Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC 2020 / IAS / 29-12-19 | Free PDF

MCQ 1

1. UNDP(India) office has released the composite SDG index for states  in India 
2. Index is released on all 17 Goals of SDG target 2030 where Kerala is  at the top 

Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

Kerala leads race for UN development  goals

• Bihar at bottom of NITI Aayog list 
• Kerala tops the States in progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development  Goals (SDGs), while Bihar is at the bottom of the NITI Aayog’s SDG Index, released  on Monday. 
• Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim have joined the four southern States among the front-runners, which scored over 65 points out of a possible 100. 
• Ending hunger and achieving gender equality are the areas where most States fall far short, with the all-India scores at a dismal 35 and 42 points respectively. On the other hand, the NITI Aayog has given India an overall score of 60 points, driven  mostly by progress in clean energy and sanitation (88); peace, justice and strong  institutions (72); and affordable and clean energy (70). 
• The SDGs are a set of 17 broad-based global goals adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, and intended to be achieved by 2030. With one-sixth of the world’s population, India is key to the achievement of the goals. 
• The UN has developed 232 indicators to measure compliance by member nations. The NITI Aayog has adapted the monitoring approach to the Indian context, with 100 indicators of its own for the Index. 

• Only 40% of these indicators were used for last year’s baseline index and hence, the two indices are not  directly comparable. However, it is still interesting to note that Kerala has retained its top slot, while Uttar Pradesh,  Odisha and Sikkim have shown the most improvement. 
• The second SDG — zero hunger — shows sharp divergence in the performance of States, with little middle  ground. Kerala, Goa and parts of the north-east, including Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, have  scored above 65, with Goa at 75 points. 
• However, 22 of the States and Union Territories have scored below 50, with the central Indian States of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh scoring below 30, showing high levels of hunger and malnutrition. 
• On the fifth SDG — gender equality — almost all States fare poorly. Only Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal  Pradesh and Kerala have managed to cross 50 points. The indicators considered include crimes against women,  eradicating sex selection and discrimination against daughters, and access to reproductive health schemes, as well  as indicators showing women’s economic and political empowerment and leadership. 
• A sex ratio of 896 females per 1000 males, a 17.5% female labour participation rate, and the fact that one in  three women experience spousal violence all contribute to a low score countrywide. 
• The Swachh Bharat Mission has contributed largely to the high scores on the sixth SDG — clean water and  sanitation — although that was helped by the fact that four out of seven indicators dealt with toilets and sanitation,  while only one indicator was related to safe and affordable drinking water. 
• All States and Union Territories except for Delhi have scored above 65, with the national capital scoring poorly  on the percentage of urban households with individual household toilets (less than 1%) and, oddly, providing no  data on districts verified to be open defecation free. 
• Following Kerala’s composite  score of 70, Himachal Pradesh took the second spot with a score  of 69 while Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Telangana shared the third spot with each scoring 67. 

SDG India Index

• NITI Aayog has released its latest SDG India Index 2019, which assesses each state and Union Territory’s achievement on 16 sustainable development goals (SDG). 
• Kerala is in the top slot with a score of 70, while Bihar is at the bottom with 50. 
• Scores are given for a state or UT on each SDG, The composite score for each  state or UT is computed by aggregating their performance across these goals, and  then by taking the arithmetic mean of individual goal scores. 
• A score of 100 implies that the state/ UT has achieved targets set for 2030. 
• Among the 16 SDGs, marine ecosystems is for coastal states only, and scores on  this one were not counted in the composite total. 
• In the other SDGs, the best performers were 
• Tamil Nadu for ‘no poverty’; 
• Goa for ‘zero hunger’, sustainable cities and communities’; 
• Kerala for ‘good health’; 
• Himachal Pradesh for ‘quality education’; 
• Himachal again for ‘gender equality ‘; 
• Andhra Pradesh for ‘clean water and sanitation’; 
• Sikkim for ‘affordable and clean energy’; 
• Telangana for ‘decent work & economic growth’; 
• Gujarat for ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure; 
• Telangana for ‘reduced inequalities’; 
• ‘Nagaland for ‘sustainable consumption and production; 
• Karnataka for ‘climate action’; 
• Manipur for ‘life and land’; 
• Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat for ‘peace, justice, strong institutions’. 

MCQ 2

1. The successful launch of GSLV-MK III M1, India’s most powerful  launch vehicle, was accomplished in July ,2019. 
2. This launch vehicle is capable of launching 04 ton of satellites  into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit(GTO). 

Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

• The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III), also referred to as  the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3), is a three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). 
• Primarily designed to launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit, it is also  identified as launch vehicle for crewed missions under the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme and dedicated science missions like Chandrayaan-2. 
• The GSLV Mk III has a higher payload capacity than the similarly named GSLV Mk II. 
• After several delays and a sub-orbital test flight on 18 December 2014, ISRO successfully  conducted the first orbital test launch of GSLV Mk III on 5 June 2017 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Andhra Pradesh. 
• In June 2018, the Union Cabinet approved ₹43.38 billion (US$610 million) to build 10  GSLV Mk III rockets over a five-year period. 
• GSLV Mk III launched CARE, India’s space capsule recovery experiment  module, Chandrayaan-2, India’s second lunar mission and will be used to carry Gaganyaan, the first crewed mission under Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. 

• A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a Hohmann transfer orbit—an elliptical orbit used to  transfer between two circular orbits of different radii in the same  plane—used to reach geosynchronous or geostationary orbit using high-thrust chemical engines. 

• Geosynchronous orbits (GSO) are useful for various civilian and  military purposes, but demand a great deal of delta-v to attain. Since,  for station-keeping, satellites intended for this orbit typically carry highly efficient but low-thrust engines, total mass delivered to GSO is  generally maximized if the launch vehicle provides only the delta-v required to be at high thrust, i.e., to escape Earth’s atmosphere and overcome gravitational losses, and the satellite provides the delta-v  required to turn the resulting intermediate orbit, which is the GTO, into the useful GSO. 

MCQ 3

1. Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana (PMVDY) is a Market Linked Tribal  Entrepreneurship Development Program. 
2. It has been launched with participation from all the 28 States where  The scheme will be implemented by NAFED. 

Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

• Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana 
• Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana is an initiative  taken by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. 
• The scheme implementation is done by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs as the Nodal  Department at the center level, TRIFED as  Nodal Agency at the National Level, at State  Level State Nodal Agency for MFPs and the  District collectors play a very important role at  the grassroots level. 
• For the financial year, 2019-20 total Budget and  Action Plan is of Rs.1132.42 crores for MSP  procurement, Infrastructure Development,  and Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram. 

Benefits of Scheme

• For the tribal living in forest area, Minor Forest Products are the  major source of their livelihood. 
• Under this PMVDY Yojana, the tribal will get a chance to create  livelihoods and generate income by ensuring fair and remunerative  returns towards the efforts of the tribal community in the collection  and value addition of MFPs. 
• 10 self-help groups of 30 tribal will be constituted. These groups will  get training on sustainable harvesting/collection, primary processing & value addition. 
• The group will be formed into clusters to aggregate their stock and  provide the facility of primary processing in VDVK. 

Implementation Of Scheme

• PMVDY are Covering All those states have schedule area and schedule  tribal such as Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,  Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur,  Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andaman  & Nicobar Islands, Dadar& Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. 
• TRIFED has so far received 555 VDVK proposals till now sanctioned  from 15 states. Some of the proposals are still in pipeline which will  be sanctioned by 10th November 2019. 

Tribal Empowerment under TRIFED

• Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India  Limited (TRIFED) under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs strives to  promote economic development of the Tribal communities. 
• In works on marketing development and sustained upgradation of  their skills and products. 
• Some of the other important activities taken up by TRIFED for  empowerment of tribals include 
• Opening new outlets of TRIBES India, 
• Procurement of tribal products, 
• Sale of tribal products through countrywide exhibitions, 
• Promoting domestic and international sales through e-commerce, 
• Tribal artisan melas. 

Tribal Healers and Tribal Medicines

• Tribals have vast traditional knowledge of treating diseases with locally available medicinal plants. 
• In order to protect this knowledge, which is fast vanishing, Patanjali Research Institute  has been given pilot project for research on Tribal Healers and Medicinal Plants in Uttarakhand. 
• Similar projects have been given to AIIMS-Jodhpur, Parvara Institute of Medical Science  and Mata Marittima Institute for Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Kerala. 
• Tribal Research Institute (TRI) Uttarakhand has been made nodal agency for  coordination of research works being conducted for tribal medicine and designated as a  central knowledge hub. 

National Level Tribal Research Institute

• Ministry has mooted the proposal for setting up of National Level Tribal Research  Institute to act as a knowledge hub and repository of information related to STs. 
• The NTRI is to spearhead research and evaluation studies on tribal issues and to provide handholding support to State TRIs in their functioning. 
• NITI Aayog has provided in-principle approval for the NTRI. 

MCQ 4

• Forest Survey of India (FSI) is an organization under the Ministry of  Environment & Forests & Its principal mandate is to conduct survey and assessment of forest resources in the country. 
• Forest Research Institute (FRI) releases State of Forest Report  biennially based on satellite imageries.

Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

Forest Survey of India

• Forest Survey of India (FSI) is an organization under the Ministry of  Environment & Forests. 
• Its principal mandate is to conduct survey and assessment of forest  resources in the country. 
• The Forest Survey of India organize the training programmes to state  sponsored forest personnel. 
• FSI releases State of Forest Report biennially based on satellite imageries. 
• According to the State of Forest Report, the definition of forest cover  includes all lands more than 1 hectare in area with a tree canopy of more  than 10 per cent, irrespective of land use, ownership, and legal status 
• Tree cover and Forest Cover 
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change defines ‘forest cover’  in India as “all lands, more than one hectare in area with a tree canopy density of more than 10%” 
• Similarly ‘tree cover’ is defined as “tree patches outside recorded forest  areas exclusive of forest cover and less than the minimum mappable area of 1 hectare”. 
• There is a third measure known as Tree outside forest (TOF). 
• The ‘India State of Forest Report 2017’ defines TOF as “trees existing  outside the recorded forest area in the form of block, linear & scattered  size of patches”. 
• Since tree cover measures only non-forest patches that are less than 1  hectare, it is only a part of TOF. 
• The Forest Research Institute (FRI) वन अनुसन्धान संस्थान is an  institute of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and  Education and is a premier institution in the field of forestry research in India. It is located at Dehradun in Uttarakhand, and is among the oldest  institutions of its kind. In 1991, it was declared a deemed university by the University Grants Commission.[1] 
• The Forest Research Institute campus hosts the Indira  Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA), the staff college  that trains officers selected for the Indian Forest Service (IFS). 

MCQ 5

1. The statistics ministry has constituted a 28 member Standing  Committee on Statistics (SCES) chaired by Union minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation 
2. It is to improve quality of data amid criticism of the government  over political interference. 

Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

Standing Committee on Economic Statistics

• The statistics ministry has constituted a 28 member Standing  Committee on Statistics (SCES) chaired by former Chief Statistician  Pronab Sen. 
• It is to improve quality of data amid criticism of the government over  political interference. 
• The first meeting of the SCES is scheduled on January 6, 2020. 
• The committee is set up in the backdrop of controversy over revision of  GDP numbers and withholding employment data by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). 
• Earlier, Ministry of Statistics had decided not to release the Consumer  Expenditure Survey results of 2017-18 citing data quality issues. 

MCQ 6
The country’s first university for transgender  community will be opened in 

1. Bhopal 
2. Mumbai 
3. New Delhi 
4. NOTA 

University for Transgender Community

• The country’s first university for transgender community will  be opened in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district. 
• It is being built by All-India transgender education service  trust. 
• It facilitate its members to study right from class one to PG  and even do research and get PhD degree. 

MCQ 7

1. A corona is an aura of plasma that surrounds the Sun and  other stars. 
2. It is only observable with a coronagraph. 

Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

• A corona is an aura of plasma that surrounds the Sun and other stars. The Sun’s corona extends  millions of kilometres into outer space and is most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but it is also  observable with a coronagraph. 
• Spectroscopy measurements indicate strong ionization in the corona and a plasma  temperature in excess of 1000000 kelvin, much hotter than the surface of the Sun. 
• Based on the temperature and density of the environment  that contains a plasma, partially ionized or fully ionized  forms of plasma may be produced. 
• Neon signs and lightning are  examples of partially ionized plasmas. 
• The Earth’s ionosphere is a  plasma and the magnetosphere contains  plasma in the Earth’s surrounding space environment. 
• The interior of the Sun is an  example of fully ionized plasma, along with the solar  corona and stars. 

• Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of  matter and was first described by chemist Irving  Langmuirin the 1920s. 
• It consists of a gas of ions – atoms which have some of  their orbital electrons removed – and free electrons. 
• Plasma can be artificially generated by heating or  subjecting a neutral gas to a strong electromagnetic  field to the point where an ionized gaseous substance becomes increasingly electrically conductive. 
• The resulting charged ions and electrons become  influenced by long-range electromagnetic fields, making  the plasma dynamics more sensitive to these fields than a neutral gas 

MCQ 8

1. An ANN is based on a collection of connected units or nodes  called artificial neurons, which loosely model the neurons in a  biological brain 
2. Its evolution is based on von Neumann model  Choose correct 

