Daily Current Affairs MCQ- January 3, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, South Africa moved the International Court of Justice (ICJ), for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.

• The term ‘genocide’ is often loosely used when speaking of attacks against various communities across the world.
• It has been defined using set criteria in the UN’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, moved in the General Assembly in 1948.
• It says, “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
• As per this convention the genocide is a crime whether committed during wartime or peacetime. 
• India ratified the convention in 1959; there is no legislation on the subject.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Indigenous Warli Tribe, living near Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Maharashtra teaches a lesson about peaceful coexistence with leopards.

• They are an adivasi indigenous tribe who live in the mountainous, coastal, and bordering regions of Gujarat and Maharashtra.
• The word 'Warli' is derived from the word 'Warla,' which means 'piece of land'.
• Language - The Warli people speak Varli or Warli, an Indo-Aryan language. The language is typically classified as Marathi, but it is also known as Konkani or Bhil.
• Culture – They have their own animistic beliefs, way of life, customs, and traditions, and they have adopted many Hindu beliefs.
• The Warli culture is centred on the concept of Mother Nature, and natural elements are frequently depicted as focal points in Warli painting.
• The Warli tribe values folk art as well as gods, goddesses, and ritual culture. They use painting to depict their traditional way of life, customs, and traditions. The majority of these paintings are created by women.
• Style & attire - The Warli Tribe women wear a Lugden that is worn until the knee and is typically a one yard sari. The Maharashtrian rural regions influenced the sari. The knee length draping resembles the Maharashtrian sari draping style.
• Festival:  Bohada is a three-day mask festival held by the Warli tribes. During this celebration, mask owners wear these masks and perform several times.
• Dance & music - The Warli Tribes perform Tarpa Dance along with Tarpa music instruments.
• They usually perform in groups. One person plays music with a Tarpa instrument and the rest of the people form a circle keeping the musician in the centre and dance with people.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, the Himachal Pradesh state government has finally issued notification to give Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Hattee community of Trans-Giri area of Sirmaur district.

• They are a close-knit community who got their name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat and wool etc. at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.
• Their homeland straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna.
• This community’s men generally don a distinctive white headgear during ceremonies, is cut off from Sirmaur by two rivers called Giri and Tons. Tons divide it from the Jaunsar Bawar area of Uttarakhand.
• The Hattees who live in the trans-Giri area and Jaunsar Bawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur until Jaunsar Bawar’s separation in 1815.
• They are governed by a traditional council called Khumbli.
• The two Hattee clans, in Trans-Giri and Jaunsar Bawar, have similar traditions, and inter-marriages are common.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Indian telecom operators have asked the government to auction the spectrum that will be used for direct-to-mobile (D2M) technology services. 

• The science behind D2M is similar to that of an FM radio, where a receiver within the device can tap into different radio frequencies.
• This new-age technology is a combination of broadband and broadcast that uses mobile phones to capture territorial digital TV signals.
• Using D2M, multimedia content, including live TV matches, can be streamed to phones directly without using the internet. 
• D2M can ensure-
• Emergency alerts are delivered directly, reliably and without dependence on internet/cellular networks. 
• Disaster Management audio content is delivered directly and authentically in a targeted manner.
• With D2M, governments can broadcast citizen-centric information.
• This approach benefits consumers by reducing their reliance on internet data consumption for staying informed and entertained.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, India started its four-year term as a member of the United Nations Statistical Commission.

• It was established in 1947 and is the highest body of the global statistical system.
• It brings together the Chief Statisticians from member states from around the world.
• Functions:
• It is the highest decision-making body for international statistical activities, responsible for setting statistical standards and the development of concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international levels.
• The Statistical Commission oversees the work of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and it is a Functional Commission of the UN Economic and Social Council.
• Membership: The Commission consists of 24 member countries of the United Nations elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council based on an equitable geographical distribution according to the following pattern:
• Five members from African States
• Four members from Asia-Pacific States
• Four members from Eastern European States
• Four members from Latin American and Caribbean States
• Seven members from Western European and other States
• Term: The term of office of members is four years.
• India was a member of the Statistical Commission last in 2004 and the country is returning to the UN agency after a gap of two decades.
• Headquarter: New York

Hence both statements are correct.

The Kármán line lacks a specific national demarcation, resembling the concept of international waters.

About Karman Line:

• Located at 100 km (62 miles) above sea level, it is an imaginary line that demarcates the earth’s atmosphere from space.
• It was established in the 1960s by a record-keeping body called the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
• It was named after aerospace pioneer Theodore von Kármán.
• Though not all scientists and spacefarers accept it (for example, the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, and the U.S. military place the line between outer space and the atmosphere at 80 km (50 miles) above the Earth’s surface), a majority of countries and space organisations recognise this boundary between earth sky and space. 
• It is based on physical reality in the sense that it roughly marks the altitude where traditional aircraft can no longer effectively fly.
• Anything traveling above the Kármán line needs a propulsion system that doesn’t rely on lift generated by Earth’s atmosphere—the air is simply too thin that high up.
• In other words, the Kármán line is where the physical laws governing a craft’s ability to fly shift.
• Anyone who crosses this line qualifies as an astronaut.
• Why do we need a Kármán line?
• The 1967 Outer Space Treaty says that space should be accessible to all countries and can be freely and scientifically investigated.
• Defining a legal boundary of what and where space can help avoid disputes and keep track of space activities and human space travel.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

As a first, the Forest Department in Odisha has planned a ‘nocturnal trail’ for people, especially students and researchers, in the Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary.

