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

MyGov India, under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has launched the Planetarium Innovation Challenge for Indian start-ups and tech entrepreneurs.

• The challenge invites applications from start-ups and tech entrepreneurs to develop state-of-the-art technology for our Planetariums.
• The challenge aims to bring together the tech firms and Start-ups (based out of India) with the potential to build an indigenous planetariums system software using latest technologies including Augmented Reality (A.R.), Virtual Reality (V.R.) and Merged Reality (M.R.).
• The Innovation Challenge is open to experts from all domains of Planetarium Technology.
• The applicants may include Start-ups, Indian Legal Entities; even Individuals (or Teams) are welcome to submit ideas.
• The first winner, second winner and third winner under the contest will get the cash prizes of Rs.5 lakh, Rs.3 lakh and Rs.2 lakh respectively.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Union Education Minister and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan virtually presented Kaushalacharya Awards 2021 to 41 skill trainers for their exemplary contribution to the skill ecosystem.

• These 41 trainers are from several initiatives and training programmes of Skill India— Directorate General of Training (DGT), Apprenticeship, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) and Entrepreneurship.
• Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), pillars of India’s vocational training ecosystem, had as many as 11 trainers who were felicitated.

Kaushalacharya Awards is an initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The Kaushalacharya Awards is an annual celebration that focuses on honoring the skill trainers and the impact created by them on India’s youth.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Two wildfires in California – one called the Colony fire and the other called Paradise – are burning through the Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada that is home to some of the largest trees in the world.

• Among these trees is the world’s largest tree popularly known as General Sherman, which firefighters are now trying to protect from the blaze.
• The General Sherman tree is the world’s largest in terms of volume and exists in the Giant Forest sequoia grove of the national park. As per recent estimates, General Sherman is about 2,200 years old.
• It stands at a height of 275 feet (taller than the leaning tower of Pisa) and has a diameter of 36 feet at the base. Even 60 feet above the base, the tree has a diameter of 17.5 feet.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture Project (MeghEA) launched by IT Minister Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw and CM Meghalaya Shri Conrad Sangma.

• The MeghEA initiative is spread across 6 pillars i.e. Governance, Human Resources, Entrepreneurship, Primary Sector, Infrastructure and Environment, and envision to make Meghalaya a high income state by 2030.
• The project aims to improve service delivery and governance for the people using power of Digital technologies.
• With the notification of India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA) in 2018, design and implementation of integrated, nationally portable and scalable digital platforms have gained a new momentum.
• During the launch of the North East vision document in Aug 2018, Meghalaya was selected as the pilot first pilot State for preparation of Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA) and design and implementation of MeghEA integrated Finance Solution Architecture.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Prime Minister Modi participated virtually in the 21st Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and through video-message in the Joint SCO-CSTO Outreach Session on Afghanistan.

• The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State was held on 17 September 2021 in Dushanbe in hybrid format.
• The meeting was chaired by H.E. Emomali Rahmon, the President of Tajikistan.

Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO)

• The SCO Summit was followed by an Outreach session on Afghanistan between SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). Prime Minister participated in the outreach session through a video-message.
• The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is an intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia that consists of selected post-Soviet states.
• It was formed in 1992 and has 6 members: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
• Hence only statement 1 is correct.

• Shankhalipi Script, also called “shell-script” , is found in inscriptions across north-central India and dates to between the 4^th and 8^th centuries.
  • Both Shankhalipi and Brahmi are stylised scripts used primarily for names and signatures.
  • The inscriptions consist of a small number of characters, suggesting that the shell inscriptions are names or auspicious symbols or a combination of the two.
• It was discovered in 1836 on a brass trident in Uttarakhand’s Barahat by English scholar James Prinsep. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Prominent sites with shell inscriptions: Mundeshwari Temple (Bihar), the Udayagiri Caves (Madhya Pradesh), Mansar (Maharashtra) and some of the cave sites of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
  • These inscriptions are also reported in Indonesia’s Java and Borneo. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• Subsidies under Agreement of Agriculture of WTO are categorized into:
  • Green Box:
    • Subsidies that do not distort trade, or at most cause minimal distortion.
    • They are government-funded and must not involve price support.
    • They also include environmental protection and regional development programmes.
    • “Green box” subsidies are therefore allowed without limits, provided they comply with the policy-specific criteria.
  • Amber Box:
    • All domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade (with some exceptions) fall into the amber box as all domestic supports except those in the blue and green boxes.
    • These include measures to support prices, or subsidies directly related to production quantities.
  • Blue Box:
    • This is the “amber box with conditions”. Such conditions are designed to reduce distortion.
    • Any support that would normally be in the amber box is placed in the blue box if the support also requires farmers to limit production.
    • At present, there are no limits on spending on blue box subsidies.
  • Development Box:
    • The agriculture Agreement allows developing countries additional flexibility in providing domestic support.
    • The type of support that fits into the developmental category are measures of assistance, whether direct or indirect, designed to encourage agricultural and rural development and that are an integral part of the development programmes of developing countries.
  • Hence, option D is correct.

• Toxic 3 Os: Oxybenzone (OBZ), Octocrylene (OCR) and octinoxate (OMC) known as the 3 Os are UltraViolet (UV) filters commonly added to chemical sunscreens..
  • These are active ingredients present in more than two-thirds of all sunscreens and they pose a threat to public health, marine life and coral reefs.
• Octocrylene in sun protection products degrades into benzophenone.
  • Benzophenone is a carcinogen that can also interfere with key hormones and reproductive organs.
  • They cause human cell damage that has been linked to cancer, disrupt hormones, have been found in breast milk, blood and urine and are known allergens. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Oxybenzone is particularly toxic to corals at concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion.
  • They wash off people’s bodies when they swim and contaminate through waste water runoff and cause ‘zombie’ coral which looks healthy but is unable to reproduce, coral bleaching as well as other issues. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Hence, option C is correct.

15th Edition of Indo - Nepal Joint Military Training, Exercise Surya Kiran between Indian Army and Nepali Army is commencing from 20 September 2021 at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand.

• This joint military training will go a long way in improving bilateral relations and also will be a major step towards further strengthening the traditional friendship between the two nations.
• Last edition of Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The 3^rd edition of e-auction of prestigious and memorable gifts presented to Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is being held from 17th September to 7th October 2021 through the web portal https://pmmementos.gov.in.

• The mementos include sports gear and equipment gifted to the Prime Minister by winners of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
• Other interesting interesting artefacts includereplica of the Ayodhya Ram Mandir, Chardham, Rudraksh Convention Centre, models, sculptures, paintings, angavastras among others.
• Proceeds from the e-Auction shall go to the NamamiGange Mission aimed at conserving and rejuvenating Ganga.
• Narendra Modi is the first ever Prime Minister of India, who has decided to auction all the gifts he receives for a noble cause of conserving the lifeline of the country- the river Ganges through “NamamiGange”.
• ‘Namami Gange Programme’, is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 with budget outlay of Rs.20,000 Crore to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.
• Hence both statements are correct.