5 DEC CURRENT AFFAIRS (MCQ)

Q1. Consider the following statements with respect to the International Labour Organisation (ILO)

1. ILO is the only tripartite United Nations agency that brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member States, to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.
2. After the demise of the League of Nations, the ILO became the first specialized agency associated with the UN. Which of the above statement/s is/are correct?
   a) 1 only
   b) 2 only
   c) Both 1 and 2
   d) Neither 1 nor 2

Solution : c)
Explanation :-
International Labour Organisation (ILO):
• ILO is the only tripartite U.N. agency that brings together governments, employers and workers of 187 member States , to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.
• It was created in 1919 by the Versailles Peace Treaty ending World War I.
• After the demise of the League of Nations, the ILO became the first specialized agency associated with the UN. Its secretariat is in Geneva, Switzerland.
• In 1988, the international labour conference adopted the “Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work”, which aims to eliminate all forms of forced or compulsory labour, abolition of child labour and the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.
• It publishes the Global Wage report.
• India is a founder member of the ILO: In 2017 India has ratified two key ILO global conventions- Convention 138 and Convention 182.
o Convention 138 calls for the minimum age for employment to be not less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling. In India, it is 14 years according to the Right to Education Act.
o Convention 182 penalises and prohibits the worst form of child labour.

Q2. Consider the following pair
Operation of Indian Armed Forces Purpose

1. Operation Python
2. Operation Sahyog
3. Operation Cactus
4. Operation Trishul During Bangladesh’s Liberation War (1971) To rescue people in flood-hit Kerala (2018)
   Anti-insurgency operation in Srilanka (1988)
   Indian Navy’s operation in Maldives (1988)
   Which of the above pairs is/are correctly matched?
   a) 2 only
   b) 1,3 and 4 only
   c) 1 and 2 only
   d) None of the above

Solution : c)
Explanation :-
Operation Cactus – 1988 – Indian Navy’s operation in Maldives
Operation Trishul – 1988 – Anti-insurgency operation in Srilanka

Q3. Energy Efficiency 2020 report has been published by:
a) World Economic Forum
b) World Bank
c) The International Energy Agency
d) UN Energy

Solution : c)
Explanation :-
Global progress on using more efficient sources of energy was set to slow down as a result of the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, according to the new International Energy Agency (IEA) report, Energy Efficiency 2020.
The International Energy Agency (IEA):
• It is a Paris based autonomous intergovernmental organisation established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.
• The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, but also works with nonmember countries, especially China, India, and Russia.
• The Agency’s mandate has broadened to focus on the “3Es” of effectual energy policy: energy security, economic development, and environmental protection.
• IEA member countries are required to maintain total oil stock levels equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year’s net imports.

Q4. Consider the following statements in context of National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, 2016:

1. The Policy is in compliance with WTO’s (World Trade Organisation) agreement on TRIPS (Trade Related aspects of IPRs).
2. Under the Indian Patents Act, compulsory licensing (CL) can be issued for a drug if the medicine is deemed unaffordable.
3. A patent is a type of infinite-duration protection.
   Which of the above statements is/are correct?
   a) 1 & 2 only
   b) 2 & 3 only
   c) 1 & 3 only
   d) 1, 2 & 3

Solution : a)
Explanation :-
National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, 2016
Objective: The Policy which is in compliance with WTO’s (World Trade Organisation) agreement on TRIPS (Trade Related aspects of IPRs), aims to sustain entrepreneurship and boost Prime scheme ‘Make in India.’
• The Policy aims to push IPRs as a marketable financial asset, promote innovation and entrepreneurship, while protecting public interest.

