Daily Current Affairs MCQ - October 9, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Asserting that India’s downside risks from negative feedback between real economy and financial system are receding, ratings agency Moody’s changed India’s sovereign rating outlook from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’, while affirming the country’s foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings at Baa3.

• Last year, Moody’s downgraded India’s sovereign rating from ‘Baa2’ to ‘Baa3’, the lowest investment grade, saying there will be challenges in implementation of policies to mitigate risks of a sustained period of low growth and deteriorating fiscal position.
• The outlook on the rating was kept negative.
• Since overseas borrowing costs are tied to a country’s rating and the agencies’ outlook on the nation, an upgrade usually helps in lowering borrowing costs for the government as well as the corporate sector.
• With chances of default receding and improvement in overall debt service ability, foreign investors take comfort in subscribing to government and corporate bonds at lower rates.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Physicians at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have successfully treated a patient with severe depression by recognising and tapping into the brain circuits linked with depressive brain patterns.

• The physicians have tried to reset these patterns, which they have said is the equivalent of using a pacemaker for the heart. The work, which represents a landmark in the use of neuroscience to treat psychiatric disorders, has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
• The doctors used an existing technique called deep brain stimulation (DBS), customising it for this patient’s case.
• DBS is a surgical procedure in which electrodes are implanted into certain brain areas. These electrodes, or leads, generate electrical impulses that control abnormal brain activity.
• The electrical impulses can also adjust for the chemical imbalances within the brain that cause various conditions.

A DBS system has three components

1. The electrode, or lead. This is a thin, insulated wire inserted through a small opening in the skull and implanted into a specific brain area.
2. The extension wire. This too is insulated, and is passed under the skin of the head, neck and shoulder, connecting the electrode to the third component of the system.
3. The internal pulse generator (IPG) is the third component. It is usually implanted under the skin in the upper chest.

Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey proposed to change the name of Corbett National Park to Ramganga National Park.

• Jim Corbett’s name has lent itself to India’s oldest and most celebrated national parks and to the cottage industry that has grown around it.
• Corbett’s name lives on in and around the forests of Uttarakhand where the celebrated hunter-naturalist once lived and whose efforts led to the establishment of the national park.

Name history

• But the Park was not always called Corbett. Set up in 1936 as India’s — and Asia’s — first national park, it was called Hailey National Park after Sir Macolm Hailey, the governor of the United Province.
• It was renamed Ramganga National Park, named after the river that flows through it, shortly after Independence and was rechristened yet again as Corbett National Park in 1956.
• It was at the insistence of Corbett’s friend, the great freedom fighter from Kumaon and the first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Govind Ballabh Pant, that the park was renamed after him, to honour his conservation efforts.

Geography

• Located in the Himalayan foothills near the tourist hill station of Nainital, Corbett National Park is spread over 520 sq km and is part of the Corbett Tiger Reserve which is over 1,288 sq km.
• The national park along with the neighbouring 301-sq km-Sonanadi Wildlife Sanctuary together make the critical tiger habitat of the Corbett Tiger Reserve.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

In an age marked by authoritarian regimes around the world, misinformation and hate speech, the Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to two journalists who have been running independent news organisations in their countries, often under the threat of detention and even death.

• Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia received the Prize “for their courageous fight for freedom of expression”.
• An investigative journalist, Ressa in 2012 co-founded Rappler, a digital media platform for investigative journalism, which she continues to head. Rappler has “focused critical attention” on President Rodrigo Duterte regime’s controversial, murderous anti-drug campaign.
• In the RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index, the Philippines ranked 138 of 180 nations (India was ranked lower, at 142).
• Dmitry Muratov “has for decades defended freedom of speech in Russia under increasingly challenging conditions”. During the Vladimir Putin regime, Russia has ranked 150 in the RSF’s 2021 World Freedom Index.
• Five years after Muratov left the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, he along with around 50 colleagues started Novaja Gazeta in 1993, as one of its founders. He has served as the newspaper’s editor-in-chief since 1995.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has released the Framework for Implementation of Market Based Economic Despatch (MBED) – Phase1 for lowering the cost of power purchase to Consumers.

