Daily Current Affairs MCQ- June 23, 2024 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, conservationists Dharmendra Khandal and Ishan Dhar published a book Caracal: An intimate history of a mysterious cat which explains about Caracal species.

• It is an elusive, primarily nocturnal animal which has traditionally been valued for its litheness and extraordinary ability to catch birds in flight.
• In India, it is called siya gosh, a Persian name that translates as ‘black Ear’.
• They typically use abandoned porcupine burrows and rock crevices for maternal dens, but can be found with their young in dense vegetation. 
• Distribution:
• The most suitable habitat for caracals in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh is located in Kutch, the Malwa Plateau, the Aravalli hill range and the Bundelkhand region, 
• It is found in several dozen countries across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia. 
• Habitat: They live in woodlands, savannahs and in scrub forests.
• Threats: Large-scale hunting, illegal trading and loss of natural habitats are considered significant threats to the species.
• Conservation status
• IUCN: Near Threatened
• Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I

Hence only statements 1 and 3 are correct.

Recently, the Ministry of Culture has curtailed the powers of the Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) Chairman, barring him from taking any “administrative actions”.

• It was inaugurated in 1954 by the then Minister for Education, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and is registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860.
• It has preserved and documented a permanent collection of the highest order that reflects the vitality, complexity and unfolding patterns of contemporary, modern, folk and tribal art in India. 
• It is India's national academy of fine arts established by Government of India to promote and propagate understanding of Indian art, in and outside the country.
• It promotes Visual Art of India in various countries of the world through Cultural Agreements and Cultural Exchange Programmes.
• The National Exhibition of Art is the most prestigious annual event of the Lalit Kala Akademi. 
• Funding: It is funded by the Ministry of Culture.
• It has regional centres situated at Chennai, Lucknow, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Garhi.
• Headquarter: New Delhi

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, researchers at Northwestern University recently outlined a new strategy to fabricate high-density and mechanically flexible Organic Electrochemical Transistor (OECTs).

• It is an emerging class of transistor based on organic superconducting materials known for their ability to modulate electrical current in response to small changes in the voltage applied to their gate electrode.
• It is a device capable of simultaneously controlling the flow of electronic and ionic currents.
• Advantages: They have various notable advantages, including promising amplification and sensing capabilities, low power consumption, low driving voltages and a versatile structure.  
• Applications: They can be used to create biosensors, wearable devices, and neuromorphic systems.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, a deadly tornado struck the Mainaguri area of Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal for 10 minutes and killed five people and injured over a 100. 

• It is a land-based vertical column of violently rotating air that forms from a thunderstorm to the ground. It can have wind speeds in the range of 105-322 kilometres per hour.
• The rotating column is physically connected to the cloud base or wall cloud and is often visible as a cloud-filled "condensation funnel". If the air is dry enough, the tornado may only appear as a swirl of dirt on the ground without a visible connection to the cloud above.
• The tornado over the sea is called water spouts.
• Formation: Any collision of warm, moist air with dry, cool air in the presence of a low pressure system like a trough causes thunderstorms and tornadoes.
• Geographical distribution:
• It occurs most commonly on continents in the mid-latitudes (between 20 and 60 degrees north and south), where they are frequently associated with thunderstorms that develop in regions where cold polar air meets warm tropical air.
• Tornadoes are the most common in the United States, Argentina and Bangladesh. 
• The Enhanced Fujita scale is used to measure tornado strength. It is used to assign tornado a 'rating' based on estimated wind speeds and related damage.

Hence only statements 1 and 3 are correct.

A rare, formerly-horned comet that astronomers have dubbed the "Mother of Dragons" is now visible after dusk in the Northern Hemisphere.

• It is officially known as Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks.
• It is a ‘Halley-type’ comet with an orbital period of roughly 71 years and a nucleus approximately 30 km wide.
• Composition: It is composed of ice, dust, and rocky material. When it approaches the Sun, heat causes the ice inside the comet to turn from solid to gas.
• It is classified as a Jupiter-family comet, meaning its orbit is influenced by Jupiter's gravitational pull.
• It typically reaches perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around the orbit of Mars and can become visible to observers on Earth during its close approach.
• Its closest approach to Earth will occur in June 2024.

Key facts about Comets

• Comets are ancient cosmic icebergs. They are roughly 4.6 billion years old and formed at the same time as the Sun, Earth and the other planets.
• They are made of dust and ice, which partly goes from solid to gas when the comet is warmed by the Sun.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in Bengaluru has developed a new platform called OptiDrop.

• It is an innovative microfluidic chip-based platform that simplifies and reduces the cost of studying single cells.
• It employs a novel approach that enables precise and cost-effective analysis of single cells encapsulated in droplets.
• The platform’s unique features include live data visualisation, a smaller data footprint, and a ‘closed’ system design that prevents external contamination.
• This research was supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Council (BIRAC), the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
• Applications:
• This cutting-edge technology has potential applications in diagnostics, therapeutics, agriculture, and animal health.
• It helps in studying the impact on individual cells during a drug screen, environment control (water contamination counter), detection and sorting of CAR-T cells in immuno-oncotherapeutics, selection of CRISPR-modified single cells and selection of high-efficiency clones in single-cell genomics

What is C-CAMP?

• It is an initiative supported by Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India is a catalyst of cutting-edge research and innovation in the life sciences since 2009.
• It is mandated to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. It has created and fostered an entrepreneur-friendly culture in and around Academic/Research environment through its involvement in Seed Funding Schemes for Startups.

Hence both statements are correct.

A team of Indian scientists has made significant progress in understanding the genetic makeup of the virus responsible for the lumpy skin disease that led to the deaths of approximately 1,00,000 cattle since May 2022.

About Lumpy Skin Disease:

• It is an infectious viral disease of cattle.
• Causative Agent: It is caused by the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), which belongs to the genus capripoxvirus, a part of the poxviridae family (smallpox and monkeypox viruses are also a part of the same family). 
• LSDV is not a zoonotic virus, meaning the disease cannot spread to humans.
• Geographical distribution:
• LSD is currently endemic in most of Africa, parts of the Middle East,and Turkey.
• Since 2015, the disease has spread to most of the Balkan countries, the Caucasus, and the Russian Federation.
• Since 2019, several outbreaks of LSD have been reported by countries in Asia (Bangladesh, India, China, Chinese Taipei, Vietnam, Bhutan, Hong Kong (SAR-RPC), Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand).
• Transmission:
• It is transmitted by blood-feeding insects, such as certain species of flies, mosquitoes, or ticks.
• Infected animalsshed the virus through oral and nasal secretions, which may contaminate common feeding and water troughs.
• Thus, the disease can either spread through direct contact with the vectors or through contaminated fodder and water.
• Symptoms:
• LSD affects the lymph nodes of the infected animal, causing the nodes to enlarge and appear like lumps on the skin, which is where it derives its name from. 
• The cutaneous nodules, 2–5 cm in diameter, appearon the infected cattle’s head, neck, limbs, udder, genitalia, and perineum.
• The nodules may later turn into ulcers and eventually develop scabs over the skin. 
• The other symptoms include high fever, a sharp drop in milk yield, discharge from the eyes and nose, salivation, loss of appetite, depression, damaged hides, emaciation (thinness or weakness) of animals, infertility, and abortions.
• It can also lead to death, especially in animals that have not previously been exposedto the virus or have low immunity.
• LSD is a highly host-specific disease. It primarily affects cows and to a lesser extent, buffalo. Morbidity rate is higher in cattle than buffalo.
• Treatment:
• It has no direct antiviral treatment.
• Instead, the infected animals receive supportive care, which involves the use of antibiotics, painkillers, and wound care sprays to treat symptoms.
• As there's no treatment, vaccines are used to control disease transmission.

Hence option b is the correct answer.

The Allahabad High Court recently observed that orders issued by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, are subject to appeal solely to the Supreme Court and not the High Court.

About Contempt of Court:

• Constitutional Provisions: Article 129 of the Constitution says that the Supreme Court shall be the ‘Court of Record’ and it has all the powers of such courts including the power to punish for contemptof itself. Article 215 conferred a corresponding power on the High Courts.
• According to the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, contempt of court can either be civil contempt or criminal contempt. 
• Civil contempt means wilful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
• On the other hand, criminal contempt means the publication (whether by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise) of any matter or the doing of any other act whatsoever which
• scandalises or tends to scandalise, or lowers or tends to lower the authority of, any court; or
• prejudices, or interferes with, or tends to interfere with, the due course of any judicial proceeding; or
• interferes or tends to interfere with, or obstructs or tends to obstruct, the administration of justice in any other manner.
• A contempt of court may be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to two thousand rupees, or with both, provided that the accused may be discharged or the punishment awarded may be remitted on apology being made to the satisfaction of the court.
• What is not contempt of court?
• Fair and accurate reporting of judicial proceedings will not amount to contempt of court. Nor is any fair criticism on the merits of a judicial order after a case is heard and disposed of.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, the pharma standards body Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) has issued a drug safety alert over nimesulide, saying the pill can trigger rashes on the skin (fixed drug eruption).

• It is an autonomous Institution of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India.
• It is created to set standards of drugs in the country.
• Functions:
• Its basic function is to update regularly the standards of drugs commonly required for treatment of diseases prevailing in this region.
• It publishes official documents for improving Quality of Medicines by way of adding new and updating existing monographs in the form of Indian Pharmacopoeia (IP).
• It further promotes rational use of generic medicines by publishing National Formulary of India.
• It prescribes standards for identity, purity and strength of drugs essentially required from health care perspective of human beings and animals.
• It also provides IP Reference Substances (IPRS) which act as a finger print for identification of an article under test and its purity as prescribed in IP.

What is fixed drug eruption?

• It is a distinctive variant of drug-induced dermatoses with characteristic recurrence at the same site of the skin or mucous membranes. 
• It is known to occur more frequently with antimicrobials and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs than with other drugs.

Hence only statements 1 and 2 are correct.

The forest department is monitoring an outbreak of mange among a pack of Asiatic wild dogs in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris.

• It is a skin disease of animals caused by mite infestations, characterized by inflammation, itching, thickening of the skin, and hair loss.
• The most severe form of mange is caused by varieties of the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, which also causes human scabies.
• Some form of mange is known in all domestic animals, although many varieties of mange mites infest only one species.
• Transmission: They are transmitted between animals by direct contact and by objects that have been in contact with infected animals. Most forms of mange are treatable.

Key facts about Asiatic wild dogs

• It is a wild canid found in the forests of central, south, and southeast Asia. 
• Other Names: Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red wolf, red dog and mountain wolf.
• Distribution
• They are found throughout Eastern and Southeastern Asia. 
• They can be seen as far north as Siberia, as far south as some Malaysian islands, and as far west as the Indian peninsula. 
• They are found in three clusters across India, namely the Western and Eastern Ghats, the central Indian landscape and North East India. The Western and Eastern Ghats is a stronghold region for dholes.
• Habitat:  Dholes are animals that inhabit dense jungles, steppes, mountains, scrub forests, and pine forests.
• Conservation status
• IUCN Red List: Endangered
• The Wildlife Protection Act 1972: Schedule II
• CITES: Appendix II

Hence only statement 2 is correct.