Test: July 2022 Weekly Current Affair - 3 - UPSC MCQ

• CAATSA is a law that came into effect in the US in 2017, meant to punish countries having deep engagements with Russia, North Korea, and Iran using economic sanctions. It said countries having a “significant transaction” with Russian intelligence and military agents will be subject to at least five kinds of sanctions.
• Ordinary transactions will not invite sanctions, and the decision of who has sanctions imposed on them comes down to the interpretation of “significant transaction”. This is one of the various waivers or exemptions mentioned, such as the transaction not affecting US strategic interests, not endangering the alliances it is a part of, etc.
• India has purchased the S-400 Triumf missile systems, which have advanced capabilities to judge the distance from a target and launch a surface-to-air missile attack.
• However, the application of CAATSA is not limited to the S-400, and may include other joint ventures for manufacturing or developing weapons in the future, or any other kinds of major deals with Russia.
• In 2020, Turkey was sanctioned for its purchase of the S-400 system.

• Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is the parent ministry of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• July has seen the monsoon revive over many parts of the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Moisture laden easterly winds have been travelling from lower levels, reaching up to western Himalayas. These winds have been colliding with the westerly winds flowing across the upper levels. Convergence of the winds flowing from opposite directions led to formation of cumulonimbus clouds over the Kashmir region.
• In the hills, clouds don’t easily dissipate and can get trapped over a certain area, bringing torrential showers and even a cloud burst. Monsoons in previous years too have seen similar short torrents that have caused immense damage.

The nuclear agriculture programme of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) covers development of high yielding crop seeds using nuclear techniques, fertilizer and pesticide related studies, radiation processing of food items and other areas.

The Telangana government had decided in October 2021 to move landless, non-tribal farmers engaged in shifting cultivation inside forests to peripheral areas in an effort to combat deforestation.  Several political leaders have expressed concern over shifting agriculture — in which a portion of land is cleared to raise crops in a particular season before the cultivators move to another location the next season, and to a third area after that, thus progressively degrading large areas of the forest.

NITI Aayog has launched a Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) for providing an ecosystem for budding & existing women entrepreneurs across the country. SIDBI has partnered with NITI Aayog to assist in this initiative.
As an enabling platform, WEP is built on three pillars- Iccha Shakti, Gyaan Shakti & Karma Shakti

• Iccha Shakti represents motivating aspiring entrepreneurs to start their business
• Gyaan Shaktirepresents providing knowledge and ecosystem support to women entrepreneurs to help them foster entrepreneurship
• Karma Shaktirepresents providing hands-on support to entrepreneurs in setting-up and scaling up businesses

In addition to providing services such as free credit ratings, mentorship, funding support to women entrepreneurs, apprenticeship and corporate partnerships; WEP will encourage entrepreneurs to share their entrepreneurial journeys, stories & experiences to nurture mutual learning.

• States of Nebraska, Minnesota and Illinois in the US were hit by a storm system called a derecho.
• A derecho, is “a widespread, long-lived, straight-line windstorm” that is associated with a “band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms”. 
• Being a warm-weather phenomenon, a derecho generally – not always – occurs during summertime beginning May, with most hitting in June and July. However, they are a rare occurrence as compared to other storm systems like tornadoes or hurricanes.
• For a storm to be classified as a derecho it must have wind gusts of at least 93 km per hour; wind damage swath extending more than 400 km.
  

• Why did the sky turn green during the derecho that hit US recently?
  Severe thunderstorms result in a ‘green sky’ due to light interacting with the huge amount of water they hold. It is believed that the big raindrops and hail scatter away all but the blue wavelengths due to which primarily blue light penetrates below the storm cloud. This blue then combines with the red-yellow of the afternoon or the evening sun to produce green.

• Where do derechos usually occur?
  They mostly occur across central and eastern parts of the United States.
  Derechos have also been documented elsewhere across the world. In 2010, Russia witnessed its first documented derecho. They have also swept through Germany and Finland, and more recently in Bulgaria and Poland.

