Test: Current Affairs- 3 - UPSC MCQ

Only Statement 1 is correct.

• Raw sugar is what mills produce after the first crystallisation of juice obtained from crushing of cane. This sugar is rough and brownish in colour, with an ICUMSA value of 600-1,200 or higher. ICUMSA, short for the International Commission for Uniform Methods of Sugar Analysis, is a measure of the purity of sugar based on colour. The lower the value, the more the whiteness.
• Raw sugar is processed in refineries for removal of impurities and de-colourisation. The end product is refined white cane sugar having a standard ICUMSA value of 45. The sugar used by industries such as pharmaceuticals has ICUMSA of less than 20.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• The Special Window for Affordable and Mid-Income Housing (SWAMIH) Investment Fund I is a social impact fund specifically formed for completing stressed and stalled residential projects.
• The Fund is sponsored by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and is managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd., a State Bank Group company.
• Since the Fund considers first-time developers, established developers with troubled projects, developers with a poor track record of stalled projects, customer complaints and NPA accounts, and even projects where there are litigation issues, it is considered as the lender of last resort for distressed projects. The Fund’s presence in a project often acts as a catalyst for better collections and sales primarily in projects that were delayed for years.

Only Statement 1 is correct.

• Basel-III norms were adopted by financial regulators to improve the banking sector’s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress.
• It was developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08. It mandates banks to maintain a CAR or Capital to Risk-weighted Assets (CRAR) of at least 8%.

CRAR is a ratio that compares the value of a bank’s capital (or net worth) against the value of its various assets weighted according to risk.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced new norms based on the Basel III capital framework for All India Financial Institutions (AIFIs), which will take effect from April 2024.

India has five AIFIs under RBI regulation: Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank), National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID), National Housing Bank (NHB), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The key provisions of the new norms are as follows:

• Capital Adequacy: AIFIs will be required to maintain a minimum total capital of 9 per cent by April 2024. This includes a minimum tier-I capital of 7 percent and common equity tier-I (CET-1) capital of 5.5 percent.
• Consolidation of Financial Subsidiaries: All financial subsidiaries, except those involved in insurance and non-financial activities (both regulated and unregulated), must be fully consolidated for the purpose of capital adequacy.
• Investment Caps: The RBI has imposed limits on AIFIs’ investments in capital instruments of banking, financial, and insurance entities, capping them at 10 percent of their capital funds.
• Equity Investment Limits: AIFIs’ equity investment in a single entity cannot exceed 49 percent of the equity of the investee.
• Capital Planning and Risk Management: AIFIs are advised to focus on effective and efficient capital planning and long-term capital maintenance.

The RBI defines a wilful default as a situation where a borrower fails to meet repayment obligations despite having the capacity to do so, diverting the loan for purposes other than its intended use, siphoning off funds that are no longer available in other forms, or disposing of assets securing a term loan without informing the lender.

• Perovskite solar cells are cheaper, lighter, and more efficient than traditional silicon-based cells.
• These solar cells overcome the challenges of degradation during operation, making them suitable for large-scale commercialization.
• Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) face stability issues when exposed to heat, moisture, and other environmental factors.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• Excavations in Keeladi have uncovered two carnelian beads, reaffirming the historical trade connections between Tamil Nadu and the western regions of India, specifically Maharashtra and Gujarat.
• These carnelian beads, normally found in Gujarat and Maharashtra, were discovered within an urn at a burial site in Konthagai during the excavation.
• Last year, 74 carnelian beads were also unearthed in the same area, further highlighting the trade links between Tamil Nadu and western India.
• Carnelian beads are small decorative objects made from carnelian gemstones. Carnelian is a reddish-brown to orange variety of chalcedony, a type of microcrystalline quartz. These beads are prized for their vibrant colours and have been used for jewellery and ornamental purposes for centuries.

