Daily Current Affairs MCQ- October 13, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

The CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad, is set to be part of the Diverse Epigenetic Epidemiology Partnership (DEEP).

• It is a ground-breaking integrated genomics and epigenomics study to understand the genetics behind Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in diverse populations, including South Asians.
• The project is to uncover the effects of genomic and environmental diversity in disease risk observed in people across the world, including those in Asia, Africa and North and South America.
• It is a five-year international project.
• Researchers will be studying individuals representing diverse genetic and environmental contexts and learn which DNA methylation patterns contribute to their disease risk in each context
• The study will develop software and infrastructure and conduct advanced statistical analyses to build new resources.
• These new resources will sit alongside international health and genetics databases to look at trends in variation in DNA methylation.
• Significance of this initiative
• This research will enable identification of disease-causing mechanisms that are common worldwide and those which are unique to particular groups or regions.
• It will help with answering questions such as whether medicines developed in one part of the world will be effective for all.
• Ultimately the DEEP study hopes to enable targeted interventions or treatments and reduce global health disparity and inequity.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) joined the One Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) global initiative.

• It aims to build a unified approach to transforming food, land, and water systems to address the challenges posed by climate crisis.
• This initiative involves the CGIAR System Organisation and 12 One CGIAR research centres. 
• The CGIAR is a publicly-funded network of agrifood systems research centres, works for transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. It is working in over 80 countries.

Key facts about ICRISAT

• It is a non-profit, non-political public international research organisation that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia & sub-Saharan Africa.
• It helps farmers by providing improved crop varieties and hybrids and also helps smallholder farmers in the drylands fight climate change.
• It conducts research on five highly nutritious drought-tolerant crops: chickpea, pigeonpea, pearl millet, sorghum, and groundnut.
• It has been awarded 2021 Africa Food Prize for the Tropical Legumes Project that has improved food security across 13 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
• It is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana State, in India, with two regional hubs (Nairobi, Kenya and Bamako, Mali). 
• The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is not a part of this initiative. 

Hence both statements are correct.

A group of scientists from India and the United Kingdom have discovered a new species of toads - Bufoides bhupathyiin Dampa tiger reserve of Mizoram.

• It is the third of a genus bufoides found only in a very narrow area in northeast India.
• This species has interdigital webbing, colouration, skin tuberculation, and the presence of ovoid, tuberculated and depressed parotid glands.
• The two earlier known species from the genus ‘bufoides’ – Bufoides meghalayanus and Bufoides kempi – were found in Meghalaya.
• The new species has been named after S Bhupathy, a noted herpetologist.

Key facts about Dampa tiger reserve

• It is located in the western flank (Lushai Hills) of Mizoram.
• It was declared as a tiger reserve under the Project Tiger initiative in 1994.
• On the West, the reserve is bound by the Chittagong hill tracts (Sazek hill range) of Bangladesh.
• The terrain is hilly with elevation ranging from 49 to 1095 m. above mean sea level.
• The highest point of the reserve is the Chhawrpialtlang with an altitude of 1095m. Other peaks are Dampatlang (869 M) and Pathlawilunglentlang (780 m).
• Vegetation: The vegetation of the reserve ranges from tropical evergreen to semi-evergreen forests.
• The habitat is drained by the River Khawthlangtuipui in the West and the Teirei River to the East. The tributaries of Teirei, viz. Keisalam, Seling and Aivapui also flow through the reserve.
• Fauna: The major fauna includes Hoolock Gibbon, Rhesus Macaque, Assamese Macaque, Pig-Tailed Macaque, Stump-Tailed Macaque and Phayre’s Leaf Monkey etc
• Flora:It is rich in n flora such as Dipterocarpus turbinatus, Dipterocarpus marcocarpus, Terminalia myriocarpa and Michelia champaca, etc.

Hence option (d) is the correct answer.

India ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023.

• It is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
• It is prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe.

How it is calculated?

• GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators
• Undernourishment:(the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient)
• Child stunting:(the share of children under the age of five who have low height for their age)
• Child wasting:( the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height)
• Child mortality: (the share of children who die before their fifth birthday)
• The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The National Security Guard (NSG) decided to take on the vilayati kikar (Prosopis juliflora) populating its Aravali hills campus, after it was found to be responsible, among other reasons, for the depleting water table.

• It is a shrub or small tree in the family Fabaceae, a kind of mesquite.
• It is native to Mexico, South America and the Caribbean.
• It is one of the most invasive species in arid and semi-arid areas. 
• It was brought to Delhi by the British in the 1920s, when the national capital was being built.
• In India it is known locally by many names such as Bellary jaali, seemai karuvelam, seemai jaali, gando baval, vilayati kikar.
• It has a very wide ecological adaptability which can grow on soils from sand dune to clay soil, and from saline to alkaline soil type.
• It can grow below 200 to above 1500 m above sea level, and with a mean annual rainfall ranging from 50 to 1500 mm
• It is considered as an Invasive plant.
• It is characterized by vigorous growth which helps them to outcompete indigenous plant species.

Hence option (a) is the correct answer.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recently voted to recognize ‘Holodomor’ as a "genocide."

