Daily Current Affairs MCQ- May 25, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, the union Science and Technology Minister told that India has conducted the first human clinical trial of gene therapy for ‘haemophilia A’ at Christian Medical College – Vellore.

• It is a genetic disorder that affects the body’s ability to form blood clots.
• It is a rare disorder in which the blood doesn't clot in the typical way because it doesn't have enough blood-clotting proteins. 
• It is a sex linked disorder. The gene for hemophilia is carried on the X chromosome.
• Causes: It is caused by a mutation or change, in one of the genes, that provides instructions for making the clotting factor proteins needed to form a blood clot. This type is caused by a lack or decrease of clotting factor VIII.
• Symptoms: Signs and symptoms of hemophilia vary, depending on the level of clotting factors. 
• Males are much more likely to have hemophilia than are females.
• Treatment:
• It involves replacement therapy, which involves infusing clotting factor concentrates into the bloodstream to help the blood clot. 
• Other treatments may include medications to promote clotting or surgery to repair damage caused by bleeding.

What is Gene therapy?

• It is a technique that modifies a person’s genes to treat or cure disease.
• Gene therapies can work by several mechanisms:
• Replacing a disease-causing gene with a healthy copy of the gene
• Inactivating a disease-causing gene that is not functioning properly
• Introducing a new or modified gene into the body to help treat a disease
• Gene therapy products are being studied to treat diseases including cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases.

Hence both statements are correct.

Two researchers in Goa have said that they synthesised gold nanoparticles from a wild mushroom species that is widely eaten as a delicacy in the coastal state.

• It is a mushroom of the Termitomyces species.
• It grows on termite hills and is locally known as ‘roen olmi’ in Goa.
• It is an edible wild mushroom popular among Goans and consumed during the monsoons.
• These mushrooms have no independent existence. They grow only in association with termites. 
• Habitat: It is endemic to the Western Ghats, where the thick forest cover and high humidity provides an ideal breeding ground.
• Ecological significance: It plays a very important role as a powerful biodegrading fungus in forest and grassland ecosystems converting 50% dead plant material on the ground into rich soil.
• In fact, all Termitomyces species are edible and have unique food value attributed to their texture, flavour, nutrient content, and beneficial mediational properties.
• Additionally, Termito-myces have been recognized for their ethno-medicinal importance in various indigenous communities throughout Asia and Africa.
• Termitomyces species possess various beneficial antioxidant and antimicrobial properties

Hence option b is the correct answer.

India's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is keeping a close eye on large cash deposits and withdrawals from cooperative banks ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

• It was set by the Government of India in November 2004.
• It is the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.
• It is also responsible for coordinating and strengthening efforts of national and international intelligence, investigation and enforcement agencies in pursuing the global efforts against money laundering and financing of terrorism.
• It is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC) headed by the union Finance Minister.
• Functions:
• Collection of Information: Act as the central reception point for receiving Cash Transaction reports (CTRs), Non-Profit Organisation Transaction Report (NTRs), Cross Border Wire Transfer Reports (CBWTRs), Reports on Purchase or Sale of Immovable Property (IPRs) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) from various reporting entities.
• Analysis of Information: Analyze received information in order to uncover patterns of transactions suggesting suspicion of money laundering and related crimes.
• Sharing of Information: Share information with national intelligence/law enforcement agencies, national regulatory authorities and foreign Financial Intelligence Units.
• Act as Central Repository: Establish and maintain national data base on the basis of reports received from reporting entities.
• Coordination: Coordinate and strengthen collection and sharing of financial intelligence through an effective national, regional and global network to combat money laundering and related crimes.
• Research and Analysis: Monitor and identify strategic key areas on money laundering trends, typologies and developments.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Reserve Bank tweaked guidelines for Regulatory Sandbox (RS) scheme.

• It refers to live testing of new products or services in a controlled regulatory environment.
• It acts as a "safe space" for business as the regulators may or may not permit certain relaxations for the limited purpose of testing. 
• It can provide a structured avenue for the regulator to engage with the ecosystem and to develop innovation-enabling or innovation-responsive regulations that facilitate delivery of relevant, low-cost financial products.
• It is potentially an important tool which enables more dynamic, evidence-based regulatory environments which learn from, and evolve with, emerging technologies.
• Objectives
• It provides an environment to innovative technology-led entities for limited-scale testing of a new product or service that may or may not involve some relaxation in a regulatory requirement before a wider-scale launch.
• The RS is, at its core, a formal regulatory programme for market participants to test new products, services or business models with customers in a live environment, subject to certain safeguards and oversight.
• The proposed financial service to be launched under the RS should include new or emerging technology, or use of existing technology in an innovative way and should address a problem, or bring benefits to consumers.
• To foster responsible innovation in financial services, promote efficiency and bring benefit to consumers.
• The RBI had issued the 'Enabling Framework for Regulatory Sandbox' in August 2019, after wide ranging consultations with stakeholders.
• The recently updated framework requires
• The sandbox entities to ensure compliance with provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
• The timelines of the various stages of the Regulatory Sandbox process have been revised from seven months to nine months
• The target applicants for entry to the RS are fintech companies, including startups, banks, financial institutions, any other company, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and partnership firms, partnering with or providing support to financial services businesses.

Hence option a is the correct answer.

The Prime Minister recently laid the foundation stone for a new spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam in southern Tamil Nadu.

About Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport:

• It is a new spaceport coming up at Kulasekarapattinam, a coastal hamlet near the temple town of Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu.
• It will be second after the space agency’s existing Satish Dhawan Space Centre, founded in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota in 1971, with two launch pads.
• It will focus on the launch of Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVs) on a commercial basis.
• It will house 35 facilities, including a launch pad, rocket integration facilities, ground range and checkout facilities, and a mobile launch structure (MLS) with checkout computers.
• It would have the capacity to launch 24 satellites per year using a mobile launch structure.
• Spread over 2,350 acres, the spaceport will help save fuel for small rocket launches as the port can launch rockets directly south over the Indian Ocean without requiring crossing landmasses. 
• This is unlike the existing launch site at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, which adds more fuel requirements for launching into a polar orbit as rockets need to follow a curved path to the south to avoid Sri Lanka’s landmass.
• It is estimated to cost Rs. 986 crore.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs recently ordered the closure of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF).

About Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF):

• MAEF was established on the occasion of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad's birth centenary celebrations. 
• The Foundation is a voluntary, non-political, non-profit making social service organization.
• It was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, on 6th July 1989.
• The Foundation was established to promote education amongst the educationally backward minorities in particular and other weaker sections in general.
• It is fully funded by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Govt. of India.
• Structure:
• The Hon'ble Minister of Minority Affairs is Ex-Officio President of the Foundation.
• The General Body of the Foundation consists of 15 members, of which six are ex-officio, including the President, MAEF, and rest nine are nominated by the President, MAEF.
• The management of the Foundation is entrusted with its Governing Body, which consists of six members (including the President, MAEF) selected from amongst the members of the General Body.
• Through programmes like the Begum Hazrat Mahal National Scholarship Scheme and the Khwaja Gharib Nawaz Skill Development Training Scheme, the Foundation worked to improve employment opportunities for minorities and awarded scholarships to deserving girls from religious minorities.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting launched PB-SHABD, a news sharing service from Prasar Bharati and websites of DD News and Akashvani News as well as updated News on Air mobile app at an event in National Media Centre, New Delhi.

