Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 06-11-19

Table of Contents

MCQ 1

President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the ‘________ Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (_CTOC) Bill’ ,

Andhra Pradesh
Gujrat
MP
UP

Gujarat anti-terror Bill gets President’s nod

Controversial Bill was passed in 2015
President Ram Nath Kovind has given his assent to the ‘Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GCTOC) Bill’, controversial anti-terror legislation passed by the BJP-ruled State in March 2015.
One of the key features of the new Act is intercepted telephonic conversations would now be considered as legitimate evidence. The announcement of the presidential assent was made by Gujarat Minister of State for Home Pradeep singh Jadeja on Tuesday. The Bill, earlier named as the Gujarat Control of Organised Crime Bill, failed to get the presidential nod thrice since 2004 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of the State. In 2015, the Gujarat government re-introduced the Bill by renaming it the GCTOC, but retained controversial provisions such as empowering the police to tap telephonic conversations and submit them in court as evidence.
Mr. Jadeja said the provisions of the Bill would prove crucial in dealing with terrorism and organised crimes such as contract killing, ponzi schemes, narcotics trade and extortion rackets.
“One of the key features of this Bill is that the intercepted telephonic conversations would now be considered legitimate evidence. This Bill also provides for the creation of a special court as well as the appointment of special public prosecutors. We can now attach properties acquired through organised crimes. We can also cancel transfer of properties,” he said. Other provisions of the Act is the admissibility of confession made before a police officer as evidence.

MCQ 2

Dumbur lake is located in Raima valley of Himachal Pradesh
Indigenous people of Bru community were displaced in the Dumbur dam project

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Settle Brus in Tripura, say royals

The Tripura royalty has asked the State government to consider settling the displaced Bru people in the State instead of sending them back to “uncertainty” in Mizoram.
Pradyot Kishore Manikya Debbarma, the royal scion and former president of the Tripura unit of the Congress, said the Brus — also known as Reangs — were refugees in their own land and did not deserve the condition they are in now. Some 35,000 Bru refugees are scattered across six relief camps in Tripura’s Kanchanpur subdivision adjoining Mizoram.

Starvation deaths?

Four of them, including two infants, have allegedly died of starvation after the Centre stopped supplying free ration on October 30.
Some 40,000 Brus had fled two waves of ethnic violence in Mizoram since 1997. A few have accepted rehabilitation packages to return to Mizoram but most refused to budge because of doubts about the government’s intentions.
“If the Tripura government can consider giving 2,700 acres of land for the Border Security Force’s firing range, why can’t it do the same for the Brus, many of whom were displaced by the Dumbur dam project (in Tripura). If you can accept lakhs and lakhs of people from another country, why can’t you accept the Bru people who have become refugees in their own land,” Mr. Debbarma said on Tuesday.
“Another country” is a reference to Bangladesh from where a large number of people came to Tripura between 1947 and the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Mr. Debbarma also asked the Centre not to stop free ration to the refugees in the relief camps. “The situation is grave there, and I have already sent 2,000 kg of rice, pulses and other food items,” he added.
Reang (known in Mizoram as Brus) are one of the 21 scheduled tribes of the Indian state of Tripura. The Bru can be found all over the Tripura state in India. However, they may also be found in Mizoram and Assam. They speak the Reang dialect of Bru language which is of Tibeto-Burmese origin and is locally referred to as Kau Bru.
Recently, following the Union Home Ministry’s decision to give voting rights to around 30,000 people who had fled from Mizoram to Tripura in 1997 in the wake of inter-community violence, The Election Commission has asked the State of Mizoram to revise its rolls for the poll this year and include the members of the internally-displaced community. As many as 32,876 people of the Reang tribe are set to be repatriated to Mizoram after a tripartite agreement was signed between the Centre, Tripura and Mizoram

MCQ 3

South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) was established by India in 1982
It also acts as the Secretariat for the South Asian Seas Programme, which comes under the purview of UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme.

