Test: August 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 4 - UPSC MCQ

Only statement 3 is correct.

• An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters typically have raised rims and floors that are lower in elevation than the surrounding terrain.
• The lunar south pole also sits on the rim of a massive impact crater of the solar system. Spanning a diameter of 2,500km (1,600 miles) and reaching depths of up to 8km, this crater is one of the most ancient features within the solar system.
• The far side is also known as the dark side of the moon as it is always hidden from earth. 

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• In a historic decision, Ecuadorians voted against the oil drilling of a protected area in the Amazon that’s home to two uncontacted tribes and serves as a biodiversity hotspot.
• Yasuni National Park, one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. The area is inhabited by the Tagaeri and Taromenani, who live in self-isolation.
• In 1989, Yasuni was designated a world biosphere reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, also known as UNESCO.

• India and the ASEAN countries reached an agreement to review their free trade pact for goods and set a 2025 goalpost for concluding the review aimed at addressing the “asymmetry” in bilateral trade.
• A Joint Committee of the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA), signed in 2009, deliberated on the roadmap for the review of the pact and finalised the terms of reference for the fresh negotiations.
• The AITIGA review will now be taken up at the India-ASEAN Leaders’ Summit scheduled in early September for further guidance.
• The review of AITIGA is expected to enhance and diversify trade while addressing the current asymmetry in the bilateral trade.

Only Option 2 is correct.

• France has emerged as a major strategic partner for India with crucial defence deals and increased military to military engagement. A key example of this is the inducting of the French Scorpene conventional submarines, being built in India under technology transfer agreement of 2005, and the Indian Air Force having received 36 Rafale fighter jets.
• These relations are further fortified with the robust network of military dialogues and regularly held joint exercises — Varuna (navy), Garuda (air force), and Shakti (army).

• Babur (1483-1530), the founder of the Mughal dynasty, was the first to refer to Delhi as the ‘capital of all Hindustan’ in the 16th century. Though the Mughals, under Akbar (1542-1605) shifted their capital to Agra for some time, they continued to be seen as the rulers of Delhi.
• Finally, under Shah Jahan (1592-1666), Delhi became the Mughal capital once again with the establishment of Shahjahanabad in 1648 (what we know today as Old Delhi).

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Goa became a Portuguese colony in 1510 when Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque defeated the forces of Bijapur’s sultan, Yusuf Adil Shah.
• Similar to the anti-British nationalist movement in the rest of India around the twentieth century, Goa started to witness an upsurge of nationalist sentiment against colonial rule in the early 20th Century.
• In 1946, the socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia led a historic rally in Goa that gave a call for civil liberties and freedom, and eventual integration with India, which became a watershed moment in Goa’s freedom struggle.
• December 18 and 19, 1961, saw a full-fledged military operation termed ‘Operation Vijay’, which was carried out with little resistance and an instrument of surrender was signed, leading to Goa’s annexation by India. Goa would be liberated on December 19, 1961

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Danube is the second-longest river in Europe.
• Originating in Germany, the Danube River drains into the Black Sea.
• Among the many cities on the river are four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade.

Only statement 1 is correct.

• Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) launched in September 2018 has taken the country closer to Sustainable Development Goal 3.8, which envisions universal health coverage.
• The scheme provides a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to more than 12 crore families (bottom 40 per cent of the population), making it the world’s largest health assurance scheme.
• Eleven states/UTs have pushed for 100 per cent coverage of their respective population.
• The scheme caters to the poor and underprivileged sections of society. Its design ensures that the difficulties of people from this section in accessing healthcare services should be mitigated. Every hospital is mandated to have dedicated Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras (PMAMs) who guide the beneficiaries.
• An important feature of AB-PMJAY is interstate portability. This means a patient registered in one state is entitled to receive care in any other state that has an AB-PMJAY programme. This has proved helpful to migrants, especially in emergencies.

Options 1, 3 and 4 are correct.

• The national MPI measures deprivations across the three dimensions of health and nutrition, education, and standard of living.
• Within health, it tracks three variables: nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, and maternal health. In education, it tracks two variables: years of schooling, and school attendance. And in standard of living, it tracks seven variables such as sanitation, drinking water, bank account, etc.

The Government reviews the price situation regularly and has taken number of measures from time to time to stabilize prices of food items. These include:

• Banning the export of inflated food item.
• Imposition of stock limit to prevent hoarding.
• Easing of restrictions on imports, facilitating imports at integrated check-posts, issuance of licenses for imports and reduction in import duties. This has resulted in cooling of prices.

