Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 7-08-19 | Free PDF

MCQ 1

 UNSC resolution 47 is related to

1. Changes in P5 members
2. Refugees issues
3. J&K dispute
4. Gender equality

• Pakistan PM Imran Khan has termed the Government of India’s decision to remove the special status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir by modifying Article 370 as illegal since it violates UNSC resolution 47.

What is Resolution 47?

• Resolution 47 of the UNSC focuses on the complaint of the Government of India concerning the dispute over the State of Jammu and Kashmir, that India took to the Security Council in January 1948.
• In October 1947, following an invasion by soldiers from the Pakistan Army in plainclothes and tribesmen, the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh sought assistance from India and signed the Instrument of Accession. After the first war in Kashmir (1947-1948), India approached the UN Security Council to bring the conflict in Kashmir to the notice of Security Council members.
• The UN Security Council increased the size of the investigating council to include six members along with permanent members of the UNSC. Along with the five permanent members, China, France, UK, US & Russia, non-permanent members included Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Syria and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
• India’s position was that it was ready to hold a plebiscite, a direct vote in which an entire electorate votes on a specific proposal, to know of the people’s desire and accept the results of the vote.
• Pakistan denied its involvement in the conflict and counter-accused India.
• In response the UNSC, under Resolution 39 (1948) stated “with a view to facilitating…the restoration of peace and order and to the holding of a plebiscite, by the two Governments, acting in co-operation with one another and with the Commission, and further instructs the Commission to keep the Council informed of the action taken under the resolution.”
• It also ordered for the conflict to cease and to create conditions for a “free and impartial plebiscite” to decide whether Jammu and Kashmir would accede to India or Pakistan.
• What did the UNSC order Pakistan to do?
• The UNSC ordered that Pakistan was to withdraw its tribesmen and Pakistan nationals who had entered “the State for the purpose of fighting” and to prevent future intrusions and to prevent “furnishing of material aid to those fighting in the State”.
• It was also ordered Pakistan to cooperate with maintaining peace and order. What did the UNSC order India to do?
• The UNSC had a more comprehensive set of orders for India.
• It said that after the Pakistani army and tribesmen had withdrawn from the State and the fighting had ceased, India was to submit a plan to the Commission for withdrawing forces from Jammu and Kashmir and to reduce them over a period of time to the minimum strength required for civil maintenance of law and order.
• India was ordered to appraise the Commission of the stages at which steps had been taken to reduce military presence to the minimum strength and to arrange remaining troops after consultations with the Commission.
• Among other instructions, India was ordered to agree that till the time the Plebiscite Administration found it necessary to exercise the powers of direction and supervision over the State forces and police, these forces would be held in areas to be agreed upon with the Plebiscite Administrator.
• It also directed India to recruit local personnel for law and order and to safeguard the rights of minorities.
• How did India & Pakistan react to the UNSC Resolution 47? Both countries rejected Resolution 47. Why India rejected?
• India’s contention was that the resolution ignored the military invasion by Pakistan and placing both nations on an equal diplomatic ground was a dismissal of Pakistan’s aggression and the fact that the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh had signed the Instrument of Accession.
• India also objected to the Resolution’s requirement that did not allow India to retain military presence which it believed it needed for defence.
• The Resolution’s order to form a coalition government, would also put Sheikh Abdullah, the Prime Minister of the Princely State of Jammu & Kashmir, in a difficult position.
• India also believed that the powers conferred on the Plebiscite Administrator undermined the state’s sovereignty. India also wanted Pakistan to be excluded from the operations of the plebiscite.

Why Pakistan rejected?

• Pakistan on the other hand, objected to even the minimum presence of Indian forces in Kashmir, as allowed by the resolution. It also wanted an equal representation in the state government for the Muslim Conference, which was the dominant party in Pakistani-held Kashmir.
• Despite their differences with the provisions of Resolution 47, both India and Pakistan welcomed the UN Commission and agreed to work with it.

