Daily Current Affairs MCQ- January 1, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

A team of researchers recently discovered two rock-cut Shaivite temple caves older than Elephanta near Rajapur, Ratnagiri.

About Elephanta Caves:

• It is a specimen of rock-cut art and architecture from the times of medieval India.
• The Elephanta Caves are located in Western India on Elephanta Island (otherwise known as the Island of Gharapuri), about 7 kms from Mumbai’s mainland shore.
• The rock-cut Elephanta Caves were constructed in the mid-5th to 6th centuries AD and most of them are dedicated to Lord Shiva.
• There are two groups of caves on the site of the Elephanta Caves, the first is a large group of five Hindu caves, and the second is a smaller group of two Buddhist caves.
• The caves are hewn from solid basalt rock. Except for a few exceptions, much of the artwork is defaced and damaged.
• The caves are an expression of art and a number of important imageries are sculpted here, which include 'Trimurti' or three-headed Shiva, 'Gangadhar' which is a manifestation of the river Ganga as she descends to the earth and 'Ardhnareshwar', which is a representation of Shiva and Parvati in the same body. 
• It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft successfully completed its first flyby of an asteroid named Dinkinesh.

About Lucy Mission:

• It is a first-of-its-kind mission of NASA that will explore Jupiter’s elusive Trojan asteroids.
• It was successfully launched on Oct. 16, 2021, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US.
• Over its 12-year mission, Lucy will explore a record-breaking number of asteroids: it will fly by two in the belt of asteroids that circle the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, and then 10 Trojans, which includes five asteroid targets and the satellites of three of those. 
• Lucy also will fly by Earth three times to get a push from its gravity, making it the first spacecraft to return to the vicinity of Earth from the outer solar system.
• The spacecraft carries two infrared spectrometers and four cameras.

What are Trojan Asteroids?

• Asteroids sharing an orbit with a planet, but which are located at the leading (L4) and trailing (L5) Lagrangian points, are known as Trojan asteroids.
• These asteroids occupy a stable Lagrangian point in a planet’s orbit around the Sun.
• They are some of the oldest remnants from the formation of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
• There are currently over 4,800 known Trojan asteroids associated with Jupiter.
• They orbit the Sun in two loose groups: one group leading ahead of Jupiter in its orbit, the other trailing behind at the same distance from the Sun as Jupiter.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

Bolivia recently said it had broken diplomatic ties with Israel because of its attacks on the Gaza Strip.

About Bolivia:

• Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in western-central South America.
• It is named after independence fighter Simon Bolivar.
• The country is located in the rugged Andes Mountain, with a highland plateau and lowland plains in the Amazon basin.
• One-third of the country is within the Andean mountain range. 
• Bordering Countries: It borders the countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru.
• Capital: The constitutional capital is Sucre, while the seat of government and executive capital is La Paz.
• Bolivia shares control of Lago Titicaca, the world’s highest lake navigable to large vessels, at 12,500 feet above sea level.
• History:
• During the 15th and 16th centuries, an ancient civilization called the Inca reigned over the region.
• In 1538, Spanish conquistadors (or ‘conquerors’) arrived from Europe and gained control of the territory.
• It broke away from Spanish rule in 1825.
• Much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of coups and countercoups, with the last coup occurring in 1978. 
• Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982.
• Government:
• The government system is a republic; the new constitution defines Bolivia as a “Social Unitarian State.” 
• The chief of state and head of government is the president. 
• Currency: Bolivian boliviano
• Official Language: It has 37 official languages, including Spanish.
• Bolivia has a mixed economic system that includes a variety of private freedoms combined with centralized economic planning and government regulation.

Hence both statements are correct.

UP civil aviation department is working on a proposal to introduce chopper services from the state capital to Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR).

About Dudhwa Tiger Reserve:

• It is located on the Indo-Nepal border in the district Lakhimpur-Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.
• It includes the Dudhwa National Park and two nearby sanctuaries, viz. Kishanpur and Katerniaghat.
• It was established in 1988 and covers an area of 1,284 square kilometers.
• It is a typical Tarai-Bhabar habitat of the upper Gangetic plains Biogeographic province.
• Rivers: The Sharda River flows by the Kishanpur WL Sanctuary, the Geruwa River flows through the Katerniaghat WL Sanctuary, and the Suheli and Mohana streams flow in the Dudhwa National Park, all of which are tributaries of the mighty Ghagra River.
• Flora:  The vegetation is of the North Indian Moist Deciduous type, containing some of the finest examples of Sal forests (Shorea robusta) in India, as well the most extensive tracts of moist grasslands that remain in this region.
• Fauna:  It is home to a large number of rare and endangered species, which include Tiger, Leopard cat, Sloth beer, rinosaurs (One horn), Hispid hare, Elephants, Black deer, Swamp deer, etc.

Hence both statements are correct.

Citizens and environmental activists have expressed concern over the thick layer of (toxic) foam seen on the Pavana River recently.

About Pavana River:

• It is situated in the west of Maharashtra state, in the Pune District. 
• The river is a notable river crossing Pune city and divides Pune City and the Pimpri-Chinchwad area.
• Origin: It originates from the Western Ghats, about 6 km south of Lonavala.
• It is a tributary of the Bhima River and merges in the Mula River in Pune city.
• Course: Flowing eastward initially, it becomes southbound and passes through the suburbs of Dehu, Chinchwad, Pimpri, and Dapodi before its confluence with the Mula river.
• A dam is built on this river at Pavana Nagar, called the "Pavana Nagar Dam".
• Pavana Nagar Dam:
• It is an earth-filled gravity dam.
• It is 1,329 m (4,360 ft) long and 42.37 m (139.0 ft) high, with a gross storage capacity of 30,500.00 km3.
• It is built with the purpose of providing sufficient water to the nearby localities. It is the main source of water in the region.

Hence option d is the correct answer.

Over 50 grass species were recently identified during a  two-day workshop and survey on ‘Grasses Identification and Grassland Management’ at the Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary.

About Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary:

• Location: It is located in the Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh.
• It is located between two important hill passes known as "Mantralamma kanuma" and "Nandi kanuma".
• It spreads over the Nallamallai hill range.
• The sanctuary derives its name from the Gundla Brahmeshwaram plateau.
• It was declared a wildlife sanctuary on September 18, 1990, and covers an area of around 1,194 kilometres square.
• The northern part of this Sanctuary forms a major part of the southern boundary for Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve.
• River: The Gundlakamma River stretches across the sanctuary.
• Vegetation: Dry mixed deciduous forest, moist dry deciduous, semi-evergreen, dry deciduous scrub forest, and dry savannahs.
• Climate: The climate is hot round the year with most of the precipitation occurring during the monsoon months.
• Flora: It consists of trees like Teak, Dalbergia, Boswelia, Shisham, Andug, Prerocarpuss, Terminalia, Albizzia, Anogeissius, and Bamboo.
• Fauna: The varied wildlife found here includes langur, jungle cat, panther, tiger, mouse deer, hyena, and bonnet monkey. 

Hence option c is the correct answer.

Archaeologists in Mexico recently unearthed the remains of a circular temple that may have been built in honor of the Maya serpent deity Kukulcán.

About Mayan Civilization:

• The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. 
• Originating in the Yucatán peninsula around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras.
• Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. 
• The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools.
• They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. 
• The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.
• The Maya made paper from the inner bark of wild fig trees and wrote their hieroglyphs on books made from this paper. Those books are called codices.
• Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centers. It started to decline around A.D. 900.
• The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquerors and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. 
• The Maya remain in contemporary Mesoamerican societies and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs, combined with more recent practices such as the almost total adoption of Roman Catholicism.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) launched its groundbreaking National Efficient Cooking Programme (NECP) and Energy Efficient Fans Programme (EEFP). 

• It is a subset of the Clean Cooking Scheme.
• It focuses on Non-Solar/Electricity-based Induction Cookstoves, aligning with the Go- electric initiative by the Ministry of Power.
• This programme introduces induction-based cook-stoves.
• Target: To deploy 20 Lakh Induction cook-stoves across India.
• EESL seeks to reduce the environmental impact of cooking methods, ensuring cleaner air and improved health for citizens.
• EESL has also partnered with Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) for the large-scale deployment of induction cooktops.
• The deployment is expected to accelerate the acceptance and large-scale adoption of modern electric cooking devices in Indian kitchens.
• Benefit: It is offering a cost advantage of 25-30% over traditional cooking methods, promising both energy savings and cost-effective cooking solutions.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Election Commission of India has designed in-house software ENCORE for complete Candidate and election management.

• This ENCORE software stands for Enabling Communications on Real-time Environment.
• This provides a seamless facility for Returning Officers to process candidate nomination, affidavit, Voter turnout, counting, results and data management. 
• The ENCORE counting application is an end-to-end application for returning officers to digitize the votes polled, tabulate the round-wise data and then take out various statutory reports of counting.
• Another application called ENCORE Scrutiny Application allows Returning Officers to do scrutiny of the nominations filed by the candidates on-line.
• After verification of the nomination the status is marked as Accepted, Rejected or Withdrawn helping the Returning Officer to prepare the final list of contesting candidates and assign the symbols.

Hence option d is the correct answer.

Indian Railways' technical advisor Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), with the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has developed a special fuel Methanol Diesel-15.

• It is a special fuel developed by the Indian Railways’ Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in collaboration with the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL).
• It is a cost-effective blended fuel containing 15% methanol, 71% mineral diesel, and 14% indigenously developed additives by IOCL.

What are the benefits of MD-15?

• It offers superior performance, combustion, and emission characteristics compared to regular mineral diesel fuel.
• It has the potential to reduce diesel consumption by 15% and result in substantial annual savings.
• It significantly decreases harmful pollutant emissions, contributing to a cleaner and greener environment.
• The NOx emissions were significantly lower thus reducing the harmful pollutants, which causes smog and pollution,

Hence both statements are correct.