Daily Current Affairs (MCQ's) | 01-11-2022

Q1. The Emissions Gap Report 2022 was released by

1. The World Meteorological Organisation
2. Climate Action Network
3. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
4. The United Nations Development Programme

Answer (c)

Explanation:

Why the Emissions Gap Report 2022 has raised the alarm on climate action

• The Emissions Gap Report 2022: The Closing Window – Climate crisis calls for rapid transformation of societies was released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• The report focused on the need for countries to take significant steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2022 (UNFCCC COP 27) in Egypt.

  

Q2. Consider the following statements

1. India’s per capita emissions are one of the highest in the world
2. China has highest total emissions for year 2020

Which of the statements given above is/are incorrect?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer (a)

Explanation:

Q3. Which of the following are common greenhouse gases related to livestock emissions?

1. Carbon dioxide
2. Nitrous oxide
3. Methane

Select the correct answer from codes given below

1. 1 and 2 only
2. 1 and 3 only
3. 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Answer (d)

Explanation:

Focus on the food systems industry:

• Food systems comprise all food products, derived from crop and livestock production, forestry, fisheries, and the larger socio- economic systems surrounding them.
• While other sectors are dominant in the global climate action plans, food systems are This often prevents the people from recognizing emissions produced as a result of their consumption and production patterns, as well as of livestock.
• In a first, New Zealand recently planned to tax agricultural emissions, which includes those from livestock burps and waste, in an attempt to “transition to a low emissions future” and fulfil its promise to price agriculture emissions from 2025.
• New Zealand is one of the world’s largest exporters of dairy and meat products. However, the agricultural production processes result in significant greenhouse gas emissions.
• Mostly, biogenic methane and nitrous oxide are responsible for about half of New Zealand’s gross emissions, hence a pricing mechanism will be introduced to achieve the emissions reduction target by 2050.

Livestock emissions:

• Emissions from livestock mainly include carbon dioxide (from urea), nitrous oxide (from livestock dung and urine), and methane (from belching) among others.
• While nitrous oxide is emitted through livestock dung and urine, and carbon moves in the atmosphere in various forms, looking at the production of methane gives us a better insight into effective ways in which countries can tackle climate change.
• Manure and gastrointestinal releases account for about 32 per cent of human-caused methane emissions. Whenever a farm animal digests food, methane is released into the atmosphere.

Other sources of methane and implications:

• Further, the cultivation of paddy, which floods the fields, prevents oxygen from penetrating the soil and creates suitable conditions for methane-emitting bacteria. This accounts for roughly 8 per cent of human-linked emissions, the official UNEP website highlights.

• An IPCC research showed methane is responsible for at least a quarter of today’s global warming. An assessment by the UNEP and Climate and Clean Air Coalition in 2021 found that cutting human or farming-related methane emissions by “45 per cent this decade” is key in the global battle against climate change.

Q4. Machchhu river, recently seen in the news in Morbi bridge tragedy, drains into

1. Arabian Sea
2. Gulf of Cambay
3. The Rann of Kutch
4. Gulf of Kutch

Answer (c)

Explanation:

Morbi tragedy

• The death toll in Sunday night’s tragedy in Morbi, Gujarat, has reached 140. Teams of the National Disaster Response Force are carrying out search operations on the water hyacinth-covered river.

  

Morbi: India’s ceramics factory

• Morbi district was created on August 15, 2013, along with several other new districts.
• Morbi is famous for its ceramic industry. The district is dotted by several hundred ceramic-producing factories, mainly medium and small-scale Around 70 per cent of India’s ceramics are produced in Morbi, and ceramic tiles manufactured here are exported to countries in the Middle East, East Asia, and Africa.
• Machchhu is a small river that rises in the Madla Hills and flows 130 km into the Rann of Kutch. The suspension bridge, “Jhulto Pul”, was a pedestrian suspension bridge that was inaugurated in 1879.

• The suspension bridge had been closed for renovation two years ago, and was reopened to the public only on October 26, allegedly without carrying out a safety audit first.

Q5. Consider the following statements

1. Indian-origin Tamils from Srilanka are eligible for citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) 2019
2. The District    Collectors    can be    authorised    to grant citizenship certificates to legal migrants

Which of the statements given above is/are incorrect?

1. 1 only
2. 2 only
3. Both 1 and 2
4. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer (a)

Explanation:

A pathway to citizenship for Indian-origin Tamils

• The Supreme Court of India has now posted the 232 petitions challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) to be heard on December 6, 2022.
• However, there is another issue linked to the subject, e., the unresolved status of Indian-origin Tamils who were repatriated from Sri Lanka.
• For over four decades, nearly 30,000 Indian-origin Tamils have been classified as stateless persons, based on technicalities.
• Given their genealogical link to India, the Government of India needs to consider extending citizenship benefits to them in accordance with Indian bilateral obligations and international humanitarian principles and international conventions.

MHA allows 2 District Collectors in Gujarat to grant citizenship

• The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) empowered the District Collectors of two more districts in Gujarat — Mehsana and Anand — to grant citizenship certificates to the members of Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Christian, Buddhist and Jain communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh.

• This is not the first-time the magistrates or collectors have been delegated such powers by the Similar orders were issued in 2016, 2018 and 2021 empowering District Magistrates in several districts of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab to grant citizenship certificates to migrants from the six communities who entered India on valid documents.

• The notification is not related to the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that is yet to come into effect. The CAA passed in 2019 seeks to grant citizenship to the six undocumented communities who came to India till December 2014.
• The only way the CAA could have helped the legal minority migrants is in fast-tracking their applications as it reduces the mandatory requirement of stay in India to five years.
• The notification said that the application should be made online and that the verification shall be done by the Collector at the district level and forwarded to Central agencies.

Q6. Consider the following statements

1. Convicts out on bail can not vote
2. The Undertrials can vote
3. The right to vote is regulated by the Representation of the People Act, 1951

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

1. 1 and 3 only
2. 3 only
3. 2 and 3 only
4. 1, 2 and 3

Answer (b)

Explanation:

SC to examine law depriving undertrials the right to vote

• The Supreme Court decided to examine a petition challenging a provision in the election law that imposes a blanket ban on undertrials, persons confined in civil prisons and convicts serving their sentence in jails from casting their votes.
• The petition said that while convicts out on bail could vote, undertrials, whose innocence or guilt has not been conclusively determined, and those confined in civil persons were deprived of their right to vote.
• The petition argued that Section 62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, mandates that “no person shall vote at any election  if he is confined in a prison, whether under a sentence of imprisonment or transportation or otherwise, or is in the lawful custody of the police”.

• It contended that the provision arbitrarily, through the use of “broad language”, disenfranchises a large segment of the population.
• The petition said that “denying penitentiary inmates the right to vote is more likely to send messages that undermine respect for the law and democracy than messages that enhance those values… Denying the right to vote does not comply with the requirements for legitimate punishment”. The right to vote is a constitutional right under Article 326.