 MCQ 2

1. Hamas is a Palestinian Shia-Islamist fundamentalist organization
2. Palestine authority covers whole West bank area & Gaza strip only

 Choose correct

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

• Hamas (Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It has been the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip since its takeover of that area in 2007. During this period it fought several wars with Israel. It is regarded, either in whole or in part, as a terrorist organization by several countries and international organizations, most notably by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Russia, China, and Turkey are among countries who do not regard it so.
• Hamas was founded in 1987, soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which in its Gaza branch had been nonconfrontational towards Israel, refrained from resistance, and was hostile to the PLO.
• Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The group has stated that it may accept a 10-year truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders and allows Palestinian refugees from 1948, including their descendants, to return to what is now Israel, although clarifying that this does not mean recognition of Israel or the end of the conflict. Hamas’s military wing objected to the truce offer. Analysts have said that it seems clear that Hamas knows that many of its conditions for the truce could never be met

MCQ 3

Researcher from _______has discovered way to turn cactus leaves into non toxic and biodegradable material with similar properties to plastic.

1. USA
2. India
3. Singapore
4. Mexico

MCQ 4

1. draft Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) for coastal zone management. It was prepared by Society for Integrated Coastal Management, an MoEFCC- affiliated body as part of a GEF funded project
2. No Indian coastal state has prepared Integrated Coastal Zone Management Plans till now

Choose correct

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

• The objective of the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Project is to assist Government of India (GoI) in building national capacity for implementation of comprehensive coastal management approach in the country, and piloting the integrated coastal zone management approach in states of Gujarat, Orissa and West Bengal.
• There are four components to the project, the first component being national ICZM capacity building. The national component will include mapping, delineation and demarcation of the hazard lines, and delineation of coastal sediment cells all along the mainland coast of India. The second component is the piloting ICZM approaches in Gujarat. This component will support capacity building of the state level agencies and institutions, including preparation of an ICZM plan for the coastal sediment cell that includes the Gulf of Kachchh, and pilot investments. The third component is the piloting ICZM approaches in Orissa. This component will include capacity building of the state level agencies and institutions, including preparation of an ICZM plan for the coastal sediment cells that include the stretches of Paradip-Dhamra and Gopalpur-Chilika, including a regional coastal process study, and pilot investments. Finally, the fourth component is the piloting ICZM approaches in West Bengal

MCQ 5

Greenberg’s Diversity Index is related to

1. Species diversity
2. Ethnic diversity in a country
3. Racial diversity
4. Mother tongue

2019 is UN’s Year of Indigenous Languages

• The Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea has the highest number of ‘living’ indigenous languages in the world (840), while India stands fourth with 453.
• 2019 is the United Nations’ International Year of Indigenous Languages. In 2016, the UN’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues pointed out that “40% of the estimated 6,700 languages spoken around the world were in danger of disappearing”. Several languages are now “endangered” and in the case of languages like Tiniguan (Colombian origin), there is just a single native speaker left.
• Ethnologue, a directory of languages, lists 7,111 living languages worldwide(languages that are still being used and spoken by people).
• Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic are the most widely spoken languages worldwide when only first-languages are considered. These five languages account for what is spoken by over 40% of people worldwide.
• Interestingly, the U.S. (335 languages) and Australia (319), widely English-speaking nations, are among the countries where the highest number of languages are spoken; small and rapidly declining pockets of indigenous language speaking populations contribute to these numbers. Among regions, Asia and Africa account for the highest number of indigenous languages (over 70% of the total).
• ‘Greenberg’s diversity index’. According to Ethnologue, this is “the probability that any two people of the country selected at random would have different mother tongues.”
• The value ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates no diversity (everyone has the same mother tongue) and 1 indicates total diversity (no two people will have the same mother tongue). Hence, a higher diversity index would mean more languages spread across the country.
• Use the dropdown menu to search for the country of your choice. Countries with a higher number of languages and higher diversity are represented on the top right.
• According to Ethnologue, there are 3,741 languages (over half the total) which have fewer than 1,000 speakers. Certain language families are very diverse and have several languages under them, but are spoken by only a small percentage of the population.
• For example, the Trans-New Guinea family, which has 478 languages, accounts for just 0.05% of the total language speakers.
• Comparable in number to Trans-New Guinea languages is the Indo-European family. This family, which has 445 languages including Spanish, English, German, Punjabi and Bengali, has the highest percentage of speakers — 46.31%.
• Most Indian languages are derivatives of languages that are spoken in other parts of Asia as well. For instance, the Sino-Tibetan languages are spoken across Northeast India, China, Bhutan, Nepal and other South East Asian countries. One of the outliers to this trend is the Andamanese language family, which is confined to India alone.
• The below visusalisation bins the count of languages according to the number of first language speakers. For example, there are eight languages which have over 10 crore native speakers.
• Today, there are 851 languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. These languages are spoken by the tribal groups inhabiting Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. In 2006, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare stated that “Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages (languages, not dialects),” making it the most linguistically diverse place on Earth.
• Its official languages are Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu,and Papua New Guinean Sign Language. Tok Pisin, an English-based creole, is the most widely spoken, serving as the country’s lingua franca. Papua New Guinean Sign Language became the fourth official language in May 2015, and is used by the deaf population throughout the country
• Although English is an official language of Papua New Guinea, it is only spoken by 1–2% of the population

