Test: Current Affairs- 2 - UPSC MCQ

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• The Ministry of Education is urging states to establish Vidya Samiksha Kendras (VSKs), which are data repositories under the National Digital Education Architecture.
• These centres will collect data from various educational schemes run by the Ministry of Education, including mid-day meal programs, teacher training, textbook content, school attendance, students’ learning outcomes, and performance grading.
• Currently, a central VSK centre is managed by Ernst and Young, and it operates on open-source C-Qube software. Data is manually input and accessible in downloadable Excel format, but the plan is to shift to automatic data integration using Application Programming Interface (API) integration. This aligns with the National Education Policy of 2020, aiming to make data open source.
• VSKs are also intended to map school locations and population data to assess the Gross Access Ratio, aiding in the planning of new schools, industry clusters, skilling requirements, and higher education institutions based on demand and future scenarios.

About the Paris Agreement:

It is a legally binding international treaty on climate change that was adopted by 196 countries. Its primary goal is to limit the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It includes a mechanism known as the Global Stocktake (GST), which aims to assess the global response to the climate crisis every five years.

The Financial Stability Board (founded in 2009; HQ: Basel, Switzerland) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. It was established after the G20 London summit (2009) as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the behaviour of antibodies produced by the immune system to protect against diseases and foreign substances.
• An antibody attaches itself to an antigen – a foreign substance, usually a disease-causing molecule – and helps the immune system eliminate it from the body.
• Monoclonal antibodies are specifically designed to target certain antigens.
• Glycoproteins are one of the major components of viruses that cause diseases in humans. 

• Indian scientists are gearing up for an ambitious project called Samudrayaan, which involves sending three people 6,000 meters underwater in a domestically developed submersible named Matsya 6000.
• This mission aims to explore the ocean depths of precious metals and minerals such as cobalt, nickel, and manganese.

  On 31 August 2019, while replying to a query about deep sea mining, the then director of NIOT (National Institute of Ocean Technology) Dr. M.A. Atmanand,^[7] who was at the facility of Titagarh Wagons to inaugurate coastal research vessel Sagar Anveshika,^[8][9] said that in line with the Gaganyaan mission of ISRO, NIOT was proposing a project to send a submersible vehicle with three persons to a depth of about 6000 metres to carry out deep underwater studies. He further added that the success of the Samudrayaan mission will help India join the league of developed nations in exploration of minerals from oceans.^[10]

  The project was supposed to get final approval from the Ministry of Finance in October 2019, but the final approval was delayed and was granted on 16 June 2021.

• The earthquake in Morocco resulted from a geological phenomenon known as a “reverse fault.”
• Tectonic Plate Interaction: Morocco is situated in an area where the Eurasian and African tectonic plates converge.
• Plate Boundary Activity: The Atlas Mountains, where the earthquake occurred, are actively rising due to the convergence of these two large tectonic plates
• Seismic Stress Accumulation: Although the region had not experienced major recorded earthquakes before, stress had been accumulating underground for an extended period due to the slow movement of tectonic plates.

Gresham’s Law, named after Thomas Gresham, states that “bad money drives out good” when the government fixes the exchange rate between two currencies at a level different from the market rate.

Impact:

• This leads to the undervalued currency going out of circulation, while the overvalued currency remains but lacks buyers.
• The law can result in a currency shortage when demand exceeds supply due to the fixed price.
• Gresham’s law applies not only to paper currencies but also to commodities. It can cause goods to disappear from the formal market when their prices are forcibly undervalued by governments.
• Thers’ law, on the other hand, states that “good money drives out bad” when people have the freedom to choose between currencies, and they prefer higher-quality currencies.

• Article 21A of the Constitution and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 outline the fundamental right to education and the right to have free and compulsory education for children aged 6-14 years.
• The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which adopted a ‘zero rejection policy’, emphasises that “every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided meaningful and quality education”.
• India ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Aligning with this commitment, the government launched the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) in 2015. An important pillar of this campaign is accessibility to built environment. The government has also been supportive of the principle of Leave No One Behind (LNOB), which is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and UNICEF jointly organized a workshop on Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) in collaboration with the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

What is BRSR?

Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting is a framework introduced by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) in 2021. It mandates the top 1000 listed companies in India to report their performance on various environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects. This framework is based on the nine principles of the National Guidelines for Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC).

Only statement 2 is correct.

• An oblique-reverse fault is a geological fault characterized by both horizontal and vertical movements along the fault plane. This type of faulting is common in areas of compression along the convergent plate boundaries. The stress along these fault lines can induce earthquakes as rocks abruptly shift to release accumulated stress.

The Paris Agenda for People and the Planet (held in June this year) is a global initiative aimed at eliminating poverty, preserving the environment, and enhancing the resilience of vulnerable countries to climate change and conflicts.

