Test: Monthly Current Affairs June- 1 - UPSC MCQ

In News: Recently, a farmer from Himachal Pradesh has developed an innovative selfpollinating apple variety namely, HRMN 99. The variety has been named in the name of the farmer, Hariman Sharma.The farmer is known as the ‘Apple man of India’. In 2017, he had been conferred with a National award by the President of India Commercial cultivation of this apple variety has been initiated in Manipur, Jammu, low lying areas of Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka Chhattisgarh, and Telangana, and fruit setting has been expanded to 23 states & UTs so far.It can be grown in plain, tropical, and subtropical areas. Does not require chilling hours for flowering and fruit setting.

Recently, ‘YUVA- Prime Minister’s Scheme For Mentoring Young Authors’ has been launched. YUVA stands for ‘Young, Upcoming and Versatile Authors’. It is a part of India@75 Project Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. Implementation by: National Book Trust, Ministry of Education Aim: To encourage young writers to write about India’s freedom struggle It is an author mentorship programme to train young and budding authors below the age of 30.

Statements 1 and 2 are not correct: National Human Rights Commission (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.The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is composed of a Chairperson and eight other members. The chairperson is retired chief justice of India or a judge of the Supreme Court. Those eight members are:Four full-time members. Four deemed members. The Commission shall have all the powers of a civil court namely: Summoning and enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath;Discovery and production of any document;Receiving evidence on affidavits;Requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office.

In News :The Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs called upon the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), to expand its scope and include more participants in the GeM portal for public procurement. Statement 1 is not correct: It was launched in 2016 and operates under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.It has been developed by the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal (DGS&D) with technical support of the National E-Governance Division (NEGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Statement 2 is correct: It ensures that public procurement of goods and services in India (done by government bodies) worth more than Rs. 5 lakh crore annually is carried out through the online platform. The procurement of goods and services by ministries and the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is mandatory for goods and services available on GeM. The portal provides a wide range of products from office stationery to vehicles. Automobiles, computers and office furniture are currently the top product categories.

Option A is correct: National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR was set up in March 2007 under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005, an Act of Parliament (December 2005). It is a statutory body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development. This commission has a chairperson and six members of which at least two should be women.The Commission's Mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.

Option C is correct: Banrawats are a native endangered tribe originating and living in Uttarakhand and also called Banrajis, Vanrawats, Vanrajis. They are basically nomadic huntergatherers but also work as agriculture and forest labourers and practise shifting cultivation. They speak Tibeto-Burman language generally called ‘Rawat’.

In News: China has reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu from the country's eastern Jiangsu province.
Statement 1 is correct: H10N3 is low pathogenic, which means it causes relatively less severe disease in poultry and is unlikely to cause a large-scale outbreak that appears to be rare in birds and does not cause severe disease. According to The World Health Organization (WHO), the source of the patient’s exposure to the H10N3 virus was not known and no other cases were found among the local population.
Statement 2 is not correct: There was no indication of human-to-human transmission yet. The risk of further infection with H10N3 is currently believed to be very low, with experts describing the case as “sporadic”.Such cases occur occasionally in China which has huge populations of both farmed and wild birds of many species.

In News: Recently, the US President Joe Biden has become the first sitting American Head of State to officially recognise the violent racial hate of Tulsa Race Massacre.
Option A is correct: Tulsa is a city on the Arkansas River, in the US state of Oklahoma. Tulsa was an unofficial sanctuary for African Americans suffering from harsh segregation in pre-civil rights America. Most of the city’s 10,000 Black residents lived in Greenwood, which included a business district referred to as Black Wall Street. Under racial tensions, a white mob attacked Greenwood from 31st May to 1st June 1921. 2021 marks its 100th anniversary. The event remains one of the worst yet least-known incidents of racial violence in US history.

IN News: Recently, it has been highlighted that the India Cycles4Change challenge is beginning to gain momentum in Indian cities.
Statement 1 is not correct: The India Cycles4Change challenge was by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 25th June, 2020 with an aim to inspire Indian cities to implement cyclingfriendly interventions.
Statement 2 is correct: It comes under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) and the India Programme of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) is the knowledge partner of the SCM to assist the Mission in conducting the challenge and guiding cities in developing and implementing their proposals.
Statement 3 is not correct: It is open to eligible cities which can register and submit their applications on the designated portal. All cities under the SCM, capital cities of States/Union Territories and all cities with a population of more than 5 lakh can participate in it.

In News: Recently , OPEC+ decided to stick to its plan to gradually restore supply to the market.
Statement 1 is not correct: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization. It was created at the Baghdad Conference in September 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
Statement 2 is correct: It coordinates and unifies petroleum policies among member countries.It secures fair and stable prices for petroleum producers. It ensures an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry.

