Daily Current Affairs MCQ - August 24, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Ahead of its infamous smog season, Delhi got a ‘smog tower’, a technological aid to help combat air pollution.

• The structure is 24 m high, about as much as an 8-storey building — an 18-metre concrete tower, topped by a 6-metre-high canopy. At its base are 40 fans, 10 on each side.
• Each fan can discharge 25 cubic metres per second of air, adding up to 1,000 cubic metres per second for the tower as a whole. Inside the tower in two layers are 5,000 filters. The filters and fans have been imported from the United States.
• The tower uses a ‘downdraft air cleaning system’
• Polluted air is sucked in at a height of 24 m, and filtered air is released at the bottom of the tower, at a height of about 10 m from the ground.
• When the fans at the bottom of the tower operate, the negative pressure created sucks in air from the top. The ‘macro’ layer in the filter traps particles of 10 microns and larger, while the ‘micro’ layer filters smaller particles of around 0.3 microns.
• The downdraft method is different from the system used in China, where a 60-metre smog tower in Xian city uses an ‘updraft’ system — air is sucked in from near the ground, and is propelled upwards by heating and convection. Filtered air is released at the top of the tower.
• Hence both statements are correct.

• Ahmad Massoud is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was one of the main leaders of Afghanistan’s anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s and was assassinated on September 9, 2001, at the behest of the Taliban and al-Qaeda
• Ahmad Massoud has been leading the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan and is gathering mujahideen fighters in the Panjshir Valley who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh said that the new portal under Bhuvan “Yuktdhara”, which has been released recently, will facilitate planning of new MGNREGA assets using Remote Sensing and GIS based information.

• The “Yuktdhara” Geospatial Planning Portal will serve as a repository of assets (Geotags) created under various national rural development programmes i.e. MGNREGA, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, Per Drop More Crop and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana etc., along with field photographs.
• This portal integrates wide variety of thematic layers, multi-temporal high resolution earth observation data with analysis tools.
• Planners will analyse previous assets under various schemes and facilitates identification of new works using online tools. Plans prepared will be evaluated by appropriate authorities under State Departments.
• Thus, Yuktdhara based plans will be prepared by grassroot functionary and verified by appropriate authorities for relevance and resource allocation. This would ensure quality of plan and enable a long term monitoring of the assets created over the years.
• Hence both statements are correct.

A Selection Board of the Indian Army cleared the way for the promotion of five women officers to Colonel (Time Scale) rank, post completion of 26 years of reckonable service.

• This is the first time that women officers serving with the Corps of Signals, Corps of Electronic and Mechanical Engineers (EME) and the Corps of Engineers have been approved to the rank of Colonel.
• Previously, promotion to the rank of Colonel was only applicable for women officers in the Army Medical Corps (AMC), Judge Advocate General (JAG) and the Army Education Corps (AEC).
• The widening of promotion avenues to more branches of the Indian Army is a sign of increasing career opportunities for women officers.
• Combined with the decision to grant permanent commission to women officers from a majority of branches of the Indian Army, this step defines the Indian Army’s approach towards a gender-neutral Army.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Swarnim Vijay Varsh Victory Flame was taken to Indira Point, the southernmost tip of the country on August 22, 2021, as part of its voyage to the Nicobar Group of Islands. 2021 is being celebrated as Swarnim Vijay Varsh to mark the 50th year of India’s historic victory in the 1971 war.

• Indira Point, southernmost point of India's territory, is a village in the Nicobar district at Great Nicobar Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. It is located in the Great Nicobar tehsil.
• The point was formerly known as Pygmalion Point and Parsons Point.
• This village was named Indira Point after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited the local light house on 19 February 1984. The official renaming ceremony happened on 10 October 1985.
• Galathea National Park and Lighthouse are the major attractions here.
• Hence both statements are correct.

POWER- Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research.

• It is a scheme to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research funding in various S&T programs in Indian academic institutions and R&D laboratories.
• Launched by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a Statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has restricted the permissible amount of industrial Trans Fatty Acid (TFA) in food products to 2 per cent from 2022. India would thus be achieving the WHO target a year in advance.

In mid-2016, the trans fat content limit was halved from 10% to 5%, and in December 2020, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) capped it to 3% by 2021.

These fats are largely produced artificially but a small amount also occurs naturally.

Even when the fat/oil contains less than 2% trans fat, repeated use at high temperature can increase the trans fat content.

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution establishing a Permanent Forum of People of African Descent to provide expert advice on addressing the challenges of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance.

The resolution adopted by consensus by the 193-member world body also calls for the forum to serve as “a platform for improving the safety and quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent” and their full inclusion in the societies where they live.

The assembly called the global fight against racism “a matter of priority for the international community.” The Permanent Forum of People of African Descent was given a series of mandates. They include helping to ensure “the full political, economic and social inclusion of people of African descent,” and providing expert advice and recommendations on addressing racism to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the General Assembly’s main committees and UN agencies.

The first of two additional Krivak class stealth frigates being built by Russia is expected to be delivered to India in the middle of 2023, Alexey Rakhmanov, chief executive officer of United Shipbuilding Corporation, said.

• In October 2016, India and Russia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for four Krivak or Talwar class stealth frigates — two to be procured directly from Russia and two to be built by Goa Shipyard Ltd. (GSL) — after which a $1 billion deal was signed for the direct purchase.
• The keel for the first ship to be built at GSL was laid in January and for the second ship in June this year. Keel laying is a major milestone in shipbuilding symbolises the formal commencement of the construction process.
• The Navy currently operates six Krivak class frigates procured in two different batches.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Thermocol could be the material of the future for construction of earthquake-resistant buildings, with thermal insulation and could also save energy required to develop construction materials.

• Researchers at IIT Roorkee have found that thermocol or Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is used as a composite material in core of reinforced concrete sandwich, could resist earthquake forces on up to four-storey buildings.
• They have attributed this earthquake resistance capability to the fact that the EPS layer is sandwiched between two layers of concrete having reinforcement in the form of welded wire mesh.
• The researchers said that the force being applied on a building during an earthquake arises due to the inertia effect and hence depends on the mass of the building. Thermocol resists earthquakes by reducing the mass of the building.
• In this technique, the EPS core and the wire mesh reinforcement is produced in a factory. The building skeleton is first erected from the factory-made core and reinforcement panels, and then concrete is sprayed on the skeleton core.
• This technique does not require any shuttering and hence can be constructed very fast.
• Hence both statements are correct.