DAILY

 CURRENT AFFAIRS

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Current Affairs MCQs for Practice – 24 Feb 2022

Question-1

Which company is building an AI Supercomputer, the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC)?

a)     Atos

b)     Microsoft

c)      Meta

d)     IBM

Ans- c

Explanation-

Meta announced in January last week that it is building an AI supercomputer, the AI Research SuperCluster (RSC).

Question-2

Which country has been the biggest trading partner of Russia for 12 consecutive years now?

a)     The UK

b)     China

c)      Germany

d)     India

Ans- b

Explanation-

China has been Russia’s biggest trading partner for 12 consecutive years and accounts for close to 20% of Russia’s total foreign trade.

Question-3

Which two breakaway regions in Ukraine are set to be identified as independent by Russia?

a)     Chernihiv and Kohlm

b)     Donetsk and Luhansk

c)      Odessa and Sumy

d)     Kiev and Polisia

Ans- b

Explanation-

The Narcotics Control Bureau is organising “Darkathon-2022” to find solutions to counter drug trafficking on the darknet.

Question-4

YouTube account of which Indian television channel was targeted by hackers with the name of the channel changed to Ethereum?

a)     Sansad TV

b)     DD National

c)      DD News

d)     Janta TV

Ans- B

Explanation-

Russian President Vladimir Putin will recognise the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine — Donetsk and Luhansk — as independent, the Kremlin said in a statement on Monday.

Question-5

The 19,200 Rkm (route kilometres) SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium will connect which two countries?

a)     UAE and South Africa

b)     UK and Mexico

c)      India and Australia

d)     Singapore and France

Ans- d

Explanation-

The 19,200 Rkm (route kilometres) SEA-ME-WE-6 will connect Singapore and France. Bharti has acquired one fibre pair on the main SEA-ME-WE-6 system and will co-build four fiber pairs between Singapore – Chennai – Mumbai.Bharti will land the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system in Mumbai and Chennai.

Question-6

Which COVID vaccine produced by Biological E has been given Emergency Use Authorisation for the 12-18 age group by the DCGI?

a)     Corbevax

b)     Novavax

c)      Covivax

d)     Sputnik Light

Ans- a

Explanation-

The Drugs Controller General of India ( DCGI)) has given emergency use authorisation (EUA) to vaccine maker Biological E’s COVID-19 vaccine “Corbevax” for the 12- 18 age group.

Question-7

Which draft, prepared by the University Grants Commission, has proposed overhauling changes to the higher education structure, distinctly deviating from the ‘10 +2 + 3’ pattern of education?

a)    Draft National Education Structure Framework

b)    Draft National Secondary Education Qualifications Framework

c)    Draft National Higher Secondary Guidelines, 2022

d)    Draft National Higher Education Qualifications Framework

Ans- d

Explanation-

With the deadline for submitting feedback to the University Grants Commission’s Draft National Higher Education Qualifications Framework (NHEQF) ending on Monday, academic stakeholders in Tamil Nadu are clueless about the DMK government’s position on the crucial policy document.

Question-8

Who is France’s foreign minister, pictured here with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar?

a)    Muriel Penicaud

b)    Jean-Yves Le Drian

c)    Florence Parly

d)    Bruno Le Maire

Ans- b

Explanation-

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held wide-ranging and productive talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian here during which they discussed key regional and global issues, particularly the India-EU relationship, and exchanged perspectives on the situation in Afghanistan, Iranian nuclear deal and the Ukraine crisis.

Question-9

Since 2014, Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe had signed two ceasefire agreements, which also included terms of prisoner exchanges and withdrawal of heavy weapons. These agreements were named after which capital city?

a)     Tashkent

b)     Minsk

c)      Bern

d)     Tallinn

Ans- b

Explanation-

There are two Minsk agreements, Minsk 1 and Minsk 2, named after the Belarussian capital Minsk where the talks were held. Minsk 1 was written in September 2014 by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, i.e. Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) with mediation by France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format.

Question-10

Consider the following statements regarding the Blue Blob:

1.   It is a cold patch located in the continent of Antarctica, close to the south pole.

2.   The presence of the blue-green algae makes the ice shelves turn blue in color.

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

Ans : d

Explanation-

Blue blob

• The Blue Blob is a cold patch located south of Iceland and Greenland and little is known about it.
• A recent study theorizes that it may have helped temporarily stall the melting of Arctic sea ice.
• The cold patch was most prominent during the winter of 2014-2015 when the sea surface temperature was about 1.4 degrees Celsius colder than normal.
• The Arctic region is reportedly warming four times faster than the global average.
• The researchers found that cooler waters near the Blue Blob were linked to observations of lower air temperatures over Iceland’s glaciers and coincided with a slowing of glacial melting since 2011.
• Other scientists have proposed that the Blue Blob is part of the normal sea surface temperature variability in the Arctic.

Warming Hole

• Before the Blue Blob, a long-term cooling trend in the same region, called the Atlantic Warming Hole, reduced sea surface temperatures by about 0.4 to 0.8 degrees Celsius during the last century and may continue to cool the region in the future.
• A possible explanation for the Warming Hole is that climate change has slowed the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, an ocean current that brings warm water up from the tropics to the Arctic, thus reducing the amount of heat delivered to the region.

Source: The Hindu / The Indian Express/ TOI/ HT/PIB