Daily Current Affairs MCQ- May 28, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

A special court sentenced Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik to life imprisonment in a terror funding case.

• Enacted in 1967, UAPA is the primary counter-terror law in India.
• It was enacted to outlaw and penalise unlawful and terrorist activities, which pose a threat to the integrity and sovereignty of India.
• However, the terror law has come under sharp scrutiny recently with various courts finding application of the UAPA arbitrary.

Key provisions

• Wide ranging powers to Central Govt
  • It provides wide-ranging powers to the Central Government to designate organisations as terrorist organisations and
  • It also prescribes the penalties for taking part in the activities of such organisations.
• Applicability
  • It is also applicable if the offencesare committed outside India.
  • Both Indian and foreign nationals can be charged.
• Timeline
  • A charge sheet can be filed in maximum 180 days after the arrests.
  • The investigation has to be completed within 90 days.
  • If investigation is not completed with the stipulated time, the accused is eligible for default bail.
• Special court
  • The act establishes a special court designated to conduct trials.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Supreme Court, in a significant order has recognised sex work as a “profession” whose practitioners are entitled to dignity and equal protection under law.

• The Supreme Court has directed that police should neither interfere nor take criminal action against adult and consenting sex workers.
• Notwithstanding the profession, every individual in this country has a right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
• The Bench ordered that sex workers should not be “arrested or penalised or harassed or victimised” whenever there is a raid on any brothel, “since voluntary sex work is not illegal and only running the brothel is unlawful”.
• A child of a sex worker should not be separated from the mother merely on the ground that she is in the sex trade.
• Further, if a minor is found living in a brothel or with sex workers, it should not be presumed that the child was trafficked.
• Sex workers who are victims of sexual assault should be provided every facility including immediate medico-legal care, a three-judge Bench directed in an order which was passed after invoking special powers under Article 142 of Constitution.

Hence both statements are correct.

The demands for a “Bhil Pradesh”, a separate state for tribal people in western India, have of late begun to be raised again.

• Bhils or Bheels are an Adivasi ethnic group in West India. Bhils are listed as tribal people of the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan
• Bhils are one of the largest tribal group in India. They speak the Bhil languages.

What is ‘Bhil Pradesh’?

• The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), a political party based in Gujarat, was formed in 2017.
• It envisions Bhil Pradesh as a separate state carved out of 39 districts spread over four states: 16 in Gujarat, 10 in Rajasthan, seven in Madhya Pradesh, and six in Maharashtra.

Mangarh massacre

• Bhil social reformer and spiritual leader Govind Guru first raised the demand for a separate state for tribals back in 1913 after the Mangarh massacre.
• The massacre, which took place six years before Jallianwalla Bagh and is sometimes referred to as the “Adivasi Jallianwala”, saw hundreds of Bhil tribals being killed by British forces on November 17, 1913 in the hills of Mangarh on the border of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Union Power Minister R. K. Singh has asked the Chief Ministers of all States and Lieutenant Governors of Union Territories to set up State Level Steering Committees for Energy Transition.

• These Steering Committees will work under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretaries of the States and Union Territories.
• The Principal Secretaries of Power and New and Renewable Energy Departments, Transport, Industries, Housing and Urban Affairs, Agriculture, Rural Development and Public Works Departments will act as members of these Committees.
• The States and Union Territories will work on the annual strategy of energy transition under the mandate of the committee.
• Some states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand have already constituted such committees.
• He added that the energy transition is the only means of reducing carbon emissions and fulfilling our commitments made at international forums. He also urged the States to make efforts for zero diesel in agriculture by 2024 by limiting the consumption of diesel in the agriculture sector.

Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated India’s ‘First Lavender Festival' in Bhaderwah.

• He described Bhaderwah as the birthplace of India's Purple Revolution and said that Bhaderwah is the potential destination of Agri-tech StartUps of the country.
• India’s first National Institute of High Altitude Medicine is also being built in Bhaderwah.
• Bhaderwah (also Bhadarwah Valley) is a town, tehsil and sub-division in the district Doda of Jammu.

Lavender

• Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae.
• The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish. Lavender has been used over centuries in traditional medicine and cosmetics.
• CSIR-AROMA Mission, under the Ministry of Science & Technology aims to develop and disseminate the aroma-related science and technology to reach the end user/clients of CSIR: Farmers, industry and society.

Hence both statements are correct.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said India will emerge as the leader of green hydrogen by taking advantage of the current energy crisis across the globe.

• The ‘green’ depends on how the electricity is generated to obtain the hydrogen, which does not emit greenhouse gas when burned.
• Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis using renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind or hydel power.

Steps in India

• In Apr Oil India Limited (OIL) commissioned India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen plant in eastern Assam’s Jorhat.
• India has just begun to generate green hydrogen with the objective of raising non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030.
• The National Hydrogen Mission was launched on August 15, 2021, with a view to cutting down carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable sources of energy.

Hydrogen can be ‘grey’ and ‘blue’ too.

• Grey hydrogen is generated through fossil fuels such as coal and gas and currently accounts for 95% of the total production in South Asia.
• Blue hydrogen, too, is produced using electricity generated by burning fossil fuels but with technologies to prevent the carbon released in the process from entering the atmosphere.

Hence both statements are correct.

Import of Paper has been brought by Government of India under Compulsory Registration from 1st October, 2022.

• The import policy of major paper products has been amended from ‘Free’ to ‘Free subject to compulsory registration under Paper Import Monitoring System’. A notification to this effect has been issued by DGFT.
• This order shall be applicable on a range of paper products, such as newsprint, handmade paper, wallpaper base, duplicating paper, coated paper, uncoated paper, Litho and offset paper, tissue paper, parchment paper, carbon paper, wall paper, envelops, toilet paper, cartons, account books, labels, bobbins, etc.
• All imports arriving on or after 1.10.2022 shall be governed by this policy.
• Paper products like currency paper, bank bond and cheque paper, security printing paper, etc. have been excluded from this policy change.
• Domestic paper industry has been raising issues of dumping of paper products in the domestic market by way of under-invoicing, entry of prohibited goods by mis-declaration, re-routing goods through other countries in lieu of trade agreements.

Hence both statements are correct.

• Bhashini stands for BHASHa INterface for India. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Digital India BHASHINI is India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) led language translation platform under the Ministry of IT and Electronics. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• A Bhashini Platform will make Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) resources available to MSME (Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises), Startups and Individual Innovators in the public domain.
• Bhashini Platform is a part of the National Language Translation Mission. The mission aims to ensure that as more Indians connect to the internet, they are able to access global content in their own languages. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

• Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) 2.0 was announced in Budget 2021-22, as the continuation of SBM-U first phase.
• The government is trying to tap safe containment, transportation, disposal of fecal sludge, and septage from toilets.
  • SBM-U first phase was launched on 2nd October 2014 aiming at making urban India Open Defecation Free (ODF) and achieving 100% scientific management of municipal solid waste. It lasted till October 2019.
• It will be implemented over five years from 2021 to 2026 with an outlay of Rs.1.41 lakh crore. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• The Mission is being implemented under the overarching principles of “waste to wealth”, and “Circular Economy. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

Municipal Corporations

• In India, the Municipal Corporation is the urban local government that is responsible for the development of any Metropolitan City having a population of more than one million people.
• Mahanagar Palika, Nagar Palika, Nagar Nigam, City Corporation, and so on are some of the other names for it.
• The Municipal Corporations are established in the states by the acts of the state legislatures, whereas in the Union Territories through the acts of the Parliament. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• Municipal governments rely heavily on property tax revenue to fund their operations.
• The first municipal corporation in India was created in Madras in 1688, followed by municipal corporations in Bombay and Calcutta in 1726. Hence, statement 2 is correct.