Daily Current Affairs MCQs for UPSC IAS Prelims - 17 Mar 2023

Welcome to the RAYACADEMY Daily Current Affairs MCQs! Our focus is to provide you with engaging and informative questions that primarily revolve around current affairs, derived from reliable sources such as 'The Hindu', 'Indian Express', and 'PIB'. Our MCQs test your understanding of factual and conceptual knowledge, which is essential for cracking the UPSC IAS and State PCS prelim exams.

Below are some of Today's Current Affairs MCQs. We hope you make the most of this initiative and wish you all the best in your preparation.

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Q1.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022?

1)Notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

2)Every manufacturer and producer of solar photovoltaic modules, panels, or cells must ensure registration on the portal.

3)The recycler of solar photovoltaic modules or panels or cells is mandated to recover material as per the guidelines laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board.

A) 1 & 2 only

B) 2 & 3 only

C) 1 & 3 only

D) All of the above

Answer: D

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, on 2nd November 2022.

Statement 2 is correct. Every manufacturer and producer of solar photovoltaic modules or panels or cells must ensure registration on the portal and store solar photo-voltaic modules or panels, or cells waste generated up to the year 2034-2035 as per the guidelines laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board, file annual returns in the laid down form on the portal, ensure that the inventory of solar photovoltaic modules or panels or cells shall be put in place distinctly on the portal, and comply with standard operating procedure and guidelines laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board in this regard.

Statement 4 is correct. The recycler of solar photovoltaic modules or panels or cells is mandated to recover material as per the guidelines laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board.

Q2.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Zoji La Pass?

1)Zoji La Pass is a high mountain pass in the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh.

2)It connects the Siachen glacier and Leh.

3)The pass remains open throughout the year, even during heavy snowfall.

4)It has been strategically important for military and civilian purposes.

A) 1, 2 and 3 only

B) 2, 3 and 4 only

C) 1, 3 and 4 only

D) All of the above

Answer: C

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct. Zoji La Pass is a high mountain pass located in the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh, connecting it with the Kashmir Valley.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Zoji La Pass connects Srinagar with Leh, not Siachen glacier and Leh.

Statement 3 is correct. The pass remains open throughout the year, even during heavy snowfall, due to the Border Roads Organisation's (BRO) efforts.

Statement 4 is correct. The Zoji La Pass has been strategically important for both military and civilian purposes. It has been used as a key trade route between India and China and also as a vital link for the Indian military to supply provisions to the Siachen Glacier. The pass has been the site of many battles, including the 1948 Indo-Pak War.

Q3.Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)?

1)SCO was formulated in 1996 with four countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

2)The primary motive behind the formation of SCO was to ensure stability along the borders.

3) India has been an observer of SCO meetings since 2005.

A) 1 and 2 only

B) 2 and 3 only

C) 1 and 3 only

D) All of the above

Answer: B

Explanation:

Statement 1 is incorrect as there were five founding members of SCO in 1996, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, China, and Tajikistan.

Statement 2 is correct. The primary motive behind the formation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was to ensure border stability and promote regional security and economic cooperation.

Statement 3 is correct. India and Pakistan have been observers of SCO meetings since 2005.

Q4.Which of the following is true about the Current Account Deficit (CAD)?

A) CAD occurs when a country exports more goods than it imports.

B) CAD occurs when a country has a surplus on the trading account and a deficit on the invisible account.

C) CAD occurs when a country has a deficit on the trading account and a smaller surplus on the invisible account.

D) CAD occurs when a country's demand for foreign currency is less than that of its own currency.

Answer: C)

Explanation: Current Account Deficit (CAD) occurs when a country imports more goods and services than it exports, resulting in a deficit in the trading account. However, a country may also have a surplus on the invisible account (which includes services like software exports, remittances from citizens abroad, etc.). The net effect of the surplus on the invisible account and the deficit on the trading account is called the current account balance.

Q5. What is GPT-4, the recently announced model by OpenAI, capable of?

A) Accepting only textual input and output like its predecessors, GPT-3 and GPT-3.5.

B) Accepting images as input and operating only in one modality, text.

C) It is a multimodal model that accepts images as input and can process much more information than its predecessors.

D) Having the same capacity as GPT-3 and ChatGPT's GPT-3.5 to handle 4,096 tokens.

Answer: C

Explanation: GPT-4 is a large multimodal model announced by OpenAI on March 14, 2023, and it can accept images as input, which is a significant change from its predecessors, GPT-3 and GPT-3.5, which only operated in the text modality. GPT-4 can understand more than one modality of information and can be fed images and asked to output information accordingly. Moreover, GPT-4 can process 32,768 tokens or around 64,000 words, which is much higher than the capacity of GPT-3 and ChatGPT's GPT-3.5 to handle only 4,096 tokens or around 8,000 words.