Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 29, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Union Education Minister addressed the Valedictory Function of Kala Utsav 2020.

• Kala Utsav National Competition was launched in 2015.
• Objective is to promote arts in education by nurturing and show casing the artistic talents of school students. Children with special needs too will have the opportunity to display their talents.
• Kala Utsav is an initiative of the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD).
• Kala Utsav 2020 was launched online on 10 January 2021 through a digital platform. The Indigenous Toys and Games segment was introduced in Kala Utsav 2020.

The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has released ‘Marine Mega Fauna Stranding Guidelines’ and ‘National Marine Turtle Action Plan’.

1. The documents contain ways and means to guide improved coordination amongst the government, civil society, and all relevant stakeholders on the response to stranding, entanglement, injury or mortality of marine mammals, and conservation of marine turtles.
2. These two documents highlight
   • actions to be taken for handling stranded animals on shore, stranded or entangled animals in the sea or on a boat,
   • management actions for improved coordination,
   • reducing threats to marine species and their habitats,
   • rehabilitation of degraded habitats,
   • enhancing people’s participation,
   • advance scientific research and exchange of information on marine mammals and marine turtles and their habitats.

Union Minister for Environment and French Minister for Ecological Transition launched the Indo-French Year of the Environment.

• The basic objective is to strengthen Indo-French cooperation in sustainable development, increase the effectiveness of actions in favour of global environment protection and give them greater visibility.

• The Indo-French Year of the Environment over the period 2021-2022 would be based on five main themes: environmental protection, climate change, biodiversity conservation, sustainable urban development, and the development of renewable energies and energy efficiency.

• It is also a platform for engaging in discussions on critical areas of collaboration relating to environment and allied areas.

• The Ministry of Environment will coordinate the Indian side, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), along with the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, and other concerned Ministries/Departments/Organisations.

• A joint screening committee will also be set up to finalise the calendar of the Indo-French Year of the Environment events.

• India-France alliance is the main pillar of the International Solar Alliance launched by PM Narendra Modi.

January 30, 2021 will mark the second annual World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day, highlighting the global community’s commitment to ending Neglected Tropical Diseases.

• On World NTD Day, on 30th January 2021, more than 50 landmarks representing 25 nations across the world will be lit up to celebrate how far we have come together in beating NTDs. India too will proudly join these countries, by illuminating UNESCO world heritage site Qutub Minar.

• Originally announced by the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi at the 2019 Reaching the Last Mile Forum, hundreds of partners signed up to mark World NTD Day and demand action to Face NTDs and End The Neglect.

• Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections which are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

• They are caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and parasitic worms (helminths).

• They include dengue, rabies, blinding trachoma, Buruli ulcer, endemic treponematoses (yaws), leprosy (Hansen disease) etc.

• These diseases are contrasted with the big three infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria), which generally receive greater treatment and research funding.

• 1 in 5 people around the world are affected by NTDs. India is home to the world’s largest absolute burden of at least 11 of these major neglected tropical diseases.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare addressed the event on Restoring Cross Border Mobility by World Economic Forum’s Common Trust Network through Video Conference.

• As countries worldwide work to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and restart their economies, they all face the challenge of reopening their borders and allowing travel and commerce to resume while protecting their populations’ health.

• To address this challenge, The Commons Project Foundation and the World Economic Forum have launched the Common Trust Network in collaboration with a broad voluntary network of public and private stakeholders.

• The Common Trust Network is designed to

  1. empower individuals with digital access to their health information,

  2. make it easier for individuals to understand and comply with each destination’s requirements, and

  3. help ensure that only verifiable lab results and vaccination records from trusted sources are presented for the purposes of cross-border travel and commerce.

• The Common Trust Registry: The Common Trust Network is enabled by a global registry of trusted laboratory and vaccination data sources, standard formats for lab results and vaccination records, and standard tools to make those results and records digitally accessible.

Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports launched a breakthrough Reference Material for use in chemical testing in the field of anti-doping synthesized by collaborative efforts of National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Guwahati.

