[Mission 2023] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 10 May 2023

Solution: c)

The history of smallpox holds a special place in the field of epidemiology. One of the deadliest diseases known to mankind, it is also the only one to have been eradicated by vaccination. However, the origins of smallpox have always been unclear. Until now, the earliest confirmed case of the disease was found in the mummified remains of a 17th-century Lithuanian child, even though written records suggest that it is much older. A new study carried out by an international team of researchers provides fresh insight into the origins of the disease caused by the Variola virus (VARV), suggesting that the smallpox was in existence as early as during the Viking age in the 8th century CE.

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Solution: a)

LIGO is an international network of laboratories that detect the ripples in spacetime produced by the movement of large celestial objects like stars and planets. These ripples were first postulated in Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that encapsulates our current understanding of how gravitation works.

LIGO-India will be located in Hingoli district of Maharashtra, about 450 km east of Mumbai, and is scheduled to begin scientific runs from 2030.

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Solution: d)

Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument, a new NASA device that can track air pollution over North America.

The Tropospheric Emissions Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO) instrument will allow scientists to monitor air pollutants and their emission sources from space more comprehensively than ever before, down to the neighborhood level.

A unique feature of TEMPO, which is about the size of a washing machine and has been described as a chemistry laboratory in space, is that it will be hosted on an Intelsat communications satellite in geostationary orbit.

Existing pollution-monitoring satellites are in low Earth orbit, which means they can only provide observations once a day at a fixed time.

TEMPO will be able to measure atmospheric pollution down to a spatial resolution of 4 square miles (10 square kilometers), or neighborhood level.

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Solution: c)

Biofuels are liquid or gaseous fuels primarily produced from biomass, and can be used to replace or can be used in addition to diesel, petrol or other fossil fuels for transport, stationary, portable and other applications. Crops used to make biofuels are generally either high in sugar (such as sugarcane, sugarbeet, and sweet sorghum), starch (such as maize and tapioca) or oils (such as soybean, rapeseed, coconut, sunflower).

Biofuels are generally classified into three categories. They are

• First generation biofuels – First-generation biofuels are made from sugar, starch, vegetable oil, or animal fats using conventional technology. Common first-generation biofuels include Bioalcohols, Biodiesel, Vegetable oil, Bioethers, Biogas.
• Second generation biofuels – These are produced from non-food crops, such as cellulosic biofuels and waste biomass (stalks of wheat and corn, and wood). Examples include advanced biofuels like biohydrogen, biomethanol.
• Third generation biofuels – These are produced from micro-organisms like algae.

Solution: d)

Government implements the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for procurement of agricultural and horticultural commodities which are perishable in nature and are not covered under the Price Support Scheme (PSS).

The objective of intervention is to protect the growers of these commodities from making distress sale in the event of a bumper crop during the peak arrival period when the prices tend to fall below economic levels and cost of production. The condition is that there should be either at least a 10 percent increase in production or a 10 percent decrease in the ruling market prices over the previous normal year.

The scheme is implemented at the request of a State/UT government which is ready to bear 50 percent of the loss (25 percent in case of North-Eastern States), if any, incurred on its implementation.