October 26 2024 Current Affairs MCQs

Explanation

All statements are correct

• The Emissions Gap Report, published annually by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), warns that the Paris Agreement target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be unattainable in a few years.
• Recommendations by 2024 Emissions Gap Report:
  • In their next Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), nations must collectively commit to reducing annual GHG emissions by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035.
  • Increasing deployment of solar photovoltaic technologies and wind energy could deliver 38% of the total emission reduction potential by 2035.
  • NDCs must include all gases listed in the Kyoto Protocol, cover all sectors, and set specific targets.

Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3; Difficulty Level: Hard

Explanation

Statement 1 is incorrect

• The Emissions Gap Report, published annually by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Statement 2 is incorrect

• India ranks third in total GHG emissions, following China (1st) and US (2nd).

Statement 3 is correct

• Recommendations by report:
  • In their next Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), nations must collectively commit to reducing annual GHG emissions by 42% by 2030 and 57% by 2035.
  • Increasing deployment of solar photovoltaic technologies and wind energy could deliver 38% of the total emission reduction potential by 2035.
  • NDCs must include all gases listed in the Kyoto Protocol, cover all sectors, and set specific targets.

Answer: (c) 3 only; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct

• Asiatic golden cat has returned to Assam’s Manas National Park.
• Known as “rock cat” or “yellow leopard” in China, it is a medium-sized wild cat native to Asia.
• Distribution: Southern China, Southeast Asia, and Northeast India.

Statement 2 is correct

• Habitat: Deciduous, tropical, and subtropical evergreen rainforests interspersed with rocky areas

Statement 3 is incorrect

• Conservation Status: IUCN: Near Threatened | CITES: Appendix I

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statement 1 and 2 are correct but statement 3 is incorrect

• The Global Ecosystem Atlas initiative was launched in Colombia at the 2024 United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP-16).
• This open-source repository, developed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), aims to provide a comprehensive and harmonised resource for mapping and monitoring the world’s ecosystems, not limited specifically to marine ecosystems.

Answer: (b) Only two; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statements 1 and 2 are correct but statement 3 is incorrect

• Water infected with Microcystin in Lake Erie can be harmful.
• Microcystin is a toxin produced by certain freshwater cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae.
• These toxins can pose significant health risks to humans and animals, primarily affecting the liver.
• It is produced in large quantities during algal blooms, contaminating the water.
• There are over 250 types of microcystins, with microcystin-LR being the most common and toxic variant.

Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only; Difficulty Level: Easy

Explanation

• Lake Erie was in the news due to harmful levels of water contamination caused by Microcystin.

Statement 1 is incorrect but statements 2 and 3 are correct

• About Lake Erie:
  • Location: One of North America’s Great Lakes, situated on the border between the U.S. and Canada.

• Size: It is the fourth-largest among the five Great Lakes.
• Major Tributaries: The main contributing rivers include the Detroit, Huron, and Raisin rivers.
• Outflow: Niagara River serves as its eastern discharge point.
• Shallow Depth: Warms and cools more rapidly than other Great Lakes.
• Economic Role: Commercial fishing, tourism, and shipping; Major ports include Cleveland and Toledo.
• Ecological Threats: Faces pollution, invasive species, and algal blooms, posing risks to water quality.

Answer: (b) Only two; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct

• Indian AI startup Sarvam AI has launched Sarvam-1, the first LLM optimised specifically for Indian languages.

Statement 2 is correct

• Sarvam-1 is open-source and supports up to ten Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu, in addition to English.

Statement 3 is incorrect

• It falls under the category of small language models (SLMs), which have parameters of less than ten billion, as opposed to large language models (LLMs).

Statement 4 is correct

• It offers 4 to 6 times faster inference speeds, making it suitable for deployment in production environments, including edge devices with limited computing resources

Answer: (b) 1, 2 and 4; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct but 2 is incorrect

• ‘Abhay’, is the seventh ship of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water-Craft (ASW SWC) project.
• It is built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers for the Indian Navy.
• Arnala class ships will replace the Abhay class ASW Corvettes and are designed to undertake anti-submarine operations in coastal waters, Low-Intensity Maritime Operations and Mine Laying Operations.
• ASW SWC ships are approx 77 m long, with a maximum speed of 25 knots & endurance of 1800 NM.
• ASW SWC ships are designed with over 80% indigenous content.

Answer: (a) 1 only; Difficulty Level: Medium