Day-638 | Daily MCQs | UPSC Prelims | CURRENT AFFAIRS

Answer: D
Context: Five people in Gurugram suffered serious mouth injuries and vomiting after using a mouth freshener allegedly laced with dry ice at a Gurugram restaurant. Five fell ill, and the District Food Safety Officer issued a show-cause notice.
Explanation:
Statement 1 is incorrect: Dry ice is known colloquially as the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is commonly used for temporary refrigeration because CO₂ is not a liquid at normal atmospheric pressure and passes directly from the concrete to the gas state. Dry ice (solid CO2) has a temperature of approximately -78°C (-109.2°F). While the value of liquid nitrogen (N2) is colder, its temperature reaches around -196°C (-346°F).
Statement 2 is correct: Due to their extremely low temperatures, dry ice and liquid nitrogen are excellent cooling agents. They are used in various applications, such as food preservation, medical procedures, and scientific experiments. Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in liquid form at low temperatures. The boiling point of liquid nitrogen is approximately -196 degrees Celsius (-346°F). It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colourless, mobile liquid.
Therefore, statement I is incorrect, and Statement-II is correct.

Answer: A
Context: The atmosphere of tension has been created due to the decision of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to suspend sanctions against Niger and reduce sanctions on Mali and Guinea.
Explanation:
Statement 1 is correct: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was established on May 28, 1975 to promote economic trade, cooperation and self-reliance. It was established through the Treaty of Lagos.

Statement 2 is incorrect: A common currency of all countries included in The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is not the rand, but the CFA franc. Which brings a parallel economic development among all the countries on one platform.

Statement 3 is incorrect: The Sahel region, or Sahelian acacia savanna, is biogeographic in Africa. The semicircular region of western and north-central Africa extends from Senegal eastward to Sudan. It forms a transitional zone between the dry Sahara (desert) in the north and the humid Savanna belt in the south. The Sahel extends eastwards from the Atlantic Ocean to northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, the large bend of the Nazaré River in Mali, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), southern Nazaré, north-eastern Nigeria, south-central Chad and Sudan. ECOWAS member countries are not part of the Sahel region.
● The 15 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are Benin,Burkina Faso,Cabo Verde, Côte d’ivoire, The Gambia,Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Answer: D
Context: Recently, the World Meteorological Congress made a historic decision, approving a new Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Initiative to support urgent action to reduce heat-trapping gases that drive temperature increases.
● The new Global Greenhouse Gas Watch will fill critical information gaps and provide an integrated, operational framework that combines all space-based and surface-based observing systems, modelling, and data assimilation capabilities under one roof.
● The congressional resolution supporting the establishment of the Global Greenhouse Gas Watch received unanimous support from 193 members of the WMO. It “recognizes the growing societal importance of greenhouse gas monitoring in support of improving our scientific understanding of the Earth system and the urgent need to strengthen the scientific basis of mitigation actions taken by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)”) and the Paris Agreement.”
● It will build on WMO’s experience coordinating international cooperation in weather prediction, climate analysis, and long-standing greenhouse gas monitoring and research activities under the auspices of Global Atmosphere Watch and its Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System, established in 1989.
Hence, option (d) correct answer

Answer: B
Context: Sep 2023, the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) was successfully installed in space. It will be used to observe and study the velocity and chemical composition of high-temperature plasma in space, stars, galaxies, and how clusters of galaxies formed. These details were not available before the opening of a new frontier in space science.
Explanation:
Statement 1 is incorrect: The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is a joint mission of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), involving contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency as well.
Statement 2 is correct: The mission aims to observe X-rays coming from deep space and to identify their wavelengths with unprecedented precision.
● It will use state-of-the-art spectroscopy to measure changes in the brightness of celestial objects at different wavelengths.

Answer: C
Context: Recently, this news has discussed the reasons for resolving the decades-old border dispute between the two states.
● The Namsai announcement, a significant step in resolving the long-standing border dispute between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, has attracted attention for its potential to bring much-needed peace and clarity to the region. The declaration, signed by the Chief Ministers of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, aims to defuse the tension arising out of the inter-state border dispute affecting 123 villages.

Hence option (c) is the correct answer.