Financial inclusion means that individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

• Dvorak was an American meteorologist best credited for developing the Dvorak (read as Do-rak) technique in the early 1970s. The technique has been upgraded multiple times since then.
• The updated technique, would improve the tropical storm forecasts by many folds as they would have access to sharper and detailed images than ever before.
• The Dvorak technique was a cloud pattern recognition technique based on a concept model of the development and decay of the tropical cyclone.
• From the satellite images thus obtained, the Dvorak technique helps forecasters to do a pattern recognition from the observed structure of the storm, locate its eye and estimate the intensity of the storm.
• It is the Dvorak technique which gives the best estimates of the cyclone intensity — a vital component while issuing weather warnings.

• All existing nuclear weapons derive some of their explosive energy from nuclear fission reactions. Weapons whose explosive output is exclusively from fission reactions are commonly referred to as atomic bombs or atom bombs. In fission weapons, a mass of fissile material (enriched uranium or plutonium) is forced into supercriticality—allowing an exponential growth of nuclear chain reaction.
• Fusion weapons are generally referred to as thermonuclear weapons or more colloquially as hydrogen bombs (abbreviated as H-bombs), as they rely on fusion reactions between isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium).

• Madhya Pradesh, known as the “tiger state” of India due to its substantial tiger population, has officially designated a new protected area for these magnificent creatures called the ‘Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve.’
• This newly established reserve becomes the seventh tiger reserve in the state.
• Madhya Pradesh has consistently held the title of the “tiger state,” with its tiger population increasing from 526 in 2018 to 785 in the 2022 census.
• The Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve incorporates the previously recognized eco-sensitive zone of Nauradehi and Veerangana Durgavati sanctuaries, along with surrounding forest areas, into the buffer zone.

• This annual exercise is a collaborative effort between the Indian Army and the United States Army.
• The theme of “EXERCISE YUDH ABHYAS-23” centres on the ‘Employment of an Integrated Battle Group in Mountain/Extreme Climatic Conditions,’ following Chapter VII of the United Nations mandate.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• The GOBARdhan initiative, a multi-ministerial effort, aims to transform organic waste, including cattle dung, agricultural residues, and biomass, into valuable resources like biogas, CBG, and organic manure. This initiative supports high-value Biogas/CBG production and promotes the use of bio-slurry to improve soil health, carbon content, and water retention.
• The Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme, launched by the Department of Fertilizers aims to promote the production and adoption of organic fertilizers generated from GOBARdhan plants. It seeks to encourage sustainable/organic agricultural practices, reduce reliance on chemical fertilizers, and boost the use of bio-slurry in agriculture.

The Kole wetlands in Kerala, an internationally important Ramsar site known for its high biodiversity, are facing a new threat from an invasive alien plant species called Cabomba furcuta, also known as Pink Bloom.

This species, originating from Central and South America, has been introduced to Kerala as an aquarium plant and has now become a menace to the Kole fields, alongside existing threats like water hyacinth and Salvinia molesta.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has introduced India’s first green hydrogen-powered bus, which emits only water vapour as its by-product.
• Green hydrogen is an environmentally friendly option as it only emits water vapour when burned and has three times the energy density of other fuels. It requires 50 units of renewable electricity and 9 kg of deionized water to produce one kilogram of green hydrogen.

• Exchange rate of a currency may be fixed by a central bank or left to the market forces of demand and supply. When the value is changed by the central bank it is called devaluation. If market forces bring down the value due to demand falling behind supply of the currency, it leads to depreciation.
• In the Balance of Payments, the movements of money without exchange for goods or services called ‘remittances’ and charities are part of Current account.

Bauxite is the ore which is used in manufacturing of aluminium. Bauxite is found mainly in tertiary deposits and is associated with laterite rocks occurring extensively either on the plateau or hill ranges of peninsular India and also in the coastal tracts of the country. Odisha happens to be the largest producer of Bauxite.

Article 29: Protection of interests of minorities
(1) Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same
(2) No citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.

