[Mission 2023] Current Affairs Quiz , 2 February 2023

Solution: b)

A chargesheet, as defined under Section 173 CrPC, is the final report prepared by a police officer or investigative agencies after completing their investigation of a case.

After preparing the chargesheet, the officer-in-charge of the police station forwards it to a Magistrate, who is empowered to take notice of the offences mentioned in it.

A chargesheet must be filed against the accused within a prescribed period of 60-90 days, otherwise the arrest is illegal and the accused is entitled to bail.

The term ‘chargesheet’ has been expressly defined under Section 173 of the CrPC but ‘First Information Report’ or FIR, has not been defined in either the Indian Penal Code (IPC) or the CrPC. Instead, it finds a place under the police regulations/ rules under Section 154 of CrPC, which deals with ‘Information in Cognizable Cases’.

While the chargesheet is the final report filed towards the end of an investigation, an FIR is filed at the ‘first’ instance’ that the police is informed of a cognizable offense or offence for which one can be arrested without a warrant; such as rape, murder, kidnapping.

Source

Solution: c)

Since last September, countries like the UK and the US have rolled out variant-specific or bivalent boosters, in the hope that they would provide better protection against the coronavirus infection in comparison to the original vaccine. However, a slew of recent studies has shown that a phenomenon in our bodies, called immune imprinting, might be making these new boosters far less effective than expected.

What is immune imprinting?

Immune imprinting is a tendency of the body to repeat its immune response based on the first variant it encountered — through infection or vaccination — when it comes across a newer or slightly different variant of the same pathogen.

The phenomenon was first observed in 1947, when scientists noted that “people who had previously had flu, and were then vaccinated against the current circulating strain, produced antibodies against the first strain they had encountered”, according to a report published in the journal Nature. At the time, it was termed the ‘original antigenic sin’ but today, it’s commonly known as imprinting.

Over the years, scientists have realised that imprinting acts as a database for the immune system, helping it put up a better response to repeat infections. After our body is exposed to a virus for the first time, it produces memory B cells that circulate in the bloodstream and quickly produce antibodies whenever the same strain of the virus infects again.

The problem occurs when a similar, not identical, variant of the virus is encountered by the body. In such cases, the immune system, rather than generating new B cells, activates memory B cells, which in turn produce “antibodies that bind to features found in both the old and new strains, known as cross-reactive antibodies”, the Nature report said.

Although these cross-reactive antibodies do offer some protection against the new strain, they aren’t as effective as the ones produced by the B cells when the body first came across the original virus.

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Solution: b)

Bagasse is another by-product of the sugar production process. It is a dry and pulpy residue left behind when sugarcane stalks are crushed. There is a similar material called ‘agave bagasse’ made from the agave plant. Bagasse is principally used in the manufacturing process of paper, pulp and building materials as well as a biofuel for the production of energy, heat and electricity.

Typically, dried bagasse is chemically made up of:

45-55% Cellulose

20-25% Hemicellulose

18-24% Lignin

1-4% Ash

<1% Waxes

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Solution: c)

BharatNet:

• BharatNet Project was originally launched in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and renamed as Bharat-Net in 2015.
• It seeks to provide connectivity to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) through optical fibre.
• It is a flagship mission implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd. (BBNL).
• The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.

Implementation:

• The project is a Centre-State collaborative project, with the States contributing free Rights of Way for establishing the Optical Fibre Network.
• The project is being funded by Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF),which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.

Solution: c)

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, allows a country with an emission-reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Party) to implement an emission-reduction project in developing countries. Such projects can earn saleable certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting Kyoto targets.

It is the first global, environmental investment and credit scheme of its kind, providing a standardized emission offset instrument, CERs.

A CDM project activity might involve, for example, a rural electrification project using solar panels or the installation of more energy-efficient boilers.

The projects registered by India under the CDM is not the highest in the world.