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SACEP

The 15th meeting of the Governing Council of South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP) is going to be organised in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
India’s Environment Minister will represent the country in this meeting.
SACEP is an inter-governmental organization, established in 1982 by the governments of South Asia.
The objective is to promote and support protection, management and enhancement of the environment in the region
The member countries are Afghanistan , Bangladesh , Bhutan , India , Maldives , Nepal , Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
It also acts as the Secretariat for the South Asian Seas Programme, which comes under the purview of UNEP’s Regional Seas Programme.
The 14th meeting of the SACEP Governing Council was held in March last year in Colombo.
India has signed a MoU with SACEP for cooperation on the response to Oil and Chemical Pollution in the South Asian Seas Region.

Vision

The SACEP was created to fulfill a vision based on the following three assumptions
Recognition of environmental degradation caused by factors like poverty, over population, over consumption and wasteful production threatening economic development and human survival,
Integration of environment and development as essential prerequisites to Sustainable Development, and
Importance of co-operative action in the South Asian region where many ecological and development problems transcend national and administrative boundaries.
“THE COLOMBO DECLARATION ON THE SOUTH ASIA CO-OPERATIVE ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME (SACEP)” was responsible for the Meeting of Ministers to Initiate the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP)

Some of the salient attributes of South Asia are as follows:

The region covers almost one twentieth of the earth’s surface and provides a home for about one fifth of the world population.
The degree of urbanization in 1999 ranged from 7 percent in Bhutan to 33 percent in Pakistan . Mumbai, Calcutta , Delhi , Karachi and Dhaka are fast growing cities with population more than 10 million. • Over 30 percent of the population earns less than one dollar per day and the per capita GNP for 1998 ranged from US$ 210 to 130. It is US$ 210 in Nepal to 1,130 in Maldives.
Although the economies of the countries are primarily agricultural, industrialization has increased during the past decade.
South Asia is home to 14 percent of the world’s remaining mangrove forests and the sundarbans found between Bangladesh and India is one of the largest continuous mangrove stretch in the world .
6 percent of the world’s coral reefs are in the South Asian seas. The atolls of Maldives and Lakshadweep islands of the region, are biodiversity rich marine habitats.
Hindu Kush Himalayan belt is home to over 25,000 major plant species, comprising 10 percent of the world’s flora.
The region is prone to natural disasters such as cyclones, floods and landslides. From 1990-1999, the region accounted for over 60 percent of disaster-related deaths worldwide.

MCQ 4

The 6th Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit of G 20 Countries was recently held in Tokyo, Japan.
Osaka Declaration welcomed the UNSC Resolution 2462, which calls upon countries to prevent and counter the financing of terrorism, especially in its new forms.

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G20 Summit

The 6th Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit of G 20 Countries was recently held in Tokyo, Japan.
India’s Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla took part in the meeting highlighting the impact of terrorism on society and its significant effects on economy.
The G20 is an international forum that brings together the world’s 20 leading industrialized and emerging economies.
The group accounts for 85% of world GDP and two-thirds of its population.
Much of the important business takes place on the sidelines and in informal meetings.
The annual G-20 summit for 2019 was recently held in Osaka, Japan.
The Osaka Declaration of G-20 leaders summed up the key outcomes of the meet.
The declaration welcomed the UNSC Resolution 2462, which calls upon countries to prevent and counter the financing of terrorism, especially in its new forms.

