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

Women farmers in the hill State of Himachal Pradesh are gradually turning to non-chemical, low cost “natural farming”, which has not only provided them with a sustainable livelihood but also empowered them better.

• Launched in 2018, the State’s Prakritik Kheti Khushhal Yojana (PK3Y) is promoting the climate resilient Subhash Palekar Natural Farming (SPNF), also called ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’.
• ZBNF is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
• 'Zero Budget' means without using any credit, and without spending any money on purchased inputs. 'Natural farming' means farming with Nature and without chemicals.
• Under ZBNF, neither fertiliser nor pesticide is used. Also, only 10 % of water is to be utilised for irrigation as compared to traditional farming techniques.
• Basic concept of ZBNF, which is different from organic farming, is to ensure that profit from supplementary crops is enough to cover the cost of production of the main crop.
• It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved. The movement in Karnataka state was born out of by the efforts of Padma Shri Subhash Palekar in Karnataka.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Indigenous Muslims in northern Assam’s Darrang district are now feeling the heat of an eviction drive that was ostensibly aimed at migrant Bengali Muslim settlers on the banks of the Brahmaputra.

• In Assam, indigenous Muslims can be divided into three distinct groups called Goria, Moria and Deshi. Some smaller groups like Moimal, Julha, Ujani and Syed are also called Assamese Muslims.
• Unlike the Muslims who migrated from East Bengal and Bangladesh, members of these groups use Assamese as their mother tongue and follow and cultural traditions and festivities similar to Assamese Hindus which clearly differentiate them from the migrants.
• While the Morias are mainly descendants of Muslim soldiers who were part of invasions to Assam and were captured by Ahom kings, the Deshis and Gorias are people from indigenous communities in lower and upper Assam respectively who converted to Islam.
• Deshis were from Koch-Rajbongshi communities. Besides captured Muslim soldiers, Muslims engaged in various tasks by Ahom kings are also known at Morias.
• Gorias comprise of Muslims brought from outside Assam by Ahom kings, captured Muslim soldiers and those who converted locally.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The Netherlands is interested in posting a Liaison Officer (LO) at the Indian Navy’s Information Fusion Centre for Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) for Maritime Domain Awareness and information sharing, Vice Admiral René Tas, Commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy, says.

• The IFC has been established at the Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram, which is the single point centre linking all the coastal radar chains to generate a seamless real-time picture of the nearly 7,500-km coastline.
• Mandate: Strengthening maritime security in the region and beyond, by acting as a maritime information hub for the region.
• Partner countries: The Information Fusion Centre will serve countries that have White Shipping Information Exchange agreements with India.
• Through this Centre, information on “white shipping”, or commercial shipping, will be exchanged with countries in the region to improve maritime domain awareness in the Indian Ocean.
• It will also impart training in maritime information collection and sharing.
• Data is shared by virtual means – telephone calls, Faxes, emails and video conferencing. The centre also hosts liaison officers from foreign countries for quicker analysis of information and timely inputs.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

With an aim to boost liquidity in the corporate bond market, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) suggested further capping the number of ISINs for such bonds issued on a private placement basis.

• An International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) is a 12-digit alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies a specific security like stocks and bonds.
• The organization that allocates ISINs in any particular country is the country's respective National Numbering Agency (NNA).
• An ISIN is not the same as the ticker symbol, which identifies the stock at the exchange level. The ISIN is a unique number assigned to a security that is universally recognizable.
• ISINs are used for numerous reasons including clearing and settlement. The numbers ensure a consistent format so that holdings of institutional investors can be tracked consistently across markets worldwide.
• Hence both statements are correct.

An international team has reported a unique phenomenon in a white dwarf about 1,400 light years from Earth. They saw the white dwarf lose its brightness in 30 minutes.