In News: Recently, suggestions have been welcomed on the Devika Project in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir.
Option D is correct: Devika River originates in the hills near the Sudh Mahadev temple in Udhampur and flows down towards west and merges with the Ravi river. It holds religious significance as it is revered by Hindus as the sister of river Ganga. The Devika River Project was started in March 2019 under the National River Conservation Plan (NRCP), with an outlay of Rs. 190 crore.

In News: Recently, the former Chief Secretary of West Bengal has been served a show cause notice by the Union Home Ministry under Section 51 of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005.
Statement 1 is not correct: The DM Act came into existence after the 2004 tsunami and was invoked for the first time in the country in the wake of the Covid-19 in 2020.
Statement 2 is not correct: The Section 51 (b) prescribes “punishment for obstruction” for refusal to comply with orders. The violation shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term that may extend to one year or with a fine or both upon conviction. Imprisonment may be extended to two years if refusal to comply orders result in loss of lives or imminent danger.

In News: Recently ,The scientists noted B.1.617.2 is capable of creating “very fast-rising outbreaks.
Statement 1 is correct: SARS-CoV-2 variant's B.1.617 lineage, detected in India earlier this year)2021. Its sub-lineage B.1.617.2, known as the Delta variant, is more transmissible than contemporary lineages.
Statement 2 is not correct: The World Health Organization (WHO), which has given it the label Delta, has categorised it as a variant of concern (VOC). WHO classifies a variant as a VOC when it is associated with an increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in Covid-19 epidemiology; increase in virulence; or decrease in the effectiveness of public health measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics.

In News: Recently, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) has launched a new global database named “I-Familia” to identify missing persons through family DNA and help the police solve cold cases in member countries.
Option C is correct: I-Familia has been launched by the International Criminal Police Organization. I-Familia is the first global database to automatically control for such differences without requiring knowledge of the missing person’s genetic ancestry and provide standardised guidelines on what constitutes a match. It applied cutting-edge scientific research and used the DNA of relatives to identify missing persons or unidentified human remains around the world.

In News: Recently, Raimona in Kokrajhar district has become Assam’s sixth national park.
Option b is correct: The Raimona National Park is located within the Bodoland Territorial Region in Assam. It is an integral part of the Manas Biosphere Reserve and the Chirang-Ripu Elephant Reserve. It is bounded on the west by the Sonkosh river along the Assam-West Bengal border running southward from the India-Bhutan border and the Saralbhanga river on the east till it touched the India-Bhutan border on the north and the southern part of the Ripu Reserve Forest. It also shares contiguous forest patches of the Phipsoo Wildlife Sanctuary and the Jigme Singye Wangchuk National Park in Bhutan creating a transboundary conservation landscape.

In News: Recently, Denmark has approved the building of Lynetteholm, an artificial island off the coast of Copenhagen.
Option c is correct: Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and is located near Baltic Sea. The artificial Lynetteholm Island is a 275-hectare project designed as a housing and business district for around 35,000 people. It will be built using soil from construction projects in Copenhagen and the surrounding area. It will be located between Nordhavn and Refshaleøen and will protect the city's harbour from rising water masses and from more frequent storm surges.

Statement 1 is not correct: The Government has introduced the PGI with a set of 70 parameters and 4 domains to catalyse transformational change in the field of school education. The PGI is structured in two categories namely, Learning Outcomes and Governance and Management. Domains under these categories include access, infrastructure and facilities, equity and governance process.
Statement 2 is correct: PGI is released by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education.

In News: Recently, Italian researchers have identified a new coronavirus mutation, whose scientific name is T478K. An analysis of more than one million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences has led to the identification of a new variant. Like other strains, this presents a mutation in the spike protein. This variant covers more than 50% of the existing viruses in this area. The variant spreads evenly across males and females and age ranges. This variant has been increasingly spreading among people in North America, particularly in Mexico.

Statement 1 is not correct: All Election Commissioners, i.e., the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and two other Election Commissioners have equal say in the decision making of the Commission.
Statement 2 is correct: The decisions of the Commission can be challenged in the High Court and the Supreme Court of India by appropriate petitions.
Statement 3 is not correct: By long-standing convention and several judicial pronouncements, once the actual process of elections has started, the judiciary does not intervene in the actual conduct of the polls. Once the polls are completed and results declared, the Commission cannot review any result on its own. This can only be reviewed through the process of an election petition, which can be filed before the High Court, in respect of elections to the Parliament and State Legislatures. In respect of elections for the offices of the President and Vice President, such petitions can only be filed before the Supreme Court.

In News: Recently, Turkey’s Sea of Marmara has witnessed the largest outbreak of sea snot.
Option A is correct: The Sea of Marmara connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. Sea Snot is marine mucilage (thick, gluey substance) or a slimy layer of grey or green sludge, which can cause considerable damage to the marine ecosystem.