Test: Monthly Current Affairs October- 1 - UPSC MCQ

In News- Recently, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully test-fired the BrahMos missile.
Statement 1 is correct: BrahMos missile is a supersonic cruise missile which is joint ly developed by the DRDO and NPOM, a leading aerospace enterprise of Russia. Brahmos is named after the rivers Brahmaputra of India and Moskva of Russia Statement 2 is correct: BrahMos is a two-stage missile wit h a solid propellant booster engine as its first stage which brings it to supersonic speed and then gets separated. The liquid ramjet or the second stage then takes the missile closer to 3 Mach speed in cruise phase.
Statement 3 is correct: It can be launched from submarines, warships, fighter jets or land.

In News- The deviations from the normal surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean can have a large-scale impact on the global weather conditions, and the monsoon climate of the Indian subcontinent also gets affected with these temperature fluctuations.
Statement 1 is not correct: ENSO is a single climate phenomenon; it has three states or phases. The two opposite phases are El Niño and La Niña. El Niño is the warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures (SST), in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. And, La Nina is basically the opposite of an El Niño: Ocean temperatures along the eastern half of the tropical Pacific cool down and that part of the world dries out
Statement 2 is not correct: During an El Niño event, the surface o f the tropical Pacific Ocean gets warmer than usual, particularly at the equator and along the coasts of South and Central America. Warm oceans lead to low-pressure systems in the atmosphere above, which in turn leads to a lot of rain for the western coasts of South America

In News- International Energy Security Conference 2020 was recently organised by Global Counter-Terrorism Council (GCTC)
Statement 1 is not correct: GCTF’s is internat ional apolit ical, mult ilateral counter-terrorism (CT) platform of 29 countries and European Union (EU) with an overarching mission of reducing the vulnerability of people worldwide to terrorism by preventing, combating, and prosecuting terrorist acts and countering incitement and recruitment to terrorism. It was launched officially in New York on 22 September 2011.
Statement 2 is not correct: It was launched in 2011. India is a founding member of GCTF. It’s mission is to reduce the vulnerability of people worldwide to terrorism by preventing, combating, and prosecuting terrorist acts and countering incitement and recruitment to terrorism.

In News- Union Minister for Tribal Affairs virtually launched India’s largest handicraft and organic products marketplace, Tribes India E-Marketplace (market.tribesindia.com) on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti
Option C is correct: TRIFED under Ministry of Tribal Affairs showcased the produce and handicrafts of tribal enterprises from across the country and help them market their produce/ products directly under the Tribes India E-Marketplace initiative. The E-Marketplace will help us in onboarding large number of Tribals and Artisans and give them the immediate benefits of online trade. It will also facilitate B2B trade connecting tribals dependent on Minor Forest Produces and Medicinal plants to large buyers /manufacturers.

In News- Two new species of wetland plant discovered from the Western Ghats.
Option D is correct: Scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) have discovered two new species of pipeworts, a type of wetland plant, from areas along the Western Ghats in Maharashtra and Karnataka

Statement 1 is correct: Recently, the Union Home Minister distributed 100 electric potter wheels to 100 trained artisans under Kumhar Sashaktikaran Yojana of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). It is an initiative of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC) for the empowerment of the potters’ community in the remotest of locations in the country.
Statement 2 is correct: It is an init iative of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC) Statement 3 is not correct: The KVIC is a statutory body formed in April 1957 under the ‘Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956’. It is an apex organisation under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, with regard to khadi and village industries within India. It seeks to plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist in the establishment and development of khadi and village industries in the rural areas.

Statement 3 is correct : The KVIC is an executive body formed under Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

In News- The chairman of a Supreme Court-appointed expert committee has alleged violat ions of the court orders in the execut ion of the Chardham road project — a 900 km, ₹12,000 crore enterprise to connect pilgrimage spots in Uttarakhand.
Option C is correct: The Supreme Court had ruled that the width of roads constructed under the Chardham project shall be 5.5 metres. This was ruled based on the recommendation of Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (MoRTH) for mountain roads. The project aims to provide connectivity to the four Hindu pilgrimages such as Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri that are collectively known as Chardham.