The focus of the Summit: It focuses on leveraging various sources of finance, including official development assistance, domestic resources, and private investment, to achieve these goals.

About the Konkan belt:

It is a coastal plain in western India that extends along the western coasts of Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka. The Konkan is a narrow lowland that’s only about 50 km wide. It’s bounded by the Western Ghats mountain range to the east, the Arabian Sea to the west, the Daman Ganga River to the north, and the River Aghanashini to the south.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• Supreme Court of India has now joined the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) portal, which serves as a national repository of case-related data from courts across the country.
• NJDG is a database of orders, judgments and case details of 18,735 District and subordinate Courts and High Courts created as an online platform under the eCourts Project. Its key feature is that the data is updated in real-time and has granular data up to the Taluka level.
• The NJDG was built as part of Phase II of the e-Courts project, which is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. With over 18,735 courts computerised across the country, the data is integrated with the NJDG. The platform has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in close coordination with the in-house software development team of the Computer Cell, Registry of the Supreme Court with an interactive interface and analytics dashboard.
• NJDG works as a monitoring tool to identify, manage & reduce pendency of cases. Take, for instance, the Supreme Court data.

The mantle — a 2,900 km thick layer of solid rock sandwiched between the Earth’s upper crust and lower core.
The mantle makes up the largest part of Earth.

• The mantle’s viscous properties govern convection — the transfer of heat between areas of different temperatures. This enables plate tectonics.

Mantle convection results in the transport of rocks and heat.

The viscosity of the rocks in the transition zone between the upper and the lower mantle determines whether a plate sinks below another one (subduction) through it.

• Statement 2 is incorrect.
• The use of burnt bricks in the Harappan cities is remarkable because in the contemporary buildings of Egypt dried bricks were primarily used. We find the use of baked bricks in contemporary Mesopotamia, but they were used to a much larger extent in the Harappan cities.
• The Indus people produced wheat, barley, rai, peas, and the like. Two types of wheat and barley were grown. A substantial quantity of barley was discovered at Banawali. In addition, sesamum and mustard were grown.
• Although the Harappans practised agriculture, animals were raised on a large scale. Oxen, buffaloes, goats, sheep, and pigs were domesticated. Humped bulls were favoured by the Harappans. There is evidence of dogs and cats from the outset, and asses and camels were bred. Elephants were well known to the Harappans, who were also acquainted with the rhinoceros.

• Project ‘Mausam’ is a cultural initiative led by the Ministry of Culture and implemented by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. It aims to showcase a Transnational Mixed Route (Natural and Cultural Heritage) on the World Heritage List. The project explores monsoon patterns, cultural routes, and maritime landscapes in the Indian Ocean region.
• Its goals include understanding the historical impact of monsoon winds on interactions, shared knowledge systems, and cultural exchanges among coastal centres.
• The project fosters cross-cultural linkages with 39 Indian Ocean countries and focuses on cultural routes and maritime landscapes connecting different parts of the Indian Ocean littoral.

• The Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics(UPAg Portal – www.upag.gov.in) was officially launched recently.
• The portal aims to provide real-time, reliable, and standardized information, empowering stakeholders and facilitating more responsive and efficient agricultural policies.
• The UPAg Portal is part of the Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture, focusing on harnessing data for growth, transparency, and agility in India’s agriculture sector.
• This initiative aligns with e-governance principles and aims to enhance data-driven decision-making for policymakers, researchers, and stakeholders in the agriculture domain.

Statement 4 is incorrect.

• Hoysala architecture, developed between the 11th and 14th centuries in southern Karnataka under the Hoysala Empire, is characterized by:
• A unique style blending elements of Dravida and Nagara architectures.
• Influences from Bhumija, Nagara, and Karntata Dravida architectural traditions.
• Distinctive ‘Hoysala Temple’ form with multiple shrines around a central pillared hall in a star-shaped layout.
• The use of soapstone, allowed intricate carving of sculptures, especially in the jewelry adorning temple walls.

