Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 27, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai re-dedicated its artefacts of Rail Locomotives that have been restored during the lockdown period, for the visitors on the occasion of India's 72nd Republic Day.

• India’s own first indigenously designed and developed fighter aircraft Marut will now be available for public viewing.

• The DC Electric loco no 20024NVCP2 was commissioned in 1938 on Great Indian Peninsular Railway and was used to haul passenger trains on the Kalyan-Pune section for 40 years.

  1. It has the distinction of hauling the prestigious Deccan Queen from Mumbai to Pune.

  2.  DC Electric loco no 20024NVCP2 is one of the first Electric locomotives inducted into service after the introduction of Electric traction in Indian sub-continent

Marut was initially developed to cross the supersonic speed but could never touch Mach 1, hence the record is now with the Tejas LCA. A total of 147 Marut were built, and IAF inducted the first unit in 1967. HF-24 Marut conducted its maiden flight in 1961. While Marut played a big role during the 1971 Indo-Pak war at the Longewala border, by 1980s, it became obsolete and was phased out by 1990.

The list of Padma awards recipients this year includes a transgender from Karnataka who has over the past many decades practised and single-handedly popularised rural folk arts.

• For Manjamma Jogathi, the Padma Shri comes after decades of social and financial struggle.

• Overcoming personal odds, Manjavva Jogati, as she would be called in Karnataka, held aloft the cause of these art forms, especially the Jogati Nritya and Janapada songs, practiced in rural Karnataka, Maharashtra, and parts of Andhra Pradesh.

Padma Vibhushan (7)

• Shri Shinzo Abe - Public Affairs - Japan
• Shri S P Balasubramaniam (Posthumous) - Art - Tamil Nadu
• Dr. Belle Monappa Hegde - Medicine - Karnataka
• Shri Narinder Singh Kapany (Posthumous) - Science and Engineering - United States of America
• Maulana Wahiduddin Khan - Others - Spiritualism - Delhi
• Shri B. B. Lal Others - Archaeology - Delhi
• Shri Sudarshan Sahoo - Art - Odisha

The Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, flagged-off fleet of electric buses.

• The introduction of electric buses in the Island union territory will help cut down tail pipe emissions as well as provide comfortable public transport.
• The project for 40 electric buses is being executed by NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN Limited), a 100% subsidiary of NTPC Limited, a PSU under Ministry of Power, Government of India.
• In addition to the above project, NVVN has emerged as successful bidder for providing turnkey solution for 90 electric buses in Bengaluru under the Smart City project. These buses will provide last mile connectivity to NAMMA Metro network.
• NVVN is developing and providing complete range of zero emission mobility solutions for various vehicle segments.

A statue of freedom fighter Govind Ballabh Pant that was removed from the Parliament premises recently would be unveiled at its new location, a roundabout opposite Gurdwara Rakab Ganj on Pandit Pant Marg in Delhi.

• Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant (1887 – 1961) was a lawyer, an Indian freedom fighter and one of modern India architects.

• In 1921, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh.

• He was an untiring participant in both the Non-Cooperation Movement and the Civil Disobedience Movement.

• He was also a member of the Central Legislative Assembly and the Constituent Assembly.

• He served as the 2nd Chief Minister of United Provinces from 1937 to 1939.

• After independence, he served as the 1st Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1950 to 1954.

• He served as Union Home Minister from 1955–1961.

• As Home Minister, his chief achievement was the re-organization of States along linguistic lines.

• He was also responsible for the establishment of Hindi as an official language of the central government and a few states.

• To honour his exemplary services to the nation, he received Bharat Ratna, in 1957.

The Dhannipur mosque project was formally launched on Republic Day at the five-acre plot in Dhannipur village of Ayodhya Uttar Pradesh.

• The plot was allotted by the Uttar Pradesh government on the directions of the Supreme Court in the Babri Masjid Ram Janmabhoomi title suit.
• The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) is overseeing the construction of the mosque.
• The project would take around 30 months to be completed.
• The project comprises three parts: a mosque based on a modern design; a multi-speciality 200-bed hospital and community kitchen; and an Indo-Islamic Cultural Research Centre.
   

