Daily Current Affairs MCQ - June 3, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

According to Bal Swaraj Portal, as of May 29, 2021, nearly 10,000 children in the country are in immediate need of care and protection. They include children aged between zero and 17 orphaned or abandoned during the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020.

• The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has created an online tracking portal “Bal Swaraj (COVID-Care)”
• NCPCR has developed it in furtherance to its function as a monitoring authority under section 109 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and in view of the growing problem related to children affected by COVID-19
• Objective: This portal will do online tracking and real-time monitoring of Childrens who have lost both its parents or either of the parent during COVID-19 and are in need of care and protection under Section 2(14) of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015.
• Working: It will track children affected by COVID-19 right from the production of children before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) to the restoration of the children to their parent/guardian/relative and its subsequent follow-up. The data will be filled in the portal by the District officers and State officers for each child.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

The India Cycles4Change challenge is beginning to gain momentum in Indian cities.

• The challenge was launched under the Smart Cities Mission by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on 25th June, 2020, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• As the COVID-19 pandemic was making inroads across the country, cycling saw a huge rise in demand.
  • The lockdown restrictions had significantly affected the commuters of public transport, who saw cycling as a personal and COVID-safe alternative for short and medium distance commute.
  • Moreover, cycling was also seen as a means of staying healthy- physically and mentally by the people who were confined to their homes.
• In this backdrop, with the launch of India Cycle4Change challenge, 107 cities registered to be a part of the cycling revolution and 41 cities undertook initiatives vis. surveys, discussions, pop-up cycle lanes, safer neighbourhoods, open street events, cycle rallies, or online campaigns that were aimed at creating a cycle friendly city.
• The Smart Cities Mission, in association with Institute for Transport and Development Policy (ITDP) conducted training modules and other capacity building initiatives to guide 107 cities on various cycling initiatives.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

The Seed Minikit Programme was launched by Union Agriculture Minster by distributing Seed Minikits (higher yielding varieties of seeds) of Pulses and oilseeds to farmers.

• The Seed Minikits programme is a major tool for introducing new varieties of seeds in the farmers fields and is instrumental for increasing the seed replacement rate.
• The mini kits are being provided by the Central Agencies National Seeds Corporation (NCS), NAFED and Gujarat State Seeds Corporation and wholly funded by the Government of India through the National Food Security Mission.
• 20,27,318 Seed Minikits of pulses, about 10 times more than last year, and more than 8 lakh Soybean seed mini kits and 74 thousand Groundnut mini kits are to be provided free of cost directly to the farmers under the National Food Security Mission.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Union Cabinet has approved the Model Tenancy Act for circulation to all States / Union Territories for adaptation by way of enacting fresh legislation or amending existing rental laws suitably. It will help overhaul the legal framework with respect to rental housing across the country.

Salient features of the act:

• The government had first released the draft of the MTA in 2019. The Act aims to bridge the trust deficit between tenants and landlords by clearly delineating their obligations.
• Besides, The Act is expected to give a fillip to private participation in rental housing as a business model for addressing the huge housing shortage.
• The Model Tenancy Act will provide a model for urban and rural properties, as well as a template for residential and commercial properties.
• In case of dispute between landlord and tenant, a rent authority, or a rent court would be available for speedy resolution.
• A tenant will have to submit a security deposit of two months for residential premises. For commercial property, a tenant will have to pay six-month rent.
• The tenant cannot sublet a part of or the whole property to someone else.
• If the tenant fails to vacate the premises on the expiration of the period of tenancy or termination of tenancy, the landlord is entitled to double the monthly rent for two months and four times after that.
• the landowner would give a notice in writing three months before revising rent. The landlord cannot hike the rent in the middle of the tenure.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Class XII examinations of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) have been cancelled due to COVID-19.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)

