Daily Current Affairs MCQ - June 12, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The Maharashtra government will make amendments to the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act of 1975, to introduce provisions for the protection of ‘heritage trees’.

• Under the proposed amendment, a tree with an estimated age of 50 years or more shall be defined as a heritage tree.
• It may belong to specific species, which will be notified from time to time.
• In addition to the age, the state climate change department (which will be implementing the Tree Act), will also consider a tree’s rarity, its botanical, historical, religious, mythological and cultural importance in defining a heritage tree.
• The local Tree Authority will have to ensure tree census to be carried out every five years along with counting of heritage trees.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The New Atlantic Charter is an agreement that was signed by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson and the President of the United States Joe Biden on 10 June 2021.

• The agreement was signed at the first face-to-face meeting between Johnson and Biden at the 2021 G7 Summit in Cornwall, England.
• The agreement is a new version of the Atlantic Charter, signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Union Education Minister released the report of All India Survey on Higher Education 2019-20.

• In 2019-20 There are 1043 Universities (2%), 42343 Colleges (77%) and 11779 Stand Alone Institutions (21%) listed on AISHE web portal. 307 Universities are affiliating i.e. having Colleges.
• The top 8 States in terms of highest number of colleges in India are Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
• Bangalore Urban district tops in terms of number of colleges with 1009 colleges followed by Jaipur with 606 colleges. Top 50 districts have about 32% of colleges.
• College density, i.e. the number of colleges per lakh eligible population (population in the age-group 18-23 years) varies from 7 in Bihar to 59 in Karnataka as compared to All India average of 30.
• Total enrolment in higher education has been estimated to be 38.5 million with 19.6 million boys and 18.9 million female. Female constitute 49% of the total enrolment.
• Uttar Pradesh comes at number one with the highest student enrolment followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
• Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in Higher education in India is 27.1, which is calculated for 18-23 years of age group. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), the percentage of students belonging to the eligible age group enrolled in Higher Education, in 2019-20 is 27.1% against 26.3% in 2018-19 and 24.3% in 2014-2015.
• Highest share of foreign students come from the neighboring countries of which Nepal is 28.1% of the total, followed by, Afghanistan 9.1%, Bangladesh 4.6%, Bhutan constitutes 3.8% and Sudan 3.6%.
• Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in Universities and Colleges is 28 if regular mode enrolment is considered whereas PTR for Universities and its Constituent Units is 18 for regular mode.
• Gender Parity Index (GPI) in Higher Education in 2019-20 is 1.01 against 1.00 in 2018-19 indicating an improvement in the relative access to higher education for females of eligible age group compared to males.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare digitally addressed the first meeting of the World Health Organization High-Level Coalition on Health and Energy Platform of Action.

• An expert body called the National Action Plan on Climate Change and Human Health was constituted by government of India with the multiple objectives of creating awareness amongst the general population, health-care providers and policy makers regarding impact of climate change on human health.
• This National Expert Group submitted its report recently in April 2021 with inclusion of Subject Specific Health Action Plans on identified Climate Sensitive Diseases and ‘One Health’.
• In the context of “Green and Climate Resilient Healthcare Facilities”, India became signatory to the Malé Declaration in 2017 and agreed to promote climate-resilient healthcare facilities to be able to withstand any climatic event.
• Hence both statements are correct.

PM Modi has condoled the demise of boxer Shri Dingko Singh. He died of liver cancer.

• Ngangom Dingko Singh (1979 – 2021) was an Indian boxer from Manipur.
• He is considered to have been one of the most outstanding boxers India ever produced.
• Dingko rose to prominence by winning the 1997 Kings Cup in Bangkok.
• He who won the gold medal at 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok bringing India its first boxing gold medal in 16 years.
• He also represented India at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
• He was awarded Arjuna Award in 1998 and Padma Shri in 2013.
• He was also a service personnel of the Indian Navy.
• He coached the Navy to team championship victory in the 2009 inter-Services meet and groomed some top boxers, including Olympian Anthresh Lakra and Commonwealth Games champion Suranjoy Singh.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

A meteor is a space rock—or meteoroid—that enters Earth’s atmosphere. As the space rock falls toward Earth, the resistance—or drag—of the air on the rock makes it extremely hot. What we see is a “shooting star.” That bright streak is not actually the rock, but rather the glowing hot air as the hot rock zips through the atmosphere.

