Daily Current Affairs MCQ- July 29, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, the INDIAai and Meta India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a framework for collaboration and cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies.

• It is the National artificial intelligence Portal of India which was launched on 28th May 2020.
• It is a knowledge portal, research organisation, and an ecosystem-building initiative.
• It stands to unite and promote collaborations with various entities in India’s AI ecosystem.
• It is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) and NASSCOM.
• NeGD: It was created in 2009 as an Independent Business Division under the Digital India Corporation (a not-for-profit company set up by MeitY).
• NASSCOM: It is a not-for-profit industry association and the apex body for the IT and IT-enabled products and services sector in India.
• It is the single central knowledge hub on artificial intelligence and allied fields for aspiring entrepreneurs, students, professionals, academics, and everyone else.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, a new species of millipede has been discovered crawling underneath the city of Los Angeles in the United States.

About New Millipede species:

• The newly found species is a thread Millipede.
• It is about the length of a paperclip but skinny as pencil lead.
• Its scientific name is Illacme socal.
• It is translucent and sinuous like a jellyfish tentacle.
• The creature burrows four inches below ground, secretes unusual chemicals and is blind.
• It relays on hornlike antennas protruding from its head to find its way.

Key facts about Millipede

• These are member of the arthropod(Phylum) class Diplopoda.
• They are cylindrical or slightly flattened invertebrates.
• The word “millipede” translates to “a thousand feet”—but while millipedes have many feet, none of them quite have a thousand.
• Their bodies are split into a number of segments, and each segment has two sets of legs that attach to the body's underside. 
• Diet: It is a detritivore, which means that it eats dead organic matter in the earth like damp wood pieces, decayed leaves, and other materials that naturally exists in their moist habitat underground.

Hence both statements are correct.

Prime Minister recently launched "Urea Gold", a new variety of Urea, during an event in Rajasthan's Sikar.

About Urea Gold:

• It is a new variety of Urea coated with Sulphur.
• It is being introduced to address the Sulphur deficiency in soil and save input costs for the farmers.
• Urea Gold surpasses the existing Neem-coated urea in terms of both economic viability and efficiency.
• How Urea Gold Is Better Than Others?
• Sulphur-coated urea facilitates a gradual release of nitrogen, thereby enhancing its availability and uptake by crops.
• The inclusion of humic acid in Urea Gold further extends its lifespan as a fertilizer. 
• This product not only substitutes traditional urea consumption but also reduces overall fertilizer usage.
• According to the report, 15 kg of Urea Gold provides comparable benefits to 20 kg of conventional urea, making it a more efficient and effective choice for farmers.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

A 19-year-old Naval sailor was recently found hanging onboard INS Vikrant.

About INS Vikrant:

• It is India’s first indigenously designed and manufactured aircraft carrier.
• The ship has been designed in-house by Indian Navy’s Warship Design Bureau and constructed by M/s Cochin Shipyard Limited.
• It will strengthen the country’s standing as a ‘Blue Water Navy’ — a maritime force with global reach and capability to operate over deep seas.
• With it, India also joins the elite group of nations – the US, Russia, France, the UK and China – who are capable of designing and constructing aircraft carriers. 
• Features:
• Dimension: It has an approximate length of 262 meters (860 feet) and a breadth of 62 meters (203 feet).
• Displacement: Its full-load displacement is 43,000 tonnes.
• Propulsion: It is powered by four gas turbine engines.
• Speed: It has a top speed of 52 km/h (32 mph).
• Endurance:  8,600 miles (13,890 kilometers)
• Aircraft capacity: It can accommodate up to 30 fixed-wing aircraft, including fighter jets, and rotary-wing aircraft, such as anti-submarine warfare helicopters and utility helicopters.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, NASA’s IXPE Mission unveils twisted mysteries of the Supermassive Black Hole Markarian 421.

• Markarian 421 is a supermassive black hole firing a jet of high-energy particles aimed directly at Earth.
• It is about 400 million light-years away from the earth
• It is located in the constellation Ursa Major.

Characteristics of supermassive black hole

• They have a mass greater than about 50,000 times the mass of our sun.
• These black holes are far too large to have formed from the gravitational collapse of a single star.
• These are always found at the center of a galaxy and almost all galaxies have a supermassive black hole at its center. 

Hence option a is the correct answer.

Tuvalu is on the list of islands that are most likely to disappear into the ocean in the near future due to rising sea levels.

• It was formerly called as the Ellice Islands.
• It’s an island country in the west-central Pacific Ocean, and sits around halfway between Hawaii and Australia. 
• Capital: Funafuti
• Its neighbours include Kiribati, to the north, and Fiji, to the south.
• It is composed of nine small coral islands scattered in a chain lying approximately northwest to southeast 
• Language: The Tuvaluans are Polynesian and they speak Tuvaluan language which is closely related to Samoan.
• Government
• The government is a parliamentary democracy with a unicameral legislature elected by universal adult suffrage.
• There are no political parties: the prime minister is chosen by and from the legislature.
• Tuvalu is a member of the South Pacific Forum.
• Economy
• Most people are subsistence farmers and are aided by remittances from relatives working overseas.
• A small quantity of copra is produced for export, the sale of stamps accounts for modest earnings, and fees are collected from foreign fishing fleets.
• Threats
• Due to its low-lying geography, Tuvalu is at acute risk from natural disasters, including rising storm surges, cyclones, and tsunamis.

Hence option d is the correct answer.

Recently, a study done by the researchers has found an expanding area of active tectonic deformation in the northern plains of Haryana.

• It refers to the changes and movements that occur within the Earth's crust due to tectonic forces.
• The Earth's lithosphere, which is composed of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle, is divided into several large and small tectonic plates.
• These plates are in constant motion and interact with each other at their boundaries.
• Tectonic activity at divergent plate boundaries can create rift zones and rift valleys.
• Tectonic deformation can lead to the folding of rocks, where layers of rock are bent and deformed due to compressional forces.

Key Findings:

• Researchers suggested that tectonic activities may have played a role in the extinction of the Vedic Saraswati River that once flowed through the region.
• The Piedmont zone of Haryana is actively deforming and could become a future seismic hazard zone.
• The Piedmont zone (a transition zone between the rugged mountains and the relatively flat plains) between the Ghaggar and Yamuna River basins showed signs of active tectonic deformations.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Union Minister of State for Power inaugurated UTPRERAK, a dedicated Centre of Excellence to accelerate industry adoption of clean technologies in New Delhi.

• The Unnat Takniki Pradarshan Kendra (UTPRERAK) is the Centre of Excellence to Accelerate Adoption of Energy Efficient Technologies and seeks to play a catalytic role in improving the energy efficiency of the Indian industry.
• It is also named as Advanced Industrial Technology Demonstration Centre (AITDC)
• It has been set up by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power.

What are the mandates?

• The Centre is mandated to become the key reference and resource institution on industrial energy-efficient technologies.
• It will demonstrate and showcase energy-efficient technologies in key industry sectors.
• It will act as an exhibition cum information centre and knowledge repository.
• It will be a knowledge exchange platform, where best practices from across various key sectors could be diffused among industry professionals through workshops and seminars.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Election Commission of India recently announced the schedule for the election on 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Goa, Gujarat and West Bengal.

About Rajya Sabha:

• Origin: India follows the British parliamentary system, so the Rajya Sabha, or the Upper House of Parliament, is equivalent to the House of Lords in the United Kingdom.
• Present strength:  The Rajya Sabha currently has 245 members, including 233 elected members and 12 nominated. As per the constitutional limit, the Upper House strength cannot exceed 250.
• Membership: While 233 members are elected from states and Union Territories (UTs), President of India nominates the remaining 12 from from the fields of art, literature, science and social services. 
• Tenure: Every Rajya Sabha MP has a tenure of six years and elections to one-third seats are held every two years.
• Vacancy: According to Section 154 of the Representation of the People Act 1951, a member chosen to fill a casual vacancy will serve for the remainder of his predecessor's term of office.
• Chair: The Indian vice-president is chairperson of the Upper House, while it also has a deputy chair.

Election Process to Rajyasabha:

• While Lok Sabha members are elected directly by the voters, Rajya Sabha members are elected indirectly by the people, that is, by the elected Members of a state's Legislative Assembly (MLAs).
• How many Rajya Sabha members a state can send depends on its population.
• MLAs vote in the Rajya Sabha elections in what is called proportional representation with the single transferable vote (STV) system. Each MLA’s vote is counted only once.
• In this system, MLAs don’t vote for each seat.
• Instead, the MLAs are given a paper with the names of all candidates. They have to give their order of preference for each candidate, marking 1,2,3… against their names.
• The ballot is open but MLAs have to show their ballots to an authorised agent from their party to prevent practices such as cross-voting. A vote cannot be counted if the ballot is not shown to the agent. Independent MLAs cannot show their ballot to anyone.
• If a qualifying number of voters choose a candidate as their first choice, he or she is elected. 
• The remaining votes go to the next candidates, but with a lesser value. So, MLAs also vote for candidates from other parties. 
• The candidate that gets rank 1 from an MLA secures a first preference vote. In order to win, a candidate needs a specific number of such first preference votes. This number depends on the strength of the state Assembly and the number of MPs it sends to Rajya Sabha.
• To win, a candidate should get a required number of votes which is known as quota or preference vote. The formula is = [Total number of votes/(Number of Rajya Sabha seats + 1)] + 1.
• However, the formula is changed in case more than one seat needs to be filled. The total number of votes required for a candidate in the case is = [(Number of votes x 100) / (Vacancies + 1)] + 1.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Prime Minister will launch the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission at a public programme in Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh.

What is Sickle Cell Anaemia?

• It is an inherited blood disorder.
• It affects hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body. 
• People with this disease have atypical hemoglobin molecules called hemoglobin S, which can distort red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent, shape.
• These sickle cells also become rigid and sticky, which can slow or block blood flow.
• What causes it?
• The cause of Sickle cell disease is a defective gene, called a sickle cell gene.
• A person will be born with sickle cell disease only if two genes are inherited—one from the mother and one from the father.
• Symptoms:
• Early stage: Extreme tiredness or fussiness from anemia, painfully swollen hands and feet, and jaundice.
• Later stage: Severe pain, anemia, organ damage, and infections.
• Treatments:
• The only cure for this disease is bone marrow or stem cell transplantation.
• However, there are treatments that can help relieve symptoms, lessen complications, and prolong life.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.