Features:
• The plan will be reviewed every five years in consultation with stakeholders.
• In order to have strong and effective IPR laws, steps would be taken — including review of existing IP laws.
• Special thrust on awareness generation and effective enforcement of IPRs, besides encouragement of IP commercialisation through various incentives.
• India will engage constructively in the negotiation of international treaties and agreements in consultation with stakeholders.
• The government will examine accession to some multilateral treaties which are in India’s interest, and become a signatory to those treaties which India has de facto implemented to enable it to participate in their decision making process, the policy said.
• It suggests making the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) the nodal agency for all IPR issues.
• Copyrights related issues will also come under DIPP’s ambit from that of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.
• Trademark offices have been modernised.
o Examination time for trademarks has been reduced from 13 months to 8 months, with the new target being to bring the time down to one month by March 2017.
• On compulsory licensing (CL), India has issued only CL for a cancer drug.
o As per the WTO norms, a CL can be invoked by a government allowing a company to produce a patented product without the consent of the patent owner in public interest. o Under the Indian Patents Act, a CL can be issued for a drug if the medicine is deemed unaffordable, among other conditions, and the government grants permission to qualified generic drug makers to manufacture it. 2 is correct.
• Patents: a patent is a type of limited-duration protection that can be used to protect inventions (or discoveries) that are new, non-obvious, and useful, such a new process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter.
o When a property owner holds a patent, others are prevented, under law, from offering for sale, making, or using the product. 3 is incorrect.

Q5. With reference to the 2020 SO, consider the following statements:

1. NASA has confirmed that the Near-Earth Object called 2020 SO is the rocket booster that helped lift the space agency’s Surveyor spacecraft toward the Moon in 1966.
2. The Surveyor-2 spacecraft aim was to reconnoiter the lunar surface ahead of the Apollo missions that led to the first lunar landing in 1969. Which of the statements given above is/are correct? \
   a) 1 only
   b) 2 only
   c) Both 1 and 2
   d) Neither 1 nor 2

Solution : c)
Explanation :-
NASA has confirmed that the Near-Earth Object called 2020 SO is the rocket booster that helped lift the space agency’s Surveyor spacecraft toward the Moon in 1966.
• The Surveyor-2 spacecraft was supposed to make a soft landing on the Moon’s surface in September 1966, during which time one of the three thrusters failed to ignite as a result of which the spacecraft started spinning and crashed on the surface.
• The aim of the mission was to reconnoiter the lunar surface ahead of the Apollo missions that led to the first lunar landing in 1969.
• While the spacecraft crashed into the Moon’s surface, the rocket booster disappeared into an unknown orbit around the Sun.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Q6. With reference to the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), consider the following statements:

1. It is a powerful telescope developed and operated by the country’s science agency CSIRO.
2. It has mapped over three million galaxies in a record 300 hours during its first all-sky survey. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
   a) 1 only
   b) 2 only
   c) Both 1 and 2
   d) Neither 1 nor 2

Solution : c)
Explanation :-
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a powerful telescope developed and operated by the country’s science agency CSIRO, has mapped over three million galaxies in a record 300 hours during its first all-sky survey.
• ASKAP is a telescope designed over a decade ago and located about 800 km north of Perth. It became fully operational in February 2019 and is currently conducting pilot surveys of the sky before it can begin large-scale projects from 2021 onward.
• ASKAP surveys are designed to map the structure and evolution of the Universe, which it does by observing galaxies and the hydrogen gas that they contain.
• One of its most important features is its wide field of view, because of which it has been able to take panoramic pictures of the sky in great detail.
• The telescope uses novel technology developed by CSIRO, which is a kind of a “radio camera” to achieve high survey speeds and consists of 36 dish antennas, which are each 12m in diameter.
• The present Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) taken by the ASKAP telescope is like a “Google map” of the Universe where most of the millions of star-like points are distant galaxies, about a million of which have not been seen before.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Q7. With reference to the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2020, consider the following statements:

1. It is awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content.
2. Aravind Adiga’s book “The White Tiger” has won a prestigious history-literary prize in the UK.
   Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
   a) 1 only
   b) 2 only
   c) Both 1 and 2
   d) Neither 1 nor 2

