Daily Current Affairs MCQ - July 14, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Almost 400 years after she was murdered in present day Iran, relics of St. Queen Ketevan that were found in Goa in 2005 are likely to be put on display in India as well as her native Georgia, according to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials.

• On July 10, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar handed over one part of the relics to Georgia as a gift from India. According to ASI officials, parts of the bone of the right arm were found at St. Augustine Church in Old Goa in 2005.
• Queen Ketevan was killed in 1624 in Shiraz for not converting to Islam and parts of her remains were brought to Goa by Augustinian monks.
• Revered as a martyr, her relics remained lost till 2005 as the St. Augustine Church collapsed in 1842, another official said. A DNA analysis by the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, confirmed their authenticity in 2013.
• The official said the larger part of the relic remained with the ASI in Goa and would be publicly displayed for the first time. The smaller part had been handed over to Georgia, where it was likely to be displayed publicly with the citation that it was a “gift from people of India to people of Georgia”.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Supreme Court on Monday (July 12) agreed to hear the Bihar government’s appeal against the acquittal by Patna High Court in May of 14 accused in the Senari massacre of 1999.

• On March 18, 1999, 34 upper caste men were forced out of their homes in Senari village of Jehanabad district allegedly by cadres of the now defunct Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), and slaughtered near the village temple.
• The massacre was a sequel in the prolonged caste war between the MCC and private armies of upper caste villagers, especially the Ranbir Sena led by Barmeshwar Mukhiya, who was jailed in 2012.
• On November 15, 2016, a Jehanabad court sentenced 11 accused to death, and awarded the life sentence to three others. Three of those convicted challenged the verdict in the High Court.
• The Senari massacre saw the killing of the largest number of upper caste victims (34) after the Dalelchak-Bhagora massacre of Aurangabad in 1987, in which 42 upper caste people including 21 of a single family were killed.
• On the other side, the biggest loss of lives came in the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre of Jehanabad in 1997, in which 58 Dalits and OBCs were killed by the Ranbir Sena.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Google has been hit with a 500 million euros fine by France’s Competition Authority for failing to negotiate in good faith with news organisations over the use of their content.

• The fine is the latest skirmish in a global copyright battle between tech firms and news organisations.
• Last year, the French Competition Authority ordered that Google must negotiate deals with news organisations to show extracts of articles in search results, news and other services.
• Google was fined because, in the authority’s view, it failed to do this.

Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market

• The Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market is a European Union (EU) directive which has been adopted and came into force on 7 June 2019. It is intended to ensure "a well-functioning marketplace for copyright".
• It extends existing European Union copyright law and is a component of the EU's Digital Single Market project.
• In 2019, France became the first EU country to transpose a new Digital Copyright Directive into law. The law governed so-called neighbouring rights which are designed to compensate publishers and news agencies for the use of their material.
• Hence both statements are correct.

REL, a 100% subsidiary of NTPC, signed a MoU with Union Territory of Ladakh and the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC) to setup the country’s first Green Hydrogen Mobility project.

• The signing of the MoU was also marked with the inauguration of NTPC’s first solar installations in Leh in form of solar trees and a solar car port.
• The MoU will enable NTPC to help Ladakh develop a carbon free economy based on renewable sources and green hydrogen. This is also in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of a ‘carbon neutral’ Ladakh.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu, received the book 'Urdu Poets and Writers - Gems of Deccan' authored by senior journalist, Shri J.S. Ifthekhar.

• ‘Gems of Deccan’ is an anthology of prose and poetry that encapsulates the life and works of 51 outstanding poets and writers of the Deccan region.
• The book traces the rich literary and cultural traditions of Deccan, right from the time of Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the founder of Hyderabad, to the present times.

Urdu’s official status in India:

• It is one of the official languages under the Constitution of India, it is among the 15 Indian Languages written on the Indian Currency notes.
• It is one of the official languages in states like Kashmir, Telangana, UP, Bihar, New Delhi and West Bengal.
• The National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL) is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Government of India. Set up to promote, develop and propagate Urdu language, Council started its operation in Delhi in 1996.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The right to equality guaranteed under Article 15 upholds non-discrimination on the basis religion, race, caste, gender, place of birth.

The National Health Policy of 2017 has proposed a potentially achievable target of raising public health expenditure to 2.5 % of the GDP by 2025.

Though the Constitution of India does not expressly guarantee a fundamental right to health, there are multiple references in the Constitution to public health and on the role of the State in the provision of healthcare to citizens.

The Directive Principles of our Constitution provide a basis for the right to health.

The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is a regional organization comprising of seven member states in South Asia and Southeast Asia lying in littoral and adjacent areas of Bay of Bengal constituting a contiguous regional unity.

It comprises of seven member countries: five deriving from South Asia — including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka — and two from Southeast Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand.

Agni P is a new generation advanced variant of Agni class of missiles. It is a canisterised missile with range capability between 1,000 and 2,000 kms

India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully flight-tested a new generation nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni P also known as ‘Agni Prime’ from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam island off the coast of Odisha. The missile followed textbook trajectory, meeting all mission objectives with the high level of accuracy.

It can hit targets up to a range of 2000 kms, and is very short and light in comparison with other missiles in this class.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the 1st copy of the book titled ‘The Ramayan of Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji’ authored by Late Baljit Kaur Tulsi. The author is the mother of Rajya Sabha MP Shri KTS Tulsi Ji. The book has been published by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. Guru Gobind Singh was the 10th and last Sikh guru in human form, born in Patna in 1666.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has won a 2nd five-year term in office after his ruling ‘Prosperity Party’ won the country’s parliamentary election in a landslide victory. On June 21, 2021, the Prosperity Party won 410 seats from 436 parliamentary electoral constituencies at the general elections. Abiy Ahmed: He is serving as the 4th Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia since 2 April 2018. Ethiopia’s Capital: Addis Ababa; Currency: Ethiopian birr