UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 15th March 2021

Solution (c)

Explanation:

About DigiLocker

• DigiLocker is a flagship initiative of Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) under Digital India Corporation (DIC). 
• DigiLocker aims at ‘Digital Empowerment’ of citizen by providing access to authentic digital documents to citizen’s digital document wallet. 
• DigiLocker provides an account in cloud to every Aadhaar holder to access authentic documents/certificates such as driving license, vehicle registration, academic mark sheet in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates. 

• It also provides 1GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents. (Hence, Statement c is incorrect)

• The issued documents in DigiLocker system are deemed to be at par with original physical documents as per Rule 9A of the Information Technology Rules, 2016 and IT Act, 2000.
• Users need to possess an Aadhar number to use DigiLocker. For sign-up, the Aadhar number and the one-time password sent to the Aadhar-registered mobile number, need to be entered

Benefits of DigiLocker

Benefits to Citizens

• Important Documents Anytime, Anywhere!
• Authentic Documents, Legally at Par with Originals.
• Digital Document Exchange with the consent of the citizen.
• Faster service Delivery- Government Benefits, Employment, Financial Inclusion, Education, Health.

Benefits to Agencies

• Reduced Administrative Overhead: Aimed at the concept of paperless governance. It reduces the administrative overhead by minimizing the use of paper and curtailing the verification process.
• Digital Transformation: Provides trusted issued documents. Issued Documents available via DigiLocker are fetched in real-time directly from the issuing agency.
• Secure Document Gateway: Acts as a secure document exchange platform like payment gateway between trusted issuer and trusted Requester/Verifier with the consent of the citizen.

• Real Time Verification: Provides a verification module enabling government agencies to verify data directly from issuers after obtaining user consent 

Article reference: Union Education Minister announces linking of OTPRMS certificates with DigiLocker with complete waiver of registration fees

Solution (a)

Explanation:  Insects are one of the largest pollinator species. As insects are type of biotic method, so they are not part of abiotic method of pollination.

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from a male part of a plant to a female part of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents are animals such as insects, birds, and bats; water; wind; and even plants themselves, when self-pollination occurs within a closed flower. Pollination often occurs within a species. When pollination occurs between species it can produce hybrid offspring in nature and in plant breeding work.

Pollination may be biotic or abiotic. Biotic pollination relies on living pollinators to move the pollen from one flower to another. Abiotic pollination relies on wind, water or even rain. About 80% of angiosperms rely on biotic pollination.

Abiotic Method

Abiotic pollination uses non-living methods such as wind and water to move pollen from one flower to another. This allows the plant to spend energy directly on pollen rather than on attracting pollinators with flowers and nectar.

• By wind – Some 98% of abiotic pollination is anemophily, pollination by wind. 
• By water – Pollination by water, hydrophily, uses water to transport pollen, sometimes as whole anthers; these can travel across the surface of the water to carry dry pollen from one flower to another
• By rain – Rain pollination is used by a small percentage of plants. Heavy rain discourages insect pollination and damages unprotected flowers, but can itself disperse pollen of suitably adapted plants, such as Ranunculus flammula, Narthecium ossifragum, and Caltha palustris

Biotic Method

More commonly, pollination involves pollinators (also called pollen vectors): organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther of one flower to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil (stigma) of another. Between 100,000 and 200,000 species of animal act as pollinators of the world’s 250,000 species of flowering plant. The majority of these pollinators are insects, but about 1,500 species of birds and mammals visit flowers and may transfer pollen between them. Besides birds and bats which are the most frequent visitors, these include monkeys, lemurs, squirrels, rodents and possums

Article reference: Ants a threat to crop pollination, says study

Solution (c)

Explanation: 

About Sounding Rockets

• Sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research. (Hence, Statement 1 is incorrect)
• They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.
• The launch of the first sounding rocket from Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 21 November 1963, marked the beginning of the Indian Space Programme. 
• Sounding rockets made it possible to probe the atmosphere in situ using rocket-borne instrumentation. 
• The first rockets were two-stage rockets imported from Russia (M-100) and France (Centaure). 
• ISRO started launching indigenously made sounding rockets from 1965 and experience gained was of immense value in the mastering of solid propellant technology. 
• In 1975, all sounding rocket activities were consolidated under the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Programme. 
• RH-75, with a diameter of 75mm was the first truly Indian sounding rocket, which was followed by RH-100 and RH-125 rockets.  
• The sounding rocket programme was the bedrock on which the edifice of launch vehicle technology in ISRO could be built. 
• It is possible to conduct coordinated campaigns by simultaneously launching sounding rockets from different locations. 
• It is also possible to launch several sounding rockets in a single day.

Article Link: ISRO launches sounding rocket to study attitudinal variations in neutral winds, plasma dynamics

Solution (a)

Explanation:

Shola forests of the Nilgiris 

• The Shola forests of South India derive their name from the Tamil word solai, which means a ‘tropical rain forest’.
• Classified as ‘Southern Montane Wet Temperate Forest’ by experts Harry George Champion and SK Seth, the Sholas are found in the upper reaches of the Nilgiris, Anamalais, Palni hills, Kalakadu, Mundanthurai and Kanyakumari in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. (So, statement 1 is incorrect)
• These forests are found sheltered in valleys with sufficient moisture and proper drainage, at an altitude of more than 1,500 metres. The upper reaches are covered with grasslands, known as Shola grasslands.
• The vegetation that grows in Shola forests is evergreen. The trees are stunted and have many branches. Their rounded and dense canopies appear in different colours.
• Generally, the leaves are small in size and leathery. Red-coloured young leaves turning into different colours on maturity is a prominent characteristic of the Shola forests. Epiphytes like lichens, ferns and bryophytes usually grow on the trees.
• The Sholas of the plateau are not of any great importance from a commercial point of view, as the trees are slow-growing varieties which produce timber of little or no value.
• They add greatly to the beauty of the country and are of immense use in protecting source of water supply.
• Unfortunately, the Sholas have begun to gradually shrink due to the introduction of alien plant species and annual fire occurrences. 
• Alien species like Sticky Snakeroot, Gorse and Scotch Broom, Acacia, Eucalyptus, Pine and Cypress introduced during British rule, have encroached upon the grasslands

Article link: Adivasi farmers threaten existence of Wenlock Downs, one of the last remaining grasslands in the Nilgiris

Solution (c)

Explanation 

Mobile Integrated Network Terminal (MINT) 

• Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN) was launched as a regional connectivity scheme under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 2016.
• It is an innovative scheme to develop the regional aviation market.
• The objective of scheme is to create affordable yet economically viable and profitable flights on regional routes so that flying becomes affordable to the common man even in small towns.
• Under First phase, 5 airlines companies were awarded 128 flight routes to 70 airports (including 36 newly made operational airports)
• In phase two, for the first time helipads were connected to the scheme.
• In phase three, inclusion of tourism route and seaplane were unique features.
• Till now only tier 2 and tier 3 cities are in focus. In near future, expansion of this scheme can be expected. (Hence, Statement c is not correct)

Article link: More Routes proposed Under UDAN 4.1