UPSC Daily Quiz | 16 August 2024

Explanation:

Relevance: With delays plaguing the ₹34,000-crore PM-KUSUM programme launched to boost solar energy infrastructure in agriculture, States have begun experimenting with alternative approaches to improve adoption. 

• To provide energy and water security, cut diesel use to reduce environmental pollution and also generate additional income for farmers by producing solar power, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Uttham Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) for farmers. (Hence, statement 1 is correct but statement 2 is not correct)
• PM-KUSUM envisages setting up 100 GW of solar power plants in farmer-owned land, installing 14 lakh solar pumps, and solarising 35 lakh grid-connected agricultural pumps. (Hence, statement 3 is correct)
• As of June, only 256 MW of power plants, 3.97 lakh solar pumps and 13,500 solarised pumps have been installed. The low uptake has forced the government to push the scheme’s deadline to 2026.

A lot of challenges

• A key hurdle is the unavailability of suitable land. Solar power in India has grown on the back of utility-scale power projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan where vast tracts of deserts and uncultivable land are suitable for setting up power plants.
• With agricultural land, it is often a challenge to find enough parcels of land that can be pooled together and made available to a power project developer.

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Subject: Current Affairs | Schemes

Level of Difficulty: Easy | Factual

Sources:

• https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/digital-boost-to-revive-flailing-pm-kusum-programme/article68528979.ece

Explanation:

Relevance: Astronomers from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) have found a new method to predict the amplitude of the upcoming solar cycle. 

• Solar flares and CMEs are different phenomena, though both are related to the Sun’s magnetic activity. While solar flares primarily emit electromagnetic radiation (light), CMEs involve the ejection of plasma (charged particles) from the Sun’s corona.
• Solar flares are not clouds of magnetized particles; they are brilliant flashes of light that occur due to the sudden release of energy on the Sun’s surface. Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), on the other hand, are immense clouds of magnetized particles that are hurled into space. (Hence, statement 1 is not correct)
• Solar flares travel at the speed of light and can reach Earth in about 8 minutes. CMEs, being large clouds of charged particles, take a longer time to reach Earth—typically several days, depending on their speed. (Hence, statement 2 is correct)

Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.

Subject: Current Affairs | S&T

Level of Difficulty: Easy | Factual

Sources:

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/iia-astronomers-find-new-method-to-predict-amplitude-of-upcoming-solar-cycle/article68528868.ece#:~:text=In%20a%20recently%2Dpublished%20work,used%20in%20space%20weather%20forecasting.

Explanation:

Relevance: Fifty-seven casual employees of the Namdapha National Park and Tiger Reserve, India’s easternmost tiger reserve in Arunachal Pradesh, have been reinstated three months after their services were terminated.

• • Namdapha National Park was originally declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1972, becoming a national park in 1983, as well as a tiger reserve under India’s Project Tiger. 
  • Bordering Myanmar, most of the park is located in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh. 
  • Over half of Namdapha is covered in dense evergreen forest, a quarter with open forests and the rest is occupied by scrub forest, snow-covered mountains and grasslands. 
  • Within the park, there are a few tribal settlements, primarily of the Yobin (also called Lisu) people belonging to the Tibeto-Burman ethnic group that spans the borders of India, China and Myanmar, and who primarily depend on the park for their livelihoods. 
  • Namdapha is a meeting point of Himalayan, Indo-Burmese and Indo-Chinese flora and fauna.
  • Namdapha, named after a river meandering through it, is India’s easternmost tiger reserve and India’s third-largest national park.
  • Namdapha’s altitude ranges from a mere 200m in the plains to a lofty 4,570m (Daphabum peak) in the easternmost tip of the Himalayas, providing an impressive altitudinal range. 

• It is probably the only place in the world that has the tiger, leopard, clouded leopard and the snow leopard.

Therefore, option (d) is the correct answer.

Subject: Current Affairs | Environment

Level of Difficulty: Easy | Factual

Sources:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/arunachal-pradesh/arunachal-tiger-reserve-employees-reinstated/article68528528.ece#:~:text=Fifty%2Dseven%20casual%20employees%20of,however%2C%20came%20with%20some%20conditions.

Explanation:

Relevance: Turkiye has said it had agreed on a military cooperation pact with Iraq that will see joint training and command centres against Kurdish separatists, with Baghdad saying it will ban the PKK as a party.

• Between 25 and 35 million Kurds inhabit the Mesopotamian plains and the highlands straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia.
• They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group and linguistic minority in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.
• Today, they form a distinctive community, united through race, culture and language, even though they have no standard dialect. 
• They also adhere to a number of different religions and creeds, although the majority are Sunni Muslims. 

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

Subject: Current Affairs | Miscellaneous

Level of Difficulty: Easy | Factual

Sources:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/turkiye-iraq-agree-on-military-pact-against-kurd-separatists/article68531590.ece

Explanation:

Relevance: The President of Palau has accused China of “weaponising tourism” in a bid to get his Pacific nation to break ties with Taiwan.

• Palau is one of just 12 states worldwide that diplomatically recognise self-ruled Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. (Hence, option 1 is correct)
• Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru have all switched allegiance from Taiwan to China in recent years, and Palau President Surangel Whipps said China had put pressure on his tiny Pacific archipelago of 18,000 people to follow suit. (Hence, options 2, 3 and 4 are not correct)

Therefore, option (a) is the correct answer.

Subject: Current Affairs | International Relations

Level of Difficulty: Easy | Factual

Sources:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/china-urging-palau-to-break-ties-with-taiwan-president/article68529050.ece