MCQ 6

Famous 6 days war was fought between

1. France & Ottoman empire
2. Germany & France
3. Israel & Iran
4. Israel & United Arab republic

• The Six-Day War (“War of 1967”), also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War, or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between 5 and 10 June 1967 by Israel and the neighbouring states of Egypt (known at the time as the United Arab Republic), Jordan, and Syria.
• Relations between Israel and its neighbours were not fully normalised after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. In 1956 Israel invaded the Sinai peninsula in Egypt, with one of its objectives being the reopening of the Straits of Tiran that Egypt had blocked to Israeli shipping since 1950. Israel was eventually forced to withdraw, but was guaranteed that the Straits of Tiran would remain open. A United Nations Emergency Force was deployed along the border, but there was no demilitarisation agreement.
• In the months prior to June 1967, tensions became dangerously heightened. Israel reiterated its post-1956 position that the closure of the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping would be a cause for war (a casus belli). In May Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced that the straits would be closed to Israeli vessels and then mobilised its Egyptian forces along its border with Israel. On 5 June, Israel launched what it claimed were a series of preemptive airstrikes against Egyptian airfields. The question of which side caused the war is one of a number of controversies relating to the conflict.
• The Egyptians were caught by surprise, and nearly the entire Egyptian air force was destroyed with few Israeli losses, giving the Israelis air supremacy. Simultaneously, the Israelis launched a ground offensive into the Gaza Strip and the Sinai, which again caught the Egyptians by surprise. After some initial resistance, Nasser ordered the evacuation of the Sinai. Israeli forces rushed westward in pursuit of the Egyptians, inflicted heavy losses, and conquered the Sinai.
• Jordan had entered into a defense pact with Egypt a week before the war began; the agreement envisaged that in the event of war Jordan would not take an offensive role but would attempt to tie down Israeli forces to prevent them making territorial gains. About an hour after the Israeli air attack, the Egyptian commander of the Jordanian army was ordered by Cairo to begin attacks on Israel; in the initially confused situation, the Jordanians were told that Egypt had repelled the Israeli air strikes.
• Egypt and Jordan agreed to a ceasefire on 8 June, and Syria agreed on 9 June; a ceasefire was signed with Israel on 11 June. In the aftermath of the war, Israel had crippled the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian militaries, having killed over 20,000 troops while only losing fewer than 1,000 of its own. The Israeli success was the result of a well-prepared and enacted strategy, the poor leadership of the Arab states, and their poor military leadership and strategy. Israel seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel’s international standing greatly improved in the following years. Its victory humiliated Egypt, Jordan and Syria, leading Nasser to resign in shame; he was later reinstated after protests in Egypt against his resignation. The speed and ease of Israel’s victory would later lead to a dangerous overconfidence within the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), contributing to initial Arab successes in the subsequent 1973 Yom Kippur War, although ultimately Israeli forces were successful and defeated the Arab militaries. The displacement of civilian populations resulting from the war would have long-term consequences, as 300,000 Palestinians fled the West Bank and about 100,000 Syrians left the Golan Heights. Across the Arab world, Jewish minority communities fled or were expelled, with refugees going mainly to Israel or Europe.
• Israel seized the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria.

 MCQ 7

Strait of tiran is located between

1. Egypt & Libya
2. Egypt & Sinai Peninsula
3. Bahrein & Qatar
4. Sinai and Arabian peninsulas

MCQ 8

 On World map Mt. Elbrus is located above A. Alaska B. Greece C. Italy D. Iraq MCQ 8 On World map Mt. Elbrus is located above

1. Alaska
2. Greece
3. Italy
4. Iraq

Indian Mountaineering Expedition team to climb Mt. Elbrus.

• Mt. Elbrus is the highest peak in European Continent.
• It is a dormant volcano in the Caucasus Mountains in Southern Russia, near the border with Georgia.

MCQ 9

 Total No. of States which have coast in India

(A)6
(B)7
(C)8
(D)9

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