Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 26, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

Union Minister of Earth Sciences inaugurated the web-based application “Digital Ocean (www.do.incois.gov.in)” developed by INCOIS of M/o Earth sciences.

• Digital Ocean is a first of its kind digital platform for Ocean Data Management.
• It includes a set of applications developed to organize and present heterogeneous oceanographic data by adopting rapid advancements in geospatial technology.
• It facilitates an online interactive web-based environment for data integration, 3D and 4D data visualization, data analysis to assess the evolution of oceanographic features, data fusion and multi-format download of disparate data from multiple sources
• ‘Digital Ocean’ will help to share knowledge about the ocean with a wide range of users including research institutions, operational agencies, strategic users, academic community, maritime industry and policy makers. Digital Ocean also provides free access to information to the general public and the common man.
• It will play a central role in sustainable management of our oceans and expanding our ‘Blue Economy’ initiatives.
• Further, the Digital Ocean will be promoted as a platform for capacity building on Ocean Data Management for all Indian Ocean Rim countries.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Astronomers at the $100 million Breakthrough Listen project, started by the legendary physicist Stephen Hawking, have recently picked up an “intriguing” radio wave emission from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Sun.

• The news has sparked renewed interest in Proxima Centauri, one of whose planets is believed to revolve in the star’s habitable zone, giving rise to the possibility that it could have, or does, sustain life.
• Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light-years away from the Sun – considered a close distance in cosmic terms.
• Its mass is about an eighth of the Sun’s, and it is too dim to be seen with the naked eye from Earth.

Proxima b:

• Proxima b, one of the two planets that revolve around the star, is the subject of significant curiosity.
• Sized 1.2 times larger than Earth, and orbiting its star every 11 days, Proxima b lies in Proxima Centauri’s “Goldilocks zone” i.e. the area around a star where it is not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface of surrounding planets (e.g. Earth is in the Sun’s Goldilocks zone).
• However, this does not mean for sure that water is present on Proxima b. It could also be hostile to life, if its atmosphere has been stripped away by solar flares from Proxima Centauri.
• Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare digitally inaugurated the 7th National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices through a video conference.

• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare holds the National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Healthcare Systems in India.
• While the first one was held in 2013 at Srinagar to recognize, showcase and document various best practices and innovations in public healthcare system, the last was held at Gand hinagar, Gujarat.
• Union Minister of Health also launched New Health Management Information System (HMIS) along with the Operational Guidelines for TB services at AB-HWCs and the Operational Guidelines 2020 on Active Case Detection and Regular Surveillance for Leprosy.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a bold target of a TB-free India by 2025, five years ahead of the SDG targets of 2030.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Turkish parliament passed a bill that would increase the monitoring of civil society groups. The act is called “Preventing Financing of Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

• The Bill has come following the 2019 report on Turkey prepared by the intergovernmental body Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meant to fight money laundering and terror financing.
• The bill consists of 43 articles and has made changes to seven laws on Turkey’s Law of Associations and is meant to keep Turkey from being blacklisted by the Paris-based watchdog of terror financing.
• The Bill gives the Turkish government the power to appoint trustees to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to suspend their activities, seize their assets and monitor their sources of funding.
• Critics are seeing certain provisions of the bill as arbitrary and believe that it violates the provisions under the Turkish constitution since it interferes with the right to freedom of association.
• They are seeing this move as a way to crackdown on dissidents in a country where civil society is already not very free.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the 100th Kisan Rail train, which is also plying between Devlali and Danapur — a popular offering which has now been extended to run between Sangola to Muzaffarpur and has carried over 15,450 tonnes of produce.

• The Kisan Rail train carries vegetables such as cauliflower, capsicum, cabbage, drumsticks, chillies, onion, etc, as well as fruits like grapes, oranges, pomegranate, banana, custard apple.
• The loading and unloading of perishable commodities will be permitted at all en route stoppages and no minimum or maximum size of consignment. The government has extended a subsidy of 50 per cent on transportation of fruits and vegetables.
• The multi-commodity train service has been popular as it also carries relatively small quantities of produce brought in by small, individual farmers.
• So far, the Kisan Rail has run regularly on 10 routes. One route — between Yeshvantpur and Delhi — exhausted its seasonal demand a while ago.
• Kisan Rail trains have ferried around 27,000 tonnes of produce so far, and half of the trips made so far were by trains running between Devlali in Maharashtra and Danapur in Bihar.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan inaugurated India's first pneumococcal conjugate vaccine "Pneumosil".

• It has been developed by the Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) in collaboration with partners like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
• SIIPL developed and got the license of the first indigenous Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) from the Government of India during COVID-19 pandemic lock-down.
• This Indigenous Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine will be available in the market under the brand name "Pneumosil" at an affordable price in a single dose (vial and pre-filled syringe) and Multidose (vial) presentations.
• Pneumosil is effective in the prevention of Pneumonia disease.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated fully operational National Common Mobility Card service on the Airport Express Line of Delhi Metro, which was started in Ahmedabad last year.

