Daily Current Affairs MCQ - August 23, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The first commercial flight landed on the easternmost tip of the Indian landmass, Tezu in the Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh, on Thursday, scripting history in the country’s aviation sector.

• Tezu’s inclusion on the country’s aviation map is projected to enhance tourism in the Arunachal Pradesh.
• CM Pema Khandu said that Tezu is the seventh domestic destination in the North East under UDAN, giving a boost to regional connectivity as envisioned by PM Narendra Modi.
• With Guwahati – Tezu route, flybig has provided air connectivity in 10 out of 16 routes in the region under the UDAN-RCS scheme. Flybig will operate on this route with a frequency of four flights each week.
• The opening of the Guwahati-Tezu route is a success story for RCS–UDAN route in the northeast.
• In October 2016, the Ministry launched the ‘Ude Deshka Aam Naagrik’ (UDAN) Regional Connectivity Scheme to make air travel more accessible to residents in regional cities.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

The Kanal Istanbul, an under-construction shipping route running parallel to the strategically critical Bosphorus Strait, is fast gaining prominence as a major divisive issue in Turkey.

• President Recep Tayyib Erdogan wants to dig up a new route through Istanbul connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara.
• The planned canal will run parallel to the Bosphorus Strait, a natural waterway that separates Europe and Asia, which for centuries has served as a key outlet for Russian ships entering the Mediterranean Sea.
• Since 1936, passage through the Strait has been governed by the Montreux Convention, a multilateral treaty that allows ships to go across almost free of cost during peacetime, and which tightly restricts the movement of naval vessels.
• Turkish leaders say that the new canal, which will run on the European side of Bosphorus, will be safer and faster to navigate compared to the Bosphorus, making it a more attractive option for commercial ships, who will pay to pass through.
• Analysts also believe that Erdogan would use the canal to circumvent Montreux Convention, by marketing the mega project to NATO allies as a legally kosher way of sending their warships into the Black Sea to counter Russia, their major geopolitical rival, all while attracting Chinese investment.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The Gujarat High Court this week stayed key provisions of The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 pertaining to marriages involving religious conversion of either of the two parties. While a larger constitutional challenge is still pending, the interim stay provides relief to interfaith couples.

• The Gujarat Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Act, 2021 amended the 2003 Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act.
• The laws ostensibly seek to end conversion through unlawful means, specifically prohibit any conversion for marriage, even if it is with the consent of the individual except when prior sanction is obtained from the state.
• Apart from UP and Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh too, have also enacted similar laws.
• The new anti-conversion laws
  • shift the burden of proof of a lawful religious conversion from the converted to his/her partner;
  • define “allurement” for religious conversion in vague, over-broad terms;
  • prescribe different jail terms based on gender; and
  • legitimate the intrusion of family and the society at large to oppose inter-faith marriages.
• They also give powers to the state to conduct a police inquiry to verify the intentions of the parties to convert for the purposes of marriage.

Hence both statements are correct.

As part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) celebrations, around 1183 ‘mobilisation camps’ were organised across the country under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) programme between 13th and 19th August, 2021.

• Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) launched on the 25th September, 2014, is a nationwide placement-linked skill training program funded by the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI).
• DDUGKY seeks to build the placement-linked skills of the poor rural youth and place them in wage employment across various sectors of the economy. The programme has an outcome led design with guaranteed placements for at least 70% trained candidates.
• The DDU-GKY programme is being implemented in 27 states and 3 UTs for rural poor youth with an emphasis on placements. More than 871 Project Implementation Agencies (PIAs) are training rural poor youth in close to 611- job roles through more than 2381 training centers.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, will launch the National Monetisation Pipeline.

• The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) comprises a four-year pipeline of the Central Government's brownfield infrastructure assets.
• Besides providing visibility to investors, NMP will also serve as a medium-term roadmap for the Asset Monetisation initiative of the Government.
• The Union Budget 2021-22 laid a lot of emphasis on Asset Monetisation as a means to raise innovative and alternative financing for infrastructure, and included a number of key announcements.
• The National Monetisation Pipeline book will be released in the presence of Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, Dr Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Shri Amitabh Kant, and Secretaries of relevant line ministries whose assets constitute the monetisation pipeline.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released its annual Emissions Gap Report 2020.

The annual report from UNEP measures “the gap between anticipated emissions and levels consistent with the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming this century to well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C”.

Alternative Investment Funds are an avenue to pool in funds for investing in private equity, real estate or hedge funds.

There are 3 categories of AIFs :

• Category I AIF are those funds that invest in start-ups or social venture funds, infrastructure funds, SME funds, and so on. The government or regulators consider this category of funds as socially viable or economically desirable.
• Category II Funds are those that do not leverage or borrow, other than to meet the day-to-day operational requirements. This category typically consists of Private Equity Funds and Debt funds.
• Category III funds typically comprised of Hedge Funds that employ diverse or complex trading strategies. By investing in listed or unlisted derivatives, AIF managers try to employ leverage.

Operation “Meri Saheli”:

• Indian Railways has launched “Meri Saheli” initiative for focused action on security of women across all zones with an objective to provide safety and security to lady passengers travelling by trains for their entire journey from starting station to destination station.
• An initiative of RPF, the Strategy of the entails interaction with lady passengers especially those travelling alone by a team of young lady RPF personnel at the originating station.

• Nano Urea (Liquid) contains nanoscale nitrogen particles which have more surface area (10,000 times over 1 mm Urea prill) and number of particles (55,000 nitrogen particles over 1 mm Urea prill) which makes it more impactful. In comparison to Urea the uptake efficiency of Nano Urea is more than 80 %.It is thus, required in lesser measure compared to the conventional urea fertiliser to fulfil plant’s nitrogen requirement.
• It has better use efficiency than conventional urea.
• Environment friendly product, can improve Soil, Air & Water quality thus, helps in addressing the concerns of Global Warming and in meeting the UN SDGs.
• Cheaper than conventional urea.

A study done by the doctors of Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) has revealed that high Vitamin D levels reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, and administration of the vitamin in the infected patients considerably reduce mortality.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, meaning that it dissolves in fats and oils and can be stored in your body for a long time.

• It is produced when sunlight (or artificial light, particularly in the ultraviolet region of 190-400 nm wavelength) falls on the skin and triggers a chemical reaction to a cholesterol-based molecule, and converts it into calcidiol in the liver and into calcitriol in the kidney.
• Its role: It is known to help in having

the right amount of calcium in the bones, catalyse the process of protecting cell membranes  from damage, preventing the inflammation of tissues and helping stop tissues from forming fibres and weakening bones from becoming brittle, leading to osteoporosis.

• Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults.