July 10-2024 Current Affairs MCQs

Explanation

• The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) recommends that Moidams — the Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty to be inscribed on the World Heritage List.
• These were first included in the Tentative List in April 2014.
• France-based ICOMOS, also an advisory body to UNESCO for cultural heritage, is an international non-governmental organisation that is comprised of professionals, experts, representatives from local authorities, companies and heritage organisations, and is dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of the architectural and landscape heritage throughout the world.

Image Source: The Hindu

Answer: (a) Mound-Burial System of the Ahom Dynasty; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

• The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), based in Hyderabad, has significantly upgraded its system for monitoring the health of the Indian Ocean.
• The improved version of the Regional Analysis of Indian Ocean, a data assimilation system developed by INCOIS, now incorporates Sea Surface Height Anomaly (SSHA) data.
• The previous version relied solely on salinity and sea surface temperature data, not SSHA data.
• The new system gathers observations from the ocean surface and depths ranging from 3 to 2,000 meters, allowing for more accurate ocean current analysis within the models.

Statement 1 is correct

• INCOIS was established as an autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and is a unit of the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO).
• ESSO- INCOIS is mandated to provide the best possible ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community through sustained ocean observations and constant improvements through systematic and focused research.

Statement 2 is correct

• INCOIS has been designated as the National Oceanographic Data Centre by the International Oceanographic Data Exchange Programme (IODE) of the International Oceanographic Commission (IOC).
• Further, INCOIS serves as the National Argo Data Centre, Regional Argo Data Centre, and also the regional data centre and clearing house for the Indian Ocean region for the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System (IOGOOS) Programme.

Answer: (d) Neither 1 nor 2; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

• Regenerative braking is a type of dynamic braking that converts the wheels’ kinetic energy into a form that can be stored and reused.
• In electric vehicles, a battery powers a traction motor that propels the vehicle by converting electrical to mechanical energy.
• During regenerative braking, this motor acts as a generator.
• It converts mechanical energy back into electrical energy, stored separately in a battery or fed back into the traction motor.
• Downsides of Regenerative Braking:
  • Regenerative braking alone isn’t sufficient to stop an electric vehicle;
  • it must be combined with a conventional system that dissipates kinetic energy as heat.
  • Regenerative braking systems alone often cannot prevent vehicles from rolling back downhill. Therefore, it must also have a conventional braking system.
  • Regenerative brakes recover less energy as the vehicle’s speed decreases.

Answer: (c) A system that converts the vehicle’s kinetic energy into electrical energy during braking, which can be stored in the battery or reused by the vehicle; Difficulty Level: Easy

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct

• Mitochondrial disease (or Mito) is a group of diseases that affect mitochondria’s capacity to produce the energy organs need to function properly.
• There are two kinds of mitochondrial disease:
  • One is brought by faulty genes in the nuclear DNA, which makes us who we are and is passed down from one parent to another.
  • The other is brought on by faulty genes in the mitochondrial DNA.
  • Mito caused by faulty mitochondrial DNA is passed down through the mother.
• Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is unique because it is inherited only from the mother.

Statement 2 is correct

• The procedure involves inserting nuclear DNA from the intending parents into an egg obtained from a donor with healthy mitochondria.
• The resulting egg contains nuclear DNA from the parents and healthy mitochondrial DNA from the donor.
• Subsequently, sperm is added to fertilize the egg, enabling the child to inherit nuclear DNA from both parents and mitochondrial DNA from the donor.

Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) releases a quarterly bulletin of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).
• The PLFS follows a current weekly status approach, where people are considered unemployed if they did not work for at least one hour during the week but actively sought work.
• The PLFS was initiated by the National Statistical Office in 2017 for frequent labour force data.
• The inaugural annual report was published in 2019, utilising data from July 2017 to June 2018.
• PLFS’s objective is to estimate vital employment and unemployment indicators like the Labour Force Participation Rate every three months in urban areas.
• It also aims to provide yearly estimates for both rural and urban regions.

Answer: (b) It is released by the Labour Bureau every quarter. Difficulty Level: Easy