Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 4, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

• Recently, India and Pakistan have exchanged a list of their nuclear installations. The exchange was in accordance with the Article-II of Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• According to this agreement, both countries have to inform each other of the nuclear installations and facilities. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  • The agreement was signed in 1988 and ratified in 1991.
  • This was the 31^st consecutive exchange of the list between the two neighboring countries.
• Nuclear power and research reactors, fuel fabrication, uranium enrichment, isotopes separation and reprocessing facilities, as well as any other installations with fresh or irradiated nuclear fuel and materials in any form and establishments storing significant quantities of radioactive materials, are all included under the umbrella term “nuclear installations and facilities”. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.

• The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) was launched in 2019, it envisages supply of 55 litres of water per person per day to every rural household through Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTC) by 2024. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • JJM looks to create a jan andolan for water, thereby making it everyone’s priority.
  • It comes under Jal Shakti Ministry.
• The mission ensures functionality of existing water supply systems and water connections, water quality monitoring and testing as well as sustainable agriculture.
  • It also ensures conjunctive use of conserved water; drinking water source augmentation, drinking water supply system, grey water treatment and its reuse.
• Features:
  • JJM focuses on integrated demand and supply-side management of water at the local level.
  • Creation of local infrastructure for source sustainability measures as mandatory elements, like rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and management of household wastewater for reuse, is undertaken in convergence with other government programmes/schemes.
  • The Mission is based on a community approach to water and includes extensive Information, Education and Communication as a key component of the mission.
• Funding Pattern:
  • The fund sharing pattern between the Centre and states is 90:10 for Himalayan and North-Eastern States, 50:50 for other states, and 100% for Union Territories. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• The Brahmaputra river originates under the name of Siang or Dihang, from the Chemayungdung glacier of the Kailash range near the Mansarovar lake. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • It enters India west of Sadiya town in Arunachal Pradesh. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• The river is known as Yarlung Tsangpo in China. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • Its tributaries include Dibang, Lohit, Siang, Burhi Dihing, Tista, and Dhansari.
• It is a perennial river and has several peculiar characteristics due to its geography and prevailing climatic conditions.
  • The river is in itself dynamic as frequent landslides and geological activity force it to change course very often.
• Hence, option B is correct.

A government committee report in the Supreme Court has said that “income” is a “feasible criterion” for defining the “Economically Weaker Sections” (EWS) in society, and the annual family income of ₹8 lakh is a “reasonable” threshold to determine EWS in order to extend reservation in admissions and jobs.

• The committee did not agree with the notion that the Union government had “mechanically adopted” ₹8 lakh as a number because it was also used for the OBC creamy layer cut-off.
• It said the income criterion for EWS was “more stringent” than the one for the OBC creamy layer.
• Firstly, EWS’s criteria relates to the financial year prior to the year of application whereas the income criterion for the creamy layer in OBC category is applicable to gross annual income for three consecutive years.
• Secondly, in case of OBC creamy layer, income from salaries, agriculture and traditional artisanal professions are excluded from the consideration whereas the ₹8 lakh criteria for EWS includes all sources, including farming.
• The report is the result of the Supreme Court’s repeated grilling of the government, since October, to explain how it zeroed in on the figure of ‘₹8 lakh’ as the annual income criterion to identify EWS among forward classes of society for grant of 10% reservation in National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) medical admissions under the All India Quota (AIQ) category.
• The Supreme Court’s query was significant as the One Hundred and Third Constitutional Amendment of 2019, which introduced the 10% EWS quota, is itself under challenge before a larger Bench. The Amendment is under question for making economic criterion as the sole ground for grant of reservation benefits.
• The Centre had then formed an expert committee comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former Finance Secretary; professor V.K. Malhotra, Member Secretary, ICSSR; and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to the Government of India. The committee had submitted its report on December 31.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

China’s new law on land borders, passed on October 23, came into effect on January 1. This has happened at a time when the border standoff in eastern Ladakh remains unresolved, when China has renamed several places in Arunachal Pradesh as part of its claim on the Indian state.

• The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress passed the law for the “protection and exploitation of the country’s land border areas”.
• It mandates the state to take measures “to strengthen border defence, support economic and social development as well as opening-up in border areas, improve public services and infrastructure in such areas, encourage and support people’s life and work there, and promote coordination between border defence and social, economic development in border areas”.
• This means that it is encouraging the development of villages for civilians in the border areas.
• The law lays down four conditions under which the state can impose emergency measures, including border shutdown.
• Although the law is not meant specifically for India, it is bound to have some impact.
• China and India share a disputed 3,488-km boundary, the third longest among China’s 22,457-km land boundaries with 14 countries, after the borders with Mongolia and Russia.
• Besides India, Bhutan (477 km) is the only other country with which China has a disputed land border.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Last week, the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021, was made more stringent through an amendment in the Winter Session of the Assam Assembly. The original legislation had been passed on August 13.

