Test: Monthly Current Affairs November- 1 - UPSC MCQ

In News- In a move to increase tourism in the Jammu & Kashmir, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region inaugurated the Mansar Lake Development Plan. Mansar Lake is Ramsar designated site.
All the statements are correct: The Ramsar Convention was signed on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar and it is also called Convention on Wetlands of International Importance. It is the only global treaty to focus on a single ecosystem. It is one of the oldest inter-governmental accord signed by members countries to preserve the ecological character of their wetlands of international importance. The aim of the Ramsar list is to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits. Wetlands declared as Ramsar sites are protected under strict guidelines of the convention. India has a total of 39 Ramsar sites, highest in South Asia. Recently, Kabartal Wetland (Bihar) and Asan Conservation Reserve (Uttrakhand) have been designated as Ramsar sites.
Causes of Degradation of Wetlands- Major changes in land use for agriculture and grazing, water diversion for dams and canals and infrastructure development are considered to be some of the main causes of loss and degradation of wetlands.

In News- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Hubble Space Telescope discovered a metal-rich asteroid '16 Psyche'.
Option C is correct: It is one of the most massive objects in the solar system's main asteroid belt. It orbits between Mars and Jupiter, could be made entirely of metal and is worth an estimated $10,000 quadrillion which is more than the entire economy of Earth. It is located roughly 370 million kilometres (230 million miles) from the Earth and measures 226 kilometres across (140 miles). It was first discovered on March 17, 1853, by the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and was named after the ancient Greek goddess of the soul, Psyche. It is one of the most massive objects in the asteroid belt in our solar system. Psyche is a dense and largely metallic object thought to be the core of an earlier planet that failed in formation.

In News- Recently, Army Aviation Corps (AAC) celebrated its 35th Corps Day on November 1.
Both the statements are not correct: The Army Aviation Corps (AAC) celebrated its 35th Corps Day on November 1. It is the youngest corps of the Indian Army. Its origin can be traced back to the Army Aviation wing of the Royal Air Force raised in India in 1942, and the formation of the first Indian Air Observation Post in August 1947. It was raised as a separate formation on November 1 in 1986. It draws officers and men from all arms of the Army and includes a significant number from the artillery. It plays a cardinal role in reconnaissance, observation, casualty evacuation, essential load drops, combat search and rescue. It also participates in Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations in peace times.

In News- Recently typhoon Goni (locally called Rolly) made landfall in the eastern Philippines.
All the conditions are correct: Tropical cyclones are violent storms that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move over to the coastal areas bringing about large scale destruction due to violent winds (squalls), very heavy rainfall (torrential rainfall) and storm surge.
They are irregular wind movements involving the closed circulation of air around a low-pressure center. This closed air circulation (whirling motion) is a result of rapid upward movement of the hot air which is subjected to Coriolis force. The low pressure at the centre is responsible for the wind speeds.

• Favourable conditions for the formation of cyclones:
• A large and calm sea surface with a temperature higher than 27° C.
• Presence of the Coriolis force and a distance from the Equator is necessary.
• Small differences in the vertical wind speed.
• A pre-existing weak- low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation
• Upper divergence above the sea level system. Presence of anticyclonic circulation at the height of 9 to 15km above the surface.

In News- D614G mutation has become the dominant variant in the global COVID-19 pandemic. The mutation was seen in 78% of genomes sequenced from April 1 to May 18.
Option B is correct: The novel coronavirus is undergoing many mutations, one particular mutation called D614G. Sars-Cov-2 is the official name of the virus that causes the disease Covid19 and D614G is a mutation of Sars-Cov-2. D614G is situated within the protein making up the virus's "spike" it uses to break into our cells. This mutation changes the amino acid at position 614, from D (aspartic acid) to G (glycine) — so, D-614-G. It was first detected in February in Europe and since then has become the dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2, found in swab samples across the world. This mutated form of the virus was first identified in China and then in Europe. Later it spread to other countries like the U.S. and Canada and was eventually reported in India.

In News- Kawasaki disease in children post-COVID has been reported in India.
Statement 1 is correct: Kawasaki disease is also called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). It causes inflammation in the coronary arteries that are responsible for supplying blood to the heart results in enlargement or the formation of aneurysms (swelling of the wall of an artery), leading to heart attacks.
Statement 2 is not correct: It primarily affects children younger than 5 years of age. The disease was first described in Japan by Tomisaku Kawasaki in 1967, and the first cases outside of Japan were reported in Hawaii in 1976.

