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

Kaziranga in Assam has become the first national park in India to have been equipped with satellite phones, which are generally used by the law-enforcing agencies.

• The satellite phones will give an edge to the forest personnel over the poachers by boosting anti-poaching measures and also during emergencies like floods.
• The public is barred from using satellite phones in India.
• The Assam State Disaster Management Authority had procured the 10 satellite phones for Kaziranga at an estimated cost of ₹16 lakh. The park authorities will bear the monthly expenses for the service provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Parliament has passed the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (Amendment) Bill, 2021, with the Rajya Sabah approving it. The Lok Sabha had passed it earlier.

• The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (Amendment) Bill, 2021 proposes to amend the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020.
• The 2020 Act replaced the Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970. The 1970 Act set up the Central Council of Indian Medicine to regulate the education and practice of the Indian Medicine system which includes Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy.
• The 2020 Act replaced the Council with a National Commission for regulating education and practice of the Indian medicine system.
• The National Commission was constituted on June 11, 2021 to supersede the Central Council and on the same date the 1970 Act was repealed.
• The 2021 Bill specifies that all powers and functions of the Board of Governors (as under the 1970 Act) will be deemed to have been done under the 2020 Act and will continue to remain in force.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s second mission of the year — to place an earth observation satellite by a GSLV rocket — faced a setback as it could not be accomplished fully due to performance anomaly in the cryogenic stage of the rocket.

• The GSLV-F10/EOS-03 rocket successfully lifted off from the second launch pad at the spaceport. However, minutes later, they announced that the “mission could not be accomplished fully due to performance anomaly”.
• EOS-03 is a state-of-the-art agile Earth observation satellite which will be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by GSLV-F10. Subsequently, the satellite will reach the final geostationary orbit using its onboard propulsion system.
• EOS-03 was launched ahead of EOS-02, which has been delayed. EOS-02 is now scheduled for a launch in September-October.
• That launch will try out a new rocket — SSLV, or small satellite launch vehicle. Though India has developed four rockets till now — SLV, ASLV, and different versions of PSLV and GSLV — only two are currently operational.
• The SSLV is designed to cater to the increasing demand for launch of small satellites, mainly from businesses and universities; it costs much less and consumes less energy.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

How did a slight tweak to his staple wobble ball help Anderson get the better of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli at Trent Bridge?

• Wobble means to move or cause to move unsteadily from side to side.
• In cricket, the wobble-ball grip is almost similar to Anderson’s outswing grip with a minor tweak: even the index finger is on the leathery surface of the ball, adjacent to the seam.
• For the out swinger, he has the index finger on the seam and the middle finger on the surface of the ball. For the wobble, the two fingers are split across on either side of the seam. The angle of the seam for the wobble ball is similar to the out swinger, tilts towards the slips.
• For the traditional out swinger, Anderson cocks the wrist and run the fingers down the seam to get the back rotation that’s needed to swing.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

A dispute in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district over hoisting of a flag on August 9 on the statue of Rana Punja Bhil, a historical figure considered as a hero by the tribal Bhil community, has triggered tensions between Adivasi groups and BJP members.

• After the Amagarh fort dispute, this is the second issue in Rajasthan within a month when Adivasi groups and Hindu outfits are at odds over tribal history.
• According to historians, Punja Bhil was a contemporary of 16th century ruler of Mewar, Maharana Pratap.
• When Maharana Pratap was readying for the battle with Akbar, the tribal Bhil community voluntarily came to his assistance and at the time the Bhil army was commanded by Punja. Owing to his status as a commander, he was bestowed the title of Rana.
• Hence both statements are correct.

5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks. 5G mainly works in 3 bands, namely low, mid and high frequency spectrum — all of which have their own uses as well as limitations.

With speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second, 5G is set to be as much as 100 times faster than 4G.

Prime editing is a ‘search-and-replace’ genome editing technology in molecular biology by which the genome of living organisms may be modified. The technology directly writes new genetic information into a targeted DNA site.

On the moon there is almost no air and hence no air pressure. If they did not wear these space suits, the counter pressure exerted by the body of the astronauts would make the blood vessels burst. The astronauts would bleed.

Astronauts must wear spacesuits whenever they leave a spacecraft and are exposed to the environment of space. In space, there is no air to breath and no air pressure. Space is extremely cold and filled with dangerous radiation. Without protection, an astronaut would quickly die in space. Spacesuits are specially designed to protect astronauts from the cold, radiation and low pressure in space. They also provide air to breathe. Wearing a spacesuit allows an astronaut to survive and work in space.

The GEF provides funding to assist developing countries in meeting the objectives of international environmental conventions. The GEF serves as a “financial mechanism” to five conventions: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and Minamata Convention on Mercury.

Bound rate is the maximum rate of duty (tariff) that can be imposed by the importing country on an imported commodity. Here, each country commits itself to a ceiling on customs duties (tariff) on a certain number of products.

These rates vary from country to country and commodity to commodity. But no country can raise duties above the bound rate it has committed, and the rate of customs duty actually applied may be lower than the bound rate.