Test: November 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 4 - UPSC MCQ

The Pink Bollworm (PBW) is causing significant damage to cotton fields in northern Rajasthan, Haryana, and Southwestern Punjab, with the infestation being more widespread and serious than before.
Farmers have been using Bt cotton seeds, which have lost their effectiveness against the PBW.
The pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella) is an insect that is a pest in cotton farming. It is native to Asia but has become an invasive species in most cotton-growing countries around the world. It is considered possibly the most destructive pest on cotton worldwide.

Statement 3 is incorrect.
The Chandrayaan-3 rover, Pragyan, which has the Indian national emblem and the ISRO logo on its rear wheels, has been unable to leave a clear imprint of these symbols on the lunar soil.
This inability to imprint the symbols has provided new insights into the properties of lunar soil in the South Pole region.

Features of Lunar Soil:

• It is not dusty but rather lumpy, indicating that something is binding the soil together.
• Lunar Soil is a thick layer of regolith, fragmental and unconsolidated rock material, that covers the entire lunar surface.
• Lunar soil contains no organic matter.

This discovery could have significant implications for future missions targeting lunar habitation and sustained human presence, especially in the context of potential water discovery in the region.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The IPMDA was announced by the Quad grouping, comprising India, Australia, Japan and U.S., at the Tokyo summit in early 2022 to track “dark shipping” and build a “faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners’ waters”, integrating three critical regions in the Indo-Pacific — the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the IOR.
• This initiative [IPMDA] seeks to establish a comprehensive system for monitoring and securing maritime activities in the Indo-Pacific, ensuring the safety of critical sea lines of communication, and promoting cooperation among like-minded nations in the region.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) is a global and legally binding instrumentadopted by the UN General Assembly in 2000 and enforced in 2003.
• It is the first comprehensive treaty aimed at combatting transnational organized crime including human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and illicit firearms trafficking.
• Currently, there are 191 parties to the Convention, including India (who joined it in 2002 and ratified it in 2011). Central Bureau of Investigationacts as the national Nodal Authority from India. India also enacted the Criminal Law Amendment Act in 2013, which specifically defines human trafficking.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

Facilitation under Export Promotion of Capital Goods (EPCG) Scheme

• The EPCG Scheme, which allows import of capital goods at zero Customs duty for export production, is being further rationalized. Some key changes being added are:
• Prime Minister Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Parks (PM MITRA) scheme has been added as an additional scheme eligible to claim benefits under CSP (Common Service Provider) Scheme of Export Promotion capital Goods Scheme (EPCG).
• Dairy sector to be exempted from maintaining Average Export Obligation – to support dairy sector to upgrade the technology.
• Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) of all types, Vertical Farming equipment, Wastewater Treatment and Recycling, Rainwater harvesting system and Rainwater Filters, and Green Hydrogen are added to Green Technology products – will now be eligible for reduced Export Obligation requirement under EPCG Scheme.

India and Bhutan agreed to discuss new routes of regional connectivity, and upgrade border and immigration posts to support Bhutan’s 5th King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck’s plans for a smart city at Gelephu on the border between Bhutan and Assam.

• Foreign Trade Policy (2023) is a policy document which is based on continuity of time-tested schemes facilitating exports as well as a document which is nimble and responsive to the requirements of trade. It is based on principles of ‘trust’ and ‘partnership’ with exporters.
• Foreign Trade Policy 2023 is dynamic and has been kept open ended to accommodate the emerging needs of the time.
• The FTP 2023 aims at process re-engineering and automation to facilitate ease of doing business for exporters. It also focuses on emerging areas like dual use high end technology items under SCOMET, facilitating e-commerce export, collaborating with States and Districts for export promotion.
• The new FTP is introducing a one-time Amnesty Scheme for exporters to close the old pending authorizations and start afresh. 

• Overheating of an economy occurs when its productive capacity is unable to keep pace with growing aggregate demand leading to inflation. 
• When there is excess demand and low supply, high consumption and low savings can lead to a situation where there is a shortage of investible capital. The economy is unable to supply demanded goods and prices start increases.
• This can be caused due to additional liquidity pumped in the system by the central bank or government. When people have more money in the short-term, they can demand more goods and services causing the economy to heat up in the short-term, until the demand is satisfied.

Only Statement 1 is correct.

