Daily Current Affairs MCQ- January 19, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

The Indian National Congress (INC), India’s largest opposition party, marked its 138th foundation day on December 28.

About:

How the Congress was founded?

• The English bureaucrat Allan Octavian Hume or AO Hume is credited as the founder of the organisation.
• On December 28, 1885, 72 social reformers, journalists and lawyers congregated for the first session of the INC at Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College, Bombay.
• At that point, the aim of this group was not to demand independence from the ongoing colonial rule but to influence the policies of the British government in favour of Indians.

Transformation towards the demand for independence

• Over the next few years, the party’s work continued, to shift the colonial administrators’ attitudes and policies on the rights and powers allowed to Indians.
• The party largely consisted of educated, upper-class people who were likely to have studied abroad. But with time, this grouping became more diverse, as the organisation began setting up provincial organisations.
• At its Eleventh Session in 1895, there was an increase in the number of delegates from 1,163 the previous year to 1,584. President Surendranath Banerjea congratulated the Congress for bringing together “the scattered element of a vast and diversified population.”

Splits and reconvening

• In Surat in 1906, the divisions between the ‘moderates’ led by Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Surendranath Banerjea, and the ‘extremists’ led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak came to the fore and there was a split. While Tilak and Lala Lajpat Rai wanted the Congress to boycott the visit of the Prince of Wales in protest against the Bengal Partition a year prior, the moderates opposed any such move.
• But by 1915, the Bombay session saw these two groups coming together again as one.

Hence both statements are correct.

In a major boost to the striking capabilities of the Indian armed forces, the defense ministry has recently cleared a proposal to purchase 120 Pralay missiles for the Indian Air Force and Army.

About:

• Pralay is an indigenous short-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile. The missile will be India’s first tactical quasi-ballistic missile and will give the armed forces the capability to hit enemy positions and key installations in actual battlefield areas.
• Developed by: The solid-fuel, battlefield missile developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) is based on Prithvi Defence Vehicle from the Indian ballistic missile programme.
• Features:
  • Pralay’ is powered with a solid propellant rocket motor and other new technologies. The missile guidance system includes state-of-the-art navigation and integrated avionics, according to the DRDO.
  • The advanced missile has been developed in a way to be able to defeat interceptor missiles. It has the ability to change its path after covering a certain range mid-air.
  • It is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of about 350 kg to 700 kg, which gives it a deadly punitive capability.
• Range: The canisterised Pralay missile, has a range of 150-500 kilometres.
• Ballistic missiles: They are initially powered by a rocket or series of rockets in stages, but then follow an unpowered trajectory that arches upwards before descending to reach its intended target at high speed. Unlike intercontinental ballistic missiles that exit the Earth’s atmosphere, short-range ballistic missiles stay within it.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Uzbekistan’s health ministry has recently claimed India-made cough syrups contained ethylene glycol which led to the death of at least 18 children.

About:

What is ethylene glycol?

• Ethylene glycol is a colourless and odourless alcoholic compound that can be fatal if consumed.
• The sweet-tasting ethylene glycol is a syrupy or viscous liquid at room temperature.
• It is mostly used as an automotive antifreeze and as a raw material for manufacturing polyester fibres.
• It is also found in several products such as hydraulic brake fluids, stamp pad inks, ballpoint pens, solvents, paints, cosmetics and plastics.
• Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol are adulterants that are sometimes illegally used as solvents in liquid drugs.
  • Diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol may be used by pharma companies as an alternative to non-toxic solvents such as glycerine or propylene glycol to cut costs.
• The ingestion of ethylene glycol can cause severe health effects. Central nervous system depression, nausea, vomiting, intoxication, euphoria, stupor, respiratory depression, and reduced excretion of urine can occur due to ethylene glycol intoxication.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Allahabad HC recently ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to hold urban local body elections without reservation for OBCs as the 'triple test' requirement for it had not been met.

