Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 21-08-19 | Free PDF

MCQ 1

1. The Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in India has declined to 36.9% in 2017-18 from 39.5% in 2011-12 (NSSO) as per usual status.
2. PLFS Survey is released by Ministry of labour annually

Choose correct

 (A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

• The labor force participation rate measures an economy’s active labor force and is the sum of all employed workers divided by the working age population. It refers to the number of people who are either employed or are actively looking for work.

Changes introduced in the PLFS Survey

• It has twin objectives
•  To measure quarterly changes of various statistical indicators of the labour market in urban areas. Households in urban areas were visited four times, constituting a rolling panel for 3 quarters. This facilitates analysis of the changes in seasonal employment and employment characteristics in urban areas.
•   To generate the annual estimates of different labour force indicators both in rural and urban areas.
• So, the Quarterly Bulletin contains key indicators for urban areas only, whereas the Annual Report contains the indicators for both rural and urban areas.
• Criteria for stratification- Rather than using monthly per capita expenditure of the household, PLFS uses education levels of members of the households.
• Usage of technology- by adapting the World Bank Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) solution platform with appropriate inputs and data collected in the field using Tablets.

 MCQ 2

 Recently Bangkok Declaration by ASEAN was regarding

1. Plastic waste
2. Whales conservation
3. RCEP future
4. Marine debris

• The heads of state/government of member states of the association of southeast asian nations (ASEAN), namely, brunei darussalam, the kingdom of cambodia, the republic of indonesia, the lao people’s democratic republic, malaysia, the republic of the union of myanmar, the republic of the philippines, the republic of singapore, the kingdom of thailand and the socialist republic of viet nam (hereinafter referred to as “ASEAN member states”) on the occasion of the 34th ASEAN summit in bangkok, thailand on 22 june 2019;
• EMPHASISING the ASEAN community vision 2025, particularly the ASEAN sociocultural community (ASCC) blueprint 2025 on conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity and natural resources which reaffirmed the commitment of strategic measures to “promote cooperation for the protection, restoration and sustainable use of coastal and marine environment, respond and deal with the risk of pollution and threats to marine ecosystem and coastal environment, in particular in respect of ecologically sensitive areas

MCQ 3

Which of these does not belong to J&K

1. Bhand Pather
2. Kheerbhawani
3. Ambubachi
4. All belong to J&K

MCQ 4

1. Mahatma Gandhi Sarbat Sehat Bima Yojana’ (MGSSBY) is launched by Punjab govt. and has become 1st state to offer medical insurance for such a large proportion of its population.
2. It will reject the centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme and will cover 31 lakh families.

Choose correct

 (A)Only 1

(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None
MCQ 5

1. Mobile Metallic Ramp (MMR) is developed by A private entity for IAF
2. It will be helpful in developing stealth features In aircrafts.

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
 (D) None

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) handed over to the Army on Tuesday the design of Mobile Metallic Ramp (MMR) for strategic mobility of armoured and mechanised units as well as formations of the Army. Secretary Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, handed over the design of MMR to Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Devraj Anbu.
• With load bearing capacity of 70 metric ton (MT), the MMR has been designed and developed by DRDO’s premier research laboratory, Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) on the requirements projected by Army for reducing the Strategic Mobility time of mobilising Armoured Fighting Vehicles.
• The ramp will provide the strategic mobility for Armoured and Mechanised units and formations of the Army. It is portable, modular in design, which can be easily assembled or disassembled

 MCQ 6

NASA’s robotic space MMS mission is related to

1. Exploring life on Saturn moon
2. To achieve speed of light for aircrafts
3. To study Earth’s magnetosphere
4. To explore communication limits in solar system

 Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission

• The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) is a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth’s magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation.
• The spacecraft were launched on 13 March 2015 at 02:44 UTC. It is designed to gather information about the microphysics of magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence, processes that occur in many astrophysical plasmas
• NASA’s MMS investigates how the Sun’s and Earth’s magnetic fields connect and disconnect, explosively transferring energy from one to the other in a process that is important at the Sun, other planets, and everywhere in the universe, known as magnetic reconnection.
• Reconnection limits the performance of fusion reactors and is the final governor of geospace weather that affects modern technological systems such as telecommunications networks, GPS navigation, and electrical power grids.
• The Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) recently made the first precise measurements of an interplanetary shock using highresolution instruments.
• These interplanetary shocks provide ideal test beds for learning about larger universal phenomena

FIRST PROOF OF ‘INTERPLANETARY SHOCK WAVE’ IN OUR SYSTEM FOUND BY NASA’S MMS MISSION

• This phenomenon was captured by the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) on 8 January 2019. The MMS mission, a group of four spacecrafts orbiting the Earth in a tight formation, was launched in 2015. Their coordinated movement allows researchers to observe and map interplanetary shock waves in 3-D space. The study also collects information on magnetic fields around the Earth, how and where they overlap and the energy released when two such magnetic field lines intersect, in a process known as magnetic reconnection.
• MMS observes reconnection from right here in Earth’s very own protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere. By studying reconnection in this local, natural laboratory, MMS can help us understand reconnection elsewhere in the universe as well, like in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at the boundary between our solar system’s heliosphere and interstellar space.

