UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 26th October 2021

Solution (c)

October is the month when the southwest monsoon entirely retreats from India and the northeast monsoon sets in, bringing rain over Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. 

Both low pressures as well as western disturbances are tangentially connected to the larger pattern of global warming.

The Bay of Bengal is historically the warmer ocean that seeds low pressures and cyclones that bring rain to India.

In recent years however, the Arabian Sea, too, has been warmer than normal, and leading to significant cyclonic activity. 

Overall elevated temperatures are also contributing to warmer waters in the Arctic Ocean and drawing colder air from the poles with greater intensity. This added to the increased moisture, thereby seeding more intense western disturbance activity over north India.

Article Link:

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-miscellaneous/tp-others/why-is-india-facing-bouts-of-extreme-weather/article37146113.ece

Solution (d)

New light on how insulin signaling affects tissue health

Insulin is a hormone secreted by the b cells of the pancreas. It is commonly associated with an ability to regulate glucose metabolism. However, later studies (from around 1949 until recently) have shown it plays a larger role and helps in growth and maintenance of tissues. Despite years of study, fundamental details as to how differential amounts of insulin impact cells are unknown.

An important mechanism in the cell is insulin signaling, which is a series of biochemical reactions that convey information about availability of insulin and the necessity to regulate the glucose in the blood. There are two main pathways for insulin signaling, named AKT and ERK, which together balance metabolism and growth. These specifically control storage of glucose in the liver and also stimulate glucose transport in skeletal muscle and fat. Abnormalities in insulin signaling thus impact health and survival itself of organisms and the study addresses an important piece of the puzzle.

Article Link:

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/new-light-on-how-insulin-signalling-affects-tissue-health/article37146177.ece

Solution (d)

The Centre has other powers to ensure that its laws are implemented. The Centre can issue directions to a state to implement the laws made by Parliament. If states do not comply with the directions, the Centre can move the court seeking a permanent injunction against the states to force them to comply with the law. Non-compliance of court orders can result in contempt of court, and the court usually hauls up the chief secretaries of the states responsible for implementing laws.

Is it unusual for states to challenge laws made by Parliament?

Under the Constitution, laws made by Parliament are presumed to be constitutional until a court holds otherwise. However, in India’s quasi-federal constitutional structure, inter-governmental disputes are not uncommon.

The framers of the Constitution expected such differences, and added the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court for their resolution. The quasi-federal structure envisaged in 1950 has consolidated into defined powers of the states.

Article Link:

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/bengal-cant-bar-cbi-centre-tells-sc/article37134440.ece

Solution (c)

In immunology, a memory B cell (MBC) is a type of B lymphocyte that forms part of the adaptive immune system.

The immunological advantage from hybrid immunity arises mostly from memory B cells. While the bulk of antibodies after infection or vaccination decline after a short while, the memory B cells, which evolve in the lymph nodes, get triggered on subsequent infection or vaccination. So when people who recovered from COVID-19 are re-exposed to the spike protein, the memory B cells are capable of churning out highly potent antibodies.

“Differences between the memory B cells triggered by infection and those triggered by vaccination — as well as the antibodies they make — might also underlie the heightened responses of hybrid immunity. Infection and vaccination expose the spike protein to the immune system in vastly different ways

Article Link:

https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-sci-tech-and-agri/more-studies-show-the-superiority-of-hybrid-immunity/article37146187.ece

Solution (b)

Curcumin is a bright yellow chemical produced by plants

Article Link:

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/bengaluru-institute-on-a-mission-to-improve-turmeric-cultivation-through-soil-less-agriculture/article35161619.ece?utm_source=agriculture&utm_medium=sticky_footer