Daily Current Affairs MCQ- December 22, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways launched one of India’s first-ever Surety Bond Insurance product

• What it is? Surety bond can be defined in its simplest form as a written agreement to guarantee compliance, payment, or performance of an act. Surety is a unique type of insurance because it involves a three-party agreement. The three parties in a surety agreement are:
• Principal: The party that purchases the bond and undertakes an obligation to perform an act as promised.
• Surety: The insurance company or surety company that guarantees the obligation will be performed. If the principal fails to perform the act as promised, the surety is contractually liable for losses sustained.
• Obligee: The party who requires, and often receives the benefit of the surety bond. For most surety bonds, the obligee is a local, state or federal government organization.

Advantages of the bond insurance

• It will act as a security arrangement for infrastructure projects and will insulate the contractor as well as the principal.
• The product will cater to the requirements of a diversified group of contractors, many of whom are operating in today’s increasingly volatile environment.
• The product gives the principal a contract of guarantee that contractual terms and other business deals will be concluded in accordance with the mutually agreed terms.
• In case the contractor doesn’t fulfil the contractual terms, the Principal can raise a claim on the surety bond and recover the losses they have incurred.
• Unlike a bank guarantee, the Surety Bond Insurance does not require large collateral from the contractor thus freeing up significant funds for the contractor, which they can utilize for the growth of the business.
• The product will also help in reducing the contractors’ debts to a large extent thus addressing their financial worries.

Hence both statements are correct

The sudden spike in the overall AQI of Delhi, the Sub-Committee for invoking actions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) of the Commission for Air Quality Management in NCR & Adjoining Areas (CAQM)

• Delhi’s overall Air Quality Index (AQI) clocked 410 recently as per the evening AQI Bulletin provided by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

What is GRAP?

• It is a set of emergency measures that kick in to prevent further deterioration of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold.
• The GRAP was first notified in January 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• Stage 1 of GRAP is activated when the AQI is in the ‘poor’ category (201 to 300).The second, third and fourth stages will be activated three days ahead of the AQI reaching the ‘very poor’ category (301 to 400), ‘severe’ category (401 to 450) and ‘severe +’ category (above 450)

CAQM

The Commission is a statutory body which was first formed by an ordinance in October 2020.

Composition:

• Chairperson: To be chaired by a government official of the rank of Secretary or Chief Secretary. He will hold the post for three years or until s/he attains the age of 70 years.
• It will also have five ex officio members who are either Chief Secretaries or Secretaries in charge of the department dealing with environment protection in the States of Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
• Three full time technical members.
• Three members from non-government organisations.
• Technical members from CPCB, Indian Space Research Organisation, and NITI Aayog

Powers and functions:

• Restricting activities influencing air quality.
• Investigating and conducting research related to environmental pollution impacting air quality, preparing codes and guidelines to prevent and control air pollution,
• Issuing directions on matters including inspections, or regulation which will be binding on the concerned person or authority.

Hence only statements 1 is correct

INSV Tarini has set sail for an expedition to Cape Town, for participating in the Cape to Rio Race 2023

• INSV Tarini will start for an expedition to Cape Town, South Africa for participating in the 50th edition of Cape to Rio Race 2023.
• This ocean sailing race will be flagged off from Cape Town on 02 Jan 23 and will culminate at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The race is one of the most prestigious Trans-Atlantic ocean races.
• Transiting from Goa to Rio de Janeiro via Cape Town and back, INSV Tarini would be covering a distance of almost 17,000 nautical miles (approx. 30,000 km)
• The expedition is being undertaken by an Indian Navy crew of five officers including two women officers.
• The crew, over a period of 5-6 months in this trans-oceanic voyage is expected to face extreme weather and rough sea conditions of the Indian, Atlantic and the Southern oceans. 

What is INSV Tarini?

• It is the second sailboat of Indian Navy after INSV Mhedi
• It is known for circumnavigating the globe with an all-women officer crew in the historic expedition titled 'Navika Sagar Parikrama' in 2017.

Hence both statements are correct

National Testing House will begin offering testing facilities for electric vehicles from next year.

Key features of National Testing House

• It was originated in the year 1912, as “Government Test House” at Alipore, Calcutta, with the primary objective of assisting and guiding the indigenous manufacturers on the production of engineering goods with Quality Testing.  
• Presently it is functioning as a subordinate office under, Govt. of India, Ministry of Consumers Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, and Department of Consumer Affairs.
• It is Registered in the Government e Market (GeM) as a service provider in the category "Testing and Calibration Service" to meet the testing needs of all Government departments and PSUs.
• It imparts its services to the nation through seven of its regional branches located at Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Guwahati and Varanasi.
• It is also expanding its services for water testing and fertiliser testing, among others, including rock phosphate.

