Daily Current Affairs MCQ - July 1, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Hyderabad-based technology R&D firm Grene Robotics has designed and developed India’s first indigenous drone defence dome called “Indrajaal”.

• The drone defence dome has the capability to autonomously protect an area of 1000-2000 sq km against the aerial threats by assessing and acting on aerial threats such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), loitering munitions, and Low- Radar Cross Section (RCS) targets.
• The ANTI-UAV systems will not only provide protection to defence bases but it will be beneficial for linear infrastructures like international borders against advanced weaponry.

Salient features of Indrajaal

• Real-time situational awareness
• Integrated and Intelligent meshed network
• Integrated all current weapons suite and infrastructure
• Honeycombed cell structure for seamlessly built
• Synergic combination of 9-10 technologies
• 24×7 persistent and autonomous monitoring, action and tracking

Background

• The path-breaking development is imperative because manual weapons and point-based defence systems can’t defend modern warfares, which are operated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics.
• For the first time in India and many times, globally rogue forces have adopted cutting-edge technologies such as UAVs, Smart Swarms, etc.
• Jammu Air Base on June 27th was attacked by such technologies to drop explosives next to the Mi-17 hangar.
• Capable of real-time situational awareness, Indrajaal comprises all current weapons suite and infrastructure along with a honeycombed cell structure to provide a seamlessly built over a combination of 9-10 technologies for 24×7 persistent monitoring, tracking and action.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

In Ladakh, Cooperative Banking Service with Micro ATMs where both deposition and withdrawal of cash can be availed by the users will be introduced in far-flung areas.

• Micro ATMs are card swipe machines through which banks can remotely connect to their core banking system. This machine comes with a fingerprint scanner attached to it.
• In other words, micro ATMs are handheld point of sale terminals used to disburse cash in remote locations where bank branches cannot reach.
• Micro ATMs are similar to point of sale (PoS) terminals and are a doorstep mobile banking arrangement cum-mobile ATM device.
• Bank will assign a correspondent who will sign up customers in remote areas after verifying their identity (fingerprint can be used as an authentication tool for rural people).
• The fingerprint and personal details may also be linked to the Aadhaar Card, which will then serve as the ID proof required to withdraw money.

Background:

• In the aftermanth of demonetisation event, Government of India introduced micro ATMs to ensure people can withdraw money.

Advantages

• The cost of deployment of a micro ATM is lesser than that of an ordinary ATM. ATMs need at least 80-100 transactions a day to be viable as they costs several lakhs. A micro ATM costs less than Rs 20,000.
• It is portable
• Micro ATM has connectivity through GSM, hence it can travel from village to village

Disadvantages:

• Micro ATM cannot provide 'anytime' money. Hence if the bank correspondent is unavailable or the shop keeper has shut his shop, the account holder will not be able to undertake any financial transaction.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) overhauled the norms pertaining to the appointment, removal, and remuneration of independent directors.

• The appointment, re-appointment, and removal of independent directors shall be through a special resolution, which requires 75 per cent votes in support instead of 51 per cent, as in the case of an ordinary resolution.
• Also, the nomination and remuneration committee (NRC), which selects candidates for appointment as independent directors, will be required to have two-thirds IDs, as against the existing requirement of a majority.
• Further, the NRC will have to disclose and justify the skill-sets while selecting a candidate.
• Key managerial personnel and their relatives or employees of the promoter group will have to observe a three-year cooling-off period before they get appointed as an independent director.
• Sebi has also tightened rules related to the resignation of independent directors. The regulator has said the new framework will come into play from January 1.
• Hence both statements are correct.

According to a United Nations report released, India has jumped 37 places to 10th position in the Global Cyber ​​Security Index (GCI) 2020.

• The GCI is a composite index created, analyzed and published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the United Nations.
• It measures the commitment to cybersecurity of its 194 member countries to raise cybersecurity awareness.
• The latest report is the fourth GCI edition by the ITU, the first version of which was launched six years ago.
• Each country’s development or engagement is assessed along five pillars – (i) Legal measures, (ii) Technical measures, (iii) Organizational measures, (iv) Capacity development, and (v) Cooperation- and then aggregated into a composite score.