• Prasar Bharti - Shared Audio Visuals for Broadcast and Dissemination (PB-SHABD) platform has been designed to provide daily news feeds in video, audio, text, photo and other formats to the subscribers from media landscape.
• It is powered by the vast network of Prasar Bharati reporters, correspondents and stringers, the service would bring you the latest news from different parts of the country.
• It will be a single point source of news content for all organizations.
• SHABD service is being offered free of cost for the first year as an introductory offer and will provide news stories in all major Indian languages across fifty categories.
• The shared feeds can be used for customized storytelling across different platforms.
• As an introductory offer, the services would be available free of cost and help the smaller newspapers, TV channels and digital portals immensely.

What is Prasar Bharti?

• It is the Public Service Broadcaster of the country.
• It is a statutory autonomous body established in 1997 under the Prasar Bharati Act.
• Objective: To conduct public broadcasting services intended to inform and entertain the public.
• It comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio, which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• Headquarter: New Delhi

Hence both statements are correct.

A US-based company called Cognition has announced the launch of a new artificial intelligence chatbot called Devin which it claims to be world's first fully autonomous AI software engineer.

• It is the world’s first AI software engineer. 
• What can Devin do?
• The AI agent comes with some advanced capabilities in software development, including coding, debugging, problem-solving, etc.
• It uses machine learning algorithms to constantly learn and improve its performance and adapt according to new challenges.
• In simple words, Devin can build and deploy apps end-to-end and can also train and fine-tune its own AI models.
• It can plan and execute complex engineering tasks that would require thousands of decisions.
• It can recall relevant context at each step, self-learn over time, and even fix mistakes.
• This software engineer has the ability to proactively collaborate with the user.
• It reports progress in real-time, is capable of accepting feedback, and works along with the user through design choices as needed.
• Performance
• On the SWE-Bench benchmark (a benchmark for evaluating large language models on real-world software issues found on GitHub), Devin correctly resolved 13.86 per cent of the issues without any assistance compared with the 1.96 per cent unassisted and 4.80 per cent assisted of the previous state-of-the-art model.
• It is capable of augmenting efficiency and speed within software development processes by automating repetitive tasks, instantly generating code, expediting project timelines, and cutting down development expenses substantially.
• It is immune to human errors or inconsistencies.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

A case of Lyme disease has been recently reported in the Ernakulam district of Kerala.

About Lyme Disease:

• It is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi.
• Transmission:
• It is primarily transmitted to humans through the bite of infected black-legged ticks, often referred to as deer ticks.
• Lyme disease cannot spread:
• between humans
• from pets to humans
• through air, food, or water
• Lice, mosquitoes, fleas, and flies also do not transmit it.
• It is prevalent in wooded and grassy areas worldwide, particularly during warmer months. It is most commonly reported in North America, Europe, and some parts of Asia.
• Symptoms:
• Early symptoms of Lyme disease start between 3 to 30 days after an infected tick bite you.
• It commonly manifests with symptoms such as fever, headache, fatigue, and a characteristic "bull's-eye" red rash called erythema migrans (EM).
• Erythema migrans serves as a hallmark sign, aiding in the early diagnosis and management of this tick-borne illness.
• Left untreated, it can lead to more severe complications affecting the joints, heart, and nervous system.
• Treatment:
• The standard treatment for Lyme disease is antibiotics, such as doxycycline or amoxicillin, especially in the early stages.
• In later stages, intravenous antibiotics may be required.

Hence both statements are not correct.

In a major fillip to India’s fight against terrorism and organised crime, Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation virtually inaugurated a unique digital Criminal Case Management System (CCMS) and  also launches a mobile app ‘Sankalan in New Delhi.

• It will enable the National Investigation Agency (NIA) personnel to better coordinate in terrorism and organized crime cases, thereby improving justice delivery.
• The new stand-alone version of CCMS has been developed and designed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
• It is a user-friendly and easy-to-deploy, customizable, browser-based software to help the State Police forces in their investigations and prosecution.
• The state-of-the-art CCMS software would not only bring standardisation into investigations but also enable easy and streamlined compilation of terror-related data across the country. 

Hence only statement 1 is correct.