Daylight saving time (DST) is the practice of setting the clocks forward one hour from the standard time during the summer and back again in the autumn. This is done to make better use of natural daylight. India does not follow daylight saving time as countries near the Equator do not experience high variations in daytime hours between seasons.

Statement 1 is incorrect.
Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is a statutory multi-disciplinary body established by the Government of India under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, to combat organized wildlife crime in the country. It was established under the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972.

Under Section 38 (Z) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972,

• it is mandated to collect and collate intelligence related to organized wildlife crime activities and to disseminate the same to State and other enforcement agencies for immediate action so as to apprehend the criminals;
• to establish a centralized wildlife crime data bank;
• co-ordinate actions by various agencies in connection with the enforcement of the provisions of the Act;
• assist foreign authorities and international organization concerned to facilitate co-ordination and universal action for wildlife crime control;
• capacity building of the wildlife crime enforcement agencies for scientific and professional investigation into wildlife crimes and assist State Governments to ensure success in prosecutions related to wildlife crimes; and
• advise the Government of India on issues relating to wildlife crimes having national and international ramifications, relevant policy and laws.
• It also assists and advises the Customs authorities in inspection of the consignments of flora & fauna as per the provisions of Wild Life Protection Act, CITES and EXIM Policy governing such an item.

Generative AI (GenAI) is a type of Artificial Intelligence that can create a wide variety of data, such as images, videos, audio, text, and 3D models. It does this by learning patterns from existing data, then using this knowledge to generate new and unique outputs. GenAI is capable of producing highly realistic and complex content that mimics human creativity, making it a valuable tool for many industries such as gaming, entertainment, and product design.

The most famous generative AI application is ChatGPT, a chatbot that Microsoft-backed OpenAI released late last year.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• The government has the power to control the prices of certain medicines, those needed in public interest, through the Drug Prices Control Order. The National List of Essential Medicines forms the primary basis for considering a drug as essential and controlling its prices. Additionally, the prices of drugs other than those included in the NLEM may also be controlled through the DPCO.
• Once a drug is included in the NLEM, its prices are controlled by the central government and cannot be changed by companies themselves.
• The NLEM-2022 has also included at least four drugs that are still under patent.

• Indexation means adjusting the cost of funds after taking into account inflation in the redemption cost. It helps to calculate the new value of investment after considering inflation over the same period.
• The benefit of indexation for calculation of LTCG on debt mutual funds is not available for investments made on or after April 1, 2023 — in those debt mutual fund schemes where less than 35% of the total proceeds is invested in equity shares of domestic companies.
• These investments will now be taxed at income tax rates applicable to your income slab. This will bring investments in debt mutual funds at par with investments in bank fixed deposits.

Gas giants are large planets composed mostly of gases, such as hydrogen and helium, with a relatively small rocky core. The gas giants of our solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — together make up a group known as the Jovian planets.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• A Dark Sky Reserve is public or private land with a distinguished nocturnal environment and starry nights that has been developed responsibly to prevent light pollution.
• Individuals or groups can nominate a site for certification to the International Dark Sky Association (IDSA). There are five designated categories, namely International Dark Sky parks, communities, reserves, sanctuaries and Urban Night Sky Places.
• The certification process is similar to that of a site being awarded the UNESCO World Heritage Site tag or getting recognised as a Biosphere Reserve. Between 2001 and January 2022, there have been 195 sites recognised as International Dark Sky Places globally, the IDSA said.

Bioremediation:
Bioremediation is a biotechnical process, which abates or cleans up contamination. It is a type of waste management technique which involves the use of organisms to remove or utilize the pollutants from a polluted area.

Advantages of Bioremediation:

• Notionally, bioremediation is useful for the absolute destruction of a wide variety of contaminants. A lot of compounds that are legally considered to be hazardous can be changed to harmless products. This eradicates the chance of future liability related with treatment and disposal of contaminated material.
• Bioremediation can over and over again be carried out on site, often without causing a major disturbance of normal activities. This also gets rid of the need to transport quantities of waste and the possible threats to human health and the environment that can take place during transportation.
• Bioremediation is also relatively less expensive than other technologies that are used for disposal of hazardous waste.