1. Only 1 
2. Only 2 
3. Both 
4. None 

• Artificial neural networks (ANN) or connectionist systems are computing systems  vaguely inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. 
• Such systems “learn” to perform tasks by considering examples, generally without  being programmed with task-specific rules. 
• For example, in image recognition, they might learn to identify images that contain cats  by analyzing example images that have been manually labeled as “cat” or “no cat” and using the results to identify cats in other images. They do this without any prior  knowledge of cats, for example, that they have fur, tails, whiskers and cat-like faces. Instead, they automatically generate identifying characteristics from the examples that  they process. 
• An ANN is based on a collection of connected units or nodes called artificial neurons,  which loosely model the neurons in a biological brain. Each connection, like the synapses in a biological brain, can transmit a signal to other neurons. An artificial neuron that receives a signal then processes it and can signal neurons connected to it. 
• Historically, digital computers evolved from the von  Neumann model, and operate via the execution of explicit  instructions via access to memory by a number of processors. On the other hand, the origins of neural  networks are based on efforts to model information  processing in biological systems. 
• Unlike the von Neumann model, neural network computing  does not separate memory and processing. 
• Neural network theory has served both to better identify  how the neurons in the brain function and to provide the  basis for efforts to create artificial intelligence. 
• A biological neural network is composed of a group or groups of chemically  connected or functionally associated neurons. A single neuron may be connected to many other neurons and the total number of neurons and  connections in a network may be extensive. Connections, called synapses, are usually formed from axons to dendrites, though dendrodendritic  synapses[3] and other connections are possible. Apart from the electrical  signaling, there are other forms of signaling that arise from neurotransmitter diffusion. 
• Artificial intelligence, cognitive modeling, and neural networks are  information processing paradigms inspired by the way biological neural  systems process data. Artificial intelligence and cognitive modeling try to  simulate some properties of biological neural networks. In the artificial intelligence field, artificial neural networks have been applied successfully  to speech recognition, image analysis and adaptive control, in order to construct software agents (in computer and video games) or autonomous robots. 
• The Von Neumann architecture—also known as the von Neumann  model or Princeton architecture—is a computer architecture based on a 1945  description by the mathematician and physicist John von Neumann and others in  the First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. 
• That document describes a design architecture for an electronic digital  computer with these components: 
• A processing unit that contains an arithmetic logic unit and processor registers 
• A control unit that contains an instruction register and program counter 
• Memory that stores data and instructions 
• External mass storage 
• Input and output mechanisms 

MCQ 9

1. Bandhavgarh National Park is the largest National Park in Central India. 
2. Maharaja Martand Singh of Rewa captured the first white tiger in this  region in 1951 
3. It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a  mascot, Bhoorsingh the Barasingha (Swamp Deer). 

Choose correct 

1. 1 & 3 
2. 2 only 
3. All 
4. None 

• Bandhavgarh National Park is one of the national parks of India, located in  the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh, with an area of 
• 105 km2, was declared a national park in 1968 and then became Tiger  Reserve in 1993. The current core area is spread over 716 km2. The buffer is  spread over the forest divisions of Umaria and Katni, and totals 820 km2. 
• The park derives its name from the most prominent hillock of the area,  which was said to be given by Hindu Lord Rama to his brother Lakshmana to keep a watch on Lanka (Ceylon). Hence the  name Bandhavgarh (Sanskrit: Brother’s Fort). 
• This park has a large biodiversity. The density of the tiger population at  Bandhavgarh (8 Tiger per square km)is one of the highest known in India.  The park has a large breeding population of leopards, and various species  of deer. Maharaja Martand Singh of Rewa captured the first white tiger in this region in 1951. This white tiger, Mohan, is now stuffed and on display  in the palace of the Maharajas of Rewa. Historically villagers and their  cattle have been at a threat from the tiger. Rising mining activities around  the park are putting the tigers at risk. 
• Kanha Tiger Reserve, also called Kanha-Kisli National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of Madhya Pradesh, state  in the heart of India. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two sanctuaries, Hallon and Banjar, of 250 and 300 km2 (120 sq mi)> respectively. 
• Kanha National Park was created on 1 June 1955 and in 1973 was made the  Kanha Tiger Reserve. Today it stretches over an area of 940 km2 (360 sq mi) in  the two districts Mandla and Balaghat. 
• Together with a surrounding buffer zone of 1,067 km2 (412 sq mi) and the  neighbouring 110 km2 (42 sq mi) Phen Sanctuary it forms the Kanha Tiger  Reserve. 
• This makes it the largest National Park in Central India. Kanha Tiger Reserve was  ranked among the top 10 Famous Places for Tourists 
• The park has a significant population of the Royal  Bengal tiger, Indian leopards, the sloth bear, barasingha and Indian wild dog. 
• The forest depicted in the famous novel by Rudyard  Kipling, The Jungle Book is based on jungles including  this reserve. 
• It is also the first tiger reserve in India to officially  introduce a mascot, Bhoorsingh the Barasingha (Swamp Deer) 

MCQ 10
Articles related to centre-state relations are  

1. 249 
2. 280 
3. 279A 
4. 312 

1. 2 only 
2. 3 only  
3.  1,2 & 3 
4.  All of them 

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