Bihar is getting its second tiger reserve in Kaimur (Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary), expected to be established by the end of 2023 or early 2024. The need for a second reserve arose as the Valmiki Tiger Reserve (Bihar’s 1st tiger reserve) reached its capacity to manage tigers.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Panthera:

• This is the genus of large wild cats that can roar. Among them, the lion, the leopard, and the jaguar are more closely related, while the other strand has the tiger and the snow leopard. The snow leopard is an exception to the rest of the group in that it can’t roar.
• Tiger is the largest of all wild cats and also the earliest Panthera member to exist. Primarily a forest animal, they range from the Siberian taiga to the Sunderban delta. The national animal of India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and South Korea, the tiger was voted the world’s favourite animal ahead of the dog in a 2004 Animal Planet global online poll.

• The Health Ministry’s unique “adopt a TB-patient” (Ni-kshay Mitras) initiative — probably the only one-of-its-kind in the world.
• The programme was brought in to fill the critical “community’’ elements into India’s fight towards the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan aimed at eliminating TB by 2025.
• Ni-kshay Mitra (Donor) for this programme includes co-operative societies, corporates, elected representatives, individuals, institutions, non-governmental organisations, political parties and partners who can support by adopting the health facilities (for individual donor), blocks/urban wards/districts/States for accelerating the response against TB to complement the government efforts, as per the district-specific requirements in coordination with the district administration.
• Free diagnostics, free drugs and Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana provided by the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) to all the TB patients notified from both the public and the private sector.

• The Jharkhand Chief Minister has written to the Prime Minister, urging the recognition of the ‘Sarna’ religious code for tribal communities in the state.
• The request for the Sarna code as a separate religious code in the next Census has been a long-standing demand of tribal groups, and the Jharkhand Assembly passed a resolution for the ‘Sarna’ code on November 11, 2021.
• The Sarna religion is a nature-worshipping faith that is also known as “Sarna Dharma” or “Religion of the Holy Woods”. Followers of the Sarna religion pray to trees and hills and believe in protecting forest areas. Their holy grail is “Jal (water), Jungle (forest), Zameen (land)”.
• The Sarna religion is practised by a majority of the tribal community in Jharkhand. The tribal community celebrates the Sarhul festival, which is the New Year festival, as part of the Sarna religion. 

Only Statement 2 is correct.

• Human immunodeficiency virus or HIV is an infection that attacks the immune system by destroying the body’s immune cells called CD4, which help it respond to infection.
• Once HIV attacks the CD4 cells, it starts replicating and destroying the cells, weakening the body’s immune system and making it more prone to certain “opportunistic infections” that take advantage of the weak immune system.
• Bodily fluids such as blood, semen, vaginal fluids, rectal fluids and breastmilk can be carriers for HIV.
• It can be transmitted through unprotected sex, transfusion of contaminated blood, sharing needles and syringes, and from a mother with HIV to her infant during pregnancy.
• Typically, the time between HIV transmission and AIDS diagnosis is 10-15 years, although it may occur sooner.

• Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal.
• Sundarban Reserve Forest of Bangladesh is the largest mangrove forest in the world.
• It contains Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, Sundarban Wetland, Sundarbans National Park and Biosphere Reserve.
• It is the only mangrove forest in the world inhabited by tigers

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Researchers at MIT have made significant progress in developing a novel superconducting qubit architecture that can perform operations between qubits with much greater accuracy than previously achieved.
• They used a relatively new type of superconducting qubit called fluxonium, which has a longer lifespan than traditional superconducting qubits.
• Fluxonium is a type of qubit (quantum bit) that is based on operations at important junctions in a superconducting circuit.
• Quantum computing is a multidisciplinary field that utilizes quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers. A qubit is the basic unit of information in quantum computing

Only Statement 1 is correct.

Statement 2 and 3 is correct.

About Cauvery River

• It is the third largest river – after Godavari and Krishna – in southern India, and the largest in the state of Tamil Nadu, known as ‘Ponni’ in Tamil. Originates in Karnataka (Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu district) and eventually drains into the Bay of Bengal. Its left bank tributaries include Arkavathi, Hemavathi, Shimsa, and Harangi, while right bank tributaries consist of Lakshmantirtha, Suvarnavati, Noyil, Bhavani, Kabini, and Amaravathi.
  

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.