Genetic engineering can be used to create microorganisms specifically designed for bioremediation. Genetically engineered microorganisms (GEMs) have shown potential for bioremediation of soil, groundwater and activated sludge, exhibiting the enhanced degrading capabilities of a wide range of chemical contaminants.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• Rabies is a zoonotic disease (a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans), caused by the rabies virus, of the Lyssavirus genus, within the family Rhabdoviridae. Domestic dogs are the most common reservoir of the virus, with more than 99% of human deaths caused by dog-mediated rabies.
• Rabies is a 100% vaccine-preventable disease. Countries embarking on rabies elimination programmes have successfully experienced marked reductions, often progressing to the elimination of rabies. Elimination programs often revolve around mass dog vaccination campaigns, where at least 70% of the dog population should be covered in order to break the cycle of transmission in dogs, and to humans.
• With the exception of Antarctica, rabies is endemic on all continents. Of the tens of thousands of deaths occurring annually due to rabies, 95% of cases are reported in Asia and Africa.

The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. Electrons rapid movement made them challenging to study directly. Scientists had to rely on averaging their properties.

Electrons move so quickly that capturing them requires extremely short pulses of light such as attosecond.

Electron dynamics occur on the attosecond timescale, which is a billionth of a billionth of a second (1×10⁻¹⁸ of a second), much faster than femtoseconds (a millionth of a billionth of a second) associated with atomic movements.

Quantum dots are tiny particles, just a few nanometers in size, with unique optical properties due to their small size. While their atomic structure is the same as bulk materials, quantum dots’ properties can be altered by adjusting their size.
At the nanoscale, these particles exhibit size-dependent characteristics influenced by quantum forces, which differ from macroscopic physics governed by gravity.

• The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) conducted a successful operation called “Kachchhap,”.
• This operation resulted in the recovery of the 955 live baby turtles, including species like the Indian Tent Turtle, Indian Flapshell Turtle, Crown River Turtle, Black Spotted/Pond Turtle, and Brown Roofed Turtle.
• This operation is part of the DRI’s ongoing efforts to protect the environment and combat illegal wildlife trafficking.

Only Statement 2 is correct.

• Glacial lakes are formed due to glacier retreat and hold valuable geological information, including fossils and landmass formation. These lakes can exist for thousands of years, storing information about past environmental changes.
• Teesta River is a tributary of the Brahmaputra which flows through India and Bangladesh.
• It originates in the Himalayas near Chunthang, Sikkim and flows to the south through West Bengal before entering Bangladesh.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Udangudi Panangkarupatti, a type of palm jaggery or gur from Tamil Nadu, has received a Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
• The uniqueness of Udangudi Panangkarupatti lies in its traditional preparation method, which does not involve the use of modern strategies or chemical additives like triple superphosphate and phosphoric acid, which are commonly used in other areas for jaggery production.
• This palm jaggery is distinct due to the presence of red sand dune soil found in the Udangudi region. This soil has low groundwater retention and results in a dry climate with lower moisture content in the atmosphere. These conditions lead to a high sucrose content in the palm sap, enhancing its taste.
• Udangudi jaggery has gained popularity not only locally but also internationally, being exported to countries such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore.
  

Only Statement 1 is correct.

• The Madras High Court on November 28 stayed the summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on November 17 to the Collectors of Ariyalur, Karur, Thanjavur, Tiruchi and Vellore for producing details regarding all sand quarry sites in their districts.
• Unlike laws governing other agencies, particularly the CBI, the PMLA allows the ED to take cognizance of any offence under its wide-ranging schedule across the country, with or without the consent of state governments.
• It has, therefore, been able to register money laundering cases against politicians or activists based on FIRs filed by state police forces — something the CBI is unable to do unless requested by the state government, or ordered by a court or the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC).

Statement 3 is incorrect.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations.

World Trade Organization, as an institution, was established in 1995. It replaced General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT) which was in place since 1946.

• The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994.
• India has been a member of GATT since 1948; hence it was party to Uruguay Round and a founding member of WTO.
• While WTO came in to existence in 1995, GATT didn’t cease to exist. It continues as WTO’s umbrella treaty for trade in goods.

Only Statement 2 is correct.

• Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable.
• TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.
• Microbiological confirmation on sputum, chest x-ray screening etc. are some of the methods used to screen TB. Sputum tests are very important in diagnosing TB, so paying attention to the detail of collecting a good sputum sample is very important.