Daily Current Affairs MCQ - July 28, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Dholavira, the archaeological site of a Harappan-era city, received the UNESCO world heritage site tag.

• While Dholavira became the fourth site from Gujarat and 40th from India to make the list, it is the first site of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) in India to get the tag.
• The IVC acropolis is located on a hillock near present-day Dholavira village in Kutch district, from which it gets its name.

Distinct features

• After Mohen-jo-Daro, Ganweriwala and Harappa in Pakistan and Rakhigarhi in Haryana of India, Dholavira is the fifth largest metropolis of IVC.
• The site has a fortified citadel, a middle town and a lower town with walls made of sandstone or limestone instead of mud bricks in many other Harappan sites.
• Some of the unique features of the Dholavira site are a cascading series of water reservoirs, outer fortification, two multi-purpose grounds — one of which was used for festivities and as a marketplace — nine gates with unique designs, and funerary architecture featuring tumulus — hemispherical structures like the Buddhist Stupas.
• While unlike graves at other IVC sites, no mortal remains of humans have been discovered at Dholavira.
• Remains of a copper smelter indicate of Harappans, who lived in Dholavira, knew metallurgy.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

12th Edition of Indo-Russia joint military Exercise INDRA 2021 will be held at Volgograd, Russia from 01 to 13 August 2021.

• The exercise will entail conduct of counter terror operations under the United Nations mandate by a joint force against international terror groups.
• 250 personnel from Army of both the nations will form part of the exercise.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

In a bid to create awareness and kindling interest of students, children and the public in the domain of space and technology, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has come up with the customised-themed merchandise programme in partnership with multiple companies on board.

• So far, eight companies have registered with ISRO on a non-exclusive basis with a registration fee regarding customised ISRO-theme-based articles/models and it includes Indic Inspirations (Pune), 1947IND (Bengaluru), and Ankur Hobby Centre (Ahmedabad).
• The collection will include authorised products that are connected to ISROs past missions and achievements, work, such as scale models, T-shirts, mugs, space-themed educational games, science toys, and more.
• Special attention would be given to 3D models and 2D drawings that are being used to make scaled models, LEGO sets, jigsaw puzzles, etc. to ensure accuracy and ISRO intellect.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Days before his superannuation, Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana was appointed Delhi Police Commissioner. Mr. Asthana, a 1984-batch IPS officer, was to retire on July 31.

• Mr. Asthana, who was serving as Director General, Border Security Force, will join as the Delhi Police Commissioner with immediate effect.
• While clearing Mr. Asthana’s appointment as CP, Delhi, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the inter-cadre deputation from Gujarat to AGMUT cadre.
• This is one of the very few instances when an IPS officer outside of the AGMUT cadre has been appointed as the Delhi Police chief.
• Mr. Asthana had earlier served as the Special Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation. He was the Narcotics Control Bureau chief when actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested in a drugs case in Mumbai.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Pirs, a Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks, was detached from the 22-year-old floating laboratory.

• In its place, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will be attaching a significantly larger module called Nauka, which will serve as the country’s main research facility on the space station.
• Nauka, which was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 21 using a Proton rocket, is scheduled to be integrated with the ISS on July 29, 2021.
• Nauka — meaning “science” in Russian — is the biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date, and will primarily serve as a research facility.
• It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
• On the ISS, Nauka will be attached to the critical Zvezda module, which provides all of the space station’s life support systems.
• The ISS is a pathbreaking collaborative effort between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

About the New START treaty:

• It is a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation with the formal name of Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.

Under terms of the treaty:

• Number of strategic nuclear missile launchers will be reduced by half.
• A new inspection and verification regime will be established, replacing the SORT mechanism.
• The number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads is limited to 1,550.
• Number of deployed and non-deployed inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers, and heavy bombers equipped for nuclear armaments to 800 will be limited.

It does not limit the number of operationally inactive nuclear warheads that can be stockpiled, a number in the high thousands.

In 2020, the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) approved the diversion of as much as 1,792 hectares of wildlife habitat. Most of the diversion is for linear projects such as roads, railways and transmission lines.

At around 4.9% of India’s geographical expanse, its protected areas – including national parks and wildlife sanctuaries – are anyway seriously short of the globally recognised Aichi Biodiversity Target of 17%.

Haiti is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, to the east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

• The 12^th Edition of Indo-Russia joint military Exercise INDRA will be held at Volgograd, Russia in August 2021. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The INDRA series of exercises began in 2003 and was conducted as a bilateral naval exercise alternately between the two countries. However, the first joint Tri-Services Exercise was conducted in 2017.
• Exercise INDRA will entail conduct of counter terror operations under the United Nations mandate by a joint force against international terror groups. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Recently, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, launched its biggest space laboratory named Nauka to the International Space Station (ISS).
• Nauka means Science in Russian. This is Russia's most ambitious research facility in space and is fitted with an oxygen generator, robotic cargo crane, a toilet and a bed for Russian astronauts.
  • This was sent into orbit using a Proton rocket (family of rockets in Russia - the most powerful in Russia’s space inventory) and will take eight days to reach the ISS.
• Hence, option D is correct.