Test: August 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental body established by States to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development.
• It was established in Panama City, on 21 April 2012 by 94 Governments.
• It is not a United Nations body.  However, at the request of the IPBES Plenary and with the authorization of the UNEP Governing Council in 2013, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provides secretariat services to IPBES. It is intended to serve a similar role to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

A ‘stapled visa’ is an unstamped piece of paper that is attached by a pin or staples to a page of the passport instead of being stamped directly in the passport. Unlike a regular visa, this piece of paper, without any stamp by the issuing authority, can be torn off or detached at will.
The Chinese government reportedly issues ‘stapled visas’ to Indian citizens from Arunachal Pradesh because it does not recognise India’s claim over the state.

Option 5 is incorrect.

• The border between India and Myanmar runs for 1,643 km in the four states of Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. 

Only statement 1 is correct.

• Delisting means removing the securities of a listed company from a stock exchange. Once delisted, the securities of that company can no longer be traded on the stock exchange.
• Delisting can be either voluntary or compulsory. In voluntary delisting, a company decides on its own to remove its securities from a stock exchange; in compulsory delisting, they are removed as a penal measure for the company not making submissions or complying with requirements set out in the listing agreement within the prescribed timeframes.
• If a company wants to delist its securities, it needs to buy back 90% of the total issued shares.

Only statement 1 is correct.

• A tail strike refers to an incident where the tail of an aircraft hits the ground or strikes any other stationary object. While tail strikes can occur during takeoff, a majority happen during the landing of an aircraft. According to Airbus statistical data, over 65 per cent of tail strikes happen during landings.
• Tail strikes can cause significant damage to the aircraft, with major repairs needed to restore the plane’s structural integrity. Even in cases where the damage is not major or immediately obvious, thorough inspections are carried out before the aircraft is declared fit to fly again.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
• The National Tiger Conservation Authority has been fulfilling its mandate within the ambit of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
• Set up under the Chairmanship of the Minister for Environment and Forests.
• The NTCA had more power to check poaching and preserve the tiger population. Its mandate included setting up the Tiger Protection Force and funding the relocation of villages from the protected areas.

• Migraine is a disease of hypersensitivity: The migraine brain has abnormally sensitive neuronal connections.
• Compared to people who don’t get migraines, this leaves migraineurs more likely to respond to small changes in the environment, which can result in headaches or more serious migraine attacks. Migraine attacks are thought to originate from abnormal electrical excitability in sensory neurons in the meninges, layers of membrane that protect the brain.
• When sensitized, these neurons send signals to the brain which trigger headache pain, photophobia, and other migraine symptoms. These neurons are also close to blood vessels, which is why headaches can feel like they pulse along with your heartbeat.
• There are a huge range of migraine triggers and each person’s triggers can differ from the next. The most common triggers are:
• Bright lights and loud sounds. Strong smells like perfume, smoke, or certain smelly foods. Lack of sleep, poor quality sleep, or jet lag. Hunger or dehydration. Too much caffeine. Alcohol, especially red wine. Hormone fluctuations, such as before or during periods, pregnancy, or menopause. Foods and diet, especially diets containing ultra-processed foods and processed sugars.

• With persistent rain, cases of conjunctivitis, or ‘pink eye’, are on the rise in several parts of the country, including New Delhi, Chandigarh, and Gujarat.
• A conjunctivitis patient generally experiences eyes turning red, feeling itchy and painful, and witnessing a watery or thicker discharge. The disease can be caused by viruses, bacteria, or allergens, and in some cases can be highly infectious.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
• World Network of Biosphere Reserves, created in 1971 by UNESCO. 
• The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was the first biosphere reserve in India designated in the year 1986 by UNESCO. It stretches across the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• El Niño – an abnormal warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean waters off the coasts of Ecuador and Peru, known to suppress rainfall in India.
• The Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) – which measures the average sea surface temperature deviation from the normal in the east-central equatorial Pacific region.
• El Niño will gradually strengthen and peak during the winter months.

Only option 1 is correct.

A registered party is recognised as a national party only if it fulfils any one of the three conditions listed below:

• A party should win 2% of seats in the Lok sabha from at least three different states.
• At a general election to Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly, the party polls 6% of votes in any four or more states and in addition it wins four Lok Sabha seats.
• A party gets recognition as a state party in four states.
• A party gets at least 8% of total valid votes polled in 4 or more states (with or without any seats)

