Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 19, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Furfura pilgrimage site is becoming the epicentre of Muslim politics in West Bengal.

• Furfura Sharif (also known as Furfura, Phurphura, Furfura Darbar Sharif) is a village in Hooghly District, West Bengal.
• It is a holy place for Bengali Muslims.
• Before the afternoon prayers, people queue up at the mazar (shrine) of Hazrat Abu Baqar Siddique (1846-1939), a prominent peer (holy person) of the town.
• People say that this is the second most prominent mazar in the country after Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan.

The Directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has accorded aerodrome licence for public use to Orvakal greenfield airport on Kurnool city's outskirts in Andhra Pradesh.

• Orvakal is one of 50 low-cost airports proposed across the country to enhance air connectivity to remote areas by grounding no-frills facilities which are energy-efficient with minimum security hold.
• The foundation stone for the airport was laid in June 2017 and inaugurated in January 2019.

The unchecked flow of untreated industrial effluent into rivers in Gujarat has led to increasing pollution in the Sabarmati, Mahisagar, Narmada, Vishwamitri and Bhadar.

• According to data from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), the Sabarmati is among the country's most polluted rivers.
• Gujarat ranks fourth among the top five States with highly polluted rivers, with as many as 20 rivers in the critically polluted category.
• As per the official parameters, if the chemical oxygen demand (COD), which indicates organic pollutant load, is higher than 250 mg per litre, then it should not be released into the rivers.
• Most of the Gujarat rivers where the effluents are dumped into, the COD level is in the range of 700 to 1000 mg per litre.
• While Dissolved Oxygen (DO) level [indicating the health of a river] in perennial rivers like Mahisgar should be in the range of 6 to 8 mg per litre, it is actually below 2.9 mg per litre.
   

With the RBI raising concerns over the issuance of zero-coupon bonds for recapitalisation of public sector banks (PSBs), the Finance Ministry is examining other avenues for affordable capital infusion, including setting up of a Bank Investment Company (BIC).

• Setting up a BIC as a holding company or a core investment company was suggested by the P.J. Nayak Committee in its report on ‘Governance of Boards of Banks in India’.
• The report recommended transferring shares of the government in the banks to the BIC which would become the parent holding company of all these banks; thus, all the PSBs would become ‘limited’ banks.

Winter migratory water birds using the central Asian flyway have started making a beeline to Punjab’s Harike wetland, offering a delight for bird lovers.

• Harike Wetland, also known as "Hari-ke-Pattan" with the Harike Lake in the deeper part of it, is the largest wetland in northern India in Tarn Taran Sahib's border district and Ferozepur district of Punjab.
• The wetland and the lake were formed by constructing the headworks across the Sutlej river in 1953.
• The headworks are located downstream of the Beas and Sutlej rivers' confluence just south of Harike village.
• It has been designated as one of the Ramasar sites in India.

Kolleru Lake is one of India's largest freshwater lakes located in state of Andhra Pradesh and forms the largest shallow freshwater lake in Asia. Deepor Beel, is located to the south-west of Guwahati city, in Kamrup district of Assam, India. It is a permanent freshwater lake.
 

Indian-American Raj Iyer has taken over as the first Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the U.S. Army after the Pentagon created the position in July 2020.

• One of the highest ranking Indian-American civilians in the U.S. Department of Defense, Dr. Iyer, serves as the Principal Adviser to the Secretary of the Army and directs representation of the Secretary in matters relating to information management/ information technology (IT).
• Equivalent in rank to a three-star General, Dr. Iyer will supervise an annual budget of $16 billion for the U.S. Army’s IT operations.
• Over 15,000 civilians and military personnel posted across 100 countries work under him.

Karnataka Chief Minister laid the foundation stone for the ‘New Anubhava Mantapa’ in Basavakalyan, the place where 12th century poet-philosopher Basaveshwara lived for most of his life.

• He promised the completion of the ₹500 crore project within two years. The project to highlight the teachings of Basaveshwara (an icon of the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community) was first proposed back in 2016.
• Basavakalyan, an important pilgrim centre for Lingayats.
• The New Anubhava Mantapa, as envisaged now, will be a six-floor structure in the midst of the 7.5 acre plot and represent various principles of Basaveshwara’s philosophy.
• It will showcase the 12th Century Anubhava Mantapa (often referred to as the “first Parliament of the world”) established by him in Basavakalyan, where philosophers and social reformers held debates.
• The building will adopt the Kalyana Chalukya style of architecture.

World food prices rose for a seventh consecutive month in December, with all the major categories, barring sugar, posting gains last month, the United Nations food agency said.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities.
• It consists of the average of five commodity group price indices [cereal, vegetable, dairy, meat and sugar], weighted with the average export shares.
• It averaged 107.5 points in December versus 105.2 in November. For the whole of 2020, the benchmark index averaged 97.9 points, a three-year high and a 3.1% increase from 2019.

DRDO hands over Motor Bike Ambulance ‘Rakshita’ to CRPF.

• Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), Delhi based DRDO laboratory, handed over Rakshita, a bike-based casualty transport emergency vehicle to Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) .
• Rakshita is fitted with a customized reclining Casualty Evacuation Seat (CES), which can be fitted in and taken out as per requirement.
• The bike ambulance will help in overcoming the problems faced by Indian security forces and emergency healthcare providers. It will provide life-saving aid for evacuation of injured patients from low intensity conflict areas.
• This bike ambulance is useful not only for the paramilitary and military forces but also for potential civil applications.

The first-ever National Road Safety Month was inaugurated, to build awareness about road safety and reduce road accidents in India. The campaign for the same will continue till February 17.

• During the last few years, a road safety week was being organised, but considering the importance of the issue, a month-long programme has been made this year.
• Union Minister launched the inaugural function for Defence and Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways.
• Several measures are being taken to reduce road accidents by Restructuring and Strengthening 4E’s of Road safety i.e. (1) Engineering, (2) Education, (3) Enforcement and (4) Emergency care Services.
• In India, a total of 1.5 lakh people died, while more than 4.5 lakh people got injured in road accidents every year, resulting in social-economic losses from accident deaths equivalent to 3.14% of GDP every year. Nearly 3 % GDP loss can be saved by spreading safety awareness.
• Around 70% deaths are in the age group of 18 to 45-year-old people, which is nearly 415 people dying per day in India.