Daily Current Affairs MCQ - December 26, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

• Adjournment sine die means terminating a sitting of Parliament for an indefinite period, that is, when the House is adjourned without naming a day for reassembly, it is called adjournment sine die.
  • The power of adjournment sine die lies with the presiding officer of the House. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• The term prorogation means the termination of a session of the House by an order made by the President under Article 85(2)(a) of the Constitution. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • The prorogation terminates both the sitting and session of the House and is usually done within a few days after the House is adjourned sine die by the presiding officer.

• The ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) Funds is a kind of Mutual Fund. Its investing is used synonymously with sustainable investing or socially responsible investing. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Typically, a mutual fund looks for a good stock of a company that has potential earnings, management quality, cash flows, the business it operates in, competition etc.
• However, while selecting a stock for investment, the ESG fund shortlists companies that score high on environment, social responsibility and corporate governance, and then looks into financial factors.
• Therefore, the key difference between the ESG funds and other funds is 'conscience' i.e the ESG fund focuses on companies with environment-friendly practices, ethical business practices and an employee-friendly record.
• The fund is regulated by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

Olive Ridley Turtles

• The Olive ridley turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world.
• They are found in warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • The Odisha’s Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is known as the world’s largest rookery (colony of breeding animals) of sea turtles.
• Olive ridleys are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • They lay their eggs over a period of five to seven days in conical nests about one and a half feet deep which they dig with their hind flippers.
• Operation Olivia: Every year, the Indian Coast Guard’s “Operation Olivia”, initiated in the early 1980s, helps protect Olive Ridley turtles as they congregate along the Odisha coast for breeding and nesting from November to December. It also intercepts unlawful trawling activities. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

Scientists have resumed tagging of Olive Ridley turtles at Rushikulya rookery along the Odisha coast, which would help them identify the migration path and places visited by the marine reptiles after congregation and nesting.

• Researchers of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) are carrying out tagging of the Olive Ridleys at three mass nesting sites — Gahirmatha, Devi River mouth and Rushikulya.
• The study would also reveal the inter-rookery movement of turtles in Odisha. The migration pattern to other countries would be recorded in detail.
• The metal tags affixed to turtles are non-corrosive and they do not harm their body. It can be removed later. The tags are uniquely numbered containing details such as the name of the organisation, country-code and email address.
• If researchers in other countries come across the tagged turtles, they will email their location in longitude and latitude to ZSI.

Key facts:

• Scientific Name: Lepidochelys olivacea.
• Common name: Olive Ridley, Pacific Ridley.
• Arribada: These turtles, along with their cousin the Kemps ridley turtle, are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada. i.e. thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs.
• The coast of Odisha in India is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive-ridley, followed by the coasts of Mexico and Costa Rica.
• IUCN Red List Status: Vulnerable.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

DRDO has successfully conducted the flight test of Indigenously developed High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) 'Abhyas' from Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.

• The vehicle can be used as an aerial target for evaluation of various missile systems.
• This indigenous target aircraft, once developed, will meet the requirements of High-speed Expendable Aerial Targets (HEAT) for Indian Armed Forces.
• ABHYAS is designed & developed by DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru. The air vehicle is launched using twin under-slung boosters which provide the initial acceleration to the vehicle.
• It is powered by a gas turbine engine to sustain a long endurance flight at subsonic speed.
• The target aircraft is equipped with MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control.
• The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check-out of air vehicle is done using laptop-based Ground Control Station (GCS).

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities are now empowered to initiate recovery proceedings directly for mismatch in sales return GSTR-1 and the monthly summary return GSTR-3B.

• The provision, which was introduced as part of the Finance Act passed by Parliament earlier this year, has now been notified to be implemented from January 1, 2022.
• This gives tax authorities way more powers to tackle alleged instances of mismatches in filings, amid concerns regarding the potential for misuse.
• So far, show cause notices were issued first and then the recovery process initiated in cases of mismatch in GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B.
• The move is aimed at curbing the practice of fake billing, where sellers show higher sales in GSTR-1 to enable purchasers to claim input tax credit (ITC) and then report lower sales in GSTR-3B to reduce their GST liability.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Import cover of reserves is a traditional trade-based indicator of reserve adequacy. It is defined in terms of the number of months of import equivalent to reserves. 

Import cover is an important indicator of the stability of the currency. 

According to currency experts, eight to ten months of import cover is essential for the stability of the currency.

India’s foreign exchange reserve cover has fallen to 15.8 months at the end of June 2021, from 17.4 months at end-March 2021, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

Bio-enzymes are organic solutions produced through fermentation of organic waste including various fruits, vegetable peels and flowers, by mixing in sugar, jaggery/molasses and water. It takes 60-100 days to ferment organic waste. To fasten the fermentation, yeast can be used as culture to prepare it in 45-50 days.

Kushinagar is a town in the Kushinagar district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is an important Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautam Buddha attained Mahaparinirvana after his death. 

The present Kushinagar is identified with Kusavati (in the pre-Buddha period) and Kushinara (in the post-Buddha period). Kushinara was the capital of Mallas which was one of the sixteen mahajanpads of the 6th century BCE.

Kushinagar is among the few places in India where Buddha is depicted in reclining form.

Buddha delivered his last sermon at Vaishali.

A recent report released by Lokniti-CSDS in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which interviewed 6,277 youth aged 15-34 across 18 states in July-August 2021, offers insights on their career aspirations, job preferences and expectations, their opinions on institutions of kinship, and their mental health.

• Occupation status: Two-fifths (39%) of India’s youth identify themselves as students. While more young men (39%) compared to young women (11%) were working, a higher proportion of young women (42%) were studying than young men (36%).
• Employment: More than half (55%) said they would prefer a government job; a quarter (24%) would prefer to start their own business.
• Many youth are now marrying at a later age than before. The study indicates that the proportion of married youth has decreased by 13 percentage points since 2007 and five percentage points since 2016. In the present study, 42% said they are married.
• Youth showed a greater acceptance for the idea of inter-caste marriage than for inter-religious marriage.
• Mental health: The study found that the family’s financial security worried the youth the most, followed by their own health. About six in ten (56%) worried about their jobs, and more than half (54%) about their physical appearance.
• Hence both statements are correct.