Daily Current Affairs MCQ- January 10, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

Scientists have found a natural remedy to protect eucalyptus forest plantations from a pest, eucalyptus snout beetle, which is known to cause serious damage to eucalypts.

• It is a leaf-feeding beetle that is a major defoliator of eucalypts.
• It is also known as eucalyptus weevil.
• The pest is indigenous to Australia but occurs in many countries throughout the world where eucalypts are grown. 
• The beetle feeds on leaves, buds and shoots, resulting in stunted growth and deflation and causing heavy losses.
• It can cause damage over vast areas as it had a great flight capability and gets transferred with transport of forest products.
• The pest is mainly controlled with the help of microwasps Anaphes spp — an expensive solution.
• This led a team of scientists to look for naturally occurring pathogenic fungi to tackle the problem.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Indian warship, INS Kabra, an indigenous fast attack craft, docked at the Colombo port in a move aimed at fostering bilateral ties between India and Sri Lanka.

• It is a naval vessel named after an island of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago.
• It belongs to the Car Nicobar class of high-speed offshore patrol vessels are built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE) for the Indian Navy.
• It was eighth in a series of 10 Fast Attack Crafts.
• The vessels are designed as a cost-effective platform for patrol, anti-piracy and rescue operations in India's Exclusive Economic Zone.
• The class and its vessels are named for Indian islands. They are the first water jet propelled vessels of the Indian Navy.
• With a top speed of over 35 knots, and excellent manoeuvrability offered by her water-jet propulsion, the ship is ideally suited for high-speed interdiction of fast moving targets.
• It is with the latest regulations of the International Maritime Organisation on sea complies pollution control.

Hence option a is the correct answer.

World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseaseas (ICD) 11 TM Module 2, Morbidity Codes launch event will be held in New Delhi on 10th January, 2024. 

• It is developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to classify diseases internationally.
• The global data on diseases currently available is mainly based on healthcare practices to be diagnosed through modern biomedicine.
• It serves a broad range of uses globally and provides critical knowledge on the extent, causes and consequences of human disease and death worldwide via data that is reported and coded with the ICD.
• Clinical terms coded with ICD are the main basis for health recording and statistics on disease in primary, secondary and tertiary care, as well as on cause of death certificates.
• These data and statistics support payment systems, service planning, and administration of quality and safety, and health services research.
• Diagnostic guidance linked to categories of ICD also standardizes data collection and enables large scale research.
• The classification of data and terminology relating to diseases based on Ayush systems such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani etc. is not yet included in the WHO ICD series.
• Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) is an agency under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that serves as the WHO Collaboration Centre for ICD-related activities.
• It facilitates the collection and dissemination of data on various diseases and mortality.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Prime Minister of India extended greetings on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas.

• It is also known as Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Day, is celebrated on January 9 to mark the contribution and achievements of the overseas Indian community to the development of India.
• It is the flagship event of the Ministry of External Affairs.
• The day also commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest Pravasi, from South Africa to India in 1915, who led India's freedom struggle and changed the lives of Indians forever.
• It was first celebrated in 2003.
• It was an annual event earlier, but in 2015, the government revised its format to celebrate PBD once every two years.
• It has become a platform to connect the Indian diaspora with their roots and encourage their continued engagement with India’s progress.
• It is held in different cities, to showcase the diversity and progress of different regions of India.
• Till date, 17 conventions have been held. The last Pravasi Bharatiya Divas was celebrated in the Indore of Madhya Pradesh in 2023.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare recently inaugurated the country’s first healthy & hygienic food street, ‘Prasadam’, at Neelkanth Van, Mahakal Lok, in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.

About Prasadam:

• It is the country’s first “Healthy and Hygienic Food Street”.
• It has been opened at Neelkanth Van, Mahakal Lok, in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh.
• It will connect people in every corner of the country with pure and safe local and traditional food.
• Spread over 939 square metres with 19 shops, Prasadam offers convenient and culturally rich dining options for the 1-1.5 lakh devotees who visit the Mahakaleshwar Temple daily.
• The food street is designed to provide various facilities, including a kids’ play area, drinking water facility, CCTV surveillance, parking, public conveniences, and seating spaces.

Hence option d is the correct answer.

Chief of Naval Staff recently flagged off the first indigenously manufactured Drishti 10 'Starliner' Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for the Navy.

About Drishti 10 ‘Starliner’:

• It is an indigenously manufactured Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).
• It was developed by Adani Defence and Aerospace.
• It is an advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platform with 36 hours endurance and a 450 kg payload capacity.
• It is an all-weather military platform which has clearance to fly in both segregated and unsegregated airspace.
• It is designed to possess high endurance, combat-proven capabilities, and advanced features, providing a significant boost to India’s naval capabilities.
• The UAV’s autonomous nature, coupled with its mission effectiveness and payload configuration options, makes it an invaluable asset for strategic operations.
• One of the distinguishing features of the Drishti 10 ‘Starliner’ is its minimal maintenance requirements, making it cost-effective and operationally efficient.
• This characteristic ensures increased operational readiness, reducing downtime, and maximizing deployment opportunities.
• It is equipped with advanced communication systems, including satellite communication and Line-of-Sight (LOS) data links, ensuring reliable and secure data transmission.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation recently launched an indigenous assault rifle named 'Ugram’.

About Ugram:

• ‘Ugram’ is a state-of-the-art indigenous assault rifle.
• It has been developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a unit of DRDO, in collaboration with a private industry partner.
• It was developed in less than 100 days.
• It has been developed as per the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) of the army into consideration.
• Features:
• The rifle will deploy rounds of 7.62 mm calibre, making it more ferocious than rifles that use 5.62 mm calibre rounds, like the INSAS rifle, which is popularly used by the armed forces in India, including paramilitary forces. 
• It has an effective range of 500 metres.
• It weighs less than four kilograms.
• The rifle has a 20-round magazine that fires robust and in full auto mode. 

Key Facts about Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO):

• It is the R&D wing of the Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India, with a vision to empower India with cutting-edge defence technologies and a mission to achieve self-reliance in critical defence technologies and systems.
• It is India's largest research organisation. 
• Formation: The organisation was formed in 1958 from the amalgamation of the then-existing Technical Development Establishment (TDEs) of the Indian Army and the Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTDP) with the Defence Science Organisation (DSO). 
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• It has a network of laboratories engaged in developing defence technologies covering various fields, like aeronautics, armaments, electronics, land combat engineering, life sciences, materials, missiles, and naval systems.

Hence option b is the correct answer.

REC Ltd. recently announced its ambitious plan to increase its financial sanctioning in the infrastructure space, including roads and highways, to ₹1 lakh crore in the current financial year.

About REC Limited:

• REC Limited (formerly Rural Electrification Corporation Limited) is a Central Public Sector Undertaking under the Ministry of Power involved in financing projects in the complete power sector value chain from generation to distribution.
• It is registered with the RBI as a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC), a Public Financial Institution (PFI) and an Infrastructure Financing Company (IFC).
• History:
• It was incorporated in 1969, in the backdrop of severe drought and famine in the country, to energize agricultural pump-sets for irrigation purposes, thereby reducing the dependency of agriculture on monsoons.
• REC has evolved and expanded its financing mandate to cover the entire Power-Infrastructure sector, comprising Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Renewable Energy and new technologies like Electric Vehicles, Battery Storage, Green Hydrogen etc.
• More recently REC has also diversified into the Non-Power Infrastructure sector comprising Roads & Expressways, Metro Rail, Airports, IT Communication, Social and Commercial Infrastructure (Educational Institution, Hospitals), Ports and Electro-Mechanical (E&M) works in respect of various other sectors like Steel, Refinery, etc.
• Financing: REC provides long-term loans and other financing products to State, Centre, and Private Companies for creation of infrastructure assets in the country.
• REC funds its business with market borrowings of various maturities, including bonds and term loans, apart from foreign borrowings. 
• RECPDCL (REC Power Development and Consultancy Limited), the wholly owned subsidiary of REC, provides a range of value-added consultancy services in the power sector. 

Hence both statements are correct.

The Karnataka Forest Department recently started collecting green tax, Rs 10 from two-wheelers and Rs 20 from four-wheelers, entering BR Hills through BRT Tiger Reserve.

About Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve:

• Location: It is located in the Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka State.
• The tiger reserve derives its name from 'BILIGIRI ', the white rocky cliff which has a temple of Lord 'VISHNU', locally known as ‘Rangaswamy’.
• This unique bio-geographical entity, situated in the middle of the bridge between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in South India, was constituted as a Wildlife Sanctuary in 1974.
• BRT Wildlife Sanctuary was declared a Tiger Reserve in 2011.
• The total area of the Tiger Reserve is 574.82 Km².
• Vegetation: The forests of BRT Tiger Reserve are principally of dry deciduous type and are interspersed with moist deciduous, semi-evergreen, evergreen, and shola patches occurring at varying altitudes.
• Flora: The major species include Anogeissus latifolia, Dalbergia paniculata, Grewia teliaefolia, Terminalia alata, Terminalia bellirica, Terminalia paniculata, etc.
• Fauna: Animals including tiger, elephant, leopard, wild dog, bison, sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, four-horned antelope, sloth bear, wild boar, common langur, bonnet macaque, varieties of reptiles, birds, etc., are found in the Tiger Reserve.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

Scientists have detected existence of high-frequency plasma waves in the Martian Upper Atmosphere with novel narrowband and broadband features that can help to understand plasma processes in the Martian plasma environment.

• These waves are often observed in the Earth’s magnetosphere, a magnetic field cavity around the Earth.
• In general, plasma waves are identified as the short-time scale fluctuations in the electric and magnetic field observations.
• These plasma waves play an important role in the energization and transport of the charged particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere.
• Some of the plasma waves like electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves act as a cleaning agent for the Earth’s radiation belt, which is hazardous to our satellites.
• Knowing this scenario, researchers are curious to understand the existence of various plasma waves in the vicinity of unmagnetized planets like Mars.
• The planet Mars do not have any intrinsic magnetic field therefore the high-speed solar wind coming from the Sun interacts directly with the Mars atmosphere, like an obstacle in the flow.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.