• The Constitution has not assigned any role to the Governor in the election of the Speaker under Article 178, which is exclusively the job of the House. It is only the House rule which says that the Governor shall fix the date.
• It is the Speaker who decides the date for the election of the Deputy Speaker. 

The Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (which embodies the anti-defection law) is designed to prevent the evil or mischief of political defections motivated by the lure of office or material benefits or other similar considerations. Since the anti-defection provisions clearly mention the existence of political parties (and members being disqualified on leaving its membership), the Tenth schedule recognizes the system of political parties.

• Randomized controlled trials (RCT) are prospective studies that measure the effectiveness of a new intervention or treatment. It provides a rigorous tool to examine cause-effect relationships between an intervention and outcome.
• Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical techniques, medical devices, diagnostic procedures or other medical treatments.
• RCTs involve dividing a population into smaller groups, in order to comparatively see the outcomes of an external stimulus. For example, if the aim of a study is to understand whether a free grains distribution scheme helped improve the nutrition levels among people living in a district, researchers will first create two groups within the population, and then put people into those groups randomly.
• RCTs also cannot be used to study something after it has happened, they need to be planned beforehand. And, while RCTs show results for a particular population in an area, it may not be proof that the same results will be achieved elsewhere, especially if the sample size is not big or the trial deals with a very specific kind of population sub-group.

Article 66(3) says “No person shall be eligible for election as Vice-President unless he — (a) is a citizen of India; (b) has completed the age of thirty-five years; and (c) is qualified for election as a member of the Council of States”.

• Judicial review is considered a basic structure of the constitution.
• The term ‘untouchability’ has not been defined either in the Constitution or in the Act.
• Article 13 declares that all laws that are inconsistent with or in derogation of any of the fundamental rights shall be void. In other words, it expressively provides for the doctrine of judicial review. This power has been conferred on the Supreme Court (Article 32) and the high courts (Article 226) that can declare a law unconstitutional and invalid on the ground of contravention of any of the Fundamental Rights.

What is UNGA?

• Popularly known as the parliament of the world, where all the 193 UN member states are represented, the UNGA is the deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN.
   

Roles and functions:

• Takes a decision on important matters such as peace and security, discusses various global issues and budgetary matters.
• Decides on matters such as the admission of new members.
• Decisions are taken through a vote. Admission of new members and budgetary matters require a two-thirds majority, while the decision on other issues are taken by a simple majority.
• Each sovereign state gets one vote and the votes are not binding on the membership, except in budgetary matters.
• The Assembly has no binding votes or veto powers like the UN Security Council. 
• The UNGA can express world opinion, promote international cooperation in various fields and make recommendations to the UNSC and elect the Security Council’s non-permanent members.
   

Each of the 193 Member States in the Assembly has one vote. Votes taken on designated important issues – such as recommendations on peace and security, the election of Security Council and Economic and Social Council members, and budgetary questions – require a two-thirds majority of Member States, but other questions are decided by a simple majority.
In recent years, an effort has been made to achieve consensus on issues, rather than deciding by a formal vote, thus strengthening support for the Assembly’s decisions. The President, after having consulted and reached agreement with delegations, can propose that a resolution be adopted without a vote.

• Recognised as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, the Western Ghats region runs to a length of 1,600 km starting from the mouth of the river Tapti near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra to Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India in Tamil Nadu. It stretches over the six States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat. The Ghats are second only to the Eastern Himalaya as a treasure trove of biological diversity in the country.
• The WGEEP report, popular as Gadgil report, had designated the entire hill range as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA). It had classified the 142 taluks in the Western Ghats boundary into three Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZs).

• Reserve assets are currencies or other assets, such as gold, that can be readily transferable and are used to balance international transactions and payments.
• A reserve asset must be readily available, physical, controlled by policymakers, and easily transferable.
• The U.S. dollar is a reserve currency, meaning it is widely held as a reserve asset around the world.
• Reserve assets accounted for 68.5% of India’s international financial assets in September 2021. 