• Income tax is levied on the annual income of a person. As per the I-T Law, this period starts on April 1 and ends on March 31 of the next calendar year. The year in which income is earned is called as previous year and the year in which the income is charged to tax is called as assessment year.
• Anyone whose maximum income in a year exceeds the exemption limit of Rs 2,50,000 (for individuals under the age of 60 years) must file ITR. 
• The taxpayers won’t be able to carry forward the losses incurred in the current Assessment Year if they do not file their ITR.
• Moreover, a penalty equal to 200 per cent of tax payable on the underreported income shall be levied as per section 270A, if taxpayers miss to file their income tax returns.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• In most regions across the world, the oceans appear blue or navy blue for a reason. This happens due to “the absorption and scattering of light,” according to a report by NASA. When the sunlight falls on deep and clear water, colours with longer wavelengths, such as red, yellow and green, are absorbed by the water molecules but blue and violet, which have a much shorter wavelength, are reflected back.
• “When sunlight hits the ocean, some of the light is reflected back directly but most of it penetrates the ocean surface and interacts with the water molecules that it encounters. The red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light are absorbed so that the remaining light we see is composed of the shorter wavelength blues and violets”.
• But when the water isn’t deep or clean, an ocean can appear to be of a different colour. For instance, along Argentina’s coastline, where major rivers merge into the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean exudes a brown tint because of dead leaves and sediments spewing from the rivers. In other parts of the world, the oceans appear green, which happens due to the existence of phytoplankton on the upper surface of the water.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae that contain the green-coloured pigment chlorophyll. The pigment helps them absorb sunlight, which they use to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into sugars. Moreover, chlorophyll absorbs the red and blue portions of the light spectrum — or photosynthesis — and reflects green light.
• “So, the ocean over regions with high concentrations of phytoplankton will appear as certain shades, from blue-green to green, depending upon the type and density of the phytoplankton population there,”

Rainfall is not the only criteria that the IMD relies on to declare the monsoon’s onset. Windspeeds of a minimum strength and depth in the atmosphere, the Outgoing Longwave Radiation — a measure of cloudiness — and rainfall appearing to be consistent and well distributed over Kerala, are important criteria.

• The dominant ST communities in J&K are the Gujjars and Bakerwals, who mainly live in the districts of Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Kishtwar, Anantnag, Bandipora, Ganderbal, and Kupwara. Most of them, especially the Bakerwals, are nomadic — they migrate with their livestock to the higher reaches in the summer, and return before the onset of winter.
• With a population of almost 18 lakh, the Gujjar-Bakerwal are the third largest group after Kashmiris and Dogras in J&K. They were given ST status in 1991, along with the two smaller groups of Gaddis and Sippis.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Green manures are crops grown specifically for maintaining soil fertility and structure. They are normally incorporated back into the soil, either directly, or after removal and composting. There are three main varieties of green manure, including Dhaincha, Cowpea, Sunhemp. Also some crops such as summer moong, mash pulses and guar act as green manure.
• Punjab’s per hectare fertiliser consumption, which is around 244 kg, is one of the highest in the country and is also higher than the national average. Growing green manure can curtail this consumption to a large extent by 25 to 30% and can save huge input cost for the farmers.
• Also, even the PH level of the soil in several parts of the state is more than 8.5 and 9 per cent and green manure is beneficial to maintain it at the required level which is 7 per cent.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the IPCC produces comprehensive assessment reports (ARs) that are considered the most authoritative source of scientific knowledge on climate change. So far, it has released six ARs — the final synthesis report of the sixth AR came out in March 2023 — and with the latest elections, the body has initiated a new cycle of producing the next AR.

India is among the top three largest importers of gold, which mainly caters to the demand of the jewellery industry. In volume terms, the country imports 800-900 tonnes of gold annually.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Sargasso Sea, located entirely within the Atlantic Ocean, is the only sea without a land boundary. It is bounded by four ocean currents forming an ocean gyre.
• It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Ocean by its characteristic brown Sargassum seaweed and often calm blue water.
• The sea is bounded on the west by the Gulf Stream, on the north by the North Atlantic Current, on the east by the Canary Current, and on the south by the North Atlantic Equatorial Current, the four together forming a clockwise-circulating system of ocean currents termed the North Atlantic Gyre.

Only statement 1 is correct.

• Aadhaar is a verifiable 12-digit identification number issued the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Government of India.
• The masked Aadhaar number facility — that can be downloaded from the UIDAI website — and which displays only the last four digits of the Aadhaar number. This was a sensible advisory. The masked Aadhaar facility has been in place since 2018 and this came about following a report by the Centre for Internet and Society.

• Reservation in Indian law is a form of affirmative action whereby a percentage of seats are reserved in the public sector units, union and state civil services, union and state government departments and in all public and private educational institutions, except in the religious/ linguistic minority edu­cational institutions, for the socially and educationally backward communities who are inadequately represented in these services and institutions.
• Justice G. Rohini Committee was set up to examine the possibility of creating categories within OBCs for the reservation to ensure “equitable distribution” of representation among all OBC communities. Its objectives include working out a mechanism, criteria, norm and parameters through a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within the OBCs and identifying the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the Central List of OBCs and classifying them into their respective sub-categories.
• Part XVI deals with reservation of SC and ST in Central and State legislatures.
• Article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution enabled the State and Central Governments to reserve seats in government services for the members of the SC and ST.

• BharatNet is one of the biggest rural telecom projects in the world, implemented in a phased manner to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) in the country for last-mile broadband connectivity.
• The project was first approved by the Cabinet in October 2011 and is being executed by Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL), as a special purpose vehicle (SPV). Phase-II was approved in 2017.
• BBNL, which is an arm of State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) now, will be partnering with village level entrepreneurs (VLEs) to provide the connectivity. “The model to take fibre to the home with the help of a local entrepreneur was finalised after successful completion of a pilot project.

Snow leopard, often referred to as Ghost of the Mountains because of its coat that helps it blend in a snowy-rocky environment.