Both the statements are correct: The ketogenic diet is one of the most popular weight -loss diets the world over. It is a high-fat, moderate-protein and low-carb diet that helps in weight loss by achieving ketosis — a metabolic state where the liver burns body fat and provides fuel for the body, as there is limited access to glucose. Many versions of ketogenic diets exist, but all ban carb-rich foods. In the beginning, it may seem easier to follow a keto diet as there’s no need to count calories and the rules are very simple, but eventually adherence becomes very difficult. One can have eggs, chicken and turkey in poultry, fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, full-fat dairy, nuts and seeds like Macadamia nuts, almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, peanuts and flaxseeds

Option B is correct: Recently, the 28 Year Old ‘Kihoto Hollohan judgment’ has found its relevance in the case of ousted Rajasthan Dy. CM and some MLAs who were issued a notice under the anti-defection law. The law covering the disqualification of legislators and the powers of the Speaker in deciding such matters became part of the statute book in 1985 when the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution was adopted. The SC under the Judgement said ‘Judicial review cannot be available at a stage prior to the making of a decision by the Speaker/Chairman’ and nor would interference be permissible at an interlocutory stage of the proceedings.

Statement 1 is correct: NATGRID is an ambitious counterterrorism programme. It collects and collates a host of information from government databases including - Tax and Bank account details, Credit card transactions, Visa and Immigration records, Itineraries of Rail and Air travel. The combined data from NATGRID will be made available to 10 Central Intelligence Agencies
Statement 2 is not correct: It was first proposed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008. NATGRID has developed application software for proof of technology (POT) which is yet to be fully rolled out. NATGRID's solution is planned to go live by 31.12.2020.
Statement 3 is correct: NATGRID is exempted from the Right to Information Act, 2005 under sub-section (2) of Section 24.

In News- Recently, Emmanuelle Charpentier of France and Jennifer Doudna of the U.S. won the Nobel Chemistry Prize for the gene-editing technique known as the CRISPR-Cas9 DNA snipping "scissors".
Option A is correct: The CRISPR stands for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and was developed in the year 2012. It has revolutionised and has made gene editing very easy and has imparted extreme efficiency in gene editing. An RNA molecule is programmed to locate the particular problematic sequence on the DNA strand. A special protein called Cas9, often described in popular literature as ‘genetic scissor’, is used to break and remove the problematic sequence. The CRISPR-Cas9 tool has already contributed to significant gains in crop resilience, altering their genetic code to better withstand drought and pests. The technology has also led to innovative cancer treatments and many experts hope that it may help in curing the inherited diseases. Genes of plants can be edited to make them withstand pests, or improve their tolerance to drought or temperature.

In News- The World Bank’s biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report: Reversals of Fortune was released on October 7, 2020.
Option C is correct: According to the report, the first time in two decades, the global poverty rate would go up due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic may push another 88 million to 115 million into extreme poverty or having to live on less than $1.50 per day, resulting in a total of 150 million such individuals. Some 9.1% to 9.4% of the world will be affected by extreme poverty in 2020. But, the World Bank couldn’t gauge the real poverty situation in the world because India did not have the latest data. India, along with Nigeria, is considered to have the largest number of the poor in the world. India tops the global list in terms of the absolute number of poor, going by the last national survey of 2012-13. The country accounted for 139 million of the total 689 million people living in poverty in 2017.

In News- The Union Cabinet approved the ratification of seven chemicals listed under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).
Option D is correct: The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was adopted by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in 2001 in Stockholm, Sweden. The Convention entered into force in 2004. Over 152 countries ratified the Convention. It is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).POPs are listed in various annexes to the Stockholm Convention after thorough scientific research, deliberations and negotiations among member countries. Hexabromocyclododecane, and Hexachlorobutadiene, which was already listed as POPs under Stockholm Convention.