Solution : a)
Explanation :-
British Indian journalist and author Anita Anand’s book that tells the story of a young man caught up in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar has won a prestigious historyliterary prize in the UK.
• ‘The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj’ beat six other titles for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History 2020, awarded annually for a non-fiction book of specifically historical content.
• English PEN, which stands for Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists, is one of the world’s oldest human rights organisations championing the freedom to write and read.
• It is the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers’ association with 145 centres in more than 100 countries.
• Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman was a member of PEN during the 1960s and 1970s and on her death in 1999, she bequeathed 100,000 pounds to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name.
• Entries are required to be works of high literary merit – that is, not primarily written for the academic market – and can cover all historical periods.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Q8. The second-largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, “Arecibo”, located in:
a) Puerto Rico
b) Toronto
c) Doha
d) Sydney

Solution : a)
Explanation :-
Puerto Rico’s massive Arecibo telescope, famous for its stellar contributions to astronomy, collapsed, leaving many among the scientific community in shock and anguish.
• The second-largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, Arecibo was first built in 1963. The US National Science Foundation owned the telescope.
• Being the most powerful radar, scientists employed Arecibo to observe planets, asteroids and the ionosphere, making several discoveries over the decades, including finding prebiotic molecules in distant galaxies, the first exoplanets, and the first millisecond pulsar.
• In 1967, Arecibo was able to discover that the planet Mercury rotates in 59 days and not 88 days as had been originally thought.
• In 1993, scientists Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on the observatory in monitoring a binary pulsar, providing a strict test of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity and the first evidence for the existence of gravitational waves.
Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Q9. With reference to the Malayan Giant Squirrel, consider the following statements:

1. The species is listed as Vulnerable on IUCN’s 2016 list, and it is protected under India’s Wildlife Protection Act.
2. It is currently found in parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland.
   Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
   a) 1 only
   b) 2 only
   c) Both 1 and 2
   d) Neither 1 nor 2

Solution : b)
Explanation :-
A first-of-its-kind study by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) under the Union Ministry of Environment has projected that numbers of the Malayan Giant Squirrel (Ratufa bicolor) could decline by 90 per cent in India by 2050.
• The Malayan Giant Squirrel, one of the world’s largest squirrel species that has a dark upper body, pale under parts, and a long, bushy tail.
• The species is listed as Near Threatened on IUCN’s 2016 list, and it is protected under India’s Wildlife Protection Act.
• It is currently found in parts of West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Nagaland. It is also distributed through Southern China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Burma, the Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, and Java.
• It is found mostly in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests, from plains to hills at elevations of 50 m to 1,500 m above sea level. Recent study:
• Destruction of its habitat could restrict the squirrel to only southern Sikkim and North Bengal by 2050, according to the ZSI.
• Only 43.38 per cent of the squirrel’s original habitat in India is now favourable to it, says the study; by 2050, the favourable zone could shrink to 2.94 per cent of the area the species was meant to inhabit.
• India is home to three giant squirrel species; the other two – Indian Giant Squirrel and Grizzled Giant Squirrel – are found in peninsular India.
• Unlike the nocturnal flying squirrels, giant squirrels are diurnal, but arboreal (tree-dwelling) and herbivorous like the flying squirrels.
Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Q10. With reference to the Deputy Chief of Strategy post (Army), consider the following statements:

1. The new Deputy Chief (Strategy) will head operations, intelligence, perspective and information warfare.
2. The Directorate General of Military Operations and the Directorate General of Military Intelligence, both headed by Lieutenant General-rank officers, will be under him. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
   a) 1 only
   b) 2 only
   c) Both 1 and 2
   d) Neither 1 nor 2

Solution : c)
Explanation :-
A Major restructure at the Army Headquarters has finally been approved by the government.
• In an order issued on December 2, the government has given its nod to create the position of a third Deputy Chief of Army, who will act as a “single-point advice” person to the Vice Chief of Army on operational issues.
• The new Deputy Chief (Strategy) will head operations, intelligence, perspective and information warfare.
• The Directorate General of Military Operations and the Directorate General of Military Intelligence, both headed by Lieutenant General-rank officers, will be under him. Two new offices, for Perspective Planning and Strategic Communications, which will also be headed by director generals of Lt Gen-rank, will also come under the new Deputy Chief.
• Current DGMO Lt Gen Paramjit Singh is likely to be appointed the first Deputy Chief (Strategy).
• Hence both statements are correct.

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