About Holodomor:

• It is a man-made famine that occurred in the Soviet republic of Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, peaking in the late spring of 1933. 
• It left an estimated 3.9 million people dead.
• The primary victims of the Holodomor (literally "death inflicted by starvation") were rural farmers and villagers, who made up roughly 80 percent of Ukraine's population in the 1930s.
• It was part of a broader Soviet famine (1931–34) that also caused mass starvation in the grain-growing regions of Soviet Russia and Kazakhstan. 
• In 2006, by the Law of Ukraine “On the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine”, the Holodomor was recognized as genocide of the Ukrainian nation.
• Causes:
• The origins of the famine lay in the decision by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to collectivize agriculture in 1929.
• Teams of Communist Party agitators forced peasants to relinquish their land, personal property, and sometimes housing to collective farms, and they deported so-called kulaks—wealthier peasants—as well as any peasants who resisted collectivization altogether.
• Collectivization led to a drop in production, the disorganization of the rural economy, and food shortages.
• It also sparked a series of peasant rebellions, including armed uprisings, in some parts of Ukraine.
• In 1932, the Communist Party set impossibly high quotas for the amount of grain Ukrainian villages were required to contribute to the Soviet state.
• When the villages were not able to meet the quotas, authorities intensified the requisition campaign, confiscating even the seed set aside for planting.
• Farms, villages, and whole towns in Ukraine were placed on blacklists and prevented from receiving food. 
• Peasants were forbidden to leave the Ukrainian republic in search of food.
• In some cases, soldiers were posted in watchtowers to prevent people from taking any of the harvest. Millions starved as the USSR sold crops from Ukraine abroad.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Prime Minister‘s recent visit to Gunji, near Kalapani, Uttarakhand, has triggered an uproar in Nepal.

About Gunji Village:

• Location:
• It is located in Dharchula tehsil of Pithoragarh district in northern Uttarakhand.
• It is situated near the borders of Tibet and Nepal and the confluence of the Kuthi Yankti and Kalapani Rivers, on the east end of the Kuthi Valley.
• The geographical area of Gunji village is 188.9 hectares.
• Altitude: 3500 meters
• It overlooks Mount Api in Nepal.
• The people residing here are seasonal migrants. With winters coming, people migrate to lower places (mostly to Dharchula) in the same district. 
• As per the 2011 census, the village of Gunji has a population of 335 people living in 194 households.
• Gunji village is administered by Sarpanch (Head of Village) who is elected representative of the village.
• The village is on the traditional Indian/Nepalese route to Kailas–Manasarovar.
• To visit Gunji, one has to obtain an Inner line permit.

Hence option d is the correct answer.

The US navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier strike group has arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea amid the Israel conflict with Hamas.

About USS Gerald R Ford:

• It is US Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier.
• The ship was named in tribute to Ford, who was president from 1974 to 1977, giving a ‘lifetime of service’ to the United States.
• The ship was commissioned in 2017.
• Features:
• It is the world’s largest ship, measuring approximately 1,092 feet (333 meters) in length, with a beam of 256 feet (78 meters) at its flight deck and a height of 250 feet (76 meters).
• It is a first-in-class aircraft carrier. First-in-class technology includes a new nuclear plant, the ability to generate nearly three times the amount of electrical power, innovative advanced arresting gear, and the electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS).
• It has a displacement of a whopping 112,000 tonnes.
• It has the capacity to hold around 4,660 crew members.
• It can reach a speed in excess of 30 knots.
• It comes with a slew of surface-to-air missiles, including the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow, and the RIM-116, and M2 machine guns.
• It can carry more than 75 aircrafts.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister recently launched ‘The Nilgiri Tahr’ project for the conservation of Tamil Nadu’s state animal.

About Nilgiri Tahr:

• It is an endangered mountain ungulate endemic to the southern part of the Western Ghats. 
• Scientific Name: Nilgiritragus hylocrius
• Locally, the animal is called ‘Varayaadu’.
• They are known for their gravity-defying skills in climbing steep cliffs, earning them the nickname Mountain Monarch.
• It is the state animal of Tamil Nadu.
• Distribution:
• Their present distribution is limited to approximately 5% of the Western Ghats in southern India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu).
• Eravikulam National Park in Kerala has the highest density and largest surviving population of Nilgiri tahr. 
• Habitat: They inhabit the open montane grassland habitats at elevations from 1200 to 2600 m of the South Western Ghats.
• Features:
• It has a stocky body with short, coarse fur and a bristly mane. 
• Males are larger than females and of a darker color when mature.
• Both sexes have curved horns, which are larger in the males, reaching up to 40 cm in males and 30 cm in females. 
• Adult males develop a light grey area or ’saddle’ on their backs and are hence called ‘saddlebacks’.
• It has a short grey-brown or dark coat.
• Conservation Status:
• IUCN Red List: Endangered
• Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972: Schedule I

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Union Minister of Public Grievances, and Pensions, launched the Grievance Redressal Assessment and Index (GRAI) 2022.

• It was conceptualised and designed by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Govt. of India.
• Objective: To present an organisation-wise comparative picture and provide valuable insights about strengths and areas of improvement regarding the grievance redressal mechanism.
• Eighty-nine Central Ministries and Departments were assessed and ranked based on a comprehensive index in the dimensions of (1) Efficiency, (2) Feedback, (3) Domain and (4) Organisational Commitment and corresponding 12 indicators.
• To compute the index, data between January and December 2022, was used from the Centralised Public Grievance Redressal and Management System (CPGRAMS).

Key facts about CPGRAMS

• It is an online platform available to the citizens 24x7 to lodge their grievances to the public authorities on any subject related to service delivery.
• It is a single portal connected to all the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and States.
• Every Ministry and State have role-based access to this system.
• It is also accessible to the citizens through a standalone mobile application.

Hence both statements are correct.