In News- Recent ly, the Mumbai Police said that they are looking into a scam about the manipulation of TRPs by rigging the devices used by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.
Statement 1 is correct: TRP stands for Television Rating Points. It represents how many people, from which socio-economic categories, watched which channels for how much time during a particular period. This could be for an hour, a day, or even a week; India follows the international standard of one minute. The data is usually made public every week.
Statement 2 is correct: TRP is calculated by BARC, BARC has installed “BAR-O-meters” in over 45,000 empanelled households. These households are classified into 12 categories under the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS), the so-called “new SEC” adopted by BARC in 2015, based on the education level of the main wage earner and the ownership of consumer durables from a list of 11 items ranging from an electricity connection to a car.
Statement 3 is not correct: It is an industry body joint ly owned by advert isers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies, represented by The Indian Society of Advertisers, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Advertising Agencies Association of India. It was created in 2010 but the I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India on January 10, 2014, and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out television ratings in India.

In News- Indian Agriculture Research Inst itute (IARI) reveals a five-fold increase in the number of farm fires in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh during the first six days of October compared to the corresponding dates in 2019 leading to air pollut ion due to stubble.
Statement 1 and 2 are correct: Farmers in Punjab and Haryana burn paddy stubble around this time before they prepare the soil for the rabi crop. Smoke from burning crop stubble contributes to air pollution over the national capital and large parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain every winter. ‘Pusa Decomposer’ is essentially a fungi-based liquid solution that can soften hard stubble to the extent that it can be easily mixed with soil in the field to act as compost. This would then rule out the need to burn the stubble, and also help in retaining the essential microbes and nutrients in the soil that are otherwise damaged when the residue is burned. There are seven strains of fungi that IARI has identified after research which help in rapid breakdown of hard stubble. These seven strains of fungi are packed into four capsules.

In News- Recently scientists have discovered a new family of bony fish from the Western Ghats in India.
Option B is correct: Recently scientists have discovered a new family of bony fish from the Western Ghats in India. This fish species has been named as Aenigmachannidae. This discovery became possible by the collaborated effort of Scientists from India, Germany, United Kingdom and Switzerland. Results of this study were published in Scientific Reports, the open-access megajournal of the Nature Publishing Group. It is important to note that the discovery of Aenigmachannidae came just a year after the discovery of the enigmatic fish, Gollum Snakehead. Interestingly both these species were discovered from the same rice fields of northern Kerala. Scientists have now conducted detailed studies on its skeleton and genetic assembly of Aenigmachannidae.

In News- India’s first indigenous anti-radiation missile named Rudram was successfully flighttested from a Sukhoi-30 MKI jet off the east coast.
Statement 1 is correct: It is India’s first indigenous anti-radiat ion missile that is designed to detect, track and neutralise the adversary’s radar, communication assets and other radio frequency sources, which are generally part of their air defence systems.
Statement 2 is not correct: Rudram is an air-to-surface missile, designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for neutralizing surveillance and guidance radars, communication towers, command and control centres, and other radiationemitting targets.

In News- The Supreme Court-appointed pollution monitoring body has directed Delhi and neighbouring States to implement air pollution control measures under “very poor” and “severe” category air quality of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) from October 15.
Statement 1 is not correct: Central Pollut ion Control Board is a statutory organisat ion which was constituted in September 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. It was entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. It serves as a field formation and also provides technical services to the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
Statement 2 is not correct: EPCA was constituted with the objective of ‘protecting and improving’ the quality of the environment and ‘controlling environmental pollution’ in the National Capital Region. The EPCA also assists the apex court in various environment-related matters in the region. EPCA is Supreme Court mandated body tasked with taking various measures to tackle air pollution in the National Capital Region. It was notified in 1998 by Environment Ministry under Environment Protection Act, 1986.

In News- The World Food Programme (WFP) has been praised by world leaders and humanitarian groups after it was awarded 2020's Nobel Peace Prize.
Option C is correct: The World Food Programme (WFP) was honoured for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict. The Rome-based organisation has been feeding people in some of the world's most dangerous places, with the coronavirus pandemic seen pushing millions more into hunger.

In News- International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is observed on 13th October every year.
Option A is correct: In a new report “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019”, the United Nations pointed out that climate change is largely to blame for a near doubling of natural disasters in the past 20 years. The report is published by the United Nat ions Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The report did not touch on biological hazards and disease-related disasters like the coronavirus pandemic. The UNDRR was established in 1999 as a dedicated secretariat to facilitate the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.