About:

• The five-member commission will conduct a survey to ensure that the OBCs are provided reservation on the basis of the triple test, as mandated by the Supreme Court. This is the first time that the triple test exercise will be carried out in Uttar Pradesh.
• Rapid survey:
  • The Urban Development Department of the UP government had on April 7, 2017 issued orders to conduct a rapid survey for determining the population of OBCs.
  • Based on such a rapid survey in each constituency of a municipality, seats were reserved in proportion to the population of the backward class of citizens in the constituency/ward concerned.

What is triple test?

• The triple test requires the government to complete three tasks for finalisation of reservation to OBCs in the local bodies. These include:

1. To set up a dedicated commission to conduct a rigorous empirical inquiry into the nature and implications of the backwardness in local bodies;
2. To specify the proportion of reservation required in local bodies in light of recommendations of the commission, so as not to fall foul of overbreadth;
3. To ensure reservation for SCs/STs/OBCs taken together does not exceed an aggregate of 50 per cent of the total seats.

• These triple test/conditions were outlined by the Supreme Court in the case of Vikas Kishanrao Gawali vs. State of Maharashtra and others, decided on March 4, 2021.

Why triple test instead of rapid survey?

• The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court said that any inquiry or study into the nature and implications of the backwardness with respect to local bodies involves ascertainment of representation in such bodies.
• The court said such an exercise cannot be confined to counting of heads alone, as is being done through the rapid survey.
• The court said simply granting reservation on the basis of population misses a very crucial factor for determination of backwardness, and that factor is political representation of the class or group concerned.
• The High Court quoted the Supreme Court’s observation in the K Krishna Murthy case, which pointed out that the nature of disadvantages which restrict access to education and employment cannot be readily equated with disadvantages in the realm of political representation.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc said that its experimental gene therapy for the treatment of haemophilia B met its main goal in a late-stage study.

• Data from the study showed that a single dose of the therapy was superior to the current standard of care in helping reduce the bleeding rate in patients with moderately severe to severe forms of haemophilia B.

What is Haemophilia?

• It is a medical condition, mostly inherited, in which the ability of blood to clot is severely reduced. 
• This disease is caused by a mutation in one of the genes,that provides instructions for making the clotting factor proteins needed to form a blood clot.
• This change or mutation can prevent the clotting protein from working properly or being missing altogether. These genes are located on the X chromosome.
• Men are more vulnerable to haemophilia than women. It is a rare disease where in about 1 in 10,000 people are born with it.

Hence only statements 1 is correct.

Astronomers and scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), while studying Omega Centauri found that hot stars and white dwarfs emitted less ultraviolet radiation than expected.

• A team of Scientists at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics detected strange hot stars in the Globular clusters using the Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) images on AstroSat (India’s first dedicated space observatory, which has been operating since 2015).

What are Globular clusters?

• Globular clusters are spherical aggregates of several thousand to millions of stars bound by gravity. These systems are thought to have formed early on in the Universe and can serve as perfect astrophysical laboratories for astronomers to understand how stars evolve through various phases.
• Omega Centauri is a globular cluster in the constellation of Centaurus that was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677.
• Located at a distance of 17,090 light-years, it is the largest-known globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years.

What is Galaxy?

• A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems are bound together by gravity.
• Milky Way, is stuffed with between 100 billion and 400 billion other stars, many of them with planets of their own. The Milky Way got its name from the way it looks from the ground: like a streak of spilt milk across the sky.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, The Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully test-fired the Extended Range Version of the Brahmos missile. 

• The missile achieved the desired mission objectives in the Bay of Bengal region. With this, IAF has achieved a significant capability boost to carry out precision strikes from SU-30MKI aircraft against land or sea targets over very long ranges.
• The capability of striking the targets located at around 350 kilometres compared to around 290 kilometres for the initial version.
• The first test of the initial version of the Brahmos Air Launched Cruise Missile was conducted in 2017.
• For the firing of Brahmos from Sukhoi-30 MKI, the missile is gravity dropped from the fuselage of the fighter jet, and the two-stage missile’s engine is then fired up and it propels towards the intended target at the sea.
• The dedicated and synergetic efforts of the IAF, Indian Navy, DRDO, BAPL and HAL have been instrumental in achieving this feat. 

