Daily Current Affairs MCQ - October 21, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Imprisoned Russian Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was awarded the European Union’s top human rights prize in a clear slap to President Vladimir Putin.

• The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, is an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought.
• Named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, the prize was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament.
• The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela and Russian Anatoly Marchenko.
• In awarding the Sakharov Prize to Mr. Navalny, the European Parliament praised his “immense personal bravery”. The 45-year-old activist was poisoned with a nerve agent last year and promptly arrested upon his return to Moscow from treatment in Germany and later imprisoned.
• He has campaigned consistently against the corruption of Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Russia-EU Relations

• The recognition of Mr. Navalny will further sour relations between the 27-nation bloc and Russia.
• These ties have been on the decline for years, especially following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and its support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
• It comes days after Russia suspended its mission at NATO and ordered the closure of the alliance’s office in Moscow in retaliation for NATO’s expulsion of Russian diplomats
• Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Kushinagar is an international Buddhist pilgrimage centre. However, it has a negligible population of Buddhists.

• According to the Census of India 2011, out of the 35.64 lakh population of Kushinagar district, the majority were Hindu (29.28 lakh), followed by Muslim (6.20 lakh), and Christian (5,006).
• The Buddhist population of the district was just 4,619, or 0.12 per cent of the total.
• Ten other districts of UP — Kheri, Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar, Sultanpur, Basti, Mainpuri, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Hardoi, and Azamgarh — have larger Buddhist populations than Kushinagar.
• Kheri, which has been in the news for the deaths of eight people including four protesting farmers on October 3, had the largest Buddhist population (18,454) across all districts of UP in 2011.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Union government rechristened Mount Harriet, a historical tourist spot in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, as ‘Mount Manipur’.

• The announcement was made during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Port Blair, where he referred to the “significant contribution” the North-eastern state had made in resisting the British, especially during the historic 1891 Anglo-Manipur war.
• After the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891, several Manipuris who had fought the British in the war, including Maharaja Kulachandra Dhwaja Singh, were exiled to the British penal colony in the Andaman Islands.
• Since the cellular jail (Kalapani) was yet to be built, Kulachandra and the prisoners were kept on Mount Harriet, a hillock in what is now the Ferragunj tehsil of South Andaman district.
• 23 men, including King Kulachandra and his brothers, were “transported for life” to the Andamans. The 23 are considered war heroes in Manipur. That is why Mount Harriet is an important symbol of the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Facebook plans to rename itself as Metaverse. Just like how Alphabet is now the parent company of Google, we could see a new parent company, under which Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and others operate.

• For Facebook, the ‘rebranding’ isn’t just about a switch in the company name but a reflection of the company’s growing ambitions and focus on a new area: metaverse.
• It also signals that Facebook wants to be known for more than just social media.
• Facebook has already announced plans to invest $50 million as part of its efforts to create a ‘responsible’ metaverse. It also plans to create nearly new 10,000 jobs in Europe as part of its ‘metaverse’ ambitions.
• Metaverse is a parallel, virtual, world where users can have different identities, possessions and characters.
• In the complex explanation, Metaverse is supposed to be the post-Internet world, a decentralised computing platform of sorts if you will, which is continuous, and live.
• The metaverse is being envisioned as a new world order really, where your services could be offered virtually in exchange for other virtual assets, or Cryptocurrencies.
• Interoperability is key to metaverse’s success.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

On 18 October, 2021, the foreign ministers of the United States, India, Israel, and UAE met virtually to enhance cooperation and partnerships between these states on the back of the Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, normalising relations between Israel and a grouping of Arab states led by the UAE.

• The Abraham Accords are a joint statement between State of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America, reached on August 13, 2020.
• Subsequently, the term was used to refer collectively to agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (the Israel–United Arab Emirates normalization agreement) and Bahrain, respectively (the Bahrain–Israel normalization agreement).
• The statement marked the first public normalization of relations between an Arab country and Israel since that of Jordan in 1994.
• The agreement with the UAE was officially titled the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement: Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization Between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel.
• The agreement between Bahrain and Israel was officially titled the Abraham Accords: Declaration of Peace, Cooperation, and Constructive Diplomatic and Friendly Relations, and was announced by the United States on September 11, 2020.
• The accords are named after Abraham to emphasize the shared origin of belief between Judaism and Islam, both of which are Abrahamic religions that strictly espouse the monotheistic worship of the God of Abraham.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

About Production Gap Report:

• The Production Gap Report 2021 was released by the leading research institutes and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Hence statement 1 is correct.
• The Production Gap Report, first launched in 2019, tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and global production levels consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C or 2°C. Hence, statement 2 is not correct. 

• Di-Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) is the second most commonly used fertilizer in India after urea. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• Farmers normally apply this fertiliser just before or at the beginning of sowing, as it is high in phosphorus (P) that stimulates root development. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• DAP (46% P, 18% Nitrogen) is the preferred source of Phosphorus for farmers.
• This is similar to urea, which is their preferred nitrogenous fertiliser containing 46%

• Brent crude oil originates from oil fields in the North Sea between the Shetland Islands and Norway. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is sourced from US oil fields, primarily in Texas, Louisiana, and North Dakota.
• Cost of shipping for Brent crude is typically lower, since it is produced near the sea and it can be put on ships immediately. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• Shipping of WTI is priced higher since it is produced in landlocked areas like Cushing, Oklahoma where the storage facilities are limited.
• Brent crude price is the international benchmark price used by OPEC while WTI crude price is a benchmark for US oil prices.
  • Since India imports primarily from OPEC countries, Brent is the benchmark for oil prices in India. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

Bhaskarabda, an era counted from the date of the ascension of a seventh century local ruler, will be added to Saka and Gregorian eras in the official calendar of the Assam Government.

• Bhaskarabda began when Bhaskaravarman was crowned ruler of the Kamrupa kingdom. He was a contemporary and political ally of northern Indian ruler Harshavardhana.
• Unlike Gregorian, where a day starts at midnight, the Assamese calendar begins and ends at sunrise over 24 hours. While the Gregorian goes by the solar cycle, the Saka and Bhaskarabda eras use a lunisolar system based on both the phases of the moon and the solar year.
• The gap between Bhaskarabda and Gregorian is 593 years.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The decline in daily new infections across India has prompted INSACOG (India SARS-CoV-2 Genome Consortium), the consortium of labs focused on sequencing coronavirus variants, to “prioritise” new surveillance approaches.

• In view of currently declining cases and importance of early detection of increased transmission in the future, INSACOG will prioritise developing and expanding a SARS-CoV-2 sewage surveillance program.
• The CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, which is also part of the INSACOG network, has since early 2020 been collecting sewage from large drains in cities to check for the presence of the virus.
• Because a large fraction of those afflicted by the virus are asymptomatic but are carriers of infection, their body fluids and stool often contain traces of the virus.
• Finding large proportions of it in public drains can often be a precursor to a fresh outbreak, with a rise in symptomatic infections.
• Delta (B.1.617.2 and AY.x) continues to be the main VOC (Variant of Concern) in India. No new VOI (Variant of Interest) or VOC are noted in India.
• Hence both statements are correct.