Daily Current Affairs MCQ- January 7, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, the ARNALA ship is inducted into the Indian Navy.

• The ARNALA ship is built under ASW SWC Project.
• Arnala class of ships will replace the Abhay class ASW Ships of the Indian Navy and are designed to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters and Low-Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO) including subsurface surveillance in littoral waters.
• The ship has been named Arnala to signify the strategic maritime importance accorded to the island of Arnala by the great Maratha warrior, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

What is ASW SWC Project?

• It is the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft project under which many ships are being built for the Indian Navy.
• The ASW SWC ships will be capable of detecting and neutralizing various underwater threats.
• The 77.6m ASW SWC ships have a displacement of 900 tons with a maximum speed of 25 knots and an endurance of 1800 NM.
• These ships will have over 80% indigenous content, ensuring that large-scale defense production is executed by Indian manufacturing units thereby generating employment and capability build up within the country.

Hence both the statements are correct.

Recently Scientist recently freeze Great Barrier Reef coral in world –first trial.

• Scientists used the cryomesh to freeze coral larvae at the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS).
• The Great Barrier reef coral has suffered four bleaching events in the last seven years including the first ever bleach during a La Nina phenomenon.

What is Cryomesh?

• Cryomesh is a specially fabricated mesh used as substrate in cryopreservation. This is lightweight and can be manufactured cheaply. It better preserves coral and has the properties of cryoplates.
• The mesh technology will help store coral larvae at -196°C (-320.8°F).

Significance of Coral Cryopreservation 

• Cryogenically frozen coral can be stored and later reintroduced to the wild. This could eventually help to rewild reefs threatened by climate change.
• It can build a bigger, more diverse bank of frozen living corals, preserving biodiversity.

What are corals?

• Corals are animals which live in a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae called zooxanthellae (which live within the coral tissue).
• The zooxanthellae convert sunlight into food, providing corals with up to 90 per cent of their energy needs. They also give corals much of their colour.

Hence both the statements are correct.

Recently three heritage sites have added to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites namely; the Sun Temple at Modhera and Vadnagar town from Gujarat and rock-cut relief sculptures of Unakoti of Tripura.

• According to UNESCO A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties which each nation intends to consider for nomination.

Sun Temple of Modhera

• The Sun Temple, Modhera dedicated to Surya dev (The Sun God), is one of the remarkable gems of temple architecture in India. 
• It is an exemplary model of Maru-gurjara architecture style of the 11th century of western India under the patronage of the Solanki dynasty. The age of the temple may be inferred from its style belonging to the reign of Bhimadeva I (1022-1063 CE).
• It consists of the main temple shrine (garbhagriha), a hall (gadhamandapa), an assembly hall (Sabhamandapa or rangamandapa) and a sacred pool (Kunda) which is now called Ramakunda.
• This east facing temple is built of bright yellow sandstone.
• Other sun temples in India are 8th century CE Martand Sun Temple in Kashmir and the 13th century CE Sun temple at Konark.

Rock-cut relief sculptures of Unakoti

• The site of Unakoti Rock-cut relief sculptures is located in the north-eastern part of Tripura, which were built during 8th to 12^th CE.
• The vertical surface of the Unakoti hills was used by the ancient people to carve various mythological scenes such as the different iconographic forms of Siva, Ganesha, Uma-Maheshwara.
• The images found at Unakoti can be classified into two categories:
• Majestic rock-cut images on the vertical surface of the hill and fallen boulders.
• Loose sculptures of smaller and medium sizes scattered on the hill.
• The influence of Buddhism is also seen in the sculptures of the region. There are various depictions of Boddhisattavas, Buddha and Buddhist motifs also found here.
• Many images found in this area also suggest the presence of religious sects such as Sakta, Tantric, Bajrayanis and Nathayogis.

Vadnagar

• Vadnagar was situated at a strategic location where two major ancient trade routes crossed each other. One of them joined central India with the Sindh and further northwest regions while another connected the port towns on the Gujarat coast to northern India.
• Vadnagar town is a multi-layered and multi-cultural mercantile settlement with its history stretching back to nearly 8thCentury BCE.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Ten captive-bred Asian Giant Tortoise (Manouria emys) juveniles were released into a protected area of Nagaland’s Intanki National Park.

• The soft release of Asian Giant Tortoise is an attempt to boost conservation and repopulating the species.
• Soft release is a process of gradually releasing captive-raised species into the wild
• Distribution: They are found in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia and other places.
• Diet - Bamboo shoots, tubers and other juicy vegetation and some invertebrates and frogs.
• Threats: Hunting for consumption, habitat loss, anthropogenic activities like construction and slash and burn.
• Conservation Status
  • IUCN : Critically Endangered
  • CITES :Appendix II
  • Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972 : Schedule IV

Intanki National Park:

• It is also known as the Ntangki National Park, which was established by the British administrators in the year 1923.
• Flora: it has thick rain forests which creates natural habitat for many animals.
• Fauna:  Wild buffaloes, Hoolok gibbo ,Tigers, Sloth bear, Wild dogs and flying squirrels.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Smart Cities Mission won the Platinum Icon in the Digital India Awards 2022 for their initiative “Data Smart Cities: Empowering Cities through Data” under the ‘Data Sharing and Use for Socio-Economic Development’ category.

