Daily Current Affairs MCQ- November 7, 2023 - UPSC MCQ

The researchers found a statistically significant correlation between a rise in soy production and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) deaths in children between 2008 and 2019 in Brazil’s Amazon and Cerrado biomes.

• It is a type of cancer of the blood and bone marrow — the spongy tissue inside bones where blood cells are made.
• The word "acute" in acute lymphocytic leukemia comes from the fact that the disease progresses rapidly and creates immature blood cells, rather than mature ones. 
• It is the most common type of cancer in children. 
• Symptoms: Bleeding from the gums, Bone pain, Fever, Frequent infections and Frequent or severe nosebleeds etc.
• Causes:
• It occurs when a bone marrow cell develops changes (mutations) in its genetic material or DNA. 
• A cell's DNA contains the instructions that tell a cell what to do. Normally, the DNA tells the cell to grow at a set rate and to die at a set time.
• In ALL, the mutations tell the bone marrow cell to continue growing and dividing.
• When this happens, blood cell production becomes out of control.
• The bone marrow produces immature cells that develop into leukemic white blood cells called lymphoblasts.
• These abnormal cells are unable to function properly, and they can build up and crowd out healthy cells.
• It's not clear what causes the DNA mutations that can lead to acute lymphocytic leukemia.
• Treatment: It may include chemotherapy or targeted drugs that specifically kill cancer cells.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Indian delegation led by Union Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers participated in the 2nd World Local Production Forum at The Hague.

• It is an initiative of the World Health Organisation.
• The first WLPF was organized virtually in 2021.
• Aim: Increasing access to medicines and other health technologies.
• This forum provides Member States and the global community with a regular platform to shape strategies, galvanize collective action, and foster partnerships on sustainable local production to improve timely and equitable access to quality assured health products. 
• Secretariat: The Local Production and Assistance (LPA) Unit at the WLPF.
• The second WLPF aims
• To provide a global platform to discuss key challenges in promoting local production and technology transfer.
• To explore opportunities and mechanisms to tackle the bottlenecks.
• To promote sustainable local production capacity to improve access to quality, safe and effective health products and technologies. 

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, Indian Navy Chief Admiral said that the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) initiative is a testament to the commitment to a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region.

• It was announced at the 2022 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Tokyo.
• It was announced to track “dark shipping” and build a “faster, wider, and more accurate maritime picture of near-real-time activities in partners’ waters”, integrating three critical regions in the Indo-Pacific — the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, and the IOR.
• Purpose of IPMDA
• It is a technology and training initiative to enhance maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region and to bring increased transparency to its critical waterways.
• It harnesses innovative technology, such as commercial satellite radio frequency data collection, to provide partners across Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean region and the Pacific with near real-time information on activities occurring in their maritime zones.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, the Information Commissioner Heeralal Samariya was sworn in as the chief of the Central Information Commission (CIC) by the President Of India.

• It has been constituted under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
• The jurisdiction of the Commission extends over all Central Public Authorities.
• Objectives
• To exercise the powers conferred on them under the RTI Act, 2005.
• To receive and inquire into complaints from any citizen (Section 18 of the RTI Act, 2005).
• To receive and decide upon the second appeal from any citizen (Section 19 of the RTI Act, 2005).
• To perform the duty of “Monitoring and Reporting “(Section 25 of the RTI Act, 2005).
• Composition
• It consists of a Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten Information Commissioners.
• Appointment:
• They are appointed by the President of India on the recommendation of a committee consisting of the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, and a Union Cabinet Minister nominated by the Prime Minister.
• Eligibility
• The members of CIC and SIC shall be persons of eminence in public life with wide knowledge and experience in law, science and technology, social service, management, journalism, mass media, or administration and governance.
• Members shall not be a Member of Parliament or Member of the Legislature of any State or Union Territory as the case may be, or hold any other office of profit or connected with any political party or carry on any business or pursue any profession.
• Tenure
• The Chief Information Commissioner, or Information Commissioners, as the case may be, shall hold office for a period of three years from the date on which he enters upon his office.

Hence both statements are correct.

The first images captured by the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Euclid mission are due to be released.

About Euclid Space Telescope:

• The Euclid mission is part of ESA’s Cosmic Vision programme which aims to explore the origin and components of the universe and the fundamental laws that govern it. 
• Its main goal is to investigate the "dark side" of the universe, focusing on dark matter and dark energy.
• It was launched on 1 July 2023.
• It is named after the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, who lived around 300 BC and founded the subject of geometry.
• The Euclid mission will make a 3D map of the universe (with time as the third dimension) by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years across more than a third of the sky.
• It will reveal how dark energy has influenced the stretching and separation of matter over cosmic time.
• Spacecraft and instruments:
• The Euclid spacecraft is approximately 4.7 m tall and 3.7 m in diameter. It consists of two major components: the service module and the payload module.
• The payload module comprises a 1.2-m-diameter telescope and two scientific instruments: a visible-wavelength camera (the VISible instrument, VIS) and a near-infrared camera/spectrometer (the Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer, NISP). 
• The service module contains the satellite systems: electric power generation and distribution, attitude control, data processing electronics, propulsion, telecommand and telemetry, and thermal control.
• Orbit: Its operational orbit will be halo around a point known as the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), at an average distance of 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit.
• Lifetime: Nominal mission lifetime is six years, with the possibility of extension (limited by the amount of cold gas used for propulsion).