The balance of payments (BoP) records the transactions in goods, services and assets between residents of a country with the rest of the world for a specified time period typically a year. There are two main accounts in the BoP - the current account and the capital account. Capital Account Includes: External Assistance, Commercial Borrowings, Foreign Investment, Portfolio, FII, Non-Resident Deposits, Banking Capital. The current account records exports and imports in goods and services and transfer payments.

Statement 1 is not correct: Recently, Indian bison killed for aphrodisiac in Gorumara National Park. The park is located in the Eastern Himalayas’ submontane Terai belt. This region has rolling forests and riverine grasslands and is known as the Dooars in West Bengal.
Statement 2 is correct: The park is located on the floodplains of the Murti River and Raidak River. The major river of the park is the Jaldhaka River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra river system. In this regard, Gorumara is a significant watershed area between the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems.

Option C is correct: It is a map-based question. As, Syria is located in Western Asia, north of the Arabian Peninsula and at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Lebanon and Israel to the west and southwest, Iraq to the east, and Jordan to the south.

In News- Recently, Attorney General of India declined to consent to initiate contempt proceedings against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and his principal advisor.
Statement 1 & 2 are not correct: As per the Contempt of Courts Act 1971, contempt refers to the offence of showing disrespect to the dignity or authority of a court. It divides contempt into civil and criminal contempt. Civil contempt is the willful disobedience to any judgment, decree, direction, order, writ or other processes of a court or wilful breach of an undertaking given to the court. Criminal contempt is an act which may result in scandalising the court by lowering its authority, interference in the due course of a judicial proceeding, an obstruction in the administration of justice. However, the expression ‘contempt of court’ has not been defined by the Constitution.
Statement 3 is not correct: The Supreme Court and High Courts have the power to punish for contempt of court, either with simple imprisonment for a term up to six months or with fine up to Rs. 2,000 or with both. The Supreme Court in the year 1991 ruled that it has the power to punish for contempt not only of itself but also of high courts, subordinate courts and tribunals functioning in the entire country. The High Courts have been given special powers to punish contempt of subordinate courts, as per Section 10 of The Contempt of Courts Act of 1971.

In News- Recently the Kerala Government decided to withdraw the general consent accorded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe cases in the state.
Statement 1 is not correct: CBI is the main investigation agency of the central government for cases relating to corruption and major criminal probes. It has its origin in Special Police Establishment set up in 1941 to probe bribery and corruption during World War II. Although the DSPE Act gives legal power to CBI, CBI is not a statutory body as the word ‘CBI’ is not mentioned in the DSPE act.
Statement 2 is correct: It can begin a probe under certain circumstances if a state government makes a request and the Union government agrees to it if the Supreme Court or any High Court order the CBI to take up such investigations. It can take a case suo-moto only in the Union Territories.
Statement 3 is not correct: Superintendence of CBI rests with CVC in corruption cases and with the Department of personnel and training in other matters. Presently it acts as an attached office under DOPT.

In News- A proposed “Miya museum” reflecting the “culture and heritage of the people living in char-chaporis” has stirred up a controversy in Assam.
Option C is correct: Recently, a proposed Miya museum reflecting the culture and heritage of the people living in char-chaporis has stirred up a controversy in Assam. The ‘Miya’ community comprises descendants of Muslim migrants from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Assam. They came to be referred to as ‘Miyas’, often in a derogatory manner. The community migrated in several waves — starting with the British annexation of Assam in 1826, and continuing into Partition and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Their Migration has resulted in changes in the demographic composition of the region. Years of discontent among the indigenous people led to the six-year-long (1979-85) anti-foreigner Assam Agitation to weed out the “illegal immigrant”, who was perceived as trying to take over jobs, language and culture of the indigenous population.

Aditya - L1 First Indian mission to study the Sun. It was meant to observe only the solar corona.  The outer layers of the Sun, extending to thousands of km above the disc (photosphere) is termed as the corona.  A Satellite placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses

In News- Recently, the study was published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters November 4, 2020, related to the impact of Brown carbon ‘tarballs’ on the Himalayan ecosystem.
Option A is correct: A a recent study has found that nearly 28 per cent of particles collected from the air samples from a research station in the Himalaya-Tibetan Plateau were tarballs. Tarballs are small light-absorbing, carbonaceous particles formed due to burning of biomass or fossil fuels that deposit on snow and ice. They hasten glacial melt. Brown carbon (BrC) is brown in colour and its absorption is limited to UV and lower visible wavelengths. Aerosol absorption depends on the mass, mixing state, chemical composition and the refractive index of the species present in the atmosphere.

