Daily Current Affairs MCQ- December 3, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is helping the people working in the waste segregation industry in India to move into formal economy, by helping them access government welfare programmes. 

• As part of the initiative, the UNDP will distribute the `Jan Dhan’ account kits to waste segregation workers.
• The opening of the `Jan Dhan’ accounts has been facilitated through the UNDP’s plastic waste management programme.
• The waste management promotes the collection, segregation, and recycling of all plastics to move towards a circular economy for the same.
• This is done at ‘Swachhta Kendra’ or material recovery facilities.
• The plastic collected and processed so far has already crossed 1,38,000 metric tonnes.
• The programme also ensures the well-being and financial inclusion of the `Safai Sathis’ or waste-pickers, by linking them to the social protection schemes.
• According to the UN agency, a key objective of the programme is to help move the sector from informal to formal.
• This is done by linking them to social protection schemes like the `Jan Dhan’ accounts, Aadhar cards, `Ayushman Bharat’, pension schemes, and scholarships for children, among others.

Hence both statements are correct.

In a major boost to further strengthening the Coast Guard Region East, 840 Sqn (CG), an Indian Coast Guard Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Mk-III squadron, was commissioned at ICG Air Station, Chennai on November 30, 2022.

• The ALH MK III helicopters have been indigenously manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
• They feature state-of-the-art equipment including advanced RADAR as well as Electro optical sensors, Shakti engines, full glass cockpit, high-intensity searchlight, advanced communication systems, automatic identification system as well as search-and-rescue homer.
• The features enable them to undertake maritime reconnaissance as well as carry out SAR at extended ranges even while operating from ships during both day and night.
• The aircraft has the ability to switch roles from an offensive platform with a heavy machine gun to that of a benign one carrying a Medical Intensive Care Unit to facilitate the transfer of critically ill patients.
• A total of 16 ALH Mk-III aircraft have been inducted into the Indian Coast Guard in a phased manner and four of these aircraft are positioned in Chennai.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Recently, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released India’s economic growth data for the second quarter of the current financial year (2022-23 or FY23).

• The second quarter or Q2 refers to the months of July, August and September.
• India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 6.3 per cent in Q2 on a year-on-year basis.
• In other words, it was 6.3% more than the GDP in the same months in 2021.
• MoSPI also reported that India’s Gross Value Added (GVA) in Q2 grew by. 5.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

GDP and GVA:

• GDP and GVA are the two main ways to ascertain the country’s economic performance.
• Both are measures of national income.
• The GDP measures the monetary measure of all “final” goods and services— those that are bought by the final user— produced in a country in a given period.
• The GDP does this by adding up the total expenditures in the economy; in other words, it looks at who spent how much.
• That is why GDP captures the total “demand” in the economy.

There are four key “engines of GDP growth”. These are:

• All the money Indians spent for their private consumption (that is, Private Final Consumption Expenditure or PFCE)
• All the money the government spent on its current consumption, such as salaries [Government Final Consumption Expenditure or GFCE]
• All the money spent towards investments to boost the productive capacity of the economy. This includes business firms investing in factories or the governments building roads and bridges [Gross Fixed Capital Expenditure]
• The net effect of exports (what foreigners spent on our goods) and imports (what Indians spent on foreign goods) [Net Exports or NX].

GVA:

• The GVA calculates the same national income from the supply side.
• It does so by adding up all the value added across different sectors.
• According to the RBI, the GVA of a sector is defined as the value of output minus the value of its intermediary inputs.
• This “value added” is shared among the primary factors of production, labour and capital.
• The GDP and GVA are related by the following equation:
  • GDP = (GVA) + (Taxes earned by the government) — (Subsidies provided by the government).

Hence both statements are correct.

In Nagaland, the 10-day long Hornbill Festival 2022 will begin on December 1, at Naga heritage village Kisama.

• The first festival was held in 2000.
• Venue: It is held at Naga Heritage Village, Kisama which is about 12 km from Kohima in Nagaland.
• Organizers: It is organized by the State Tourism and Art & Culture Departments of the Government of Nagaland.
• Objective: To encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote cultural heritage of Nagaland.

