Daily Current Affairs MCQ - November 27, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Ghare Baire, the popular museum-exhibition in Kolkata that showcased two centuries of art in Bengal and was housed in a building almost as old, is shutting down after enriching the cultural landscape of the city for nearly two years.

• DAG Museums, a private entity, ran the show in collaboration with the National Gallery of Modern Art and the Archaeological Survey of India (both under the Culture Ministry)
• DAG Museums’ contract with the Ministry for Ghare Baire came to an end sometime last year and the Ministry had now decided not to renew it.
• The museum-exhibition was inaugurated on January 11, 2020 at the renovated Currency Building — which was built in 1833 and almost razed in 1996 — located in BBD Bagh, also known as Dalhousie Square.
• Ghare Baire (at home and the world) derived its name from the title of Rabindranath Tagore’s iconic novel, which later inspired Satyajit Ray to make a film by the same name.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Union Minister for MSME Narayana Rane launched the unique anti-bacterial fabric developed by Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute, Jaipur, under Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

• The fabric is treated with anti-bacterial agent extracted from cow dung which prevents bacterial growth in the fabric.
• This innovative fabric could be great use in hospitals and other medical facilities.
• The Minister also lauded the innovative KhadiPrakritik Paint made from cow dung and the unique plastic-mixed handmade paper developed by the Institute. He said, the two products had great potential of creating rural employment while also contributing to environment protection.
• Shri Rane said, KhadiPrakritik Paint is a unique product which can serve the twin objectives of employment generation as well as environment protection. It is eco-friendly and cost-effective. He added that his Ministry aims atsetting up KhadiPrakritik Paint units in every part of the country that will give a big boost to government’s rural employment initiatives.
• Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Sweden’s first ever female Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson resigned hours after she was appointed on November 24, 2021.

• Social Democrat Andersson had formed a coalition government with the Green party, which decided to quit the coalition after Andersson presented her government’s budget, forcing her to resign as the Prime Minister.
• Magdalena Andersson is the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden. Andersson, 54, began her political career as a political adviser to then prime minister Göran Persson in 1996 and then as Director of Planning.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The first-ever Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) prepared by government think tank NITI Aayog has said that Bihar has the highest proportion of people, at 51.91 per cent of the state’s population, who are multidimensionally poor, followed by Jharkhand at 42.16 per cent and Uttar Pradesh at 37.79 per cent.

• Bihar also has the highest number of malnourished people followed by Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
• Kerala, Goa, and Sikkim have the lowest percentage of population being multidimensionally poor at 0.71 per cent, 3.76 per cent and 3.82 per cent, respectively.
• This baseline report of the national MPI measure is based on the reference period of 2015-16 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).
• Among the Union Territories (UTs), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (27.36 per cent), Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh (12.58), Daman & Diu (6.82 per cent) and Chandigarh (5.97 per cent), have emerged as the poorest UTs in India.
• The proportion of poor in Puducherry at 1.72 per cent is the lowest among the Union Territories, followed by Lakshadweep at 1.82 per cent, Andaman & Nicobar Islands at 4.30 per cent and Delhi at 4.79 per cent.

Methodology

• The MPI uses the globally accepted methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• The MPI has three equally weighted dimensions – health, education, and standard of living – which in turn are represented by 12 indicators such as nutrition, school attendance, years of schooling, drinking water, sanitation, housing, bank accounts among others, according to the report.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

A new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B has provided evidence of the effect of environmental conditions on the longevity of relationships — among a population of albatrosses.

• It suggests that environmental conditions cause splits between black-browed albatrosses in the South Atlantic, which otherwise have long-term monogamous relationships.
• The researchers say “divorce” is triggered by breeding failure and that it yields some reproductive benefits, particularly for females which are more likely to find new partners and attain a higher breeding success.
• They say their results suggest divorce in long-lived monogamous sea populations is an adaptive strategy.
• The researchers analysed a long-term demographic dataset of the black-browed albatross population in the Falkland Islands, a group of remote islands in the South Atlantic about 483 km from the South American mainland.

Albatrosses

• Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses).
• They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific.
• Of the 22 species of albatrosses recognised by the IUCN, all are listed as at some level of concern; three species are critically endangered, five species are endangered, seven species are near threatened, and seven species are vulnerable.

