Daily Current Affairs MCQ - March 3, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

The world’s largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov An-225, has been “destroyed” in an attack on its base at Hostomel/Gostomel airport in Ukraine.

• Known formally as the “Cossack”, its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) operating code, the world knew the “super-heavy transport plane” better by its Ukrainian name, “Mriya”, or “the Dream”.
• The six-engine 84-metre-long behemoth, with its 32-wheel landing gear, had its first flight on December 21, 1988, built mainly for the transportation of the Buran shuttle orbiter and components of the Energiya carrier rocket.
• It made its maiden landing in India, in May 2016, at Hyderabad’s Shamshabad airport while en route to Perth to deliver a 117-tonne power generator (from Prague, the Czech Republic) to a mine in Australia.
• It played an important role too in the COVID-19 fight, ferrying nearly 100 tonnes of medicines, laboratory kits, medical masks and personal protective equipment in various missions across Europe, Canada and to Africa.

Hence both statements are correct.

The world faces unavoidable multiple climate hazards over the next two decades with global warming of 1.5°C, and even temporarily exceeding this warming level would mean additional, severe impacts, some of which will be irreversible, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

• Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and damage to nature and people. Some development and adaptation efforts have reduced vulnerability.
• Lucknow and Patna, according to one of several studies cited in the IPCC report, are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperature (a metric of humidity) of 35°C if emissions continued to rise.
• Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, and Ahmedabad are identified as at risk of reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 32-34°C with continued emissions.
• Overall, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions keep rising, all States will have regions that experience wet-bulb temperature of 30°C or more by the end of the century.
• According to the IPCC report, global sea levels will likely rise 44-76 cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges. With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28-55 cm.
• But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as 2 m this century and 5 m by 2150.

Hence both statements are correct.

Ukraine has filed an application before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), instituting proceedings against the Russia concerning “a dispute relating to the interpretation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (the “Genocide Convention”).

• Ukraine has accused Russia of falsely claiming that “acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine”, and of using that as a pretext to recognise the independence of these regions and of going to war against Ukraine.
• The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN).
• Like the PCIJ, the ICJ is based at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It is the only one of the six principal organs of the UN that is not located in New York City.
• The ICJ has 15 judges who are elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and Security Council, which vote simultaneously but separately.

Timeline

• It was established in June 1945 by the Charter of the United Nations and began work in April 1946.
• The court is the successor to the Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ). The PCIJ was formally dissolved in April 1946, and its last president, Judge José Gustavo Guerrero of El Salvador, became the first president of the ICJ.
• The first case, which was brought by the UK against Albania and concerned incidents in the Corfu channel — the narrow strait of the Ionian Sea between the Greek island of Corfu and Albania on the European mainland — was submitted in May 1947.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister of Earth Sciences Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) on the occasion of National Science Day 2022.

• The International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) will be hosted at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, an institution under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India, initially for five years.
• It would encompass activities and connections related to international monsoon research that would be identified and fostered under the leadership of the World Climate Research Programme and the World Weather Research Programme.
• Both the World Climate Research Programme and World Weather Research Programme are international programmes coordinated by the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
• The IMPO would support activities of the Monsoons Panel, jointly established by the World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean Variability, Predictability, and Change) and GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Exchanges) projects.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Raman Effect

• Raman is the inelastic scattering of a photon by molecules which are excited to higher vibrational or rotational energy levels. It is also called Raman scattering.
  • In simpler words, it is a change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The Raman effect forms the basis for Raman spectroscopy which is used by chemists and physicists to gain information about materials.
  • Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation.
• National Science Day (NSD) is celebrated annually on 28^th February to commemorate the discovery of the Raman Effect by Nobel laureate and Physicist CV Raman on this day in 1928. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  • In 1986, the National Council for Science & Technology asked the Government of India to designate 28th February as NSD.

• Stock exchanges, depositories and clearing houses are all Market Infrastructure Institutions and constitute a key part of the nation's vital economic infrastructure.
• According to a panel set up (in 2010) under the chairmanship of former Reserve Bank of India Governor Bimal Jalan, the term ‘market infrastructure’ denotes such fundamental facilities and systems serving this capital market.
  • The primary purpose of the securities /capital market is to enable allocation/reallocation of capital/financial resources.
• MIIs helps in optimal use of money in the economy and fostered economic development. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • They constitute the nucleus of the capital allocation system and are indispensable for economic growth and have a net positive effect on society like any other infrastructure institution.
• Recently, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) noted that the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the country's largest equities and derivatives exchange is a systemically important market infrastructure institution (MII). Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was launched in September 2021 by the Prime Minister through a video conference.
• It aims to provide digital health IDs for all Indian citizens to help hospitals, insurance firms, and citizens access health records electronically when required. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The pilot project of the Mission had been announced by the Prime Minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th August 2020.
  • The project is being implemented in the pilot phase in six States & Union Territories.
• The National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be the implementing Agency. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

• Recently, India has improved its overall International Intellectual Property (IIP) score from 38.4% to 38.6%, and the country is ranked 43^rd out of 55 countries on the International Intellectual Property Index. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• International Intellectual Property Index is an annual report compiled by the US Chambers of Commerce. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• This year (2022) the index is topped by the US with 95.4%.

Diphtheria is caused by a bacterium now known as Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The disease would start out as an infection of the respiratory tract and the bacterium would secrete a toxin that injured and then destroyed cells. A thick grey substance, from the cellular waste secreted from battling the bacterium, would envelop the pharynx and stick to the tissues and obstruct breathing. The effects of this could travel as far the heart and kidneys.

Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) is a vaccination programme launched by the Government of India in 1985. The programme now consists of vaccination for 12 diseases- tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, hepatitis B, diarrhoea, Japanese encephalitis, rubella, pneumonia (haemophilus influenzae type B) and Pneumococcal diseases (pneumococcal pneumonia and meningitis).

All natural fats and oils are a combination of monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated fatty acids. 

Trans fatty acids are formed during industrial partial hydrogenation of vegetable oil, a process widely commercialized to produce solid fats.

Trans fat increases low density lipoproteins (LDL), triglycerides and insulin levels and reduces beneficial high density lipoproteins (HDL).