• This one card will give integrated access to the commuters wherever they travel, whichever public transport they take.
• The idea of NCMC was floated by the Nandan Nilekani committee set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• NCMC will allow passengers with RuPay debit card, issued in the last 18 months by 23 banks to be swiped for Metro travel. This facility will become available on the entire Delhi Metro network by 2022.
• NCMC is an automatic fare collection system. It will turn smartphones into an inter-operable transport card that commuters can use eventually to pay for Metro, bus and suburban railways services.
• It will allow entry and exit from Metro stations with the help of a smartphone, known as the automatic fare collection (AFC) system.

One Nation, One system examples:

• Taking the example of the Common Mobility Card, the Prime Minister dwelled on the process of consolidating all the systems.
• One Nation, One Fastag has made travel seamless on highways across the country.
• One Nation, One Tax i.e. GST has ended the complications in the tax system and has brought uniformity in indirect tax system.
• One Nation, One Power Grid, is ensuring adequate and continuous power availability in every part of the country.
• With One Nation, One Gas Grid, Seamless Gas Connectivity is being ensured of the parts where gas-based life and economy used to be a dream earlier.
• One Nation, One Health Insurance Scheme i.e. Ayushman Bharat through which millions of people from India are taking advantage anywhere in the country.
• Citizens moving from one place to another have got freedom from the trouble of making new ration cards through One Nation, One Ration Card.
• Similarly, the country is moving in the direction of One Nation, One Agriculture Market due to new agricultural reforms and arrangements like e-NAM.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The government has used financial innovation to recapitalise Punjab & Sind Bank by issuing the lender Rs 5,500-crore worth of non-interest bearing bonds valued at par.

• Punjab & Sind Bank MD and CEO said these are special types of zero coupon bonds issued by the government after proper due diligence and these are issued at par.
• Since these bonds are not tradable, the lender has kept them in the Held-To-Maturity (HTM) bucket, not requiring it to book any mark-to-market gains or losses from these bonds.
• Though these will earn no interest for the subscriber, market participants term it both a ‘financial illusion’ and ‘great innovation’ by the government where it is using Rs 100 to create an impact of Rs 200 in the economy.
• Unlike the previous tranches of recapitalisation bonds which carried interest and were sold to different banks, these “non-interest bearing, non-transferable special GOI securities” have a maturity of 10-15 years and issued specifically to Punjab & Sind Bank.
• Though zero coupon, these bonds are different from traditional zero coupon bonds on one account — as they are being issued at par, there is no interest; in previous cases, since they were issued at discount, they technically were interest bearing.
• Zero coupon bonds by private companies are normally issued at discount, but since these special bonds are not tradable these can be issued at par.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Predicting a severe cold wave in the national capital and several other parts of North India, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) urged residents of India’s northernmost states to protect themselves from the biting cold by avoiding alcohol.

• To avoid an adverse reaction to the cold wave, the IMD shared a list of recommendations, one of which was avoiding alcohol as it “reduces your body temperature”.
• According to Health Experts, while alcohol may make you feel warmer, it actually reduces your body temperature and compromises your immunity if you then venture out into the cold.
• Alcohol can decrease the core temperature of the body and increase the risk of hypothermia during cold exposure.
• Alcohol is a vasodilator, which means that it causes blood vessels to relax and dilate or open. So after consuming alcohol, the volume of blood brought to the skin’s surface increases, making you feel warmer as a result.

Hypothermia:

• Hypothermia is a severe medical condition where the body loses heat before it can generate it, resulting in a dangerously low body temperature.
• While normal body temperature lies at around 37 degrees Celsius, the body temperature of a person suffering from hypothermia drops to below 35 degrees Celsius.
• Common signs include shivering, slow rate of breathing, slurred speech, cold skin and fatigue.
• Heavy alcohol consumption is often linked to an increased risk of hypothermia and other conditions linked to extreme cold weather.

Hence both statements are correct.

A new global report in its analysis of 15 most destructive climate disasters of 2020 has found that nine of these extreme events, including two in India, caused damage worth at least $5 billion.

• The report, ‘Counting the Cost 2020: A Year of Climate Breakdown’ has been prepared by the UK based non-profit organisation Christian Aid.
• Though hurricanes in the US and central American countries turned out to be the most expensive ($41 billion), floods in India during June-October period caused the loss of highest number of human lives.
• In fact, India’s floods, which killed 2,067, caused loss of more human lives than casualties in all other 14 destructive climate disasters put together.
• Floods in Pakistan which claimed 410 lives figured at second spot followed by the US and central American countries (400 lives lost in hurricanes) at the third position in the list of 15.
• The cyclone ‘Amphan’, which struck the Bay of Bengal in May, had caused financial losses valued at $13 billion in just a few days in India and Bangladesh and caused loss of 128 human lives.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.