Hence both statements are correct.

• Recently, Russia has successfully placed into orbit a military satellite. The satellite is believed to be a Tundra Satellite, part of Russia's early warning anti-missile system named Kupol or dome.
• Tundra satellite system is a constellation of Missile Early Warning Satellites established by Russia between 2015 and 2020.
  • It carries a secure emergency communications payload to be used in case of a nuclear war.
  • It is a series of satellites that are the next generation of Russian early warning satellites to replace the early warning satellites of the Oko-1 system.
    • This final Oko (Eye) satellite (missile defence early warning program) reportedly stopped operating in mid 2014, leaving Russia relying on ground-based missile detection systems.
  • They are part of the EKS or Unified Space System (USS-Also sometimes referred as Kupol or dome), which will also include several satellites in geostationary orbit.
    • Unveiled in 2019, Kupol is designed to detect launches of ballistic missiles and track them to their landing site, though its exact configuration is unknown.

• The Ministry of Animal Husbandry & Dairying celebrates the National Milk Day (NMD) on 26^th November.
• It is celebrated to commemorate the birth Anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • NMD 2021 commemorates the 100^th birth anniversary of Dr. Kurien.
• It has helped India become the largest producer of milk in the world.
  • Currently, India is the world's largest milk producer, with 22% of global production. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Dr. Verghese Kurien is known as the Milk Man of India for his contribution to the white revolution. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

• The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) was introduced in 2001 by scientific administrators in the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
  • India is one of the countries that produce the highest number of scientists and engineers, the growth of STEM has picked up significantly over the last few years.
    • Under Article 51A (enlisting fundamental duties) of the Constitution of India, it is a duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Participation of Women in STEM: About 43% of STEM graduates in India are women, which is the highest in the world, but their share in STEM jobs in India is a mere 14%. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Initiatives to Promote Women Participation:
  • Vigyan Jyoti Scheme: It is launched by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) and intends to create a level-playing field for the meritorious girls in high school to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in their higher education.
  • Knowledge Involvement Research Advancement through Nurturing (KIRAN): It is one of the several pioneering initiatives started by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for promoting women in science.
    • It provides career opportunities to unemployed women scientists and technologists, especially those who had a break in their career. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

India’s move to release 5 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves as part of a coordinated challenge led by the US against the OPEC+ producers’ cartel’s move to curb output, is the first time that New Delhi would be dipping into its reserves to leverage it as a geopolitical tool.

• The oil will be released “in parallel and in consultation with” the US, China, Japan and South Korea, the Oil Ministry said in a statement, without specifying a timeframe.

Why are these countries releasing oil from strategic reserves?

• It is part of a concerted effort to negate upward pressure on crude prices from OPEC+ — a 13-country grouping of oil exporters that has been joined since 2016 by 10 others led by Russia to decide production quotas — keeping supply below demand, even though the action is largely symbolic in nature.
• India has called for an increase in the supply by OPEC+ at multiple international forums and in bilateral talks with oil producing countries.
• India argues that high crude oil prices are impacting the post-Covid economic recovery, especially in the developing countries.

What are India’s strategic petroleum reserves?

• Under the first stage of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve project, underground rock caverns with total storage of 5.33 MMT, or about 38 million barrels of crude oil, have been commissioned at three locations — Visakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangalore (1.5 MMT), and Padur in Karnataka (2.5 MMT).
• The International Energy Agency (IEA) recommends that all countries hold crude oil stocks worth 90 days of imports.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The World Health Organization (WHO) classified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, currently circulating in South Africa, as a ‘variant of concern’. It also named it Omicron.

• The Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) had identified the variant. It had detected a group of related SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which belong to a lineage named B.1.1.529.
• Early indications are that this variant is possibly even more transmissible than the highly infectious Delta variant, and that current vaccines may be less effective against it.
• From what is known currently, B.1.1.529 has multiple spike protein mutations, and preliminary analysis suggests it is highly infectious.
• B.1.1.529 has “very unusual constellations of mutations” — with 30 in the region that encodes the spike protein, which is responsible for the virus’s entry in human cells.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.