Daily Current Affairs MCQ- June 1, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

Seventy-one Chinese military aircraft crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait recently as China began drills around Taiwan.

About Taiwan Strait:

• Taiwan Strait, also called Formosa Strait, is a 180-kilometre-wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia.
• The strait extends from southwest to northeast between the South and East China Seas.
• The narrowest part is 130 km wide.
• It reaches a depth of about 230 feet (70 m) and contains the Pescadores Islands (which are controlled by the government of Taiwan). 
• The chief ports are Amoy in mainland China and Kao-hsiung in Taiwan. 
• Median line of the Taiwan Strait:
• It is the informal dividing line in the Taiwan Strait between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. 
• It came about during the Cold War as a way to try and delineate the two opposing sides and reduce the risk of clashes
• No agreement or treaty ever solidified its status. But over the decades, it helped keep Taiwan and China's militaries apart.

Hence both statements are correct.

The International Trade Union Confederation and its Global Unions partners are calling for the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) to overhaul the multilateral system and take bold action to ensure a new social contract for a sustainable recovery.

About International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC):

• It is an organization established in 2006, that promotes the trade union movement.
• It represents 176 million workers in 161 countries and territories and has 325 national affiliates.
• Mission: Promotion and defence of workers’ rights and interests, through international cooperation between trade unions, global campaigning and advocacy within the major global institutions. 
• Its main areas of activity include the following: trade union and human rights; economy, society and the workplace; equality and non-discrimination; and international solidarity.
• It is governed by four-yearly world congresses, a General Council and an Executive Bureau.
• It works closely with the International Labour Organisation and with several other UN Specialised Agencies.
• Headquarters: Belgium

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Prime Minister recently released the summary report of the 5th cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation.

Highlights of the 5th cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation:

• India's tiger population rose by 200 in the past four years to reach 3,167 in 2022.
• According to the data, the tiger population was 1,411 in 2006, 1,706 in 2010, 2,226 in 2014, 2,967 in 2018 and 3,167 in 2022
• The number of tigers has almost doubled in the last two decades in the country.
• As many as 1,161 of India’s tigers are now in Central India, 824 in the Western Ghats, 804 in the Shivalik Range, 194 in the North-eastern states and 100 in the Sunderbans. 
• The Western Ghats, which are home to the largest tiger population in the world, have shown a significant fall in the occupancy of tigers.
• Tiger occupancy has also declined in the states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.
• The north-western states such as Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh now have more tigers outside reserves, requiring officials to step up habitat conservation.
• The period covered in the survey — 2018 to 2022 — also saw 551 tiger deaths, with 208 of them adults. 

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), March 2023 saw variations on several meteorological fronts.

• It is the most ambitious Earth observation programme to date.
• It was previously known as the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security programme
• This initiative is headed by the European Commission (EC) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).
• Objectives: It will provide accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.
• Services provided by Copernicus fall into 6 categories: Land management, the marine environment, the atmosphere, emergency response, security and climate change.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

In the recently held United Nations Water Conference 2023, the World Meteorological Organisation’s Hydrological Status and Outlook System offered a data analysis tool for simulation.

• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN).
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873. 
• Established in 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the UN for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.
• Headquarters:  Geneva, Switzerland.
• Currently, it has a membership of 187 countries.
• India is a member of the WMO since 1949 and has a permanent representative in the organization.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) captured a crab nebula like never before.

• The word nebula is derived from Latin which means a cloud.
• A nebula is a formation in space which is constituted mostly of helium, dust, and other gases in various concentrations.
• The shape and size of a nebula vary, and as such there can be various types of formations having different sizes.
• It is believed that they are formed by the collapsing of the interstellar medium, which then comes together because of the gravitational pull of the particles.
• The crab nebula is situated in the Taurus constellation, a staggering 6500 light-years distant from Earth.
• It was formed as a result of a supernova and possesses a mass equivalent to two Suns.
• The discovery of the object as a nebula is attributed to the English physician and amateur astronomer John Bevis in about 1731.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Prime Minister of India interacted with Bomman and Bellie, the tribal couple who were featured in the Oscar-winning documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ at the Theppakadu Elephant Camp in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR).

• It is located in the Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu state at the tri-junction of three states, viz, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• The name Mudumalai means the ancient hill range because it is as old as 65 million years when the Western Ghats were formed.
• It has a common boundary with Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (Kerala) on the West, and Bandipur Tiger Reserve (Karnataka) on the North.
• The Theppakadu elephant camp is a popular tourist attraction.
• Flora: A variety of habitats ranging from tropical evergreen forest, moist deciduous forest, moist teak forest, dry teak forest, secondary grasslands and swamps are found here.
• Fauna: Elephants, Gaur, Tiger, Panther, Spotted Deer, Barking Deer, Wild Boar, Porcupine etc. 

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

India is the fourth highest donor to UN Democracy Fund, which funds at least 68 projects worldwide linked to the Open Society Foundation.

• It was created by the former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2005 as a United Nations General Trust Fund to support democratization efforts around the world.
• It is used to empower civil society, promote human rights, and encourage the participation of all groups in democratic processes.
• India is a founding member of UNDEF.
• Funding: It subsists entirely on voluntary contributions from Governments.
• Advisory Board: It is constituted by the Secretary-General and includes
• UN Member States who have made the largest cumulative financial contributions to the Fund over the previous three years.
• International civil society organizations.
• Individuals serving in a personal capacity.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, physicists in Japan while studying the atoms of heavy elements discovered a previously unknown isotope of uranium-241.

• Uranium was discovered in 1789 by Martin Klaproth, a German chemist.
• It is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the periodic table, with atomic number 92.
• It has the highest atomic weight of all naturally occurring elements.
• It occurs naturally in low concentrations in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite.
• Uranium ore can be mined from open pits or underground excavations.
• In India, Jaduguda in the Singhbhum Thrust Belt (in the state of Jharkhand, formerly part of Bihar) is the first uranium deposit to be discovered in the country in 1951 and several uranium occurrences have also been found in the Cuddapah basin of Andhra Pradesh.
• In the Mahadek basin of Meghalaya in the Northeastern part of the country, sandstone-type uranium deposits like Domiasiat, Wahkhyn, and Mawsynram provide near-surface flat ore bodies amenable to commercial operations.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, Scientists from the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, have designed an efficient SERS substrate.

• It was discovered by C.V. Raman in 1928 to study the vibrational, rotational, and low-frequency modes of the molecules.
• Principle: The principle behind Raman spectroscopy is that the monochromatic radiation is passed through the sample such that the radiation may get reflected, absorbed, or scattered.
• The scattered photons have a different frequency from the incident photon as the vibration and rotational properties vary.
• Types of Raman Spectroscopy are
• Resonance Raman Spectroscopy (RRS)
• Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)
• Micro-Raman Spectroscopy

Hence only statement 2 is correct.