• CBSE is a Board of Education for public and private schools, under the Union Government of India.
• Administration: The Board functions under the overall supervision of the Controlling Authority which is vested with the Secretary (School Education & Literacy), Ministry of Education, , Government of India. 
• HQ: Delhi.
• Historical Background:
  • UP Board of High School and Intermediate Education was the first Board set up in 1921. It has under its jurisdiction Rajputana, Central India and Gwalior.
  • In 1929, the then Government of India set up a joint Board in 1929 for all the areas which was named as the 'Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Rajputana'. This included Ajmer, Merwara, Central India and Gwalior.  
  • In 1952, the constitution of the Board was amended wherein its jurisdiction was extended to part-C and Part-D territories and the Board was given its present name 'Central Board of Secondary Education'.
  • It was in the year 1962 finally that the Board was reconstituted.

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)

• It is a privately held national-level board of school education in India.
• It conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education and the Indian School Certificate Examination for Class X and Class XII respectively.
• It was established in 1958.
• HQ: New Delhi.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Countries carry out anti-dumping probes to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.

As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Dumping is a process wherein a company exports a product at a price that is significantly lower than the price it normally charges in its home (or its domestic) market.

Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) conducts anti-dumping investigations, under the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 and the rules made thereunder, on the basis of a duly substantiated application filed by the domestic industry alleging dumping of goods into the country causing injury to the domestic industry. The basic intent of anti-dumping measures is to eliminate injury caused to the domestic industry by the unfair trade practice of dumping and to create a level playing field for the domestic industry.

As many as 82 per cent of countries and territories increased their share of protected area and coverage of other effective area-based conservation measures (OECM) since 2010.

This was reported by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) May 19, 2021.

The report, titled Protected Planet Report 2020, underlined the progress the world has made toward the ambitious goals agreed by countries in 2010 at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity — to conserve 17 per cent of land and inland water ecosystems and 10 per cent of its coastal waters and oceans by 2020, known as Aichi Biodiversity Target 11, a set of 20 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The Union Government had in 2017 withdrawn permission given for foreign trawlers for deep sea fishing in the exclusive economic zone of the country.

• The EEZ of the country extends up to 370 km from the coastline.

What is Deep Sea Trawling?

The Deep Sea Trawling can be defined as the Industrial way or method fishing in which large nets with heavy weight are carted across the seafloor to lift out the catch marine animals such as fishes, shrimp, cod etc. It is considered as the most prominent method of fishing which is a practice across the world at large scale.

Impact of Deep Sea Trawling on Environment:

The gears of Deep Sea Trawling creates huge on the life of marine plants and animals as well as the seafloor by disrupting the sediment column structure, overturning boulders, re-suspending sediments and imprinting deep scars on muddy bottoms.

• Recently, China has reported the first case of human infection with the H10N3 strain of bird flu in Jiangsu province.
• H10N3 is a subtype of the Influenza A virus which is commonly known as the bird flu virus. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • It is a low pathogenic, or relatively less severe, strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale is very low.
  • Among animals, it can spread through respiratory droplets, similar to flu and Covid-19. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Venus is the second brightest natural object in the night sky after the Moon, probably that is the reason why it was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as early as the second millennium BC.
  • Unlike the other planets in our solar system, Venus and Uranus spin clockwise on their axis. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• A day on Venus is longer than a year. It takes Venus longer to rotate once on its axis than to complete one orbit of the Sun.
  • That’s 243 Earth days to rotate once - the longest rotation of any planet in the Solar System - and only 224.7 Earth days to complete one orbit of the Sun. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Recently, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced two new robotic missions to Venus.
  • The two sister missions named DaVinci Plus and Veritas are aimed at understanding how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface.
  • DaVinci Plus:
    • It will be the first of the two, it will analyze the thick, cloudy Venusian atmosphere in an attempt to determine whether the inferno planet ever had an ocean and was possibly habitable. A small craft will plunge through the atmosphere to measure the gases.
  • Veritas:
    • It will be the second one seeking a geologic history by mapping the rocky planet’s surface.
  • Venera and Vegas were the previous Venusian missions of Russia. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.