Daily Current Affairs MCQ- May 15, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

Last week, in Assembly elections in Assam, an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was found in a private vehicle belonging to a BJP candidate’s spouse.

• The Commission’s transport protocol for polled and reserve EVMs dictates that the voting machines, under no circumstances, should be taken in private custody or a private place.
• And also, that all EVMs, after voting is complete, should be under cover of armed police at all times.
• So, the polling party’s decision to hitch a ride in a private vehicle amounted to taking the EVM (used in Polling Station 149 of Ratabari seat) and hence was a violation of the EC’s rules.
• While saying that the seal of the EVM was intact, the EC ordered repoll for polling station 149.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Central Vigilance Commission officers will be transferred every 3 years from now onwards.

• The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has modified the guidelines pertaining to the transfer and posting of officials in the vigilance units of government organisations, restricting their tenure to three years at one place.
• The tenure may be extended to three more years, albeit at a different place of posting.
• According to the CVC, undue long stay of an official in a vigilance department had the potential of developing vested interests, apart from giving rise to unnecessary complaints or allegations.
• In order to emphasis on the importance of the issue and to ensure transparency, objectivity and uniformity in approach, the Commission has decided to modify its earlier guidelines
• The first phase of transfer/posting has to be completed by May 31. The exercise of transferring all the personnel in question should be completed by June 30
• The order said after transfer from the vigilance unit, there would be a compulsory cooling off period of three years before anyone could be considered again for posting in the unit.

Hence both statements are correct.

World Health Day being celebrated on April 07, 2021.

• The World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on 7 April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization (WHO).
• Since 1950, the World Health Day is held annually on April 7.
• The date of April 7 marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948.
• The theme of this year is Building a fairer, healthier world for everyone.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Directorate General of Training (DGT), under the aegis of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), announced results of the All India Trade Test (AITT) for CITS Academic session 2019-2020.

• DGT offers Crafts Instructor Training programmes under Crafts Instructor Training Scheme (CITS) to ITI trainees who aspire to pursue a career in skill training.
• Comprehensive training both in skills and training methodology is imparted to the instructor trainees to make them conversant with techniques of transferring hands-on skills, to train skilled manpower.
• At the end of year-long CITS training, an All India Trade Test (AITT) for each of the 34 trades is conducted online by DGT.
• On successful completion of the training, trainees are awarded National Craft Instructor Certificate (NCIC).

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

India is fast emerging a leader in high power computing with the National Super Computing Mission (NSM).

• The National Supercomputing Mission was launched to enhance the research capacities and capabilities in the country by connecting them to form a Supercomputing grid, with National Knowledge Network (NKN) as the backbone.
• The Mission is being jointly steered by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and implemented by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Phases:

• Computing infrastructure has already been installed in four premier institutions and installation work is in rapid progress in 9 more.
• Completion in of Phase II of NSM in September 2021 will take the country’s computing power to 16 Petaflops (PF).
• Phase III, initiated this year, will take the computing speed to around 45 Petaflops. This will include three systems of 3 PF each and one system of 20PF as a national facility.

List of supercomputers:

• PARAM Shivay, the first supercomputer assembled indigenously, was installed in IIT (BHU), followed by PARAM Shakti, PARAM Brahma, PARAM Yukti, PARAM Sanganak at IIT-Kharagpur IISER, Pune, JNCASR, Bengaluru and IIT Kanpur respectively.
• PARAM Siddhi - AI, the high-performance computing-artificial intelligence (HPC-AI) supercomputer, has achieved global ranking of 62 in TOP 500 most powerful supercomputer systems in the world, released on 16th November 2020.

Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister of Food & Public Distribution reviewed the modernization plan of Central Warehouse Corporation (CWC).

• While reviewing, the Minister said that CWC should double its warehouse storage capacity by end of year 2023 and achieve a turnover of Rs 10000 crore by the Financial Year 2024-25. At present, CWC warehouse storage capacity is 125 LMT.
• The Minister suggested that CWC should prepare a masterplan for upgradation of its all 423 warehouses.
• Central Warehousing Corporation is a statutory body which was established under ‘The Warehousing Corporations Act, 1962.
• It is a public warehouse operator established by the Government of India in 1956.
• Headquarters: New Delhi.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Noted socio-technologist Dr Chintan Vaishnav has been appointed the mission director of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), the government’s flagship initiative under NITI Aayog.

• Vaishnav will take over from Ramanathan Ramanan later this month. Ramanan has been leading AIM as its first mission director since June 2017.
• Vaishnav is currently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US. He holds a PhD in technology, management, and policy from MIT.
• Vaishnav is an engineer trained to understand and build large-scale systems, with both human as well as technological complexities.
• AIM’s mission is to create and promote a vibrant ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship across the country.
• So far, AIM has established 72,59 Atal Tinkering Labs in schools across 650 districts, providing over 3.5 million students access to emerging technologies.

Hence both statements are correct.

The ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh transferred the Technology - CSF and Sheep Pox Vaccines to M/s Hester Biosciences through Agrinnovate India Limited. 

• The Classical Swine Fever (CSF) is an important disease of pigs that causes 100% mortality. 
• In India, the disease is controlled by a lapinized CSF vaccine (Weybridge Strain, U.K.) produced by killing large numbers of rabbits. 
• To avoid this, the ICAR-IVRI developed a Cell Culture CSF Vaccine using the Lapinized Vaccine Virus from foreign strain. 

Indigenous Live Attenuated Sheep Pox Vaccine [SPPV Srin 38/00]:

• Sheep pox is a severe viral disease in sheep. 
• A live attenuated Sheep Pox Vaccine using indigenous strain was developed by the Institute for preventive vaccination in the sheep population. 
• The developed Vaccine uses indigenous Sheep Pox Virus Strain [SPPV Srin 38/00] and is adapted to grow in the Vero cell line which makes the Vaccine production to be easily scalable.

Hence both statements are correct.

Minister for Education (India) addressed the consultation meeting of Education Ministers of E9 countries on E9 initiative: Scaling up digital learning to accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education.

• Spearheaded by the United Nations (UN), the E9 Partnership was first established in 1993.
• E9 Countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
• The initiative aims to advance the Sustainable Development Goal 4 agenda by driving rapid change in education systems in three of the 2020 Global Education Meeting priorities: (i) support to teachers; (ii) investment in skills; and (iii) narrowing of the digital divide.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The Union Cabinet is apprised of a MoU signed between National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL), Dept of Space, Government of India and Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan for Academic and Research Cooperation and Exchange in November, 2020.

• This MoU shall enable NARL and RISH to continue their cooperation in areas of atmospheric science and technology.
• This MoU would lead to mutual utilization of facilities such as the Middle and Upper atmosphere (MU) radar in Shigaraki, Japan, the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) in Kototabang, Indonesia etc.
• NARL and RISH have been collaborating in the area of atmospheric science and technology as well as exchange of scientists.
• This arrangement was formalised in 2008 through an MoU which was renewed in the year 2013.
• A fresh MOU to promote collaborative research, as per the new guidelines, was signed in November 2020 by both sides and exchanged.

Hence both statements are correct.