• Implementing an Market Based Economic Despatch (MBED) is an essential next step in reforming electricity market operations and in moving towards “One Nation, One Grid, One Frequency, One Price” framework.
• MBED will ensure that the cheapest generating resources across the country are despatched to meet the overall system demand and will thus be a win-win for both the distribution companies and the generators and ultimately result in significant annual savings for the electricity consumers.
• The implementation of Phase 1 of MBED is planned to start with effect from 1st April 2022. Before this CERC will align their regulations and mock drill will be carried out to ensure that the system runs smoothly.
• Hence both statements are correct.

• Disinvestment means sale or liquidation of assets by the government, usually Central and state public sector enterprises, projects, or other fixed assets.
• The government undertakes disinvestment to reduce the fiscal burden on the exchequer, or to raise money for meeting specific needs, such as to bridge the revenue shortfall from other regular sources.
• Strategic disinvestment is the transfer of the ownership and control of a public sector entity to some other entity (mostly to a private sector entity).
  • Unlike the simple disinvestment, strategic sale implies a kind of privatization.
• The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance is the nodal department for the strategic stake sale in the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
• Main objectives of Disinvestment in India:
  • Reducing the fiscal burden on the exchequer
  • Improving public finances
  • Encouraging private ownership
  • Funding growth and development programmes
  • Maintaining and promoting competition in the market
• Hence, option D is correct.

• The Palk Bay scheme, also called ''The Diversification Of Trawl Fishing Boats From Palk Straits Into Deep Sea Fishing Boats'', was launched in 2017 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• It is a Tamil Nadu-specific scheme aimed at providing 2,000 vessels in three years to fishermen of the State and motivating them to abandon bottom trawling. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• It was launched as part of the umbrella Blue Revolution Scheme. The Blue Revolution is part of the Government's efforts to promote fishing as an allied activity for farmers in order to double their incomes. Hence statement 2 is correct.
• Another objective of the scheme is to “reduce fishing pressure” around the proximity of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) so that Tamil Nadu fishermen do not cross the IMBL and fish in Sri Lankan waters.

• Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia) is a climbing shrub that grows on other trees, from the botanical family Menispermaceae.
  • It is an essential herb in Ayurvedic medicine and all its parts are thought to have health benefits.
  • The plant is native to India but also found in China and tropical areas of Australia and Africa.
• Properties:
  • Hepatoprotective: Giloy is an efficient hepatoprotective agent. It increases the glutathione (GSH) level and supports the liver to detoxify toxic waste from the body.
  • Cardioprotective: Giloy modulates lipid metabolism via inhibiting glucuronide and cholesterol and also protects hearts against infarction with its antioxidant properties.
    • Infarction is tissue death (necrosis) due to inadequate blood supply to the affected area.
  • Neuroprotective: It modulates the antioxidant enzyme system of brain tissue and preserves dopaminergic neurons.
  • Prevent Respiratory Illness: Giloy has been preferred traditionally to treat ailments such as bronchitis and chronic cough.
    • Due to its powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties it pacifies the mucous membrane of the respiratory system thereby making it very effective in respiratory issues like asthma, cough, cold and tonsils.
• Hence, option D is correct.

The office of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles inaugurated Samarth training at 75 training centers in different craft throughout the country.

• The Samarth training is providing skill training to the 2,250 artisans as well as extending wage compensation of Rs. 300 per day per trainee at these centres.
• All the courses in Samarth training are National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) aligned as per Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship guidelines. The wage compensation to successful trained artisans is paid through DBT mode directly into the account of the artisans.
• The Raw material during the training is also provided by the department.
• Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister of Science & Technology Jitendra Singh said that India will be within the top 5 countries Globally and be recognized as a Global Bio-manufacturing Hub by 2025.

• India’s Bio-Economy is on way to achieve 150-billion-dollar target from the current 70 billion-dollar to contribute effectively to Prime Minister’s vision of a 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024-25.
• He was speaking here after releasing the Genetic Version of Indian rice and chickpea (DNA panArray) developed by National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR).
• The two DNA chips for rice and chickpea, IndRA and IndiCA are the first Pan-Genome genotyping arrays in these two crops and will tap the huge potential of Indian plant biodiversity and genomic diversity towards food and nutritional security of the Nation.
• The Minister also inaugurated “NIPGR First Translational Facility Network for Speed Breeding and High Throughput (HTP) Field Phenotyping” at the campus of Bharat Immunologicals and Biologicals Corporation Limited (BIBCOL), Bulandshahr, UP.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.