Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 25, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

• Fungi can be single celled or very complex multicellular organisms. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• They are found in just about any habitat but most live on the land, mainly in soil or on plant material rather than in sea or freshwater.
• A group called the decomposers grow in the soil or on dead plant matter where they play an important role in the cycling of carbon and other elements.
• Some are parasites of plants causing diseases such as mildews, rusts, scabs or canker.
• A very small number of fungi cause diseases in animals. In humans these include skin diseases such as athletes’ foot, ringworm and thrush. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• Wetlands are defined as: "lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic eco-systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water". Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • 2^nd February is World Wetlands Day. It was on this date in 1971 that the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was adopted in Ramsar, Iran.
• It is a specialised body set up under the National Green Tribunal Act - 2010 (not 2014) for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection (including wetland conservation) and conservation of forests and other natural resources. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • With the establishment of the NGT, India became the third country in the world to set up a specialised environmental tribunal, only after Australia and New Zealand, and the first developing country to do so.

Negative-ion Technology

• Negative ion technology embeds negative ions in personal products and is currently being advertised as a means to maintain health, balance energy, and improve well-being.
• This technology is used in certain silicone wristbands, quantum or scalar-energy pendants, and kinesthesiology tape.
  • Negative ions are also made when sunlight, radiation, air, or water break down oxygen. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• The minerals that produce these negative ions often include naturally occurring radioactive substances such as uranium and thorium. Hence statement 1 is not correct.
• It is believed that negative ions create positive vibes and uplift the mood. They show the various mental and physical health benefits, such as stress reduction, better sleeping, respiration etc. whereas these ions may also act on pollutants, make them negatively charged and get them collected on surfaces. embeds negative ions in personal products and is currently being advertised as a means to maintain health, balance energy, and improve well-being.
• This technology is used in certain silicone wristbands, quantum or scalar-energy pendants, and kinesthesiology tape.
  • Negative ions are also made when sunlight, radiation, air, or water break down oxygen.
• The minerals that produce these negative ions often include naturally occurring radioactive substances such as uranium and thorium.
• It is believed that negative ions create positive vibes and uplift the mood. They show the various mental and physical health benefits, such as stress reduction, better sleeping, respiration etc. whereas these ions may also act on pollutants, make them negatively charged and get them collected on surfaces.

Sendai Framework for Disaster Reduction 2015-30

• It was adopted at the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held from March 14 to 18, 2015 in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The present Framework applies to the risk of small-scale and large-scale, frequent and infrequent, sudden and slow-onset disasters caused by natural or man-made hazards, as well as related environmental, technological and biological hazards and risks.
• It aims to guide the multi hazard management of disaster risk in development at all levels as well as within and across all sectors.
• It is the successor instrument to the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • The Yokohama Strategy for a Safer World: Guidelines for Natural Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Mitigation and its Plan of Action was adopted in the First World Conference on Natural Disasters in Yokohama, Japan from May 23 to 27, 1994.

A day after the eternal flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti was shifted to the National War Memorial, the government has dropped Abide With Me, the sombre highpoint of the conclusion of the Republic Day celebrations.

• Penned in the pre-modern world by Henry Francis Lyte, a Scottish Anglican minister and son of a naval captain, the hymn, which is known for its simplicity and sombre theme, is often sung to English composer William Henry Monk’s evocative tune Eventide, and has been a fixture in the Indian Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950.
• It is always the last piece to be played by the brass bands before the troops recede up Raisina Hill to the tune of poet Allama Iqbal’s Saare jahan se achha.
• Played at dusk, this is also the last piece before the retreat buglers bring down the Indian flag.
• In 2020, reports had emerged about the hymn being dropped from the Beating Retreat Ceremony and being replaced by poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Vande Mataram. Following criticism, the hymn was played in 2020 and retained in 2021.

View of Gandhi

• Abide With Me was one of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal favourites. The Father of the Nation first heard the piece played by Mysore Palace Band, and could not forget its tenderness and serenity.
• At Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, the ashram bhajanavali — the first and probably the only cross-religion hymnal anywhere — with the bhajans ‘Vaishnav Jan Toh’ and the well-known Ram Dhun by Tulsidas, ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ in it, Abide With Me, along with Lead Kindly Light, was put together under Gandhi’s watch.

Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon

• Abide With Me has been replaced by Kavi Pradeep’s seminal piece Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon, which was written in the wake of the Sino-Indian War, and went on to become a tableau of Indian nationalism.
• The song was first sung on January 27, 1963. Composed by C Ramachandra and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, it was first performed at Delhi’s National Stadium in a fundraiser organised by the film industry for Indian war widows.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Start-ups raised a record $24.1 billion in 2021, a two-fold increase over pre-COVID-19 levels, according to a new study by NASSCOM and Zinnov.

• According to the study, ‘Indian Tech Start-up Ecosystem: Year of The Titans’, more that 2,250 start-ups were added in 2021, over 600 more than what was added in the previous year.
• The study said: “Start-ups raised USD 24.1 billion in 2021, a two-fold increase over pre-COVID levels. In comparison to 2020, there was a 3X increase in the number of high value deals (deals > USD 100 million), demonstrating investor confidence with a pool of active angel investors of 2400+ and a readiness to take significant risks.”
• It added that while the U.S. remains the leading source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in start-ups, worldwide involvement is also growing. About 50% of the deals had at least one India-domiciled investor.
• The study added that the start-up ecosystem saw a 2X gain in cumulative valuation from 2020 to 2021, with an estimate of $320-$330 billion, demonstrating the sector’s development and recovery throughout the pandemic.
• The industries that saw the most net new job creation were BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), ed-tech, retail and retail tech, food-tech, supply chain management, and logistics and mobility.
• On the back of Internet commerce, freelancers, and service industries, indirect jobs have also recovered.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Supreme Court sought the government’s response on the creation of an independent Indian Environment Service in the “All India Service cadre”.

• A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice on a plea by advocate Samar Vijay Singh for a specialised environment service in the lines of one recommended by the T.S.R. Subramanian Committee report in 2014.
• The Committee, constituted by the Environment Ministry, in its report on November 18, 2014, had categorically recorded that the necessary institutional framework needs to be created, building on the existing systems, to meet future ecological demands, and ecological imbalance.

The All India Services (AIS) comprises three civil services: the Indian Administrative Service, the Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service.

Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

In order to share Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to the Coal Sector a portal "Koyla Darpan" has been launched by Dr. Anil Kumar Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Coal.

• As an initial step, the portal has the following KPIs - 1. Coal/Lignite Production, 2. Coal/Lignite Offtake, 3. Exploration Data, 4. Central Sector Schemes, 5. Status of Coal Stock in Thermal Power Plants, 6. Infrastructure Projects, 7. Allocation of Blocks (CMSP/MMDR), 8. Monitoring of Major Coal Mines(CIL), 9. Coal Price.
• The portal is accessible through the website of Ministry of Coal (https://coal.gov.in) for maximum public outreach.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

French luxury fashion brand Hermès is suing American digital artist Mason Rothschild who created the MetaBirkins series of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), a rapidly growing part of the cryptoworld.

• An NFT is a unique, irreplaceable token that can be used to prove ownership of digital assets such as music, artwork, even tweets and memes.
• The term ‘non-fungible’ simply means that each token is different as opposed to a fungible currency such as money (a ten-rupee note can be exchanged for another and so on).
• Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are also fungible, which means that one Bitcoin can be exchanged for another. But an NFT cannot be exchanged for another NFT because the two are different and therefore unique. Each token has a different value, depending on which asset it represents.
• NFT transactions are recorded on blockchains, which is a digital public ledger, with most NFTs being a part of the Ethereum blockchain. NFTs became popular in 2021, when they were beginning to be seen by artists as a convenient way to monetise their work.

What are the other reasons for which NFTs are in high demand?

• One of the other attractions is that NFTs are a part of a new kind of financial system called decentralised finance (DeFi), which does away with the involvement of institutions such as banks.
• For this reason, decentralised finance is seen as a more democratic financial system because it makes access to capital easier for lay people by essentially eliminating the role of banks and other associated institutions.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Ministry of Culture is organizing a rangoli making event ‘Umang Rangoli Utsav’ on 24th January 2022.

• The day is celebrated as ‘National Girl Child Day’ every year and to commemorate the day this year, a nationwide event celebrating the Girl Child is being organized under Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.
• In the event, it is proposed that the participating teams will make Rangoli decorations for about one kilometer of length on the roads and squares that have been named after the female freedom fighters or the female role models of the country.
• The rangoli decorations are being done at more than 50 locations across the country.
• Hence only statement 1 is correct.