In News- Recently, Pakistan transferred the management of the Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara from a Sikh body to a separate trust.
Option B is correct: The corridor was built to commemorate 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak Dev in 2019. It is the final resting place of Sikh faith’s founder Guru Nanak Dev, who had spent the last 18 years of his life in Kartarpur until his death in 1539.
The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was first proposed in 1999 when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore. It connects the Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Narowal district of Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district in India’s Punjab province.
The gurdwara in Kartarpur is located on the bank of river Ravi in Pakistan. The Kartarpur corridor was thrown open amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue. The corridor was shut in March given the coronavirus pandemic.

In News- A pilot project has yielded successful results in Yangyang village of South Sikkim, which produced its first crop of saffron this September.
Statement 1 is not correct: The cultivation of saffron flowers is not done throughout the year. In Jammu and Kashmir, saffron is normally sown in August and till the 15th of September. The flowers are plucked in October and November. During harvesting or plucking of flowers, the atmosphere must not be hot.
Statement 2 is correct: Saffron cultivation is believed to have been introduced in Kashmir by Central Asian immigrants around the 1st Century BCE. In ancient Sanskrit literature, saffron is referred to as ‘bahukam’. The saffron available in Kashmir is of three types — ‘Lachha Saffron’, with stigmas just separated from the flowers and dried without further processing; ‘Mongra Saffron’, in which stigmas are detached from the flower, dried in the sun and processed traditionally; and ‘Guchhi Saffron’, which is the same as Lachha, except that the latter’s dried stigmas are packed loosely in air-tight containers while the former has stigmas joined together in a bundle tied with a cloth thread.
Statement 3 is correct: Saffron cultivation has long been restricted to a limited geographical area in J&K, mainly Pampore, followed by Budgam, Srinagar and Kishtwar districts. Pampore is called Saffron bowl of Kashmir, it is one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) recognised sites in India. Recently, the Kashmir saffron got a Geographical Indication (GI) tag status.

In News: Artists in the city of Hyderabad are using the traditional Warli art form to not just beautify the city but also to create awareness on important issues.
Option A is correct: The art is a traditional art form and originally belongs to the Warli Tribes of Maharashtra. It was first discovered in the early seventies. While there are no records of the exact origins of this art, its roots may be traced to as early as the 10th century A.D. The art is the vivid expression of daily and social events of the Warli tribe of Maharashtra. Simplicity is the key in Warli and the figures are created out of geometrical shapes like two triangles, stick-like hands and legs, a circle (representing face), a smaller circle (only for female form to indicate a hair bun) and square. These paintings do not depict mythological characters or images of deities, but they depict social life. Images of human beings and animals, along with scenes from daily life are created in a loose rhythmic pattern. Women are mainly engaged in the creation of these paintings and they are painted on an austere mud base using one colour, white, with occasional dots in red and yellow. This colour is obtained from grounding rice into a white powder.

In News- The Uttarakhand Chief Minister has inaugurated Dobra-Chanthi suspension bridge in Tehri-Garhwal district.
Option D is correct: Dobra-Chanthi suspension bridge is a country’s longest single-lane motorable suspension bridge in Tehri Garhwal district. It is built over Tehri Lake, it will cut travel time between Tehri and Pratapnagar districts from 5 5 to 1.5 hours. 

In News- According to research, a large asteroid named Asteroid Apophis, which was expected to pass extremely close to Earth may now hit the blue planet in 2068 due to a phenomenon called Yarkovsky effect.
Option B is correct: The Asteroid Apophis was discovered in 2004 and since then it was revealed that the probability of a collision is almost negligible. It was earlier predicted to pass really close to Earth in 2068. But, according to the new calculations, the asteroid is drifting away from its original orbit now. The change in orbit is about 557 feet (170 metres) per year. The asteroid’s orbit has been disturbed by the heat it is taking from the Sun.
This phenomenon is called the Yarkovsky effect as it celestial object’s path changes due to heat energy being radiated asymmetrically. Basically, the heat that an asteroid radiates gives it a very tiny push. The warmer hemisphere [of the asteroid] would be pushing slightly more than the cooler hemisphere, and that causes the asteroid to drift away from what a purely gravitational orbit would predict.

In News- The scientists at Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology have unearthed large concentrations of micro and moderate magnitude earthquakes in the Dharchula region.
Option D is correct: Earthquake waves get recorded in seismographs located at far off locations. However, there exist some specific areas where the waves are not reported. Such a zone is called the 'shadow zone'. It is due to the S wave. There are two types of body waves generated during an earthquake. They are called P and S-waves. An important fact about Swaves is that they can travel only through solid materials. This characteristic of the S-waves is quite important as it has helped scientists to understand the structure of the interior of the earth. Hence, none of the above options (a), (b) and (c) is correct.