• Under Article 66(4), “A person shall not be eligible for election as Vice-President if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Governments.”
• The Vice-President may leave office before the end of his term by resigning to the President, or he “may be removed…by a resolution of the Council of States passed by a majority of all the then members of the Council and agreed to by the House of the People”.
• Article 71 of the Constitution deals with “Matters relating to, or connected with, the election of a President or Vice-President”. It says that “all doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with the election of a President or Vice-President shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court whose decision shall be final”.
• Should the Supreme Court declare the election of the President or Vice-President void however, “acts done by him in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties of the office of President or Vice-President,…on or before the date of the decision of the Supreme Court shall not be invalidated by reason of that declaration”.
• Also, “Parliament may by law regulate any matter relating to or connected with the election of a President or Vice-President”.

• Li-Fi, or light fidelity, invented by German physicist and professor Harald Haas, is a wireless technology that makes use of visible light in place of radio waves to transmit data at terabits per second speeds—more than 100 times the speed of Wi-Fi.
• Li-Fi offers great promise to overcome the existing limitations of Wi-Fi by providing for data-heavy communication in short ranges.
• Li-Fi can also easily work underwater, where Wi-Fi fails completely, thereby throwing open endless opportunities for military and navigational operations.

• The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) is an international arbitration institution established in 1966 for legal dispute resolution and conciliation between international investors and States. ICSID is part of and funded by the World Bank.
• India has never been an ICSID member.

Build Back Better World (B3W) is an initiative undertaken by G7 countries. Launched in June 2021, the initiative is designed to counter China’s strategic influence of the BRI Project (Belt and Road Initiative) by providing an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative for the infrastructure development of the low- and middle-income countries.

• The legislation cannot be implemented without the rules being notified.
• As per the Manual on Parliamentary Work, in case the Ministries/Departments are not able to frame the rules within the prescribed period of six months after a legislation is passed, “they should seek extension of time from the Committee on Subordinate Legislation stating reasons for such extension” which cannot be more than for three months at a time.

• India has opened up the highly regulated sector of producing and processing opium to private players.
• India has been growing poppy at least since the 15th century, as per historical records. The British East India Company assumed monopoly on the cultivation of poppy when the Mughal Empire was on the decline, and the entire trade was brought under government control by 1873.
• After India gained independence, the cultivation and trade of opium passed on to the Indian government, with the activity being controlled by The Opium Act, 1857, The Opium Act, 1878, and The Dangerous Drugs Act, 1930. At present, the cultivation and processing of poppy and opium is controlled by the provisions of The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Rules.
• Due to the potential for illicit trade and risk of addiction, the cultivation of opium poppy is strictly regulated in the country, with the crops being allowed to be sown only in tracts of land notified by the central government in 22 districts in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan.
• Opium is a natural substance obtained from poppy seeds and its derivatives are mainly used for pain management. “The extracts from opium poppy such as morphine are potent painkillers and are mainly prescribed to cancer patients”. The opium product codeine is helpful in cough suppression.

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake in the world (by volume) and the world’s deepest lake. Somewhat crescent shaped, it is in the southern Siberia area of Russia.

• Inflation redistributes wealth from creditors to debtors, i.e., lenders suffer and borrowers benefit out of inflation. The opposite effect takes place when inflation falls (i.e., deflation).
• Holding money does not remain an intelligent economic decision (because money loses value with every increase in inflation).
• With every inflation the currency of the economy depreciates (loses its exchange value in front of a foreign currency) provided it follows the flexible currency regime.

• Depsang is an enclave of flat terrain located in an area the Army classifies as Sub-Sector North (SSN), which provides land access to Central Asia through the Karakoram Pass.
• The Depsang Plains represent a high-altitude gravelly plain at the northwest portion of the disputed Aksai Chin region of Kashmir.
• India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, whereas the eastern portion is controlled by China and claimed by India.