Daily Current Affairs MCQ - October 8, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has issued the detailed guidelines for PM CARES for Children Scheme.

• Prime Minister Modi on 29th May, 2021 had announced comprehensive support for children who have lost both their parents due to COVID 19 pandemic.
• The objective of the scheme is to ensure comprehensive care and protection of children who have lost their parent(s) to COVID pandemic.
• The PM CARES for children scheme inter alia provides support to these children through convergent approach, gap funding for ensuring education, health, monthly stipend from the age of 18 years, and lump sum amount of Rs. 10 lakh on attaining 23 years of age.
• The eligible children shall be enrolled from 29.05.2021 which is the date of announcement by the Prime Minister to 31.12.2021 to avail benefits of PM CARES for Children Scheme.
• The Scheme is expected to continue till the year when every identified beneficiary shall turn 23 years of age.
• The eligibility criterion for the scheme will cover all children who have lost i) Both parents or ii) Surviving parent or iii) legal guardian/adoptive parents/single adoptive parent due to COVID 19 pandemic, starting from 11.03.2020 the date on which WHO has declared and characterized COVID-19 as pandemic till 31.12.2021, shall be entitled to benefits under this scheme.
• Child should not have completed 18 years of age on the date of death of parents
• Hence both statements are correct.

Union Finance Minister announced in Guwahati that Government of India has approved the construction of a 3 km long 4-lane bridge on Brahmaputra river in Kamrup district.

• The bridge will facilitate direct connectivity to the internationally renowned silk town of Sualkuchi and the industrial region of Amingaon with Guwahati and the International airport.
• The Union Finance Minister made this announcement while launching the RTPS(Right to Public services) Portal here. This portal by the government in Assam seeks to improve access in the delivery of selected public services in Assam.
• The Finance Minister also inaugurated the Excise and tax portal of the Government of Assam, as part of the ASPIRe project, which is funded by the World Bank.
• She inspected the New Development Bank (NDB) assisted Guwahati-North Guwahati bridge project.
• She also took part in the Bhumi Pujan ceremony of 120 MW Lower Kopili Hydro Electric Project at Longku, Dima Hasao.
• She laid foundation stone of upgradation work of 90km road from Haflong Tiniali to Lower Haflong, under the Asian Development Bank aided Assam Road Network Improvement Project (ARNIP) in Dima Hasao.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

At a ceremony held between the French and Indian governments on 7^th October in New Delhi, India officially joined the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group of more than 70 countries encouraging the adoption of the global goal to protect 30x30.

• HAC members currently include a mix of countries in the global north and south; European, Latin American, Africa and Asia countries are among the members. India is the first of the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to join the HAC.
• India’s announcement comes in the lead up to a high-level biodiversity meeting, hosted by China. The virtual meeting to take place October 11-15 will tackle key aspects of the biodiversity treaty to be finalized in 2022.
• The global 30x30 goal - to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030 - is currently a centrepiece of the treaty, known as the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

On October 5, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) approved the Chhattisgarh government’s proposal to declare the combined areas of the Guru Ghasidas National Park and Tamor Pingla Wildlife Sanctuary as a Tiger Reserve.

• The new Reserve is located in the northern part of the state, bordering Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. This will be the fourth Tiger Reserve in Chhattisgarh, after the Udanti-Sitanadi, Achanakmar, and Indravati Reserves.
• Guru Ghasidas National Park is in Koriya district; Tamor Pingla is in Surajpur district in the northwestern corner of Chhattisgarh.
• Guru Ghasidas National Park was the last known habitat of the Asiatic cheetah in the country. Originally part of the Sanjay Dubri National Park, Guru Ghasidas Park was created as a separate entity in Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja region after the formation of the state in 2001.
• Turning Guru Ghasidas into a Tiger Reserve is important because it connects Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh and provides a corridor for tigers to move between the Bandhavgarh and Palamau Tiger Reserves.
• The approval was granted under Section 38V(1) of The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 which states that “Tiger Conservation Plan: The State Government shall, on the recommendation of the Tiger Conservation Authority, notify an area as a tiger reserve”.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The Supreme Court allowed girls to appear in the entrance examination scheduled for December 2021 for admission to the Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC). The exam is taken for entry to Class 8 at the RIMC.