Hence only statement 1 is correct

NITI Aayog recently opened applications for ‘ATL Marathon 2022-23’

• ATL Marathon is a flagship innovation challenge under Atal Innovation Mission’s Atal Tinkering Labs program.
• This is a national level innovation challenge for young innovators across India who can solve community problems of their choice, develop innovative solutions in the form of working prototypes or, minimum viable product (MVP).
• The theme for this edition of ATL Marathon is “India’s G20 Presidency”.
• AIM has designed the problem statements based on G20’s working group inspiring recommendations on internationally relevant issues in respective areas of the focus.
• ATL Marathon 2022-23 is available in Hindi also. Students can get all details about ATL Marathon in English & Hindi and submit their entries in both languages.

What are the benefits of the ATL Marathon?

• This marathon will create a huge opportunity for students to innovate not just for the better India but for the world by resolving global problems in various sectors.
• Top teams will get an Internship opportunity through the Student Innovator Program with leading corporates & Incubation Centres of India, certificates from AIM, NITI Aayog and many more exciting opportunities.

Hence both statements are correct

The Energy Conservation (Amendments) Bill, 2022, passed by the Rajya Sabha recently, has several significant features. It will foster a carbon market in India, through the creation of a National emissions trading system (National ETS). 

What are carbon markets?

• Article 6 of the Paris Agreement provides for the use of international carbon markets by countries to fulfil their nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
• Carbon markets are essentially a tool for putting a price on carbon emissions— they establish trading systems where carbon credits or allowances can be bought and sold.
• A carbon credit is a kind of tradable permit that, per United Nations standards, equals one tonne of carbon dioxide removed, reduced, or sequestered from the atmosphere.
• Carbon allowances or caps, meanwhile, are determined by countries or governments according to their emission reduction targets.
• A United Nations Development Program released recently noted that interest in carbon markets is growing globally, i.e, 83% of NDCs submitted by countries mention their intent to make use of international market mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

What are the types of carbon markets?

• There are broadly two types of carbon markets:
  • compliance markets and
  • voluntary markets

Voluntary markets:

• Voluntary markets are those in which emitters— corporations, private individuals, and others— buy carbon credits to offset the emission of one tonne of CO 2 or equivalent greenhouse gases.
• Such carbon credits are created by activities which reduce CO 2 from the air, such as afforestation.
• In a voluntary market, a corporation looking to compensate for its unavoidable GHG emissions purchases carbon credits from an entity engaged in projects that reduce, remove, capture, or avoid emissions.
• For Instance, in the aviation sector, airlines may purchase carbon credits to offset the carbon footprints of the flights they operate. In voluntary markets, credits are verified by private firms as per popular standards. There are also traders and online registries where climate projects are listed and certified credits can be bought.

Compliance markets:

• Compliance markets— set up by policies at the national, regional, and/or international level— are officially regulated.
• Currently, compliance markets mostly operate under a principle called ‘cap-and-trade”, most popular in the European Union (EU).
• Under the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) launched in 2005, member countries set a cap or limit for emissions in different sectors, such as power, oil, manufacturing, agriculture, and waste management.
• This cap is determined as per the climate targets of countries and is lowered successively to reduce emissions.
• Entities in this sector are issued annual allowances or permits by governments equal to the emissions they can generate. 
• If companies produce emissions beyond the capped amount, they have to purchase additional permit, either through official auctions or from companies which kept their emissions below the limit, leaving them with surplus allowances.
• This makes up the ‘trade’ part of cap-and-trade. 

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the ARNALA ship is inducted into the Indian Navy.

• The ARNALA ship is built under ASW SWC Project.
• Arnala class of ships will replace the Abhay class ASW Ships of the Indian Navy and are designed to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters and Low-Intensity Maritime Operations (LIMO) including subsurface surveillance in littoral waters.
• The ship has been named Arnala to signify the strategic maritime importance accorded to the island of Arnala by the great Maratha warrior, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

What is ASW SWC Project?