What are Brahmos missiles?

• Brahmos is a joint venture between the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India and NPOM of Russia. It is named after the rivers Brahmaputra and Moskva.
• It is a two-stage, solid propellant engine in the first stage and a liquid ramjet in the second.
• It can be launched from land, air, and sea and multi a capability missile with pinpoint accuracy that works both day and night irrespective of the weather conditions.
• It operates on the "Fire and Forgets" principle i.e it does not require further guidance after launch.
• These are called “standoff range weapons”, i.e fired from a range far enough to allow the attacker to evade defensive counter-fire.
• Brahmos is one of the fastest cruise missiles currently operationally deployed with the speed of Mach 2.8, which is nearly 3 times more than the speed of sound.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, the Maharashtra state government is planning to rename the city of Ahmednagar as ‘Punyashlok Ahilyadevi Nagar’, after the 18th century Malwa queen.

Who is Ahilyabai Holkar?

• Ahilyabai (1725 -1795) was one of the women rulers of Medieval India who belongs to the Holkar dynasty of the Maratha Empire.
• She married Khanderao Holkar in 1733 at the tender age of 8.
• Her husband was killed in the battle of Kumbher in 1754.
• Ahilyabai is famous for having built numerous forts and roads in the Malwa region, sponsoring festivals and offering donations to many Hindu temples. Her philanthropy was reflected in the construction of several temples, ghats, wells, tanks and rest houses stretching across the length of the country.
• She welcomed stalwarts such as Marathi poet Moropant, Shahir Ananta Gandhi, and Sanskrit scholar Khushali Ram into her capital.
• John Keay, the British historian, gave the queen the title of ‘The Philosopher Queen’. She had been an acute observer of the wider political scene.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Ministry of Road Transport &Highways (MoRTH) released the Annual report ‘Road accidents in India 2021.

• As per the report, there were 4,12,432 unfortunate incidences of road accidents during 2021 which claimed 1, 53,972 lives and caused injuries to 3, 84,448 persons.
• This report has been developed by reporting, management, claim processing and analysis of road accident data by using the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD) system.

What is iRAD?

• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and is funded by World Bank, to improve road safety in the country. 
• This will facilitate road accident data collection by 4 stakeholder departments; Police, Transport, Highways and Health Departments.
• Through a collection of road accident data from all over the country, a road accident database will be developed. The collected data will be analysed using different data analytics techniques for the identification of accident-prone areas and the causes of the accidents.
• The analysis output will be represented in appropriate dashboards, access to higher authorities of stakeholder departments and MoRTH. And accordingly, a strategy will be formed for the reduction of the number of road accidents in India and to enhance road safety.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs launched this initiative to evaluate, recognize and reward India’s Urban Local Bodies.

• The rankings aim to motivate city/state officials and decision-makers, to implement municipal finance reforms.
• The participating ULBs will be evaluated on 15 indicators across three key municipal finance assessment parameters, namely:
  • Resource Mobilization
  • Expenditure Performance and
  • Fiscal Governance
• The cities will be ranked at the national level based on their scores under any one of the following four population categories:
  • Above 4 million
  • Between 1-4 million
  • 100K to 1 million
  • Less than 100,000
• The top 3 cities in each population category will be recognized and rewarded at the national level as well as within each state/state cluster.
• This ranking would create a conducive environment for developing a robust municipal finance ecosystem for promoting financially healthy, transparent and sustainable cities.

What is the significance of the ranking?

• City Finance Rankings are an effort to analyse and help the ULBs in identifying areas in their financial performance where they can make further improvements, to be able to deliver quality infrastructure and services to its citizens.
• The rankings will serve as a constant motivation for city/state officials to continue to implement municipal finance reforms.
• At a state- and national level, the rankings will highlight the outcomes achieved by municipalities and provide critical insights to key policymakers into the state of finances of urban local bodies. 

Hence only statement 2 is correct.