Daily Current Affairs MCQ - October 18, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

India’s trade with China is set to cross the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2021, with shipments hitting $90 billion after three quarters, an almost 30% jump from pre-pandemic levels.

• Data from China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed two-way trade jumped 49% in the first nine months to $90.37 billion. India’s imports from China surged 51.7% to $68.4 billion, while India’s exports rose 42.5% to $21.9 billion.
• India’s biggest exports to China are iron ore, cotton, and other raw material-based commodities.
• India imports mechanical and electrical machinery in large quantities, while imports of medical supplies have soared in the past two years.
• The growth in trade with India was among the fastest for China’s major trading partners. While China’s total trade rose 22.7%, that with its biggest trading partners, ASEAN, the EU and the U.S., rose 21.1%, 20.5% and 24.9%, respectively.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has observed in an order that the disclosure of files provided by India’s second Army chief, General Sir Roy Bucher, to the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on Jammu and Kashmir is in “national interest”.

• The files are related to the period of 1947-49 and may throw light on the Accession of J&K.
• General Sir Francis Robert Roy Butcher served as second chief of the Indian Army between January 1, 1948 to January 15, 1949.
• The commission stopped short of ordering the disclosure of the documents, which are withheld under the directions of the External Affairs Ministry.
• Information Commissioner Uday Mahurkar has instead asked the NMML’s Central Public Information Officer “to take up the matter with higher officials” and “secure the necessary permission” before sharing the information under Right to Information (RTI)
• The highest adjudicating authority on RTI matters, the CIC, did not specify if the information can be disclosed if there is an objection from “higher officials”.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The Kerala High Court lashed out again at the practice of demanding nokku kooli by headload workers in the State.

• Nokku kooli refers to extortion by organized labour unions in Kerala under which wages are paid to trade union activists for allowing common householders/ investors/builders to unload belongings/materials using machines or their own labour.
• In Malayalam, 'nokku kooli', translates into 'gawking wages' or 'wages for (just) looking on'.
• The practice still persists in the state despite a ban and repeated directives by the High Court. On May 1, 2018, the Kerala government banned the practice.
• Hence both statements are correct.

International Energy Agency (IEA) has invited India, the world’s third-largest energy consumer, to become its full-time member — a proposal, if accepted, will require New Delhi to raise strategic oil reserves to 90 days’ requirement.

• The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation.
• It acts as a policy adviser to its member states, as well as major emerging economies to support energy security and advance the clean energy transition worldwide.
• It was established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.
• It is best known for the publication of its annual World Energy Outlook.
• The IEA is made up of 30 member countries. In addition, the IEA family also includes eight association countries.
• In March 2017, India became an associate member of the agency. India’s current strategic oil reserves equal 9.5 days of its requirement.
• Hence both statements are correct.

China — the world’s biggest polluter — pledged to inject $233 million into the Kunming biodiversity fund to protect biodiversity in developing countries during a key UN conservation summit.

• The summit aims to establish a new accord setting out targets for 2030 and 2050.
• A key proposal being debated at the conference is the “30 by 30” agenda that would afford 30% of the Earth’s land and oceans protected status by 2030.
• Global spending to protect and restore nature needs to triple this decade to about $350 billion annually by 2030 and $536 billion by 2050 to meet this target, a UN report said in May 2021.
• But some rich country donors say a new fund for conservation is unnecessary because the United Nations’ Global Environment Facility already helps developing nations finance green projects.
• Kunming, also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China.
• It is at the northern edge of Dian Lake.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

World Food Day is being celebrated every year on October 16 to commemorate the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation in 1945.

• The day is also observed by organisations like World Food Programme and International Fund for Agricultural Development.
• Since 1981, World Food Day has celebrated various themes to highlight the importance of food security, with most of them revolving around agriculture.
• The theme for World Food Day this year is “Our actions are our future- Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life,” as per the official website of FAO.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

After two years, rain fury and floods have returned to haunt parts of central and southern Kerala districts. In Kottayam district — among the worst-hit — the Army and the Air Force have been deployed to carry out rescue operations. Flash floods, mudslides and landslides were reported in most districts located between central and southern Kerala, which included Thrissur, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.

The southwest monsoon started withdrawing October 6, 2021, a record 19 days later than the normal date of September 17. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had come up with a new calendar for the monsoon season’s onset and withdrawal over different parts of the country in 2020. In every year since 2017, the season has started withdrawing later than September 17. It was late by 22 days in 2019:

September 28 in 2020

October 9 in 2019

September 29 in 2018

September 27 in 2017

September 15 in 2016

The season’s rainfall for IMD ends September 30, when it changes its categorisation of rainfall from monsoon (June to September) to post monsoon (October to December).

Hence both statements are correct.

In a step towards resolving their boundary disputes, Bhutan and China signed an agreement on a three-step roadmap to help speed up talks, at a meeting of Foreign Ministers.

• The roadmap “for Expediting the Bhutan-China Boundary Negotiations”, is expected to kickstart the progress on the boundary talks process that has been delayed for five years, first due to the Doklam standoff in 2017 and then by the pandemic.
• The timing of the agreement is particularly significant for New Delhi, given the border talks on their 17-month old standoff at the Line of Actual Control appear to have hit an impasse this week.
• The Bhutanese Embassy in Delhi declined to comment on the details of the three steps and sources said information on the process of negotiations is ‘sensitive’ and could not be shared at this stage.
• The roadmap had been finalised during the 10th expert group meeting in Kunming in April 2021, and presented for approval to their Governments in Thimphu and Beijing respectively.
• Doklam, or Donglang in Chinese, is an area spread over less than a 100 sq km comprising a plateau and a valley at the trijunction between India, Bhutan and China. It is surrounded by the Chumbi Valley of Tibet, Bhutan’s Ha Valley and Sikkim.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, have discovered that a particular gene (DLX1) which plays an important role in the development of jaws, skeleton, and interneurons in the brain has an important role to play in the growth and development of prostate cancer.

• The DLX1 protein is found at elevated levels in prostate cancer patients, the reason why the DLX1 protein has been used as a urine-based biomarker.
• Now the team of researchers at IIT Kanpur has found that the DLX1 protein, which is expressed at higher levels in the prostate cancer cells, has a huge role in the growth and development of the tumour and the spread of the cancer to other organs in the body (metastasis).
• Using small molecules as inhibitors, the researchers have shown in mice a new therapeutic strategy to treat people with DLX1-positive prostate cancer.
• Hence both statements are correct.

For the first time in the history of major ports, Ship-to-Ship operation of LPG undertaken at Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port.

• Port of Kolkata or Kolkata Port, officially known as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port Trust (Formerly Kolkata Port Trust), is the only riverine major port of India, located in the city of Kolkata, West Bengal, around 203 kilometres from the sea.
• It is the oldest operating port in India and was constructed by the British East India Company in 1870.
• Kolkata is a freshwater port with no variation in salinity.
• The port has two distinct dock systems — Kolkata Docks at Kolkata and a deep water dock at Haldia Dock Complex, Haldia.
• Hence both statements are correct.