• The Awards instituted in 2009 are one of a kind in India for honoring the efforts of different Government entities in the digital realm.
• These are conducted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).

What is the Data smart Cities Initiative?

• Aims: To harness the power of data for better governance in India’s 100 Smart Cities.
• It is based on a ‘People, Platform, Process’ strategy, which is helping in the convergence of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs' efforts for performance management, empowerment of communities, and research, co-creation & open innovation.
• The program has institutionalized a Data Ecosystem in cities through 100 City Data Offices and more than 50 Data Policies.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Currently, the Ministry of Ayush is running a Scheme namely, AYURSWASTHYA Yojana.

• It is a Central Sector Scheme.
• It is having two components
  • AYUSH and Public Health (PHI) and
  • Centre of Excellence (CoE) from the Financial Year 2021-22 by merging two erstwhile schemes of this Ministry namely
    • Central Sector Scheme of Grant-in-Aid for Promotion of AYUSH Intervention in Public Health Initiatives (PHI) and
    • Central Sector Scheme for assistance to AYUSH organizations (Government / Non-Government Non-Profit) engaged in AYUSH Education/ Drug Development & Research / Clinical Research etc. for upgradation to Centre of Excellence (CoE).
• Under the Centre of Excellence component of AYURSWASTHYA Yojana, financial assistance is provided to eligible individual organizations/institutes for establishing and upgrading their functions & facilities and/or for research & development activities in AYUSH.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, an autonomous institution under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India recently launched a programme to create 'impact leaders' in the areas of Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG).

• ESG (Environmental, social, and corporate governance) is a term that has been coined to refer to specific data designed to be used by investors for evaluating the material risk that the organization is taking on based on the externalities it is generating.
• Broadly the ESG can be categorised as:
  • Environmental aspect: Data is reported on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation, pollution, energy efficiency and water management.
  • Social aspect: Data is reported on employee safety and health, working conditions, diversity, equity, and inclusion, conflicts and humanitarian crises and is relevant in risk and return assessments directly through results in enhancing (or destroying) customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
  • Governance aspect: Data is reported on corporate governance such as preventing bribery, corruption, diversity of Board of Directors, executive compensation, cybersecurity and privacy practices, management structure, executive pay, diversity in leadership, manner in which the leadership responds to and interacts with shareholders, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.

ESG in India:

• ESG reporting in India commenced in 2009 with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issuing the Voluntary Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility.
• With effect from the financial year 2022-2023, filing of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) has been made mandatory for the top 1000 listed companies (by market capitalization) and has replaced the existing Business Responsibility Reporting ("BRR").

Hence both statements are correct.

The Central government has recently asked States and Union Territories to increase genome sequencing of positive samples amid a rise in COVID cases in China, Japan, the United States, Korea and Brazil.

• A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA, including all of its genes.
• Each genome contains all of the information needed to build and maintain that organism.
• In humans, a copy of the entire genome—more than 3 billion DNA base pairs—is contained in all cells that have a nucleus.

Genome Sequencing:

• Genome sequencing is figuring out the order of DNA nucleotides, or bases, in a genome—the order of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that make up an organism's DNA.
• The human genome is made up of over 3 billion of these genetic letters.
• In more simple terms, Sequencing a gene is like reading a book one letter at a time to look for any spelling mistakes.
• Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is the equivalent of running spellcheck on every volume in a library.

Hence both statements are correct.

Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) to issue technical norms for new security technology to screen cabin bags in airports.

• The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) was initially set up as a Cell in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in January 1978 on the recommendation of the Pande Committee.
• The BCAS was reorganized into an independent department under the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 1st April, 1987.
• The main responsibilities of BCAS include laying down standards and measures with respect to security of civil flights at international and domestic airports in India.
• It has got four Regional Offices located at International airports i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Functions:

• Laying down Aviation Security Standards in accordance with Annex 17 to Chicago Convention of ICAO for airport operators, airlines operators, and their security agencies responsible for implementing AVSEC measures.
• Monitoring the implementation of security rules and regulations and carrying out survey of security needs.
• Ensure that the persons implementing security controls are appropriately trained and possess all competencies required to perform their duties.
• Planning and coordination of Aviation security matters.
• Surprise/Dummy checks to test professional efficiency and alertness of security staff.
• Mock exercise to test efficacy of Contingency Plans and operational preparedness of the various agencies.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, discoveries of the 40-inch telescope at the Vainu Bappu Observatory were highlighted at its 50-year celebration.

• Vainu Bappu Observatory is considered one of the most renowned observatories in India it is Located on Javadi Hills at Kavalur, Tamilnadu
• The 40-inch telescope was installed in 1972 and started producing important astronomical discoveries soon after. More than a generation of astronomers were trained at this telescope as well.
• The telescope in the observatory is under the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), an institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Who is Vainu Bappu?

• He was an Indian astronomer who helped to establish several astronomical institutions in India including the Vainu Bappu Observatory which is named after him.
• He has played a significant role in astronomy with major discoveries like the presence of rings around the planet Uranus, a new satellite of Uranus, and the presence of an atmosphere around Ganymede which is a satellite of Jupiter. 

Other Observatories in India

• Solar Observatory in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu
• Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, Ladakh
• Udaipur Solar Observatory in Udaipur, Rajasthan
• Gauribidanur Radio Observatory in Bangalore, Karnataka

Hence only statement 2 is correct.