Daily Current Affairs MCQ- July 9, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2022 report has been released.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World

It is an annual flagship report to inform on progress towards ending hunger, achieving food security and improving nutrition.

It also provides in-depth analysis on key challenges for achieving this goal in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report is jointly prepared by:

• Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO),
• International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD),
• UNICEF,
• World Food Programme (WFP) and
• the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Former Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant will be the new Sherpa of G-20. Commerce minister Piyush Goel will give up the position as Sherpa of G-20. With the G-20 presidency coming to India, a full-time Sherpa is required who would be needed to devote a lot of time to meetings that will be held in different parts of the country.

• A Sherpa is a personal representative of the leader of a member country at an international Summit meeting such as the G8, G20, the Nuclear Security Summit etc.
• Task: The Sherpa engages in planning, negotiation and implementation tasks through the Summit. They coordinate the agenda, seek consensus at the highest political levels, and participate in a series of pre-Summit consultations to help negotiate their leaders’ positions.
• Who are appointed Sherpas? Sherpas are career diplomats or senior government officials appointed by the leaders of their countries.
• Etymology: The term is derived from the Nepalese Sherpa people, who serve as guides for mountaineers in the Himalayas.

Hence both statements are correct.

The monsoon has usually meant respite from the heat, but temperatures during these months — June to September — are seeing a rise, says an analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an environment group.

• At an all-India level, average temperatures during the season are 0.3 degrees Celsius higher than the average summer temperatures (March to May) when compared from 1951 to 1980. In the past decade, 2012-2021, this anomaly has risen to 0.4 degrees Celsius.
• India’s average temperature has risen 0.62 degrees Celsius from 1901 to 2020, according to India Meteorological Department records.
• However, in a breakdown of this rise, the CSE analysis shows it has translated to summer temperatures rising slower than not only monsoon but even post-monsoon (October-December) and winter (January and February) temperatures.
• The increase in these two seasons are 0.79 degrees and 0.58 degrees, respectively, whereas summer temperatures has risen only 0.49 degrees. This year, India saw record pre-monsoon temperatures in northern and western regions, in the absence of rain.
• These numbers had a bearing on heatwave deaths. From 2015 to 2020, 2,137 people had reportedly died of heat stroke in the States in northwest but the southern peninsula region had reported 2,444 deaths due to excess environmental heat, with Andhra Pradesh alone accounting for over half the reported casualties.

Hence both statements are correct.

States of Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois in the US were hit by a storm system called a derecho.

• As the storm hit, it turned the skies green, with even many experienced storm chasers claiming to have never witnessed such atmospheric optics.
• A derecho, according to the US’s National Weather Service is “a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm” that is associated with a “band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms”. The name comes from the Spanish word ‘la derecha’ which means ‘straight’. Straight-line storms are those in which thunderstorm winds have no rotation unlike a tornado. These storms travel hundreds of miles and cover a vast area.
• Being a warm-weather phenomenon, a derecho generally – not always – occurs during summertime beginning May, with most hitting in June and July.
• For a storm to be classified as a derecho it must have wind gusts of at least 93 km per hour; wind damage swath extending more than 400 km. The time gap between successive wind damage events should not be more than three hours.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

• A Derecho is “a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm” that is associated with a “band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms”. These result in ‘green sky’ due to light interacting with the huge amount of water they hold. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The name comes from the Spanish word ‘la derecha’ which means ‘straight’.
• Straight-line storms are those in which thunderstorm winds have no rotation unlike a tornado. These storms travel hundreds of miles and cover a vast area.
• It is a warm-weather phenomenon that generally occurs in June and July. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• The big raindrops and hail scatter away all but the blue wavelengths due to which primarily blue light penetrates below the storm cloud.
• This blue then combines with the red-yellow of the afternoon or the evening sun to produce green.

• The Fields Medal is awarded every four years to one or more mathematicians under the age of 40.
• It is awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) at the International Congress in order to recognize outstanding mathematical achievement for existing work and for the promise of future achievement. Hence, both statement 1 and statement 2 are correct.
• IMU is an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organization.
• The purpose of IMU is to promote international cooperation in mathematics.
• The Fields Medal Committee is chosen by the Executive Committee of the International Mathematical Union and is normally chaired by the IMU President.

• Bhils are India's most widely dispersed tribal communities.
• They are commonly referred to as Rajasthan’s bowmen. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The term 'Bhil' is derived from the word villu or billu, which is known as Bow in the Dravidian language.
• Bhils are members of the pre-Aryan race. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Recently, India and Australia decided to strengthen their partnership in the field of projects and supply chains for critical minerals.
• Critical minerals are elements that are the building blocks of essential modern-day technologies and are at risk of supply chain disruptions.
• These minerals are now used everywhere from making mobile phones, and computers to batteries, electric vehicles (EV) and green technologies like solar panels and wind turbines.
• Aerospace, communications and defence industries also rely on several such minerals as they are used in manufacturing fighter jets, drones, radio sets and other critical equipment.
• Hence, option D is correct.

On June 30, 2022, the government said that it had decided to keep interest rates on small savings instruments unchanged for the July-September quarter, defying expectations of a hike in rates given the sharp rise in government security (G-sec) yields over the last three months.

• G-secs, or government securities or government bonds, are instruments that governments use to borrow money. Governments routinely keep running into deficits — that is, they spend more than they earn via taxes. That is why they need to borrow from the people.
• But G-secs are different from everyday lending between two private individuals or entities.
• For one, G-secs carry the lowest risk of all investments. After all, the chances of the government not paying back your money are almost zero. It is thus the safest investment one can make.
• The other ways in which G-Secs are different are in the manner in which they are structured, and how their effective interest rates (also called yields) are calculated.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

In a series of measures to regulate the import and export of items such as crude oil and gold, the government has imposed special additional excise duty/ cesses on exports of petrol and diesel of Rs 6 per litre and Rs 13 per litre respectively.

• The import duty on gold has been hiked to 15 per cent from 10.75 per cent to curb imports of gold amid concerns over increasing pressure on the current account deficit.
• A cess of Rs 23,250 per tonne (by way of special additional excise duty or SAED) or windfall tax, has been imposed on crude. A SAED of Rs 6 per litre has also been imposed on exports of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) or jet fuel.

Hence both statements are correct.