Daily Current Affairs MCQ - September 17, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The USA administration announced a new trilateral security partnership for the Indo-Pacific between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. (AUKUS).

• The security grouping AUKUS will focus on advancing strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region
• A central feature of the partnership would involve a trilateral 18-month effort to help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines which are quieter, more capable (than their conventional counterparts) and can be deployed for longer periods, needing to surface less frequently.
• The partnership would also involve a new architecture of meetings and engagements between the three countries and also cooperation across emerging technologies (applied AI, quantum technologies and undersea capabilities).
• Australia has felt increasing pressure from an assertive China, like other countries in the region, and has sought to strengthen its partnerships with India, the U.S. and the U.K., including through ‘plurilateral’ forums.
• However, as in the case of the Quad, the U.S. officials denied the partnership was a response to China.
• Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

According to a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, there was a 28% increase in the registration of cases in 2020 in the country compared to 2019, primarily owing to the violation of COVID-19 norms.

• An almost 21-fold jump was recorded in cases of disobedience to the order duly promulgated by public servant, and over four times in cases involving violations of other State local laws,
• Crimes against Scheduled Castes, with a total of 50,291 cases, showed an increase of 9.4%. Simple hurt with 32.9% (16,543) formed the largest chunk, followed by cases under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with 8.5% (4,273) and cases under criminal intimidation with 7.5% (3,788).
• A total of 66,01,285 cognisable crimes, comprising more than 42.54 lakh Indian Penal Code (IPC) offences and over 23.46 lakh Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes, were registered in 2020, the report noted.
• Crime rate registered per lakh population has increased from 385.5 in 2019 to 487.8 in 2020.
• As the country remained under complete lockdown from March 25 to May 31 last year during the first wave of COVID-19, cases of crime against women, children and senior citizens, theft, burglary, robbery and dacoity declined.
• Cases of murder showed a marginal increase of 1% to 29,193.

Quality Council of India (QCI) launched the Prof. S.K. Joshi Laboratory Excellence Award.

• This is country’s first-of-its- kind Laboratory Excellence Award.
• This Award has been instituted to promote Laboratory Quality and performance improvement in the country.
• The award has been incepted to ensure the laboratory’s commitment to achieve excellence in providing high precision testing and calibration services in line with the prevalent national/international quality systems legislations, including Health, Safety & Environment.
• This award will be open to all currently operational Laboratories pertaining to Testing, Calibration & Medical including their Proficiency Testing Providers & Reference Material Producers located in India.

Prof. S.K. Joshi

• Late Prof. S.K. Joshi was a luminary in the field of Science and Academica.
• Prof. Joshi made a significant contribution in improving scientific research in India by serving as President-INSA, DG-CSIR, Director-NPL and Chairman-NABL.
• Prof. Joshi was felicitated with Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, CV Raman Medal of INSA and several other prestigious awards.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

NITI Aayog today launched a report titled ‘Reforms in Urban Planning Capacity in India’, on measures to ramp up urban planning capacity in India.

The report makes several recommendations that can unblock bottlenecks in the value chain of urban planning capacity in India. Some of them are:

• Every city must aspire to become a ‘Healthy City for All’ by 2030. The report recommends a Central Sector Scheme ‘500 Healthy Cities Programme’, for a period of 5 years, wherein priority cities and towns would be selected jointly by the states and local bodies.
• Formation of an apex committee at the state level is recommended to undertake a regular review of planning legislations (including town and country planning or urban and regional development acts or other relevant acts).
• It recommends a ‘Citizen Outreach Campaign’ for demystifying urban planning.
• The Central universities and technical institutions in all the other States/UTs are encouraged to offer postgraduate degree programmes (MTech Planning) to cater to the requirement of planners in the country in a phased manner.
• The report recommends the constitution of a ‘National Council of Town and Country Planners’ as a statutory body of the Government of India.
• Also, a ‘National Digital Platform of Town and Country Planners’ is suggested to be created within the National Urban Innovation Stack of MoHUA. This portal will enable self-registration of all planners and evolve as a marketplace for potential employers and urban planners.
• Hence both statements are correct.

University of California, Riverside scientists are studying whether they can turn edible plants like lettuce into mRNA vaccine factories.