• In August, the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021 replaced the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 1950, on the ground that the latter lacked sufficient legal provisions to regulate the slaughter, consumption and transportation of cattle.
• The Act bars sale and purchase of beef or beef products in areas “predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non beef-eating communities”, or “within a radius of 5 km” of any temple or sattra (Vaishnavite monasteries).
• The Act — ostensibly passed to check cattle smuggling to Bangladesh — prohibits inter-state transport of cattle to and from Assam without valid documents.

The Amendments

• The main amendments include a change in the transport permissions to cattle within the state and two new provisions that provide more teeth to the police.
• The amendment now allows movement from one district to another, provided
  • these do not border Bangladesh,
  • and those transporting the cattle are registered under the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Department, and have permits to transport the cattle for bonafide agricultural or animal husbandry purposes or for trade.
• The amendments empower the police to enter the house of an accused, search and seize properties if they have a “prima facie reason to believe” that the properties have been acquired in the last six years with money earned from illegal cattle trade.
• This provision also places the burden of proof on the accused.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Although the government has not described it as such, there are now unmistakable signs that India has entered the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• The sharpest increases in cases are being seen in the major cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and others.
• The reproduction number or R, an indicator of how quickly a disease is spreading in the population, has crossed 1 in all these megacities.
• An R-value of 1, which signifies that every infected person is passing on the infection to at least one person on an average, is a key threshold after which cases begin to rise rapidly. Both Delhi and Mumbai have R-values over 2 right now.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Dr N Rathnasree, Director of Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi passed away due to Covid complications.

• Dr Rathnasree was also a notable member of the Astronomical Society of India, and was also the first ever chairperson of the Public Outreach and Education Committee (POEC) set up in 2014.
• One of the key initiatives of Rathnasree was ‘Astro Adda’, an online discussion forum held every fortnight where students could come together and discuss astronomy-related topics.
• Dr Rathnasree had graduated from the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. She joined the Nehru Planetarium in 1996 as a senior planetarium educator and then became its director in 1999.
• Nehru Planetariums are the five planetariums in India, named after India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. These are located in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Bangalore, plus there is a Jawahar Planetarium in Prayagraj, where Nehru was born.
• The Nehru Planetarium in New Delhi is situated on the grounds of Teen Murti Bhavan, officially known as 'Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML)', earlier the official residence of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and now a museum in his memory.
• Hence both statements are correct.

A total of 186 elephants were killed after being hit by trains across India between 2009-10 and 2020-21, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

• Assam accounted for the highest number of elephant casualties on railway tracks (62), followed by West Bengal (57), and Odisha (27). Uttar Pradesh saw just one death.

Measures taken to avoid elephant casualties on railway lines

• A Permanent Coordination Committee was constituted between the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board) and the MoEFCC for preventing elephant deaths in train accidents.
• Clearing of vegetation along railway tracks to enable clear view for loco pilots, setting up underpass/overpass for safe passage of elephants, regulation of train speed from sunset to sunrise in vulnerable stretches, and regular patrolling of vulnerable stretches of railway tracks are among other initiatives the Ministry has undertaken.
• The MoEFCC released ₹212.49 crore to elephant range States under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) of Project Elephant to protect elephants, their habitat and corridors, to address man-elephant conflicts, and for the welfare of captive elephants, between 2011-12 and 2020-21.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepted a Hamas Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that crossed from Gaza into Israel, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said on social media.

• Iron Dome is a multi-mission system capable of intercepting rockets, artillery, mortars and Precision Guided Munitions like very short range air defence (V-SHORAD) systems as well as aircraft, helicopters and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) over short ranges of up to 70 km.
• It is an all-weather system and can engage multiple targets simultaneously and be deployed over land and sea.
• Iron Dome is manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems and has been in service with Israeli Air Force since 2011. The radar system was developed by Elta.
• Its development was prompted after a series of rocket attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas in the 2000s.
• An Iron Dome battery consists of a battle management control unit, a detection and tracking radar and a firing unit of three vertical launchers, with 20 interceptor missiles each.
• The interceptor missile uses a proximity fuse to detonate the target warhead in the air.
• The Iron Dome is deployed in a layered defence along with David’s Sling and Arrow missile defence system which are designed for medium- and long-range threats.
• The I-DOME is the mobile variant with all components on a single truck and C-DOME is the naval version for deployment on ships.

Benefits

• One of the system’s important advantages is its ability to identify the anticipated point of impact of the threatening rocket, to calculate whether it will fall in a built-up area or not, and to decide on this basis whether or not to engage it.
• This prevents unnecessary interception of rockets that will fall in open areas and thus not cause damage, the paper states.
• The system has intercepted thousands of rockets so far and, according to Rafael, its success rate is over 90%.
• Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.