Daily Current Affairs MCQ- January 12, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

The recent United Nations report, Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2022 said that the Earth’s ozone layer is slowly recovering.

• The successful phasing out of banned substances as envisioned by the Montreal Protocol has set the stage for a complete recovery of the ozone layer by the 2060s, a United Nations-backed panel of experts said at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting on January 8, 2023.

What is Ozone?

• Ozone is a gas composed of three atoms of oxygen. It is both a natural and a man-made product that occurs in the Earth's upper atmosphere (Stratospheric ozone) and lower atmosphere (the troposphere).
• Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O₂).
• The "ozone layer," approximately 6 to 30 miles above the Earth's surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, The Bureau of Indian Standards BIS publishes standards for digital television receivers with built-in satellite tuners.

• The Bureau of Indian Standards has published three significant Indian Standards in the area of Electronics.
• The first standard is Indian Standard for digital television receivers with built-in satellite tuners. 
• The technical Committee has published an Indian Standard IS 18112:2022 Specification for television with built-in satellite tuners.
• The TVs manufactured as per this Indian standard would enable reception of Free-To-Air TV and Radio channels just by connecting a dish antenna with LNB mounted on a suitable place, at the rooftop/side wall of the building.
• This would facilitate the transmission of knowledge about government initiatives, schemes, the educational content of Doordarshan and the repository of Indian cultural programs to reach and benefit a wide segment of the population in the country at large.

What are Digital television receivers?

• In this television in which the signals are transmitted in digital form and decoded by the television receiver.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The recent census report of birds released by the forest department in Odisha said that the number of migratory birds in Bhitarkanika National Park has risen to 1,39,959 this winter compared to last year’s count of 1,38,107 birds.

• The report highlighted that the number of bird counts increased but the diversity of species has decreased compared to last year. This year the Bhitarkanika National Park saw 140 species of birds compared to 144 last year.

Key facts about Bhitarkanika National Park 

• Bhitarkanika National Park is located in the Kendrapara district of Odisha.
• It is India’s second-largest mangrove ecosystem after the Sunderbans. 
• This National Park is a network of creeks and canals which are inundated with waters from rivers Brahmani, Baitarani, Dhamra and Patasala forming a unique ecosystem.
• It is home to the largest congregation of endangered Salt Water Crocodiles in the country.
• The Gahirmatha Beach which forms the boundary of the sanctuary in the east is the largest colony of the Olive Ridley Sea Turtles.
• Bhitarkanika is also home to eight varieties of Kingfisher birds which is also a rarity.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Cyber Security experts have sent out warnings about the potential use of ChatGPT to write phishing emails, malicious code easily and at a much larger scale.

About:

• ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) is a chatbot launched by OpenAI in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 family of large language models.
• It is a type of artificial intelligence that can understand and generate natural language text.
• It is trained on large amounts of text data and uses an algorithm called a transformer to learn how to generate text that is similar to human conversation.
• The application is beneficial for presenting information and responding to queries in a way similar to what would occur in a normal conversation because it has been educated by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

GPT-3:

• GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer 3) is a state-of-the-art language processing AI model developed by OpenAI.
• It is capable of generating human-like text and has a wide range of applications, including language translation, language modeling, and generating text for applications such as chatbots.
• It is one of the largest and most powerful language processing AI models to date, with 175 billion parameters.

Hence both statements are correct.

Union Government's free telemedicine service, e-Sanjeevani, has recently crossed another milestone by touching nine crore teleconsultations mark. 

• It is a web-based comprehensive telemedicine solution, launched by the then Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, in 2009.
• Created by: Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Mohali, is the creator of eSanjeevani.
• Two modules of eSanjeevani:
  • eSanjeevani AB-HWC:The doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform, being implemented at all the Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) in the country under Ayushman Bharat (AB) Scheme of Government of India.
    • It was rolled out in 2019.
• eSanjeevani OPD: It is the Patient-to-Doctor remote consultation services rolled out in 2020 amid the first lockdown imposed to fight Covid-19 pandemic, while the Outpatient Departments (OPDs) in the country were closed.
  • The initiative is a contactless and risk-free modality that enables delivery of health services to the citizens in the confines of their homes free of cost.
  • The C-DAC is working towards adding another innovative feature in eSanjeevani OPD that will enable roll out of National OPDs on eSanjeevani OPD, to offer remote health services to patients in any part of the country.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) to critical procurements for the defence forces, including that of the Very Short Range Air Defence System or VSHORAD (IR Homing) missile system.