• Messenger RNA or mRNA technology, used in Covid-19 vaccines, works by teaching our cells to recognize and protect us against infectious diseases. One of the challenges with this new technology is that it must be kept cold to maintain stability during transport and storage.
• If this new project is successful, plant-based mRNA vaccines — which can be eaten — could overcome this challenge with the ability to be stored at room temperature, the University said in a press release.
• The project, backed by a US $500,000 grant from the US National Science Foundation, has three goals:
  • showing that DNA containing the mRNA vaccines can be successfully delivered into the part of plant cells where it will replicate,
  • demonstrating the plants can produce enough mRNA to rival a traditional shot, and
  • finally, determining the right dosage.
• Hence both statements are correct.

• Recently, Mura-Drava-Danube (MDD) was declared as the world’s first ‘five-country biosphere reserve’ by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Hence, option B is correct.
• The biosphere reserve covers 700 kilometres of the Mura, Drava and Danube rivers and stretches across Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Serbia.
• The total area of the reserve is a million hectares - in the so-called ‘Amazon of Europe’, which is now the largest riverine protected area in Europe.
• The biosphere “represented an important contribution to the European Green Deal (climate action plan) and contributed to the implementation of the EU Biodiversity Strategy in the Mura-Drava-Danube region.”
• The strategy’s aim is to revitalise 25,000 km of rivers and protect 30% of the European Union’s land area by 2030.

• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) is headquartered in New Delhi, was set-up in 1986 under the Ministry of Home Affairs to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators.
  • NCRB was set up based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981) and the MHA’s Task Force (1985). Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
• NCRB brings out the annual comprehensive statistics of crime across the country (‘Crime in India’ report). Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • Having been published since 1953, the report serves as a crucial tool in understanding the law and order situation across the country.

• Recently, the Union Cabinet has approved a number of structural and process reforms in the Telecom sector. Some of the reforms are as follows:
• Spectrum Related Reforms:
  • Spectrum auctions will be normally held in the last quarter of every financial year (fixed calendar).
  • The future spectrum auctions will be done for a period of 30 years instead of the current 20 years. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Rationalization of AGR:
  • AGR was previously interpreted as being based on all revenue, rather than just that associated with a company’s core telecom business.
  • The government has accepted that this interpretation was problematic.
  • Now, Telecom companies have to pay a pre-fixed percentage of AGR (excluding non-telecom revenues) to the government as statutory levies but this will apply prospectively. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• FDI Reforms:
  • Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the sector has also been allowed up to 100% under the automatic route, from the existing limit of 49%.
  • Hence, statement 1 is correct.

India observes the 27th Global Ozone Day.

• World Ozone Day is celebrated on 16th September each year to commemorate the signing of the Montreal Protocol, an international environmental treaty for phasing out of production and consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances, that came into force on this day in 1987.
• The Day is celebrated every year to spread awareness among people about the depletion of Ozone Layer and the measures taken/ to be taken to preserve it.
• The Ozone Cell, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India has been celebrating the World Ozone Day since 1995 at the National and State levels.
• The theme World Ozone Day 2021 is “Montreal Protocol - Keeping us, our food and vaccines cool”.

India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP)

• The Ministry for Environment released the Action Plan for implementing recommendations of the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) for the thematic Area Space Cooling in Buildings.
• The Action Plan has been developed after mapping of the recommendations given in the ICAP and after detailed discussions with various stakeholders including line departments and Ministries.
• The India cooling action plan (ICAP), the first of its kind in the world to be developed by the MoEF&CC, addresses cooling requirement across sectors and lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand through synergies in actions for securing both environmental and socio-economic benefits.
• The ICAP aims to reduce both direct and indirect emissions.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Ministry of Defence has constituted a High Level Expert Committee, under the chairmanship of former Member of Parliament Shri Baijayant Panda, for a comprehensive review of National Cadet Corps (NCC) in order to make it more relevant in changed times.

• The Terms of Reference of the Committee, inter-alia, broadly provide for
  • suggesting measures which can empower NCC cadets to contribute more effectively towards nation building and national developmental efforts in various sectors;
  • propose measures for gainful engagement of its Alumni for betterment of the organisation as a whole and to study/recommend best practices of similar international youth organisations for inclusion in the NCC curriculum.
• The NCC is the largest uniformed organisation which aims at developing character, discipline, a secular outlook and ideals of selfless service amongst young citizens. It also aims to create a pool of organised, trained and motivated youth with leadership qualities in all walks of life.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.