• This Reference Material (RM), has been identified by NDTL as one of the rarely available RMs globally and would be used to strengthen anti-doping measures in all World Anti Doping Agency (WADA)-accredited laboratories.

• The MoU between NDTL and NIPER Guwahati was signed in August 2020 which proposes to synthesize 20 rarely available Reference Materials (RMs) during a period of 3 years.

• The availability of these RMs would help the anti-doping laboratories to strengthen their testing capacity. This will help in the greater cause of promoting fair play in sports.

• National Dope Testing Laboratory (Ndtl) is an autonomous body under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. It is based in Delhi.

• It is the only laboratory in the country responsible for human sports dope testing.

Twenty five years before the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre, more than a hundred peasants fell to the bullets of the British on January 28, 1894 in Patharughat, a small village in Assam’s Darrang district.

• The unarmed peasants were protesting against the increase in land revenue levied by the colonial administration, when the military opened fire.

• On January 28, 1894, many local peasants gathered in a protest meeting at Patharughat (also known as Patharighat), condemning the increasing land tax levied by the British.

• As a result, a rebellion brewed in the hearts of the peasants against the British.

• After much discussion amongst themselves, it was decided that no taxes would be paid to the British, until a proper solution was found to the problem. They were even willing to revolt against the British for the cause.

• While the protest meeting was going on, Deputy Commissioner of Darrang district, JD Anderson, Mr Barrington, SP and Mr Remington, SDO, arrived at the venue along with full police force.

• On the orders of Barrington, the police opened fire on the gathering present there. hundreds of people were injured and around 140 of them were killed on spot.

• Every year on January 28, the government and local people pay respects to the martyrs of the incident (Krishak Swahid Diwas).

A former Israeli fighter pilot, an American technology entrepreneur and a Canadian investor will be part of the crew of the first entirely-private orbital space mission.

• The three men are paying $55 million each to fly aboard a SpaceX rocket for an eight-day visit to the International Space Station, organised by Houston-based spaceflight firm Axiom.

• The Axiom Mission 1 (AX 1) flight is being arranged under a commercial agreement with NASA.

• The mission will be led by former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who now works for Axiom space.

• While private citizens have travelled to space before, the AX 1 mission will be the first to use a commercially built spacecraft, the SpaceX Dragon 2, best known for flying its first two crews to the ISS late last year.

Is this the first time civilians have been launched into space

• No, private civilians have travelled to the space station before.

• Since 2001, Russia has been selling rides to the ISS to wealthy businessmen around the world. They travelled onboard the Russian Soyuz aircraft along with professional cosmonauts and NASA astronauts.

There are dozens of ways to pick stocks, but few have been as unconventional -- or as successful -- as the coordinated short-squeeze being deployed by Reddit’s army of day traders. Now, Wall Street is scanning the matter.

• Short squeeze is a term used by market participants to refer to a phenomenon where short sellers in a stock who have placed their bets on a stock’s fall, rush to hedge their positions or buy the stock in the event of an adverse price movement, in order to cover their losses.

• This leads to a sharp rise in demand for the share, and huge rally in share prices.

• In order to cover his loss, the trader who was initially short on the stock, starts buying the stock, which leads to a sharp rise in the share price of the stock.

• This phenomenon, where the short seller is buying the stock to cover her loss, is referred to as short squeeze in market parlance.

• It leads to a dramatic rise in share price, far beyond its fundamentals.

On Republic Day, the Prison Department of Maharashtra launched its jail tourism initiative starting with more than 150-year-old Yerawada Central Prison in Pune.

• Constructed in 1866, Yerawada Central Prison is the largest jail in Maharashtra and one of the country's largest maximum security prisons.

• In Maharashtra, 16 functioning prisons were built in the 19th century, the oldest being Byculla District Prison in Mumbai, which started in 1840.

• Many leaders of the Indian independence movement were incarcerated in this prison.

• Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned at Yerawada jail three times — from March 1922 to February 1924, from January 1932 to May 1933, and for three days in August 1933.

• Mahatma Gandhi's cell was lodged is called the Gandhi Yard, which is also the place where the historic Poona Pact between Gandhi and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was signed.