Test: Monthly Current Affairs December- 2 - UPSC MCQ

In News: As per a report by PwC (a global network of firms), India reported a 45% increase in the use of Artificial Intelligence, the highest among all countries, following the outbreak of the virus.
Option C is correct: According to the PwC report on AI, India reported a 45 per cent increase in the use of AI, the highest among all countries, while the US recorded a 35 per cent rise, the UK 23 per cent and Japan 28 per cent, following the outbreak of the virus. The sectors with the highest Covid-19 led disruption adopted AI solutions in a more definitive manner. In the travel and hospitality sector, 89% of firms have implemented AI in some form. Recently, India joins Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI.

In News: Recently, Israel launched the Beresheet 2 project aimed at landing an unmanned craft on the moon in 2024.
Option D is correct: Recently, Israel launched the Beresheet 2 project aimed at landing an unmanned craft on the moon in 2024, after a previous such mission had crashed into the lunar surface. The original Beresheet, Hebrew for "Genesis", was a tall, oddly shaped 585-kilogram spacecraft built by Israeli NGO SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. It had reached the moon in April 2019 but suffered an engine failure as it prepared to land. 

Statement 1 is not correct: It was during the 1960s when several issues of national and international importance used to be raised by members of Parliament immediately after Question Hour. On one such occasion, a member raised an issue pertaining to policy announcements made by the ministers outside Parliament when Parliament was in session. This act triggered an idea among other members who called for another provision for discussing important matters in the House. Zero Hour doesn’t find a mention in the Rules of Procedure and hence it’s considered an informal procedure for the members of Parliament to raise matters of serious importance.
Statement 2 is correct: It is the time gap between the end of Question Hour and the beginning of the regular business of the House.

In News: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)  in his research has found that 77 per cent of the samples were adulterated with sugar syrup.
Option A is correct: The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) is an intergovernmental body with over 180 members, within the framework of the Joint Food Standards Programme. It was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), with the purpose of protecting the health of consumers and ensuring fair practices in the food trade. The Commission also promotes coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Codex texts are voluntary and non-binding.

Option A is correct: Recently, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) claimed that honey marketed by prominent brands failed a key test of purity. The food researchers selected 13 brands of raw and processed honey and subjected them to tests that are required under national food regulatory laws.

• Most of the brands passed muster but when subjected to the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) only three brands passed.
• The NMR tests were carried out in Germany.
• The NMR test is not required by Indian law for honey that is being marketed locally but is needed for export.
• It is an analytical chemistry technique used in quality control and research for determining the content and purity of a sample as well as its molecular structure.
• It ascertains the composition of a product at the molecular level.

Agriculture comes under the State List i.e. it forms a part of the state list of our Constitution, which essentially means that states are supposed to address all the issues related to agriculture.

In News: Recently, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has celebrated Human Rights Day on 10th December.

: NHRC is a statutory body, constituted under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, to protect and promote human rights related to life, liberty, equality and dignity of individuals NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) consists of:

• The chairperson should be retired Chief Justice of India.
• One Member who is, or has been, a Judge of the Supreme Court of India
• One Member who is, or has been, the Chief Justice of a High Court.
• Two Members to be appointed from among persons having knowledge of, or practical experience in, matters relating to human rights.
• In addition, the Chairpersons of four National Commissions of Minorities It can’t investigate a case after 1 year of its occurrence. It only has recommendatory powers with no penal provisions for its non-implementation.

In News- Recently, Fifteenth Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh has called for a fresh look at the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule, which forms the basis for allocating subjects to the Centre and States.
Option C is correct: The seventh schedule under Article 246 of the constitution deals with the division of powers between the union and the states. It contains three lists- Union List, State List and Concurrent List. The union list details the subjects on which Parliament may make laws while the state list details those under the purview of state legislatures. The concurrent list on the other hand has subjects in which both Parliament and state legislatures have jurisdiction. However, the Constitution provides federal supremacy to Parliament on concurrent list items in case of a conflict.

In news- A not very common type of malaria, Plasmodium ovale, has been identified in a jawan in Kerala. Option A is correct: There are five kinds of malarial parasites Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax (the commonest ones), Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium knowlesi. Malaria is caused by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito, if the mosquito itself is infected with a malarial parasite. P ovale rarely causes severe illness and is no more dangerous than getting a viral infection.

In News: The UNESCO has decided to launch an international prize in the field of ‘creative economy’ in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Option B is correct: The UNESCO has decided to launch an international prize in the field of ‘creative economy’ in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In this regards, the UN declares 2021 as International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. 

Option D is correct: An Inner Line Permit is a document that allows an Indian citizen to visit or stay in a state that is protected under the ILP system. An Inner Line Permit is a travel document that is required by non-natives to visit four Northeastern states, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Both the duration of stay and the areas allowed to be accessed for any non-native are determined by the ILP. The ILP is issued by the concerned state government and can be availed both by applying online or in person. All foreigners are required to have the Protection Area Permit or PAP for entering into an ILP system state. They can obtain the Protected Area Permit. Hence, all the statements are not correct.