MCQ 7

 March 2022 deadline set for The controversial Hollongi airport. It is located in

1. Assam
2. Meghalaya
3. Manipur
4. None

MCQ 8

1. Chandrayaan 2 has chosen south pole for landing as its free from craters & dangers of damage by meteors
2. India will be the 1 st country to land on south pole

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
 (D) None

• On 3 January 2019, the Chang’e 4, a Chinese spacecraft, was the first to soft land near the lunar south polar region,[13] (45.5 ° S, 177.6 ° E) in the Von Kármán crater[14], which is within the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin on the southern far side of the Moon.
• The lunar south pole region is deemed as a compelling spot for future exploration missions and suitable for a lunar outpost. The permanently shadowed places on the Moon could contain ice and other minerals, which would be vital resources for future explorers. The mountain peaks near the pole are illuminated for large periods of time and could be used to provide solar energy to an outpost. With an outpost on the Moon scientists will be able to analyze water and other volatile samples dating back to the formation of the Solar System Goals and objectives of the mission:
• The primary objective of Chandrayaan 2 is to demonstrate the ability to soft-land on the lunar surface and operate a robotic rover on the surface.
• Scientific goals include studies of lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, the lunar exosphere, and signatures of hydroxyl and water ice.

 Other objectives of the mission:

• To identify or to find out the minerals and indicators of hydroxyl and water molecules.
• To study the surface of the moon.
• To study the density of the electrons in the Moon’s ionosphere that is the uppermost part of the atmosphere that is ionised by radiation.
• The Orbiter will observe the lunar surface and relay communication between Earth and Chandrayaan 2’s Lander

MCQ 9

1. Early exposure of children to nitrates affects their growth and brain development
2. Nitrate is A key contributor to poor water quality

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
 (C) Both
(D) None

• World Bank has released a report on Water Pollution.
• The report relied on what the Bank said was the biggest-ever database assembled on global water quality using monitoring stations, satellite data and machine learning models.
• Concerns raised:
• Clean water is a key factor for economic growth. Deteriorating water quality is stalling economic growth, worsening health conditions, reducing food production, and exacerbating poverty in many countries.
• Heavily polluted water is reducing economic growth by up to a third in some countries.
• When Biological Oxygen Demand — an index of the degree of organic pollution and a proxy for overall water pollution — crosses a threshold of 8 milligrams per liter, GDP growth in downstream regions drops by 0.83 percentage points, about a third for the mean growth rate of 2.33 percent used in the study.
• A key contributor to poor water quality is nitrogen, essential for agricultural production but which leaches into rivers and oceans where it creates hypoxia and dead zones, and in the air where it forms nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas.
• Early exposure of children to nitrates affects their growth and brain development, reducing their health and earning potential.
• For every additional kilogram of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare, yields may rise up to five percent, but childhood stunting increases as much as 19 percent and future adult earnings fall by up to two percent compared to those not affected.
• And increased salinity as a result of manmade pressures such as irrigation, stormwater runoff, leaching of fertilizer, and urban wastewater discharge is pushing down agricultural yields.
• The report estimated enough food is lost to saline water each year to feed 170 million people, about the population of Bangladesh.

MCQ 10

Fly ash

1. Is a major source of PM 2.5
2. Contains heavy metals
3. Can save from Radiation
4. Associated with destruction of mangroves

Choose correct

(A) 1 & 2
(B) 2 & 3
(C) All
 (D) 1,2,4

Health and environmental hazards:

• Toxic heavy metals present: All the heavy metals found in fly ash nickel, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, lead, etc—are toxic in nature. They are minute, poisonous particles accumulate in the respiratory tract, and cause gradual poisoning .
• Radiation: For an equal amount of electricity generated, fly ash contains a hundred times more radiation than nuclear waste secured via dry cask or water storage.
• Water pollution: The breaching of ash dykes and consequent ash spills occur frequently in India, polluting a large number of water bodies.
• Effects on environment: The destruction of mangroves, drastic reduction in crop yields, and the pollution of groundwater in the Rann of Kutch from the ash sludge of adjoining Coal power plants has been well documented.

The issues which impede its full-scale utilization in India:

• Indian fly ash is primarily of the calcareous or class C variety, implying that it possesses not only pozzolanic, but also hydraulic (self-cementing) properties. In contrast, European fly ash is of a silicious or class F variety, implying an absence of hydraulic properties.
• BIS revised the maximum and minimum blending standards. While the BIS is in line with the American standards on blended cement, the European and South African standards allow the blending of fly ash up to 55%.
• The pricing of fly ash is increasingly becoming a contentious issue that is hampering its gainful utilisation.
• Imperfections typical of quasi-markets, such as information asymmetry and high transaction costs, vested interests, technical and technological limitations, and the lack of regulatory oversight and political will, have impeded the flow of fly ash to its most value-adding use.

 IIT Hyderabad scientists convert fly ash into waterproofing material.

• Treating fly ash with stearic acid, used in soaps and shampoos, modified the nature of fly ash and helped develop materials with contrasting adhesion behaviours — high adhesions like a rose petal and low adhesion like a lotus leaf.

Download Free PDF

Sharing is caring!