Daily Current Affairs MCQ - August 13, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Mumbai-based conglomerate Tata Group, which has already forayed into manufacturing of hi-tech electronics, is now planning to get into semiconductor manufacturing.

• Currently, the world is experiencing a shortage of chips and semiconductors that have become essential not only for new-age technological products like smartphones and computers, but also for traditional sectors like automobiles.
• Several carmakers in the world have delayed deliveries of their vehicles and even pushed the launch of new vehicles because of the chip shortage. Tata Motors’ UK-based unit Jaguar-Land Rover has also done so.
• For the Tata Group, while a foray into chip making would mean entering a lucrative business that can find customers not only in India but across the world, it would also be significant for captive use with Tata Motors, Tata Power, etc.
• The chips, or semiconductors, which are the brain-centre of any electronic technology has found itself to become a rare commodity in the post-Covid era, with several large factories in places like South Korea and Taiwan being shut down. This has created pent-up demand that these foundries were unable to satisfy after opening up.
• On the one hand, the pandemic caused a surge in demand for electronic devices such as smartphones, laptop and computers, etc.
• This shortage that began last year, is expected to go on till 2022.

Semiconductor, any of a class of crystalline solids intermediate in electrical conductivity between a conductor and an insulator. Semiconductors are employed in the manufacture of various kinds of electronic devices, including diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits. 

Semiconductors are components needed for manufacturing cars, televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, personal computers, laptops, mobiles, etc.

These components are made from silicon and fit into microcircuits that power various electronic goods and components.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Delhi government has launched an ambitious “faceless” initiative by locking down four Regional Transport Offices (RTO), the one-stop destination for all transport department services ranging from driving licences to transfer of ownership of vehicles.

• The RTO offices, where crucial transport-related services are offered, had over the years turned into dens of corruption as the nexus of middlemen and officials covered everything, ranging from issuance of learner’s licenses to change of address in registration certificates (RC).
• The “faceless services” scheme seeks to eliminate any scope of corruption by ending the need for people to visit the RTOs.
• Aadhaar-based verification will be relied upon in dispensing the services online. A separate provision for those not having or willing to share their Aadhaar details has also been kept.
• Upon entering the Aadhaar number, an OTP will be sent to the Aadhaar-linked mobile number of the applicant. The verification of the documents will be done automatically as the application developed by the government will draw details from the central Aadhaar database.
• There will be separate provisions for making payments and making digital signatures. In case of learner’s license, e-licenses will be issued instantly after taking the test online.
• The two services for which a person will have to visit the RTO are the driving test for getting a licence and vehicle fitness certificates.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The Indonesian army has scrapped the long-standing practice of virginity tests for women cadets.

• The use of virginity tests by Indonesian security forces was first exposed by Human Rights Watch in 2014. According to its investigation, virginity tests have been imposed on thousands of female applicants since 1965, despite the National Police principles that recruitment must be both “nondiscriminatory” and “humane.”
• Virginity testing–also known as hymen, “two-finger” or vaginal examination–is an inspection of the female genitalia to ascertain whether a woman or girl has engaged in vaginal intercourse.
• A group of United Nations agencies, in a joint statement issued in 2018, called for scrapping of tests meant to assess the virginity of a girl or a woman, describing the practice as a form of gender-based violence and a human rights violation with no scientific basis.
• There is no known examination that can prove a person’s history of vaginal intercourse. The practice can cause both immediate and long-term consequences that may be harmful to the physical and psychological well-being of a woman subjected to it.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

All India Elephant and Tiger population estimation exercise to be done in convergence for the first time in 2022.

• Minister for Environment released the population estimation protocol to be adopted in the exercise to be taken up for the All India elephant and tiger population estimation in 2022.
• The protocol was released on the occasion of World Elephant Day.
• The programme also witnessed release of the fourth edition of the quarterly newsletter “Trumpet” of the Elephant Division of the Ministry.
• Asian elephants are listed as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.
• Indian Elephant has also been listed in the Appendix I of the Convention of the Migratory species in the recently concluded Conference of Parties of CMS 13 at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat in February 2020.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The total installed renewable energy capacity in India, excluding large hydro, has crossed the mile-stone of 100 GW.

• Today India stands at 4th position in the world in terms of installed RE capacity, 5th in solar and 4th in wind in terms of installed capacity.
• If large hydro is included the installed RE capacity increases to 146 GW.
• While 100 GW has been installed, 50 GW is under installation and 27 GW is under tendering.
• India has also enhanced its ambition to install 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Coal mine workers and communities around coal mines face many adverse diseases, prominent among them pneumoconiosis (commonly known as black lung disease) due to the inhalation of coal dust, as well as diseases due to polluted drinking water.

The Incremental Capital-Output Ratio (ICOR) is the ratio of investment to growth which is equal to the reciprocal of the marginal product of capital. The higher the ICOR, the lower the productivity of capital or the marginal efficiency of capital. The ICOR can be thought of as a measure of the inefficiency with which capital is used.

Encryption is the process of encoding messages or information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it.

All messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Google Chat, Yahoo messenger use encrypted services. Banks (payment gateways) and e-commerce sites also use encryption to protect financial and private data including passwords.

Encryption is also used to protect data in transit, for example data being transferred via networks (e.g. the Internet, e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones, wireless intercom systems, Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines.

The Arctic is warming far more quickly.

While both the Arctic and Antarctic are experiencing rising temperatures, thinning glaciers, disturbed ecosystems, and other alarming shifts as heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions build up, changes are sweeping the northern region far faster. 

The High North is seeing unprecedented changes, including drastic ice losses on land and sea, galloping permafrost thaw, raging wildfires, unseasonal storms, earlier springs, and more.

The accelerated Arctic warming impacts weather down in the lower 48 and around the entire Northern Hemisphere by changing the temperature contrast between mid and high latitudes.

Arctic warming also stands to disrupt the marine food web, increase mortality for polar bears and seals, and threaten the livelihoods of the region’s indigenous people. One bright note in the outlook: So far whales seem to be benefitting from range expansion as sea ice recedes.

The Goldilocks Zone refers to the habitable zone around a star where the temperature is just right – not too hot and not too cold – for liquid water to exist on a planet.

Just because a planet or moon is in the Goldilocks Zone of a star, doesn’t mean it’s going to have life or even liquid water.

After all, Earth isn’t the only planet in the Sun’s Goldilocks Zone – Venus and Mars are also in this habitable zone, but aren’t currently habitable.