• These gaps in brightness have been previously reported but the process usually takes place over a period of several days to months.
• The team observed the phenomena using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
• The white dwarf is part of a binary system called TW Pictoris, where a star and a white dwarf orbit each other.
• The two objects are so close to each other that the star transfers material to the white dwarf.
• As this material approaches the white dwarf it forms an accretion disk or a disk of gas, plasma, and other particles around it. TW Pictoris is located in the Pictoris constellation, and the binary system is about 1400 light years from us.
• The team notes that a process called magnetic gating may be at play. This happens when the magnetic field is spinning so rapidly it creates a barrier disrupting the amount of food the white dwarf can receive.
• The team hopes that this discovery will help us understand the physics behind accretion – how black holes and neutron stars feed material from their nearby stars.
• A typical white dwarf is half the size of our Sun and has a surface gravity 100,000 times that of Earth. Using the Hubble Space telescope and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have identified several white dwarfs over the years.
• Hence both statements are correct.

• Recently, the Prime Minister launched the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission.
  • It is one of the largest pan-India schemes for strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country. It is in addition to the National Health Mission.
• The mission will provide support to 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 ‘high focus’ states and establish 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres across the country.
  • Through this, critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than five lakh population through exclusive critical care hospital blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services.
  • Under the scheme, a national institution for one health, four new national institutes for virology, nine biosafety level-III laboratories, a regional research platform for WHO (World Health Organization) South East Asia Region and five new regional national centres for disease control will be set up.
• Objectives:
  • To ensure a robust public health infrastructure in both urban and rural areas, capable of responding to public health emergencies or disease outbreaks.
  • To establish an IT-enabled disease surveillance system through a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.
• Hence, option D is correct.

• Recently, a report (Tightening the Net) published by Oxfam International has said that announcing Net Zero Carbon Targets may be a dangerous distraction from the priority of cutting carbon emissions.
• Over 100 countries have set or are considering net-zero emissions or neutrality targets.
• Hence, option A is correct.

About International Financial Services Centres Authority:

• It was established in April 2020 under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• It is headquartered at GIFT City, Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• The Authority is mandated to regulate all such financial services, financial products and Financial Institutions in an IFSC.
• It may also recommend to the Central Government other financial products, financial services and financial institutions which may be permitted in the IFSCs.

China’s legislature has adopted a new border law, to take effect on January 1, 2022 that calls on the state and military to safeguard territory and “combat any acts” that undermine China’s territorial claims.

• The law was first proposed in March 2021, a year into tensions that erupted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India after the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) mobilised two divisions in forward areas and carried out multiple transgressions.
• China has unresolved border disputes with India and Bhutan. The new law would formalise some of China’s recent actions in disputed territories with both India and Bhutan, including the PLA’s massing of troops in forward areas along the India border, multiple transgressions across the LAC, and the construction of new “frontier villages” along the border with Bhutan.
• Article 22 of the law says the PLA “shall carry out border duties” including “organising drills” and “resolutely prevent, stop and combat invasion, encroachment, provocation and other acts”.
• The passing of the law coincides with stepped up Chinese activity along the land borders, which have mirrored actions in disputed waters in the East and South China Sea. The law will give a stamp of approval for the military’s recent actions in disputed areas.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Every year, October 24 is marked as World Polio Day in celebration of the birth of Jonas Salk, the American researcher who developed the first polio vaccine in 1955.

• Poliovirus was first isolated in 1909 by Karl Landsteiner and Erwin Popper and the first human coronavirus was isolated in 1933 by Leland David Bushnell and Carl Alfred Brandley.
• The poliovirus is the simplest known human virus. It is very small at only 30 nanometers. In comparison, SARS-CoV-2 is a slightly larger virus at about 100 nanometers.
• Poliovirus is highly contagious and can easily spread from person to person – the R-naught value, that is, the number of people one infected individual can infect for polio is 5-7. For Covid-19, the R-naught value is 1.4 to 3.9.
• Poliovirus causes a disabling and life-threatening disease called poliomyelitis. The virus spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis.
• Children under the age of five are highest at risk of developing serious poliovirus-related complications, which affects their quality of life.
• Because polio is highly contagious, no one is safe until everyone is vaccinated.
• The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GEPI) was introduced in 1988. As of March 27, 2014, India has been declared polio-free.
• Today, the only places in the world where wild polio exists are Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.