Front-running refers to buying or selling securities ahead of a large order so as to benefit from the subsequent price move. Under this illegal trading practice, a broker’s or analyst’s use of nonpublic information to acquire securities or enter into options or futures contracts for his or her own benefit, knowing that when the information becomes public, the price of the securities will change in a predictable manner.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online platform available to the citizens 24×7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery. It is a single portal connected to all the Ministries/Departments of Government of India and States.
• The status of the grievance filed in CPGRAMS can be tracked with the unique registration ID provided at the time of registration of the complainant. CPGRAMS also provides appeal facility to the citizens if they are not satisfied with the resolution by the Grievance Officer.
• The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) informed the parliamentary panel that in 2016, all Ministries, organisations and departments were requested to regularly examine the grievances column of newspapers to pick up the cases coming under their purview and take expeditious action to redress them in a time bound manner.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• In India, apart from the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau is a statutory body under the Ministry that is especially meant to combat organised wildlife crime in the country. It assists and advises the customs authorities in the inspection of the consignments of flora and fauna as per the provisions of the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972, CITES and the export and import policy governing items.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• A solid-state battery is a battery technology that uses solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, instead of the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.
• Solid-state batteries have found use in pacemakers, RFID and wearable devices. They are potentially safer, with higher energy densities, but at a much higher cost.
• A solid-state battery can increase energy density per unit area since only a small number of batteries are needed. For that reason, a solid-state battery is perfect to make an EV battery system of module and pack, which needs high capacity.
• Challenges to widespread adoption include energy and power density, durability, material costs, sensitivity and stability.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Indian government has launched the “Kisan Rin Portal” as part of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme to revolutionize the agriculture sector.
• Additionally, the government launched the Weather Information Network Data Systems (WINDS) portal and initiated a door-to-door KCC campaign.
• The Kisan Rin digital platform will offer a comprehensive view of farmer data, scheme utilization progress, loan disbursement specifics, and interest subvention claims, enhancing integration with banks for more efficient agriculture credit.
• WINDS leverage advanced weather data analytics to provide stakeholders with actionable insights for informed weather-related decisions in agriculture.

India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, has begun collecting data using the Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer (STEPS) sub-system, one of the seven instruments on board.

STEPS

• STEPS stands for Supra Thermal and Energetic Particle Spectrometer. It is a sub-system onboard India’s Aditya-L1 spacecraft and part of the Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) payload. It is designed to measure fast-moving charged particles generated by processes within the Sun. STEPS helps scientists analyze the behaviour of particles surrounding Earth and provides valuable data for solar science and space weather research.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Sardar Sarovar Dam (opened 2017) is a concrete gravity dam built on the Narmada River in Navagam near the town of Kevadiya, Narmada District, in the state of Gujarat. The dam was constructed to provide water and electricity to four Indian states: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan
• The Narmada is the largest west-flowing river, the fifth-largest in India, flowing through Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat before reaching the Gulf of Cambay. It is situated between the Vindhya and Satpura Ranges.

• The Indian Coast Guard conducted a coastal security drill named ‘Operation Sajag’ along the west coast.
• This drill aimed to involve all stakeholders in the coastal security system, reaffirm the effectiveness of coastal security measures, and raise awareness among fishermen at sea.
• To enhance coastal security, several measures have been implemented, including the issuance of biometric cards for fishermen, color-coding of fishing boats according to each state, manned fish landing centres, access control at entry/exit points, coastal mapping, allocation of specific marine band frequencies for security agencies, and training of marine police personnel by the Indian Coast Guard.

• During heavy exercise, the demand for energy is high but the supply of oxygen to produce energy is limited. Therefore, anaerobic respiration takes places in the muscles cells to fulfil the demand for energy. This anaerobic breakdown of glucose leads to the formation of lactic acid in muscles. The accumulation of lactic acid in muscles leads to muscle cramps. We get relief from cramps after a hot water bath or a massage.
• Hot water bath or massage improves circulation of blood. As a result, the supply of oxygen to the muscle cells increases. The increase in the supply of oxygen results in the complete breakdown of lactic acid into carbon dioxide and water.

Only statement 1 is correct.

• The offence under this law is mainly the laundering of money made through a crime. It has a three-part schedule of offences (or ‘predicate offences’) listing the various crimes such as terrorism, drug-trafficking, corruption and cheating that give rise to tainted money.
• The Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutional validity of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
• The Court also upheld the “twin-conditions” for bail in Section 45 of the PMLA Act.
• The Enforcement Directorate under the PMLA Act is not considered “police” and hence does not follow provisions of the CrPC for search, seizure, arrest, attachment of properties.

• As the superintendence and control over all aspects of the election process is vested in the EC, it exercises direction and control over civil servants deployed for election-related work. This means that bureaucrats engaged in the administrative aspects of elections, including police officers with law and order duties, are also amenable to the EC’s jurisdiction.
• This power enables the EC to monitor both the manner in which civil servants perform their election-related duties, and prevent activities which may be seen as partisan.
• The EC often cites its vast powers under Article 324 to transfer or suspend officials during election time, even though they normally come under the disciplinary purview of the government of India or the State governments. There have been instances of the EC transferring not only Returning Officers, but also Commissioners of Police and Superintendents of Police.

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development implements “naari adalat” (women’s courts) led by women’s collectives in the country in a phased manner as an alternate grievance redressal mechanism to resolve “petty” disputes at the gram panchayat level.
• The scheme is part of the Ministry guidelines for the Mission Shakti umbrella scheme. The umbrella scheme comprises of sub-schemes for women’s safety and empowerment.
• The naari adalat scheme “will promote gender justice in society and family”. These will resolve “petty cases” such as harassment, curtailment of rights or entitlements.

The Nile River empties into the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt.