Daily Current Affairs MCQ- May 26, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

Recently, a five-member committee of MLAs has been formed by the state government of Himachal Pradesh to conduct a thorough study of cannabis cultivation and submit a report within a month.

• What is cannabis? Cannabis refers to a group of three plants with psychoactive properties, known as Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis.
• Cannabis is made up of more than 120 components, which are known as cannabinoids but experts have a pretty good understanding of two of them, known as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
• The Mexican term 'marijuana' is frequently used in referring to cannabis leaves or other crude plant material in many countries.
• The unpollinated female plants are called hashish. Cannabis oil (hashish oil) is a concentrate of cannabinoids obtained by solvent extraction of the crude plant material or of the resin.
• In India farming of cannabis has been legalised in Uttarakhand, and controlled cultivation of cannabis is also being done in some districts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
• Legal Provisions in India
• The central law that deals with cannabis (weed or marijuana) in India is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, of 1985.
• The NDPS Act prohibits the sale and production of cannabis resin and flowers, but the use of leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant is permitted.
• The states have the power to regulate and form the state rules for it.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the secretary of the Department of Biotechnology said that under the Genome India project, close to 7,000 genomes have been sequenced and 3,000 of these are already available for public access.

• The Genome India project is a Pan India initiative focused on the Whole Genome Sequencing of representative populations across India.
• Goal: The goal is to start with and executes whole genome sequencing and subsequent data analysis of 10,000 individuals representing the country’s diverse population. 
• This is a mission-mode, multi-institution consortium project, the first of its kind in India supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
• A genome is the complete set of genetic information in an organism.
• In living organisms, the genome is stored in long molecules of DNA called chromosomes.
• In humans, the genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes located in the cell’s nucleus, as well as a small chromosome in the cell’s mitochondria.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, a report of the committee of experts appointed by the Kerala High Court regarding human-elephant conflict stated that traditional settlements of the Muthuvan tribal community have coexisted with the wild animals in Chinnakkanal. 

• The Muthuvan people live on the border hill forests of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• They speak slightly two different dialects and call each other Malayalam Muthuvan and Pandi Muthuvan.
• Muthuvan are animists and spirit worshippers and also worship the forest gods.
• They believe that the spirits of their ancestors are to be the first migrants to the hill forests.
• The Muthuvan tribe has a unique system of governance called the 'Kani System'.
• Under this system, each village is headed by a 'Kani', who is responsible for the administration of the village.
• They have expertise in traditional medicines which are very effective and these medicines and the medicine men are confidentially preserved and passed on to the generations.
• Occupation: Agriculture is the main occupation of these Muthuvan tribes, producing quite a number of products like ragi, cardamom and lemon grass.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, as per an official statement by the UK Health Security Agency, 3 cases of probable or confirmed tick-borne encephalitis acquired in England since 2019.

• This infection is caused by a virus which is a member of the family Flaviviridae.
• The virus can spread to people through eating or drinking raw milk or cheese from infected goats, sheep, or cows.
• It causes a range of diseases from mild flu-like illness, to severe infection in the central nervous system such as meningitis or encephalitis.
• Symptoms: High fever with a headache, neck stiffness, confusion or reduced consciousness.
• Geographical Distribution: Most of the cases were reported from eastern, central, northern and increasingly western European countries, northern China, Mongolia, and the Russian Federation.
• Treatment: There are 4 widely used vaccines of assured quality available namely
• FSME-Immun and Encepur: Manufactured in Austria and Germany respectively, and based on European strains of the virus
• TBE-Moscow and EnceVir: Manufactured in the Russian Federation and based on Far-Eastern strains.

Hence both statements are not correct.

The Andaman and Nicobar Command recently conducted a joint military exercise, ‘KAVACH’, involving assets of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

About Exercise KAVACH:

• It was conducted under the aegis of the Andaman and Nicobar Command (ANC), the only Joint Forces Command in the country.
• It was a tri-service exercise and involved assets of the Indian Army, Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and Indian Coast Guard.
• Naval warships, amphibious troops of the Army and different types of aircraft of the Indian Air Force were employed during the military drill.
• Aim: To enhance operational synergy and joint warfighting capabilities among the three services.
• The exercise involved the synergised application of maritime surveillance assets, coordinated air and maritime strikes, air defence, submarine and landing operations

Hence both statements are correct.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is in the final phase of launching the much-awaited JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) mission to explore Jupiter and three of its biggest moons.

About JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) Mission:

• It is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to explore Jupiter and three of its icy moons: Europa, Callisto and Ganymede.
• Objective: The probe aims to explore the possibilities of life in space and the origins of Jupiter.
• The probe will take nearly eight years to reach Jupiter.
• It will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation, and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons.
• Approximately four years after its arrival at the Jupiter system, JUICE will move into orbit around the gas giant's largest moon, Ganymede, to conduct the most extensive exploration of this body, which is larger than the solar system's smallest planet, Mercury. 
• It will become the first probe to orbit a planetary moon other than Earth's. 
• Features of the spacecraft:
• It has been fuelled with mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) fuel and mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON) oxidizer, which ignites when the two come in contact. Juice will use this propellant to make critical course manoeuvres on its journey.
• It will be packed with 10 instruments and will characterize Jupiter’s ocean-bearing icy moons.
• It will be launched onboard the Ariane-5 rocket, a workhorse for the European Space Agency.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Indian Navy recently conducted the Prasthan exercise in the offshore development area off Mumbai.

About Prasthan Exercise:

• The exercise is held every six months under the aegis of the Indian Navy and involves the participation of all stakeholders in the maritime domain.
• This exercise is an important element of ensuring offshore security and aims to integrate the efforts of all maritime stakeholders involved in offshore defence.
• The recent exercise aims to validate measures and procedures to address contingencies that may occur in oil production platforms.
• It was conducted on the Greatdrill Chaaya platform, about 30 nm South West of Mumbai Harbour.
• The exercise saw actions to counter contingencies such as a fire in the oil platform, a man overboard, an oil spill in the area, helicopter emergencies, a hazardous gas leak, assisting a disabled vessel in the offshore area and medical evacuation of the platform crew.
• A number of ships and helicopters from the Indian Navy, Indian Air Force, Indian Coast Guard, ONGC and Directorate General of Shipping were deployed for the exercise.
• Personnel from Maharashtra Police, Customs, Fisheries Department, Mumbai Port Authority, JN Port Authority and other concerned state and central civilian agencies also participated in it.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Union Cabinet recently approved to set up a gravitational-wave detection facility in Maharashtra that will consist of a detector called the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO).

About LIGO-India Project:

• What is Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)?
• LIGO is the world's most powerful observatory that exploits the physical properties of light and of space itself to detect and understand the origins of gravitational waves.
• At the moment, there are two such observatories in the US.
• What is LIGO-India Project?
• LIGO-India will be an advanced gravitational-wave observatory to be located in Maharashtra, India, as part of a worldwide network.
• It is envisaged as a collaborative project between a consortium of Indian research institutions and the LIGO Laboratory in the USA, along with its international partners.

What is a Gravitational Wave?

• It is an invisible (yet incredibly fast) ripple in space.
• They travel at the speed of light.
• These waves squeeze and stretch anything in their path as they pass by.
• Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.
• Einstein's mathematics showed that massive accelerating objects (such as neutron stars or black holes orbiting each other) would disrupt space-time in such a way that 'waves' of undulating space-time would propagate in all directions away from the source.

Hence both statements are correct.

NASA recently announced the crew that will fly aboard its Artemis II mission.

About Artemis II Mission:

• It will be the first mission to carry humans to the moon's vicinity since 1972.
• It is the second scheduled flight of the Artemis program and the first crewed Artemis mission. 
• During Artemis II, four astronauts will fly around the moon before returning to Earth.
• It will use the huge Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket and Orion spacecraft to launch the crew on the lunar flyby mission.
• The astronauts and mission controllers will collect data on Orion and the crew's performance to assess how ready the Artemis program is to send people to the moon's surface.

Key Facts of Artemis Program:

• It is NASA's program to return astronauts to the Moon, preparing the way for human missions to Mars.
• It aim to "land the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon", explore the lunar surface.
• The Artemis program includes the construction of the Lunar Gateway space station in orbit around the Moon.
• Artemis I: An uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, launched on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on November 16, 2022.

Hence both statements are correct.

Hyderabad based National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) has found large deposits of 15 rare earth elements (REE) in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district.

About Rare Earth Elements (REE):

• REE are a set of seventeen elements in the periodic table. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table plus scandium and yttrium.
• REE are all metals, and the group is often referred to as the "rare earth metals.
• Although called "rare", they are actually found relatively abundantly in the Earth's crust.
• Why they are called "rare"? These metals are very difficult to mine because it is unusual to find them in concentrations high enough for economical extraction.
• These metals have many similar properties, and that often causes them to be found together in geologic deposits.
• They are also referred to as "rare earth oxides" because many of them are typically sold as oxide compounds.
• Applications:
• REE and alloys that contain them are used in many devices that people use every day such as computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, catalytic converters, magnets, fluorescent lighting and much more.
• Rare earths are used as catalysts, phosphors, and polishing compounds.

Hence both statements are correct.