MCQ 5

Aadi Mahotsav is a 15-day National Tribal Festival organized in New Delhi.
It is organised by Ministry of commerce & industry

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Aadi Mahotsav

It is a 15-day National Tribal Festival organized in New Delhi.
The theme of the festival is a celebration of the spirit of tribal culture, craft, cuisine and commerce.
It is organised by Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED).
The objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people by undertaking marketing development of the tribal products.
It serves the interest of Tribal people by ensuring better remunerative price for their Minor Forest Produce and tribal art and handicraft products.
The concept of organising Aadi Mahotsav in major cities has proved to be a boon for tribal artisans by eliminating the middle man and providing direct access to large markets, otherwise impossible to reach for them. In line with the national aspiration to go cashless, the tribal merchandise stalls will be accepting payment through major credit/debit cards.
26 such festivals are planned to be organised during the current financial year. Out of which, 8 festivals have been already organised at Shimla, Ooty, Leh-Ladakh, Visakhapatnam, Noida, Indore, Pune and Bhubaneswar wherein about 900 tribal artisans participated and realized sales of more than Rs. 5 crore.
TRIFED an organization of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India has started a new concept of organsing “Aadi Mahotsav – National Tribal Festival” to provide direct market access to the tribal master-craftsmen and women in large metros and State capitals.
Apart from handloom and handicrafts, TRIFED also promotes processing and value addition of forest produces through the Prime Minister Van Dhan Yojana, as a special scheme to promote tribal enterprise. Till date, starting from 27th August, 2019 under the 100 day Action Plan of the Government of India, 662 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras have already been set up in 17 States promoting 2 lakh tribals. A special initiative that has been launched for promoting Van Dhan for Specially-Abled tribal gatherers and artisans TRIFED proposes to set up atleast 150 such kendras in the country in the coming five months involving 45000 tribal specially abled tribal artisans.

MCQ 6

Wasteland Atlas, The 5 th edition wasteland atlas of India is released by Dept of space
The spatial extent of wasteland is 55.76Mha (16.96 % of geographical area of the Country) for the year 2015-16 as compared to 56.60 Mha in the year 2008-09

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Wasteland Atlas

The 5th edition wasteland atlas of India is released by the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development.
The previous 4 editions were released in 2000, 2005, 2010 & 2011.
National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Department of Space collaborate with the ministry.
The new wastelands mapping exercise is carried out by NRSC using the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite data.
The changes in wastelands between 2008-09 and 2015-16 have been presented in the Atlas.
It provides district and state wise distribution of different categories of wastelands area including mapping of about 12.08 Mha hitherto unmapped area of Jammu & Kashmir.
Data highlights – The spatial extent of wasteland is 55.76Mha (16.96 % of geographical area of the Country) for the year 2015-16 as compared to 56.60 Mha in the year 2008-09.
During this period 1.45 Mha of wastelands are converted into non wastelands categories.
A reduction in wasteland area was observed in the categories of land with dense scrub, waterlogged and marshy land, sandy areas, degraded pastures / grazing land and gullied and / or ravinous land.
Positive changes were observed in the following States – Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal.
Majority of wastelands have been changed into categories of croplands.

MCQ 7

Danakil Depression is present in

Bangladesh
Antarctica
China
None

Danakil Depression
The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia is at the northern end of the Great Rift Valley and separated by live volcanoes from the Red Sea.
It is one of the world’s hottest places, as well as one of its lowest, at 100 metres below sea level.
It was formed by the evaporation of an inland water body and no stream flow out from its extreme environment.
It is covered with more than 10 lakh tonnes of salt.
Microbes are known to survive almost anywhere. Scientists now believe that this place is an exception.
A new study says that active and naturally occurring life cannot be sustained and even it is daunting for extremophile microbes which can adapt to environmental conditions that are too extreme for everything else.
It identifies two barriers that makes adaptation highly difficult such as
Magnesium-dominated brines that cause cells to break down and
Environment having simultaneously very low pH and high salt.
The Danakil Depression is the northern part of the Afar Triangle or Afar Depression in Ethiopia, a geological depression that has resulted from the divergence of three tectonic plates in the Horn of Africa
Erta Ale (or Ertale or Irta’ale) is a continuously active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Region of northeastern Ethiopia. It is situated in the Afar Depression, a badland desert area. Erta Ale is the most active volcano in Ethiopia.