• It is a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS).
• These are short-range, lightweight and portable surface-to-air missiles that can be fired by individuals or small groups to destroy aircraft or helicopters.
• They are having a maximum range of 8 kilometres and can engage targets at altitudes of 4.5 km.
• The missile incorporates many novel technologies including a miniaturized Reaction Control System (RCS) and integrated avionics, which have been successfully proven during the tests.
• The RCS is responsible for attitude control and steering by the use of thrusters and is also capable of providing small amounts of thrust in any desired direction or combination of directions.
• Designed and developed: DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad in collaboration with other DRDO laboratories and Indian Industry Partners.

Hence both statements are correct.

A recent study conducted by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has shed light on how blackbuck in India has fared in the face of natural and human-induced challenges to their survival.

• Researchers found that an ancestral blackbuck population first split into two groups: the northern and the southern cluster. The eastern cluster even though geographically close to the northern cluster seems to have emerged from the southern cluster.
• The study shows that despite all odds, male blackbuck appears to disperse more than expected, thus contributing to gene flow in this species.
• Females, on the other hand, appear to stay largely within their native population ranges, which the researchers inferred from unique mitochondrial signatures in each population.
• The data also showed an increasing trend in blackbuck population numbers as compared to the recent past.

Key features of blackbuck

• It is a species of antelope native to India and Nepal.
• While males have corkscrew-shaped horns and black-to-dark brown coats, the females are fawn-coloured.
• The animals are mainly seen in three broad clusters across India the northern, southern, and eastern regions.
• It is widespread in the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and other areas throughout peninsular India.
• Protection status:
  • IUCN Red List: Least concerned.
  • Wildlife Protection Act of 1972: Schedule I
  • CITES: Appendix III
• Protected areas in India:
• Gir National Park, Gujarat
• Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary, Bihar
• Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh
• Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan
• Ranebennur Blackbuck Sanctuary, Karnataka
• Vallanadu Wildlife Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), successfully carried out a training launch of, Prithvi-II from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off Odisha.

About Prithvi-II missile

• It is a surface-to-surface, nuclear-capable short-range ballistic missile.
• It has a carrying 500-1,000 kilograms of warheads and is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines. 
• Range: It has a strike range of 350 km.
• The missile is a proven system and is capable of striking targets with a very high degree of precision. 
• The state-of-the-art missile uses an advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvering trajectory to hit its target.
• It was inducted into the Indian armed forces in 2003.
• It was one of the first missiles developed under the Government of India's IGMDP. 

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Governor of Uttarakhand gave the nod to a Bill that gives 30% reservation to the native women of the state.

• The Bill provides women with 30 per cent horizontal reservation in public services and posts, in addition to the existing quotas applicable in the state.
• The beneficiaries need to be women with a domicile certificate of Uttarakhand.
• If enough women are not available to fill the reserved seats, they will be filled with qualified male candidates in the order of proficiency.

What is Horizontal Reservation?

• While a vertical reservation applies separately for each of the groups specified under the law, the horizontal quota is always applied separately to each vertical category, and not across the board.
• Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes is referred to as vertical reservation.
• Horizontal reservation refers to the equal opportunity provided to other categories of beneficiaries such as women, veterans, the transgender community, and individuals with disabilities, cutting through the vertical categories.
• For example, if women have 50 per cent horizontal quota, then half of the selected candidates will have to necessarily be women in each vertical quota category — i.e., half of all selected SC candidates will have to be women, half of the unreserved or general category will have to be women, and so on.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, DAC gave nod to purchase indigenous defence systems amounting to Rs. 4,276 crore.These include helicopter-launched Nag missiles and BrahMos cruise missile launchers for ships.

• The DAC is the highest decision-making body of the defence ministry on procurement.
• The defence minister is the chairman of DAC. Its members include Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force.
• The main objective of the DAC is to ensure expeditious procurement of the approved requirements of the armed forces .

Functions of DAC includes

• Give in principle approval of a 15 years Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) for defence forces.
• Accord of acceptance of necessity to acquisition proposals.
• Categorisation of the acquisition proposals relating to ‘Buy’, ‘Buy & Make’ and ‘Make’.
• Look into issues relating to single vendor clearance.
• Take decisions regarding ‘offset’ provisions in respect of acquisition proposals above Rs 300 crore.
• Take decisions regarding Transfer of Technology under the ‘Buy & Make’ category of acquisition proposals.
• Field trial evaluation.

Hence both statements are correct.