Global rankings

• The top rank in the GCI was achieved by the US with a score of 100.
• The UK and Saudi Arabia finished second, tied for next place with a score of 99.54.
• In the Asia Pacific region, South Korea and Singapore are on top with a score of 98.52, which ranks fourth globally.
• Other countries at the top of the index include Russia, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia (98.06) at fifth place, Lithuania at sixth, Japan at seventh and Canada, France and India at the subsequent positions.
• Among other countries, Turkey (97.49) was ranked 11th, Germany (97.41) at 13th, China (92.53) at 33rd and Israel (90.93) at 36th position.

India’s ranking

• India ranked 10th in the fourth edition of the Global Cyber ​​Security Index 2020 (GCI), a significant jump of 37 places from its previous GCI rank in 2018.
• India also ranks fourth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

The Department of Justice launched the “Enforcing Contracts Portal”.

• The portal aims to promote ease of doing business and improve ‘Contract Enforcement Regime’ in country
• It is envisioned to be a comprehensive source of information pertaining to the legislative and policy reforms being undertaken on the “Enforcing Contracts” parameters
• It includes the latest data related to the functioning and disposal of commercial cases in the Dedicated Commercial Courts of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata. These Dedicated Commercial Courts have been established for speedy resolution of commercial disputes.
• The Doing Business Report of World Bank Group benchmarks business regulations across 191 economies of the world.
• The Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) index is a ranking system of economies across 11 areas of business regulation.
• The “Enforcing Contracts” indicator is one such essential area that measures time and cost to resolve a standardized commercial dispute as well as a series of good practices in the judiciary.
• Currently, only the cities of Delhi and Mumbai are under the purview of the Ease of Doing Business survey by World Bank.
• Kolkata and Bengaluru are likely to be included in the Doing Business Report in future.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The annual Sea Breeze 2021, a military exercise, began in the Black Sea and southern Ukraine, conducted by Ukraine and the United States in southern Ukraine. The exercise was initiated despite Russia calling to cancel it. Sea Breeze 2021: It started on June 28, 2021, and will last for 2 weeks. It will include some 32 warships and 40 aircraft from the US, NATO allies and Ukraine. The drill will have a participation of 5,000 troops and 18 special operations. History: The Sea Breeze exercise is the largest exercise since 1997. Their goal is to train headquarters and subdivisions of the Ukrainian Navy to perform assigned tasks as per NATO standards and procedures.

The Government of India has extended the tenure of Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal by a year, thus he will continue as the government’s top law officer till June 30, 2022. This is the 2nd time the Centre has extended his tenure. He was appointed Attorney General in July 2017. He received his 1st extension of term in 2020. He took over as the 15th Attorney General after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi demitted office citing personal reasons.

NATRAX- the High-Speed Track(HST) in Indore is the name of Asia’s longest and world’s fifth-longest high-speed track for automobiles. On 29th June, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Prakash Javadekar inaugurated it. NATRAX: It is made in an area of 1000 acres of land. It is a world-class 11.3 km High-Speed Track, centrally located in Madhya Pradesh and is accessible to most of the major OEMs. The NATRAX centre has a number of test capabilities like measurements of maximum speed, acceleration, constant speed fuel consumption, emission tests through real road driving simulation, etc.

Journalist P. Sainath was the recipient of the Fukuoka Grand Prize 2021. It is one of Japan’s top awards open to people from all Asian countries for “investigating impoverished farming villages in India, listening to voices from the rural population”. Key Points About the Prize: The Fukuoka Prize has 3 categories namely Academic Prize, Culture Prize and the Grand Prize. Sainath has received the Grand Prize. Palagummi Sainath: He is an Indian journalist and author of a book called “Everybody Loves a Good Drought”.

Recently, the Cyber Capabilities and National Power Report was released by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). The report analysed the cyber ecosystem of every state and how it intersects with economic competition, international security, and military affairs. The countries are assessed in 7 categories: Strategy and doctrine. Governance, command and control. Core cyber-intelligence capability. Cyber empowerment and dependence. Cybersecurity and resilience. Global leadership in cyberspace affairs. Offensive cyber capability.