When Earth encounters many meteoroids at once, we call it a meteor shower.

According to NASA, Approximately 30 meteor showers occur each year that are visible to observers on Earth. Some of these showers have been around longer than 100 years. For example, the Perseid meteor shower, which occurs each year in August, was first observed about 2000 years ago and recorded in the Chinese annals.

Indian Railways commissioned country’s first governmental Waste to Energy Plant.

This Waste to Energy Plant, a patented technology called POLYCRACK, is first-of-its-kind in Indian Railways and fourth in India. It is world’s first patented heterogeneous catalytic process which converts multiple feed stocks into hydrocarbon liquid fuels, gas, carbon and water. Polycrack Plant can be fed with all types of Plastic, Petroleum sludge, Un-segregated MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) with moisture up to 50%, E–Waste, Automobile fluff, Organic waste including bamboo, garden waste etc., and Jatropha fruit and palm bunch. 

The process is a closed loop system and does not emit any hazardous pollutants into the atmosphere. The combustible, non-condensed gases are re-used for providing energy to the entire system and thus, the only emission comes from the combustion of gaseous fuels. The emissions from the combustion are found to be much less than prescribed environmental norms. This process will produce energy in the form of Light Diesel Oil which is used to light furnaces.

NASA has selected two missions to the planet Venus, Earth’s nearest neighbour. The missions called DAVINCI+ and VERITAS have been selected based on their potential for scientific value and the feasibility of their development plans.

Both missions are part of the space agency’s Discovery Program, which began in 1992 to give scientists the chance to launch some missions that use fewer resources and have shorter developmental times.

DAVINCI+ is short for ‘Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging’ and is the first US-led mission to the planet’s atmosphere since 1978.

VERITAS is short for ‘Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy’ and will map the planet’s surface to determine its geologic history and understand the reasons why it developed so differently from Earth.

• Recently, European Space Agency (ESA) has announced a new mission- EnVision mission to Venus.
  • It is an European Space Agency (ESA) led mission with contributions from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• It is likely to be launched sometime in the 2030s. Once launched on an Ariane 6 rocket, the spacecraft will take about 15 months to reach Venus and will take 16 more months to achieve orbit circularisation.
  • The mission will carry a range of instruments to study the planet’s atmosphere and surface, monitor trace gases in the atmosphere and analyse its surface composition. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• EnVision will follow another ESA-led mission to Venus called ‘Venus Express’ (2005-2014) that focussed on atmospheric research and pointed to volcanic hotspots on the planet’s surface.

• Ram Prasad Bismil was among the most noteworthy Indian freedom fighters who resisted British colonial forces till his last breath.
  • He believed that freedom cannot be achieved without violence and bloodshed, which meant his views were in stark contrast to Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals of ‘ahimsa’. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• He formed the organisation Matrivedi and got in touch with Genda Lal Dixit, a school teacher and shared revolutionary ideas and wanted to organise the youth of the country to fight the British government.
  • Bismil was also one of the chief founders of the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA) along with Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Jadugopal Mukherjee. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• In 1925, Bismil and his companions Chandrasekhar Azad and Ashfaqulla Khan looted a train in Kakori near Lucknow for which they were arrested alongside a dozen other HRA members within a month of the attack and tried under the Kakori Conspiracy Case.
  • The legal process lasted 18 months. Bismil, Lahiri, Khan and Thakur Roshan Singh were awarded death sentences. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.
  • He was also involved in the Mainpuri Conspiracy of 1918.