Hence option c is the correct answer.

The Supreme Court recently issued notice to the Union of India on a plea challenging constitutionality of Section 437A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

About Section 437A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC):

• Section 437A of the CrPC requires a person who has been acquitted to furnish a bail bond and sureties, to be able to be released from custody.
• This is to ensure the appearance of the accused if an appeal is filed before a higher court against the acquittal.
• The provision states that accused persons must execute bail bonds with sureties to appear before the higher court when an appeal or petition is filed against the judgment of the respective court.
• These bail bonds are valid for six months, and failure to appear leads to bond forfeiture and the application of Section 446 procedures.
• Section 446 CrPC :
• It provides that once the court records its satisfaction about the forfeiture of the bond, it shall call upon the person bound by such bond to pay the penalty or to show cause why it should not be paid.
• If sufficient cause is not shown and the penalty is not paid, the Court may proceed to recover the same as if such penalty were a fine imposed by it under this Code.
• Neither before the trial court nor before the appellate court, there is any applicability of Section-437A CrPC in cases where the accused is convicted.
• As such, the only time when the court is required to ask the accused to execute bonds is the time when the court acquits the accused.

Hence option c is the correct answer.

A US nuclear-powered Ohio-class submarine was recently deployed in the Middle East to help prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a broader conflict.

About Ohio-class Submarine:

• The Ohio class is a class of nuclear-powered submarines currently used by the United States Navy. 
• They are the largest submarines ever built for the U.S. Navy.
• The US Navy has a total of 18 Ohio-class submarines, which consist of 14 ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) and four cruise missile submarines (SSGNs). 
• The SSBN submarines are also known as "Trident" submarines and provide the sea-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad.
• The 14 SSBNs together carry about half of U.S. active strategic thermonuclear warheads. 
• They were designed specifically for extended war-deterrence patrols. 
• Features:
• The class's design allows the warship to operate for about fifteen years between major overhauls.
• Each of these submarines is provided with two complete crews, called the Blue crew and the Gold crew, with each crew serving typically on 70- to 90-day deterrent patrols. 
• They can travel at speeds of 30+ knots and remain submerged indefinitely.
• Each SSBN submarine is armed with up to 24 Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM).
• Each SSGN is capable of carrying 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles, plus a complement of Harpoon missiles to be fired through their torpedo tubes.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Over 16 lakh Digital Life Certificates, or Jeevan Pramaan, have been generated by the end of the first week of the launch of Campaign 2.0, an initiative of the Ministry of Personnel to enhance the ‘ease of living’ of Central Government pensioners across the country.

About Digital Life Certificate (Jeevan Pramaan):

• The Digital Life Certificate for Pensioners Scheme of the Government, known as Jeevan Pramaan, is a biometric-enabled digital service for pensioners.
• It was introduced in 2014 to simplify and enhance the convenience of life certificate submissions for pensioners.
• Purpose:
• One of the major requisites for pensioners after their retirement from the service is to provide life certificates to authorized pension disbursing agencies like the bank, following which their pension is credited to their account.
• In order to get this life certificate, the individual drawing the pension is required to be either personally present themselves before the Pension Disbursing Agency or to have the Life Certificate issued by authority where they have served earlier and have it delivered to the disbursing agency.
• The Jeevan Pramaan scheme seeks to address this very problem by digitizing the whole process of securing the life certificate. 
• Pensioners have the option to create Jeevan Pramaan, either online or via a mobile app. 
• Using Jeevan Pramaan, a pensioner can now digitally provide proof of his/her existence to authorities for continuity of pension every year instead of requiring to appear in person before the certifying authority or the disbursing agency.
• It employs biometric authentication to validate the pensioner’s identity, effectively preventing fraudulent activity.
• Beneficiaries:
• Pensioners of the Central Government, State Government, or any other Government organization can take benefit of this facility.
• It is not available to remarried or reemployed Pensioners. They are required to submit the life certificate the conventional way to their pension disbursing authority.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

India is going to host the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) next year, said Union Communication & IT Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw . Held every four years, the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) is the governing conference of the ITU Standardisation Sector (ITU-T), one of the three world conferences of the International Telecommunication Union and as such, the United Nations system.

Norway will help fund India’s ‘Hunger Project’ and help strengthen women leaders to protect the environment and promote food security in Uttarakhand. The duration of the project would be three years, until September 2026 with a budget of ₹44.7 million. The project organizes capacity-building training for elected women representatives and federations, focusing on strengthening van panchayats (forest councils).