Daily Current Affairs MCQ - July 21, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

To increase the life of medical oxygen cylinders three fold, the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar has developed a first-of-its-kind Oxygen Rationing Device – AMLEX.

• AMLEX supplies a required volume of oxygen to the patient during inhalation and trips when the patient exhales CO2. This process saves oxygen which otherwise unnecessarily get wasted.
• Significance
  • So far, during exhalation, the oxygen in the oxygen cylinder/pipe is pushed out along with the exhaled CO2 by the user. This leads to wastage of a large volume of oxygen in long run.
  • In addition to this, a large volume of oxygen escapes from the openings of the mask to the environment in the resting period (between inhalation and exhalation) due to continuous flow of life saving gas in the mask.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos has made a short journey to space, in the first crewed flight of his rocket ship, New Shepard.

• New Shepard, built by Bezos' company Blue Origin, is designed to serve the burgeoning market for space tourism.
• The spacecraft lifted off from a private launch site near Van Horn, Texas. The capsule reached a maximum altitude of around 107km before starting its descent, parachuting down to a soft landing in the West Texas desert 11 minutes later.
• Competing head to head with fellow billionaire Richard Branson, who flew into space aboard his Virgin Galactic rocketplane July 11, Bezos blasted off with his brother Mark and two history-making passengers: 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk, the oldest person to fly in space, and Oliver Daemen, an 18-year-old Dutch student who is the youngest ever to fly in space.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

China has unveiled a high-speed maglev train with a designed top speed of 600 kms per hour. It is stated to be the world’s fastest ground vehicle.

• The new maglev transportation system made its public debut in the coastal city of Qingdao, China’s east Shandong province.
• Launched in October 2016, the high-speed maglev train project saw the development of a magnetic-levitation train prototype with a designed top speed of 600 kms per hour in 2019, and conducted a successful test run in June 2020.
• The train fills the speed gap between aviation and high-speed trains.
• Compared with traditional vehicles running on wheels, high-speed maglev trains do not have contact with rail tracks. They have advantages in terms of efficiency and speed and produce very little noise.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has indigenously developed a ‘High Strength Metastable Beta Titanium Alloy’ containing Vanadium, Iron and Aluminium, Ti-10V-2Fe-3Al (non-ferrous near-beta titanium alloy) on industrial scale for applications in aerospace structural forgings.

• It has been designed and developed by DRDO’s Hyderabad-based Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL).
• The state-of-art alloys have been in use by many developed nations in recent times as a beneficial and cost-effective substitute for the relatively heavier traditional Ni-Cr-Mo structural steels to achieve weight savings.
• The higher strength, ductility, fatigue, and fracture toughness of the titanium alloy can replace steel and can lead to considerable weight savings.
• The components which may be forged from Beta Titanium Alloy include slat/flap tracks, landing gear, and drop link in landing gear among several others.

Some of the popular alloys in the aerospace industry include:

• Titanium Alloys
• Aluminum Alloys
• Copper Alloys
• Stainless Steel
• Superalloys
• Other Specialty Alloys

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Indian Medicines Pharmaceutical Corporation Ltd. (IMPCL) (Central Public Sector Enterprise) Mohan, Dist. Almora, Uttarakhand under the administrative control of Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India has applied for “WHO-GMP/COPP certification for 18 Ayurvedic products.

• The WHO GMP certificate is mandatory in most global markets for pharmaceutical companies to be able to sell medicines.
• The manufacturer of an exporting country must be licensed by the regulatory authority of that country and comply with the WHO GMP guidelines
• The certificate of pharmaceutical product (CPP or CoPP) is a certificate issued in the format recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Hence both statements are correct.

• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (more commonly known as ASEAN) is a political and economic organization which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration among its members and other countries in Asia.
• There are currently 10 member states: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
• The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a free trade agreement in the Asia-Pacific region between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and five of ASEAN’s FTA partners Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.
• ASEAN is an official United Nations observer, as well as an active global partner.
• A major partner of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ASEAN maintains a global network of alliances and dialogue partners.
• ASEAN Plus Three forum includes China, South Korea and Japan. The group became ASEAN Plus Six with Australia, New Zealand, and India.

The recent attempt of Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) to reintroduce into the wild an abandoned nine-month-old cub named Mangala after rearing it in ‘captivity’ for two years has once again brought the controversial concept of ‘re-wilding’ of abandoned or injured animals under the lens.

As per the Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) under Section 38(O) of The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, there are three ways to deal with orphaned or abandoned tiger cubs.

The first is to make an effort to reunite the abandoned cubs with their mother.

Second, if a reunion of the cub with its mother is not possible, then shift the cub to a suitable zoo.

Third, reintroduction of the cub into the wild after a certain time when it appears that the cub is capable of surviving in the wild independently. This is what is known as ‘re-wilding’.

Re-wilding is not limited to cats. There have been efforts to reintroduce other endangered species, including scavengers, into the wild after rearing them in captivity.

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in collaboration with the Haryana Forest and Wildlife Department has been running a vulture conservation centre named ‘Jatayu’ near Pinjore for the last 17 years. Several pairs of endangered gyps species, including the white-backed, the long-billed, and the slender-billed, have been successfully introduced into the wild.

• Malaria is a potentially life threatening parasitic disease caused by parasites known as Plasmodium viviax (P.vivax), Plasmodium falciparum (P.falciparum), Plasmodium malariae (P.malariae)and Plasmodium ovale (P.ovale)
• It is transmitted by the infective bite of Anopheles mosquito.
• Dengue is a viral disease
• It is transmitted by the infective bite of Aedes Aegypti mosquito
• It occurs in two forms: Dengue Fever and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF)

Kala-azar is a slow progressing indigenous disease caused by a protozoan parasite of genus Leishmania.

• Solar PhotoVoltaic (SPV): SPV cells convert solar radiation (sunlight) directly into electricity.
  • A SPV is a semi-conducting device made of silicon and/or other materials, which, when exposed to sunlight, generates electricity. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• Solar Thermal: Solar Thermal Power systems, also known as Concentrating Solar Power systems, use concentrated solar radiation as a high temperature energy source to produce electricity. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• The Constitution (97^th Amendment) Act, 2011 added a new Part IXB right after Part IXA (Municipals) regarding the cooperatives working in India.
• The word “cooperative societies” was added after “unions and associations” in Art. 19(1)(c) under Part III of the Constitution. This enables all the citizens to form cooperatives by giving it the status of fundamental right of citizens. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Article 43B was added in the Directive Principles of State Policy (Part IV) regarding the “promotion of cooperative societies”. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Entry 32 of the State List: Incorporation, regulation and winding up of corporations, other than those specified in List I, and universities; unincorporated trading, literary, scientific, religious and other societies and associations; co-operative societies.