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration announced it was restoring relations with the Palestinians and renewing aid to Palestinian refugees.

• It is a reversal of the Donald Trump administration’s cutoff and a key element of its new support for a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict agreed to by Israelis and Palestinians.
• Palestine is recognized officially as the State of Palestine by the United Nations and other entities.
• It is a de jure sovereign state in Western Asia claiming the West Bank (bordering Israel and Jordan) and Gaza Strip (bordering Israel and Egypt) with Jerusalem as the designated capital, although its administrative center is currently located in Ramallah.
• The entirety of territory claimed by the State of Palestine has been occupied since 1948, first by Egypt and Jordan and then by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti, said that It has been nearly 13 years since the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) started. The UN Security Council is finding itself unable to effectively address issues of international peace and security as it lacked inclusivity.

1. The Intergovernmental Negotiations framework (IGN) is a group of nation-states working within the United Nations to further reform the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), 15-member top organ.
2. Composition: The IGN is composed of several different international organizations, namely:
3. The African Union;
4. The G4 nations (India, along with Brazil, Japan and Germany are pressing for a permanent seat in the reformed UNSC);
5. The Uniting for Consensus Group (UfC), also known as the "Coffee Club";
6. The L.69 Group of Developing Countries;
7. The Arab League; and
8. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Each group represents a different set of positions vis-a-vis reforming the United Nations Security Council.

In 2016, an "oral decision" was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly adopted an " oral decision that approved of a declaration known as the "elements of convergence" that outlined the status of the consensus reached by the members of the IGN at that time.

Data privacy can take the form of non-price competition and abuse of dominance can lower privacy protection, a study by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said.

• CCI noted that an aspect of data in the context of competition in digital communications market is the conflict between allowing access and protecting consumer privacy.

• Privacy can take the form of non-price competition. Abuse of dominance can take the form of lowering the privacy protection and therefore fall within the ambit of antitrust as low privacy standard implies lack of consumer welfare.

• The study also made observations about other non-price factors such as quality of service (QoS), data speeds and bundled offerings, which are likely to be the new drivers of competitive rivalry between service providers in telecom sector in addition to just price.

• Competition Commission of India is a statutory body of India's Government responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002.

• It was established in 2003 and became fully functional in 2009 with Dhanendra Kumar as its first Chairman.

Bharat Parv 2021, a festival to celebrate the spirit of India has begun. The festival is being organized on a virtual platform www.bharatparv2021.com this year from today till 31st of January.

• Bharat Parv is being celebrated as part of Republic Day celebrations since 2016.

• Objective: To generate a patriotic fervour, promote the rich cultural diversity of the country and to popularize the idea of Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat.

• Organized by: The Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with other central Ministries.

• Duration: 26th to 31st January 2019 (The 5-day event is a part of Republic Day Celebrations).

President of India has approved awards of 455 Gallantry and other Defence decorations to Armed Forces personnel and others. Colonel B Santosh Babu, the Commanding Officer of 16 Bihar Regiment, who lost his life during the Galwan Valley clash last year, will be posthumously awarded with Maha Vir Chakra.

• These gallantry awards are announced twice in a year - first on the Republic Day occasion and then on the occasion of the Independence Day.

• Order of precedence of these awards is the Param Vir Chakra, the Ashoka Chakra, the Mahavir Chakra, the Kirti Chakra, the Vir Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra.

• The Government of India instituted three gallantry awards namely Param Vir Chakra, Maha Vir Chakra and Vir Chakra on 26th January, 1950.

• Thereafter, other three gallantry awards i.e. the Ashoka Chakra Class-I, the Ashoka Chakra Class-II and the Ashoka Chakra Class-III were instituted in 1952. These awards were renamed as Ashoka Chakra, Kirti Chakra and Shaurya Chakra respectively in 1967.