• The Rashtriya Indian Military College (RIMC), is an Inter Service Category 'A' establishment, administered through the Army Training Command (ARTRAC) under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
• Christened the Prince of Wales Royal Indian Military College, it was inaugurated on 13 March 1922.
• It is a military school situated in Doon Valley, Dehradun. The RIMC is a feeder institution for the National Defence Academy, Indian Naval Academy and subsequently the Indian Armed Forces.
• Hence both statements are correct.

• India recently joined the group. It was founded by Costa Rica, France and Britain in 2019. Hence, Statement 1 is incorrect.
• It has more than 70 countries which are a mix of countries in the global north and south, European, Latin American, Africa and Asia countries are among the members. Hence, Statement 2 is incorrect.
• Its aim is to promote an international agreement to protect at least 30% of the world's land and ocean by 2030 (Global 30×30 target). HAC has no relation to nuclear proliferation. Hence, Statement 3 is incorrect.

• Recently, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the State of Climate Services report 2021. It focuses on Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS). Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• TWS is the sum of all water on the land surface and in the subsurface, i.e. surface water, soil moisture, snow and ice and groundwater.
• Global Scenario: TWS dropped at a rate of 1 cm per year in 20 years (2002-2021).
  • The biggest losses have occurred in Antarctica and Greenland. But many highly populated, lower latitude locations have also experienced TWS losses.
• Indian Scenario: The TWS has been lost at a rate of at least 3 cm per year. In some regions, the loss has been over 4 cm per year too. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  • India has recorded the highest loss in terrestrial water storage if the loss of water storage in Antarctica and Greenland is excluded.
  • India is the ‘topmost hotspot of TWS loss’. The northern part of India has experienced the maximum loss within the country. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• Recently, the 6^th Edition of India - UK Joint Company Level Military Training Exercise AJEYA WARRIOR has commenced in Uttarakhand.
  • The exercise is conducted alternatively in the United Kingdom and India.
  • The exercise is part of an initiative to develop interoperability and sharing expertise with friendly foreign nations.
• India and the UK participated in a two-day bilateral Passage Exercise (PASSEX) in the Bay of Bengal.
• Other Joint Exercises between India and UK:
  • Navy: Konkan
  • Air Force: Indradhanush
• Garuda Shakti is a bilateral exercise between special forces of armies of India and Indonesia. This joint military exercise is a part of India and Indonesia defence cooperation.
• Hence, option C is correct.

The border guarding forces of India and Nepal will conduct regular joint patrolling along the border to control trans-border crimes, smuggling of arms, human trafficking and other areas of concern, a statement by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) said.

• The SSB, a central armed police force, secures the Nepal and Bhutan borders.
• The fifth annual coordination meeting between the Director General, SSB and Inspector General, Armed Police Force, Nepal concluded recently.

Hence both statements are correct.

Abdulrazak Gurnah, 72, who was born in Zanzibar and now lives in the UK, became the fifth African writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, after Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka (1986), Egyptian Naguib Mahfouz (1988), and South African writers Nadine Gordimer (1991) and John M Coetzee (2003).

• He is the author of 10 novels and several short stories and essays, including Memory of Departure (1987), Pilgrims Way (1988), Paradise (1994), By the Sea (2001), Desertion (2005), Gravel Heart (2017) and, most recently, Afterlives (2020).
• His writing explores the immigrant experience and how exile and loss shape identities and cultures.
• Most of his books feature African Arab protagonists trying to come to terms with dislocation and estrangement, looking in on societies and cultures on which their holds are tenuous.
• Zanzibar is an autonomous region of Tanzania. It is composed of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.