Daily Current Affairs MCQ- May 9, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, voters are receiving Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) calls every day and they want the Election Commission of India (ECI) should order an inquiry as to how the service providers of various telecom firms shared our mobile phone numbers with the political parties.

• It is an automated telephone system technology that enables callers to receive or provide information, or make requests using voice or menu inputs, without speaking to a live agent.
• IVR is powered by a pre-recorded messaging or text-to-speech technology with a Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) interface.
• Types of IVR systems
• Touch-tone replacement: This system prompts callers to use a touch-tone keypad selection to access information. For example, a pre-recorded message might say, “Press one for store hour information,” and the caller would respond with “one.”
• Directed dialogue: This type of IVR provides specific verbal prompts to callers depending on their inquiry. For example, the recording might ask, “Are you looking for store hours or location information?” The caller may respond with “store hours.”
• Natural language: This advanced IVR system uses speech recognition to better understand user requests.
• Benefits of IVRS system
• A well designed IVR software system can help increase customer satisfaction and improve contact center operations and KPIs.
• Particularly during times of high call volume, an effective interactive voice response system can help avoid hold time by helping customers find answers.
• These systems are incredibly cost-effective. They not only reduce high call volumes for customer service representatives
• It has been utilized across a wide variety of industries like: Banking, Customer service, education, Health care, travel etc.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice has indicted Russian national Dimitry Yuryevich Khoroshev and announced a $10 million reward for his alleged involvement with LockBit ransomware.

• It is malicious software designed to block user access to computer systems in exchange for a ransom payment.
• It was formerly known as “ABCD” ransomware, but it has since grown into a unique threat within the scope of extortion tools.
• It is a subclass of ransomware known as a ‘crypto virus’ due to forming its ransom requests around financial payment in exchange for decryption.
• It focuses mostly on enterprises and government organizations rather than individuals.
• It functions as ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS). It is now working to create encryptors targeting Macs for the first time.
• Working
• It works as a self-spreading malware, not requiring additional instructions once it has successfully infiltrated a single device with access to an organisational intranet.
• It is also known to hide executable encryption files by disguising them in the . PNG format, thereby avoiding detection by system defences.
• Attackers use phishing tactics and other social engineering methods to impersonate trusted personnel or authorities to lure victims into sharing credentials.
• Once it has gained access, the ransomware prepares the system to release its encryption payload across as many devices as possible.
• It then disables security programs and other infrastructures that could permit system data recovery.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the ICAR-NBFGR discovered a new catfish species in the pristine waters of Arunachal Pradesh, India and named it as Glyptothorax punyabratai.

• The species was collected from Tung Stream, a tributary of the Tissa River, in the Brahmaputra River basin.
• It is a new catfish species.

Key Facts about Catfish

• Catfish represent one of the largest groups of freshwater fishes, with more than 2000 species.
• Most catfish are found in freshwater but a few are marine.
• Most species of catfish are nocturnal.
• Catfish are primarily benthic or bottom-dwellers.
• Features:
• Most catfish have a cylindrical body with a flattened ventral to allow for benthic feeding.
• Catfish are so-named because of the long barbels, or feelers, which are present about the mouth of the fish and resemble cat whiskers.
• Most catfish possess leading spines in their dorsal and pectoral fins. 
• Catfish are scaleless, a characteristic of catfishes distinguishing them from others.

Hence option (a) is the correct answer.

Researchers have used a CRISPR-Cas9 tool to restore vision in a group of adults and children with congenital blindness known as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA).

• It is a rare genetic eye disorder where affected infants are often blind at birth.
• Children born with LCA have light-gathering cells (rods and cones) of the retina that do not function properly. 
• It affects about one in 40,000 people and causes severe vision loss at an early age.
• This blindness is caused by a gene mutation that prevents a protein from functioning properly. That protein — CEP290 — is critical for sight.
• Recent development
• Scientists used a human gene editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9, to restore vision of people who are affected by this disorder and the trial was called “BRILLIANCE”.
• Participants in the study received a single dose of a CRISPR gene therapy called EDIT-101.
• In the case of EDIT-101, the treatment cuts out the mutation in CEP290 and inserts a healthy strand of DNA back into the gene. This restores normal function of the protein CEP290, allowing the retina to detect light.

What is CRISPR-Cas9?

• It is a unique technology that enables geneticists and medical researchers to edit parts of the genome by removing, adding or altering sections of the DNA sequence.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is preparing to commence the construction of the Shinkun La Tunnel. 

About Shinkun La Tunnel:

• It is an upcoming motorable tunnel under the 16,580 feet high Shinku-La pass between Himachal’s Lahaul valley and Ladakh’s Zanskar valley. 
• It is located on the Nimu-Padam-Darcha Road link.
• The length of the tunnel will be 4.1 km.
• After completion, the Shinku-la tunnel will be the longest high altitude highway tunnel in the world.
• The Border Roads Organization (BRO) will construct the tunnel at a cost of Rs. 1,681.5 crores.
• It will provide all-weather road connectivity to Ladakh, and this will be the shortest route to the border areas of Ladakh.
• It is expected to streamline the transportation of heavy machinery to strategic locations such as Kargil, Siachen and the Line of Control (LOC), reducing travel distances by approximately 100 km.
• The traffic movement in the tunnel will not be vulnerable to long-range artillery shelling or missile firings, either by China or Pakistan.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has become the sole authority for issuing manufacturing licences for new drugs meant for exports, withdrawing the power from State Governments amid heightened global scrutiny of Indian made drugs.

About Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO): 

• It is the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of India for the medical devices industry under the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
• It is responsible for overseeing the import, manufacture, sale and distribution of medical device in the country. The CDSCO ensures that medical devices comply with safety, quality, and efficacy standards.
• It works under the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
• The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) is the head of the CDSCO.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.
• Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, CDSCO is responsible for,
• Approval of new drugs;
• Conduct of clinical trials;
• Laying down the standards for drugs;
• Control over the quality of imported drugs in the country;
• Coordination of the activities of State Drug Control Organizations;
• CDSCO, along with state regulators, is jointly responsible for the grant of licenses for certain specialized categories of critical Drugs such as blood and blood products, I. V. Fluids, Vaccine, and Sera.
• The CDSCO conducts inspections and audits to ensure that medical device companies are complying with regulations related to safety, quality, and efficacy.

Hence both statements are correct.

Astronomers report the discovery of a new pulsar using the Spektr-RG space observatory.

About Spektr-RG (SRG):

• Spektr-Rentgen-Gamma (Spektr-RG, SRG) is a German-Russian high-energy astrophysics space observatory to study the universe in the X-ray range of electromagnetic radiation.
• It was launched in 2019 on a Proton-M rocket from the cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. 
• It moves along a so-called halo orbit around the outer Lagrange point (L2) of the Sun-Earth system at a distance of 1.5 million km from the Earth with a period of about 6 months.
• A Lagrange point is a position in space where the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them.
• Instruments:
• The primary instrument of the mission is eROSITA, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) in Germany.
• It is designed to conduct a seven-year X-ray survey, the first in the medium X-ray band less than 10 keV energies, and the first to map an estimated 100,000 galaxy clusters. 
• This survey may detect new clusters of galaxies and active galactic nuclei.
• The second instrument, ART-XC, is a Russian high-energy X-ray telescope capable of detecting supermassive black holes.
• It is intended to replace the Spektr-R, known as the “Russian Hubble”. Spektr-R was launched in 2011 to observe black holes, neutron stars, and magnetic fields, aiding understanding of cosmic expansion.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

The French President recently hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Tourmalet Pass in the Pyrenees for private meetings.

About Pyrenees Mountains:

• The Pyrenees are a chain of mountains in southwestern Europe that form a natural border between Spain and France. 
• It is a fold mountain chain created by the continental collision of the microcontinent of Iberia with the massive Eurasian plate.
• They are quite old mountains in comparison to the Alps.
• It extends for about 500 km from the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea in the east to the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) in the west.
• Politically, it is divided into the Spanish and French Pyrenees. The tiny country of Andorra is found sandwiched between them, in the eastern part of the Pyrenees Mountains.
• It separates the rest of continental Europe from the Iberian Peninsula.
• The western end of the Pyrenees Mountains merges with the Cantabrian Mountains, located in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
• Located in Spain, Aneto Peak, is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees Mountains (3,404 m). 

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Kerala's health department recently reported West Nile fever cases in three districts.

About West Nile Fever:

• It is a disease caused by the West Nile Virus (WNV).
• WNV is a member of the flavivirus genus and belongs to the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of the family Flaviviridae.
• Birds are the natural hosts of WNV.
• The virus is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and West Asia.
• It can cause a deadly neurological disease in humans.
• It is named after the West Nile district of Uganda, where it was first identified in 1937.
• Transmission:
• It is most commonly spread to people by the bite of an infected mosquito. The mosquitoes get the virus when they bite an infected bird.
• There is no evidence that WNV can be spread directly from one person to another.
• But there have been a few cases where it has spread through organ transplants.
• Symptoms:
• Most people infected by the virus are asymptomatic (no symptoms).
• Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, body aches, nausea, vomiting, occasional skin rash, and swollen lymph glands.
• The symptoms of severe disease (also called neuroinvasive disease, such as West Nile encephalitis or meningitis or West Nile poliomyelitis) include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor (near-unconsciousness), disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis.
• Treatment:
• There is no medicine or vaccine available against the WNV.
• Treatment is based on supportive care involving hospitalisation, intravenous fluids, respiratory support, and prevention of secondary infections.

Hence option b is the correct answer.

The National Surveillance Programme for Aquatic Animal Diseases (NSPAAD) project has introduced a mobile app ‘Report Fish Disease’ to track and monitor fish diseases across the country.

• The mobile application intends to empower fish farmers with a convenient and efficient platform to report diseases on their farms.
• Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) is one of the collaborative partners of the NSPAAD project of which ICAR-NBFGR is the lead institute, under which this app is developed.
• Features
• Its intuitive and user-friendly interface enables easy accessibility to fish farmers.
• The app offers easy disease reporting format, where farmers can easily report disease outbreaks by providing essential information such as location, species affected, symptoms observed, and images.
• Significance
• Geo-tagging technology facilitates swift response from authorities and the receivers get real-time updates on the status of their reported cases, ensuring transparency and accountability in the disease management process.
• The app also serves as an information hub, providing farmers with valuable resources on disease prevention, treatment, and best aquaculture practices.
• It is to provide a comprehensive package to ensure diagnosis, prevention, control, and treatment of aquatic animal diseases, thereby providing solutions for encouraging the aquaculture farmers.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.