Option D is correct: Boreal forests, or taiga, represent the largest terrestrial biome. Occurring between 50ᵒ and 60ᵒ north latitudes, these can be found in the broad belt of Eurasia and North America. Boreal Forests are dominated by conifers, especially spruces and firs. These are dotted with lakes, bogs, and marshes. There is little rainfall in the boreal biome. Precipitation comes in the form of fog and snow, with a little rain during the summer months. There are long, service winters (up to six months with mean temperature below freezing) and short summers (50 to 100 frost-free days), as is a wide range of temperature between the lows of winter and highs of summer. The soils of the boreal forest are often acidic, due to falling pine needles, and low on nutrients since the cold temperature does not allow much foliage to rot and turn into dirt. Hence, statements 2 and 3 are correct.

In News- Recently, Virtual Climate Ambition Summit has co-convened by the UN to mark the five years of the Paris Agreement.
Option B is correct: The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a binding agreement brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement works on a 5- year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate action carried out by countries. 

In News- Recently, Argentina introduced a new tax named Millionaire’s tax.
Option A is correct: Recently, Argentina introduced a new tax named Millionaire’s tax. Under MillionaireTax, the country's wealthiest people have to pay for medical supplies and relief measures in context to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Argentina has been rather adversely affected by the pandemic, becoming the fifth country globally to report one million confirmed cases in October.

Google's Helium balloons stayed in the air for almost a year, providing internet. Google has a subsidiary called Project Loon, which comprises of helium-filled balloons that aim to deliver internet access to remote parts of the world. These high-altitude balloons are found in the stratosphere and create aerial wireless networks. By using machine-learning algorithms, they have found a way to predict the weather with enough accuracy to make it possible to hover balloons over a relatively small area for a long period of time.

In News- A Himalayan serow has been sighted for the first time in the Himalayan cold desert region. Option D is correct: A Himalayan serow has been sighted for the first time in the Himalayan cold desert region. The Himalayan serow, or Capricornis sumatraensis thar, is restricted to the Himalayan region. Himalayan serows are herbivores and are typically found at altitudes between 2,000 metres and 4,000 metres (6,500 to 13,000 feet). They are known to be found in eastern, central, and western Himalayas, but not in the Trans Himalayan region. Previously assessed as ‘near threatened’, the Himalayan serow is now been categorised as ‘vulnerable’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Hence, all the statements given are not correct, so D is the correct answer.

In News- In Cuba, a campaign by artists and activists demanding greater freedom of expression has been in news recently.
Option C is correct: The Movimiento San Isidro started two years ago to protest state censorship of artistic works, and has now become a platform for Cuban dissidents both within and outside the Caribbean nation. The movement started in September 2018, when the Cuban government sought to enforce Decree 349, a law that would have given powers to the nation’s Culture Ministry to restrict cultural activity it did not approve of. To protest against the decree, artists, poets, journalists and activists gathered in San Isidro, a Black-majority locality that is among Havana’s poorest yet most culturally active wards, and which also forms part of the Old Havana UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Statement 1 is not correct: In India’s development plan exercise we have two types of schemes i.e central sector and centrally sponsored scheme. Under Central sector schemes, it is 100% funded by the Union government and implemented by the Central Government machinery. Central sector schemes are mainly formulated on subjects from the Union List. Under Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) a certain percentage of the funding is borne by the States in the ratio of 50:50, 70:30, 75:25 or 90:10 and the implementation is by the State Governments.
Statement 2 is not correct: Centrally Sponsored Schemes are formulated in subjects from the State List to encourage States to prioritise in areas that require more attention.
Statement 3 is correct: The centrally sponsored schemes are divided into two categories – core of the core schemes and core schemes. MGNREGA or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act falls under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes: Core of the core schemes.

A tiger economy is the economy of a country which undergoes rapid economic growth, usually accompanied by an increase in the standard of living. A tiger economy is a term used to describe several booming economies in Southeast Asia. The Asian tiger economies typically include Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan as India is not the member of this. Hence statement 2 is also not correct. 

In News- The United States has once again included India in its monitoring list of countries with potentially “questionable foreign exchange policies” and “currency manipulation”.
Option D is correct: The ‘currency manipulator’ tag is given by the US government to countries it feels are engaging in “unfair currency practices” by deliberately devaluing their currency against the dollar. The practice would mean that the country in question is artificially lowering the value of its currency to gain an unfair advantage over others. An economy meeting two of the three criteria in the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 is placed on the Monitoring List. This includes:

• A “significant” bilateral trade surplus with the US — one that is at least $20 billion over a 12-month period.
• A material current account surplus equivalent to at least 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over a 12-month period.
• “Persistent”, one-sided intervention — when net purchases of foreign currency totalling at least 2 percent of the country’s GDP over a 12 month period are conducted repeatedly, in at least six out of 12 months.