About Chandaka-Dampara Wildlife Sanctuary:

• Location: It lies partly within Khurda and partly in Cuttack Districts of Odisha State, and is in close proximity to the state capital, Bhubaneswar.
• It is nestled in the Khordha uplands of the ‘North-Eastern Ghats’ biotic region.
• Spread over 193.39 sq.km of rolling table land and small sprawling hillocks, it is a wildlife sanctuary since August 1982.
• It is known for the successful conservation of elephants, which is the principal species here.
• Vegetation: The floral diversity of the sanctuary is distributed in six types, which include secondary moist miscellaneous semi-evergreen forests, moist Kangada (Xyliaxylocarpa) forests, Coastal Sal forests, thorny bamboo brakes, planted Teak, and Eupatorium scrub.
• There are two water reservoirs, Deras Dam and Jhumka Dam, situated within the sanctuary.
• Flora: The main tree species are Kochila, Kalicha, Belo, Kangada, Giringa, Sunari, Sal, Kumbhi, Jamu, Karanja, Teak, and Sidha.
• Fauna:
• Apart from elephants, other mammals include Leopard, Chital, Barking deer, Mouse deer, Wild pig, Common langur, Rhesus monkey, small Indian civet, etc.
• Prominent birds of the sanctuary are Peafowl, Red jungle fowl, Crested serpent eagle, Great horned owl, Black headed oriole, etc.

Hence option b is the correct answer.

Ornithologists in Colombia recently photographed a wild green honeycreeper with distinct half-green, or female, and half-blue, male, plumage.

About Green Honeycreeper:

• It is a small bird in the tanager family.
• Scientific Name: Chlorophanes spiza
• Distribution: The New World Tropics (Rainforests in Central and South America), from Mexico to Brazil.
• Features:
• It is 13–14 cm long and weighs 14 to 23 grams.
• Its plumage is strikingly sexually dimorphic. The male is mainly blue-tinged green with a black head and a mostly bright yellow bill. The female is grass-green, paler on the throat, and lacks the male's iridescence and black head.
• They are called Green Honeycreepers because the females and young birds are bright green with red eyes. 
• Although males have, on average, slightly longer wings and tails than females, there is considerable variation within each sex and much overlap.
• It feeds largely on nectar, fruit, and insects and often frequents feeders supplying fruit.
• Conservation Status:
• IUCN Red List: Least Concern

Hence both statements are not correct.

Andhra Pradesh recently took control of half of the Nagarjuna Sagar dam on the Krishna River, sparking a dispute with Telangana.

About Nagarjuna Sagar Dam:

• It is built between the Nalgonda district of Telangana and the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.
• It is built across the River Krishna.
• It is the largest and highest masonry dam in the world.
• The dam is 150m tall and 1.6 km long.
• The dam has a storage capacity of nearly 11,472 million cubic meters and an irrigation capacity of 9.81 lack acres of land. 
• It derives its name from a nearby hillock and island called Nagarjunakonda, where an ancient Buddhist Guru had once lived. 
• It is also one of the earliest projects built in post-independence India for irrigation and hydroelectricity generation.
• The construction of the dam commenced in 1956 and was completed by 1967. 
• This dam supports the national grid with its electric power and provides irrigation water to five districts, including Khamman District, Nalgonda District, Guntur District, Prakasam District and Krishna District.
• As per the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Nagarjunasagar dam is controlled and supervised by Telangana.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank of England (BoE) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation and exchange of information in relation to the Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL). 

About Clearing Corporation of India Limited (CCIL):

• It was set up in April, 2001 to provide guaranteed clearing and settlement functions for transactions in Money, G-Secs, Foreign Exchange, and Derivative markets.
• CCIL also provides non-guaranteed settlement for Rupee interest rate derivatives and cross-currency transactions through the CLS Bank.
• Promoters: State Bank of India, IDBI Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Bank of Baroda and HDFC Bank Ltd.
• The Company was incorporated with an authorized equity share capital of Rs. 50 Crores.
• CCIL’s adherence to the stringent principles governing its operations as a Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) has resulted in its recognition as a Qualified Central Counterparty (QCCP) by the Reserve Bank of India in 2014.
• It has also set up a Trade Repository to enable financial institutions to report their transactions in Over-the-Counter (OTC) derivatives.
• Through its fully owned subsidiary, Clearcorp Dealing Systems Limited (CDSL), CCIL has introduced various platforms for electronic execution of deals in various market segments.
• Further, CDSL has developed, implemented, and manages the NDS-OM, the RBI-owned anonymous electronic trading system for dealing in G-Secs and also for reporting OTC deals, as well as the NDS-CALL platform, which facilitates electronic dealing in the Call, Notice & Term Money market.  
• CCIL is also the trade repository for all OTC transactions in the Forex, Interest Rate and Credit derivative transactions.

Hence both statements are correct.