilities, to the Seychelles.
• These are endemic to the Aldabra Atoll of the Seychelles, an archipelago nation in the western Indian Ocean about 930 miles east of Africa and northeast of Madagascar.
• Habitat:
• Theseare terrestrial and occur in a wide variety of habitats, including scrub forests, mangrove swamps, and coastal dunes and beaches, each with their respective vegetation.
• The largest populations of tortoises are found on grasslands called "platins."
• Due to prolonged periods of heavy grazing, a habitat known as “tortoise turf”, consisting of a variety of grasses, has developed in certain areas.
• Conservation status
• IUCN: Vulnerable
• CITES: Appendix II

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Union Minister for Culture, Tourism And Development of North Eastern Region informed the Lok Sabha about the Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar programme.

• It is a pan-India initiative of Ministry of Culture under National Mission on Cultural Mapping and was launched on 27th July 2023. 
• It seeks to compile comprehensive information detailing the life, history, and ethos of Indian villages and to make the same available to virtual and real-time visitors.
• Under the MGMD, information is collected under seven broad categories as given below-
• Arts and Crafts Village
• Ecologically Oriented Village
• Scholastic Village linked with Textual and Scriptural Traditions of India
• Epic Village linked with Ramayana, Mahabharata and/or Puranic legends and oral epics
• Historical Village linked with Local and National History
• Architectural Heritage Village
• Any other characteristic that may need highlighting such as fishing village, horticulture village, shepherding village etc.
• Objective: The main objective the project is to culturally map India's 6.5 lakh villages, spanning 29 States and 7 Union Territories, on a comprehensive virtual platform.
• Through MGMD, people will get an opportunity to immerse themselves in the diverse and vibrant cultural heritage of India.
• The core idea behind this project is to encourage appreciation for India's culture and traditions, paving way for economic growth, social harmony, and artistic development in rural communities.
• Financial outlay of Rs.353.46 Crore is approved under the scheme of Financial Assistance for Promotion of Art and Culture consisting 08 scheme components namely;
• Financial Assistance to Cultural organizations with National Presence
• Cultural Function & Production Grant (CFPG)
• Financial Assistance for the Preservation & Development of Cultural Heritage of the Himalayas:
• Financial Assistance for the Preservation & Development of Buddhist/Tibetan Organization
• Financial Assistance for Building Grants including Studio Theatres
• Financial Assistance For Allied Cultural Activities
• Scheme for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage

Hence both statements are correct.

Experts from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) declared the Hindu Kush Himalaya region a biosphere on the brink of collapse and called for bold action and urgent finance to prevent nature loss.

• It is an intergovernmental knowledge and learning centre working on behalf of the people of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH).
• It was formally established and inaugurated on 5 December 1983.
• Mission: To build and share knowledge that drives regional policy and action and attracts investment that enables the diverse countries and communities of the HKH to transition to greener, more inclusive, and climate resilient development.
• Member countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
• Governance
• Its Board of Governors is the highest governing body of the centre. 
• It consists of one representative from each of eight regional member countries and independent members who are nominated by the ICIMOD Support Group based on their recognized professional expertise and experience.
• Functions
• It serves the region through information and knowledge generation and sharing to find innovative solutions to critical mountain problems.
• It bridges science with policies and on-the-ground practices.
• It provides a regional platform where experts, planners, policymakers, and practitioners can exchange ideas and perspectives towards the achievement of sustainable mountain development.
• Headquarter: Kathmandu, Nepal

Hence both statements are correct.