Only Statement 1 is correct.

• Come October 1, car manufacturers can volunteer to get a star rating indicating the safety of their models in a crash, under an indigenous programme for testing.
• The Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP) is modelled on the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP), a project of the Towards Zero Foundation, which is a U.K.-registered charity that promotes the universal adoption of the United Nation’s most important motor vehicle safety standards worldwide.
• The new programme will be applicable to passenger vehicles with not more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s seat with gross vehicle weight not exceeding 3,500 kg. The programme will be based on the soon-to-be published Automative Industry Standard 197, which lays down testing protocols.
• A rating from one star to five stars will be assigned to a vehicle after an evaluation of three parameters — adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, and safety assist technologies present in the car.
• The programme is voluntary except in certain cases such as a base variant of a popular vehicle model (minimum clocked sale of 30,000 units), or when the Ministry recommends a model for testing based on market feedback or in the interest of public safety.

Only statement 1 is correct.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is vested with the responsibility of conducting monetary policy. This responsibility is explicitly mandated under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.
• The primary objective of monetary policy is to maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth. Price stability is a necessary precondition to sustainable growth.
• In May 2016, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934 was amended to provide a statutory basis for the implementation of the flexible inflation targeting framework.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Navigation with Indian Constellation or (NavIC), which consists of seven satellites and India’s version of the American GPS (global positioning system), will soon be integrated into Aadhaar enrolment devices, the Department of Space (DoS) told the Parliamentary Committee of Science and Technology.
• Currently the Aadhaar enrolment kits that are used to collect and verify personal details are linked to GPS. NavIC offers two services: Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian users and Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users. These two services are provided in both L5 (1176.45 MHz) and S band (2498.028 MHz). NavIC coverage area includes India and a region up to 1,500 km beyond the Indian boundary.
• The National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) was already utilising NavIC as an alert dissemination system for major natural disasters like landslipSs, earthquakes, floods, and avalanches. The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information System (INCOIS) relies on it to broadcast cyclones, high waves, and tsunamis alert messages to fishermen venturing into the deep sea.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Punjab is traversed by three perennial rivers — Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — alongside two rivulets, the eastern (Chitti) and western (Holy) Beins.
• Canalisation involves regulating or diverting the flow of water from a water source, such as a river. This can include directing river water into specific channels, utilising mini dams for regulation, establishing interconnections between canal systems and rivers, and fortifying earthen embankments in times of need.
• The perennial rivers have significant dams, such as the Bhakra Nangal Dam on the Sutlej, Pong Dam on the Beas, and Ranjit Sagar or Thien Dam on the Ravi. There are also Dhussi Bandhs — earthen embankments — on all these big rivers.

Personal loans refers to loans given to individuals and consist of (a) consumer credit, (b) education loan, (c) loans given for creation/ enhancement of immovable assets (e.g., housing, etc.), and (d) loans given for investment in financial assets (shares, debentures, etc.).

Internal Debt comprises loans raised in the open market, compensation and other bonds, etc. It also includes borrowings through treasury bills including treasury bills issued to State Governments, Commercial Banks and other Investors, as well as non-negotiable, non-interest bearing rupee securities issued to International Financial Institutions.

• End of a half-month stand-off between the National Medical Commission (NMC), India’s regulatory body guiding medical professionals and the Indian Medical Association (IMA), a national voluntary organisation of physicians with over three lakh members.
• The two had locked-horns over one of the provisions of the NMC’s notification on August 2 asking registered medical practitioners (RMP) to prescribe generic medicines only.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved a new Central Sector Scheme “PM Vishwakarma” for a period of five years (FY 2023-24 to FY 2027-28). The scheme aims to strengthen and nurture the Guru-Shishya parampara or family-based practice of traditional skills by artisans and craftspeople working with their hands and tools. The scheme also aims at improving the quality, as well as the reach of products and services of artisans and craftspeople and to ensure that the Vishwakarmas are integrated with the domestic and global value chains.
• Under PM Vishwakarma scheme, the artisans and craftspeople will be provided recognition through PM Vishwakarma certificate and ID card, Credit Support upto Rs.1 lakh (First Tranche) and Rs.2 lakh (Second Tranche) with a concessional interest rate of 5%.  The Scheme will further provide Skill Upgradation, Toolkit Incentive, Incentive for Digital Transactions and Marketing Support.
• The scheme will provide support to artisans and craftspeople of rural and urban areas across India. Eighteen traditional trades will be covered in the first instance under PM Vishwakarma.

Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedures (PIC) that entered into force on 24th February, 2004, is a legally binding instrument, which was adopted on 10th September 1998 by a Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Rotterdam. India acceded to the Convention on 24.05.2006.

The Convention seeks to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among State Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm. 

Only statement 2 is correct.

• In a warming world, marine creatures are in danger of suffocating. Gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve better at colder temperatures, so that means the warmer the water, the less oxygen is available to breathe.
• Conversely, higher temperatures also cause an increase in metabolism, which in turn means animals have to breathe even more than usual.
• The rise in temperature accelerates metabolism, and the organisms need more food to maintain this metabolic rate.
• Algal blooms are more common in hotter waters too. Such blooms can further deplete oxygen levels and produce toxins harmful for fish, marine mammals and birds, for instance.
• High water temperatures are most harmful for animals living at the bottom of oceans, lakes or rivers. These benthic species include corals, mussels, sponges, starfish and plants like sea grasses, and are often attached to rock or solid ground. They can’t migrate when it gets too hot.

Only statement 1 is correct.

• A current account deficit is not always detrimental to a nation’s economy—external debt may be used to finance lucrative investments. Both government and private payments are included in the calculation of CAD.
• When the current account deficit is lower, less money is needed to finance the gap. It is also treated as a sign of the resilience of the economy.

Statement 2 is incorrect.

• With the El Nino phenomenon almost certain to affect the Indian monsoon this year, high hopes are pinned on the development of a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and its ability to counterbalance the El Nino effect. The IOD is an ocean-atmosphere interaction very similar to the El Nino fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean, playing out, as the name shows, in the Indian Ocean. It is also a much weaker system than El Nino, and thus has relatively limited impacts.

But a positive IOD does have the potential to offset the impacts of El Nino to a small measure in neighbouring areas, and it has, at least once in the past (1997), delivered admirably on this potential.

• Humans lose heat generated within their body by producing sweat that evaporates on the skin. The cooling effect of this evaporation is essential in maintaining a stable body temperature. As humidity rises, sweat does not evaporate —just like clothes take a long time to dry in humid locations – and makes it difficult to regulate body temperature. This is why we feel more discomfort in humid places.
• Dehydration can lead to decreased sweat production and therefore increased vulnerability to heat stroke during heatwaves.

Only statement 2 is correct.

• The current account deficit or CAD is a key indicator of a country’s external sector. When the value of the goods and services that a country imports exceeds the value of the products it exports, it is known as the current account deficit. Together with the fiscal deficit, which is the amount of money that the government has to borrow in any year to fill the gap between its expenditures and revenues, the two make up the ‘twin deficits’ that are considered the enemies of the stock market and investors.
• If the current account – the country’s trade and transactions with other countries – shows a surplus, that indicates money is flowing into the country, boosting the foreign exchange reserves and the value of the rupee against the dollar. These are factors that will have ramifications on the economy and the stock markets, as well as on returns on investments by people.
• CAD narrowed to $1.3 billion, or 0.2 per cent, of the GDP in the January-March quarter of FY2023 – from $16.8 billion or 2 per cent of GDP in the preceding quarter. In Q4 FY2022, CAD was $13.4 billion, or 1.6 per cent of GDP.
• Remittances, which are the second largest major source of external financing after service export, also contributed to narrowing the CAD. During the quarter, private transfer receipts, mainly representing remittances by Indians employed overseas, increased to $28.6 billion, up 20.8 per cent from their level a year ago.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Excessive or continuous rainfall over a period of days, or during particular seasons, can lead to stagnation of water and cause flooding. Flash floods refer to such a situation, but occurring in a much shorter span of time, and are highly localised.
• flash floods are caused when rainfall creates flooding in less than 6 hours. It adds that flash floods can also be caused by factors apart from rainfall, like when water goes beyond the levels of a dam.
• In India, flash floods are often associated with cloudbursts – sudden, intense rainfall in a short period of time. Himalayan states further face the challenge of overflowing glacial lakes, formed due to the melting of glaciers, and their numbers have been increasing in the last few years.
• Frequently, flash floods are accompanied by landslides, which are sudden movements of rock, boulders, earth or debris down a slope.
• Flash flooding commonly happens more where rivers are narrow and steep, so they flow more quickly. They can occur in urban areas located near small rivers, since hard surfaces such as roads and concrete do not allow the water to absorb into the ground.