Day-642 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS

Answer: A
Context- Vaccination of girls aged 9-14 is envisaged as the Government of India’s measure to fight against cervical cancer, a growing health concern for women in the country. An editorial on Women’s Day appeared in the Hindu in this regard and talked about the 90-70-90 targets given by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Explanation: The WHO’s Global Strategy for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer a Public Health Problem provides a roadmap, through the following 90-70-90 targets for 2030:
● 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by age 15
● 70% of women are screened with a high-performance test by 35 and 45 years of age
● 90% of women identified with cervical disease receive treatment (90% of women with pre-cancer treated; 90% of women with invasive cancer managed).
WHO defines cervical cancer elimination as reducing the number of cervical cancer cases in each country to 4 per 100,000 women or lower.
● Cervical cancer kills more than 300,000 women every year.
● Cervical cancer is caused by persistent infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Women living with HIV are 6 times more likely to develop cervical cancer compared to women without HIV.
● Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection which can affect the skin, genital area and throat.
● Prophylactic vaccination against HPV and screening and treatment of pre-cancer lesions are effective strategies to prevent cervical cancer and are very cost-effective.
● Cervical cancer can be cured if diagnosed at an early stage and treated promptly.

Answer: D
Context: Recently, a 50-year-old woman was allegedly put under ”digital arrest”, and was duped of ₹11.11 lakh by fraudsters claiming to be from law enforcement agencies.
Explanation:
● ”Digital arrest’’ is a type of cybercrime where fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officials and deceive their targets into believing that their identity documents such as Aadhaar card or SIM card or debit card or bank account have been used for criminal activities.
● The cyber frauds make the victim believe that they will be arrested soon, if they do not agree to be interrogated over video call.
Additional information:
● Cybercrime can be defined as “The illegal usage of any communication device to commit or facilitate in committing any illegal act”.
● A cybercrime is explained as a type of crime that targets or uses a computer or a group of computers under one network for the purpose of harm.
● Cybercrimes are committed using computers and computer networks. They can be targeting individuals, business groups, or even governments.
● Investigators tend to use various ways to investigate devices suspected to be used or to be a target of a cybercrime.
● Cybercriminals take advantage of security holes and vulnerabilities found in systems and exploit them in order to take a foothold inside the targeted environment.
● The security holes can be a form of using weak authentication methods and passwords, it can also happen for the lack of strict security models and policies.

Answer. C
Explanation:
● The Global Cooling Watch report 2023 with theme “Keeping it Chill: How to meet cooling demands while cutting emissions” has been published by the UN Environment Programme-led Cool Coalition.
● It lays out sustainable cooling measures in three areas: passive cooling, higher-energy efficiency standards, and a faster phase down of climate-warming refrigerants.
● The report is released in support of the Global Cooling Pledge, a joint initiative between the United Arab Emirates as host of COP28 and the Cool Coalition.

Answer: C
Explanation:
Context: Kerala HC seeks to explore carrying capacity of hill stations.
What is the Ecological Footprint?
● The Ecological Footprint is a resource accounting tool that measures how much biologically productive land and sea is used by a given population or activity and compares this to how much land and sea is available.
● Productive land and sea areas support human demands for food, fibre, timber, energy, and space for infrastructure.
● These areas also absorb the waste products from the human economy. The Ecological Footprint measures the sum of these areas, wherever they physically occur on the planet.
How is Ecological Footprint different from carrying capacity?
Carrying capacity:
● Carrying capacity is a technical term that refers to the maximum population of a species that a given land or marine area could support. Many species have easily defined and consistent consumption needs, making carrying capacity relatively easy to define and calculate.
● For humans, however, carrying capacity estimates require assumptions about future per-person resource consumption, standards of living and “wants” (as distinct from “needs”), productivity of the biosphere, and advances in technology.
● An area’s carrying capacity for humans is thus inherently speculative, and difficult to define.
Ecological Footprint:
● Ecological Footprint accounts approach the carrying capacity question from a different angle. Ecological Footprints are not speculative estimates about a potential state, but rather are an accounting of the past.
● Instead of asking how many people could be supported on the planet, the Ecological Footprint asks the question in reverse and considers only present and past years. The Footprint asks how many planets were actually necessary to support all of the people that lived on the planet in a given year, under that year’s standard of living, biological production, and technology.
● This is a scientific research and accounting question that can be answered through the analysis of documented, historical data sets.

Answer: B
Explanation:
Statement 1 is incorrect: India has signed a free trade agreement, called the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement, with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which is a bloc of four nations — Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
Statement 2 is correct: The deal includes a binding $100-billion investment commitment into India. It is for the first time that a legal commitment is being made about promoting target-oriented investment and creation of jobs. The investment would be made in the timeframe of 15 years.
Statement 3 is correct: Sectors such as dairy, soya, coal and sensitive agricultural products have been kept on the exclusion list and there will not be any duty concessions on these goods.