• It is the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft project under which many ships are being built for the Indian Navy.
• The ASW SWC ships will be capable of detecting and neutralizing various underwater threats.
• The 77.6m ASW SWC ships have a displacement of 900 tons with a maximum speed of 25 knots and an endurance of 1800 NM.
• These ships will have over 80% indigenous content, ensuring that large-scale defense production is executed by Indian manufacturing units thereby generating employment and capability build up within the country.

Hence both the statements are correct.

Recently three heritage sites have added to the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites namely; the Sun Temple at Modhera and Vadnagar town from Gujarat and rock-cut relief sculptures of Unakoti of Tripura.

• According to UNESCO A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties which each nation intends to consider for nomination.

Sun Temple of Modhera

• The Sun Temple, Modhera dedicated to Surya dev (The Sun God), is one of the remarkable gems of temple architecture in India. 
• It is an exemplary model of Maru-gurjara architecture style of the 11th century of western India under the patronage of the Solanki dynasty. The age of the temple may be inferred from its style belonging to the reign of Bhimadeva I (1022-1063 CE).
• It consists of the main temple shrine (garbhagriha), a hall (gadhamandapa), an assembly hall (Sabhamandapa or rangamandapa) and a sacred pool (Kunda) which is now called Ramakunda.
• This east facing temple is built of bright yellow sandstone.
• Other sun temples in India are 8th century CE Martand Sun Temple in Kashmir and the 13th century CE Sun temple at Konark.

Rock-cut relief sculptures of Unakoti

• The site of Unakoti Rock-cut relief sculptures is located in the north-eastern part of Tripura, which were built during 8th to 12^th CE.
• The vertical surface of the Unakoti hills was used by the ancient people to carve various mythological scenes such as the different iconographic forms of Siva, Ganesha, Uma-Maheshwara.
• The images found at Unakoti can be classified into two categories:
• Majestic rock-cut images on the vertical surface of the hill and fallen boulders.
• Loose sculptures of smaller and medium sizes scattered on the hill.
• The influence of Buddhism is also seen in the sculptures of the region. There are various depictions of Boddhisattavas, Buddha and Buddhist motifs also found here.
• Many images found in this area also suggest the presence of religious sects such as Sakta, Tantric, Bajrayanis and Nathayogis.

Vadnagar

• Vadnagar was situated at a strategic location where two major ancient trade routes crossed each other. One of them joined central India with the Sindh and further northwest regions while another connected the port towns on the Gujarat coast to northern India.
• Vadnagar town is a multi-layered and multi-cultural mercantile settlement with its history stretching back to nearly 8thCentury BCE.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Smart Cities Mission won the Platinum Icon in the Digital India Awards 2022 for their initiative “Data Smart Cities: Empowering Cities through Data” under the ‘Data Sharing and Use for Socio-Economic Development’ category.

• The Awards instituted in 2009 are one of a kind in India for honoring the efforts of different Government entities in the digital realm.
• These are conducted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).

What is the Data smart Cities Initiative?

• Aims: To harness the power of data for better governance in India’s 100 Smart Cities.
• It is based on a ‘People, Platform, Process’ strategy, which is helping in the convergence of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs' efforts for performance management, empowerment of communities, and research, co-creation & open innovation.
• The program has institutionalized a Data Ecosystem in cities through 100 City Data Offices and more than 50 Data Policies.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, an autonomous institution under the aegis of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India recently launched a programme to create 'impact leaders' in the areas of Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG).

• ESG (Environmental, social, and corporate governance) is a term that has been coined to refer to specific data designed to be used by investors for evaluating the material risk that the organization is taking on based on the externalities it is generating.
• Broadly the ESG can be categorised as:
  • Environmental aspect: Data is reported on climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation, pollution, energy efficiency and water management.
  • Social aspect: Data is reported on employee safety and health, working conditions, diversity, equity, and inclusion, conflicts and humanitarian crises and is relevant in risk and return assessments directly through results in enhancing (or destroying) customer satisfaction and employee engagement.
  • Governance aspect: Data is reported on corporate governance such as preventing bribery, corruption, diversity of Board of Directors, executive compensation, cybersecurity and privacy practices, management structure, executive pay, diversity in leadership, manner in which the leadership responds to and interacts with shareholders, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights.

ESG in India:

• ESG reporting in India commenced in 2009 with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issuing the Voluntary Guidelines on Corporate Social Responsibility.
• With effect from the financial year 2022-2023, filing of Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) has been made mandatory for the top 1000 listed companies (by market capitalization) and has replaced the existing Business Responsibility Reporting ("BRR").

Hence both statements are correct.