Key highlights of festival:

• Festival highlights include the traditional Naga Morungs exhibition and the sale of arts and crafts, food stalls, song and dance shows, indigenous games etc.
• One of the major highlights of this festival is the Hornbill International Rock Festival where local and international rock bands perform.

Nomenclature:

• The festival is named after the bird “Indian hornbill”, which is displayed in the folklore of most of the state's tribes.
• There are 9 hornbill species in India of which Great Hornbill is the most famous.
• It is also called the 'Festival of Festivals'.

Great Hornbill:

• Scientific name: Buceros bicornis.
• Common name: Great Indian hornbill or great pied hornbill.

Range:

• It is found in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
• The bulk of the population is found in India, where it is restricted to the Himalayan foothills, hill forests in northeast India and, disjunctly, the wet evergreen forests of west India.

Conservation:

• IUCN Status: Near Threatened.
• It is listed in Appendix I of CITES.

Importance:

• Its impressive size and colour have made it important in many tribal cultures and rituals.
• The great hornbill is the state bird of Kerala and Arunachal in India.
• It is not a state bird of Nagaland, although the hornbill festival is celebrated in Nagaland. Nagaland’s state bird is: Blyth's tragopan.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Manthan platform won NSEIT the Best Tech Initiative of the Year at the Dun & Bradstreet Business Excellence Awards 2022.

• The award was presented for building the technology infrastructure to support Manthan.
• Manthan is a platform that promotes collaboration at scale between industry and the scientific research and development ecosystem.
• The development of the platform was conceptualized and implemented by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India.
• It is aimed at promoting collaboration between industry and the scientific research and development ecosystem.
• It was launched on India’s 76th Independence Day.
• Manthan empowers multiple stakeholders to collaborate for co-creating solutions aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and our national scientific missions.

NSEIT:

• NSEIT Limited is a global technology enterprise focused on delivering excellence in a complex digital environment, primarily in the banking, insurance, and capital market ecosystem.
• It is a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India.
• Their key service pillars are Application Modernization, Business Transformation, Data Analytics, Infrastructure & Cloud Services, Cybersecurity, EdTech, and online examinations solutions.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

National Anti-Doping Agency will host an Inclusion Conclave to sharpen the focus on anti-doping education and processes for athletes with disabilities.

• NADA was established by the Government of India, with the objective of acting as the independent Anti-Doping Organization for India having a vision of dope-free sports.
• It was set up as a registered society under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 on November 2005.
• The primary functions of NADA are as under:
  • To implement the Anti-Doping Code to achieve compliance by all sports organizations in the Country.
  • To coordinate dope testing program through all participating stakeholders.
  • To promote anti-doping research and education to inculcate the value of dope free sports.
  • To adopt best practice standards and quality systems to enable effective implementation and continual improvement of the program.

Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE)

• Athletes may have illnesses or conditions that require them to take medications or undergo procedures. If the medication or method is prohibited as per the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Prohibited List, a TUE may give that athlete the authorization to use that substance or method while competing without invoking an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) and applicable sanction.
• Applications for TUEs are evaluated by a panel of physicians the TUE Committee (TUEC). NADO TUEs are only valid for national-level Competition and Out-of-Competition Testing.

The World Anti-Doping Agency

• The World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against drugs in sports.
• The agency's key activities include monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport.
• Headquarters: Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• Established in: 1999.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, CARA organised 10 State Orientation Programmes, and Interactive meets with more than 700 Prospective Adoptive Parents and Adoptive Parents.

• What is it? CARA is a statutory body of Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India.
• Role: CARA is designated as the Central Authority to deal with inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993, ratified by Government of India in 2003.
• Function: CARA primarily deals with adoption of orphan, abandoned and surrendered children through its associated /recognised adoption agencies.
• In India, a child can be placed with a family under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act 1956, Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 and Juvenile Justice Act, 2000.
  • The mandatory registration of Child Care Institutions (CCIs) and linking to CARA has been provided in Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Delhi High Court recently passed an interim order to prevent the unlawful use of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan’s name, image and voice. The court, through its order, restrained persons at large from infringing the personality rights of the actor.

• Personality rights refer to the right of a person to protect his/her personality under the right to privacy or property.
• These rights are important to celebrities as their names, photographs or even voices can easily be misused in various advertisements by different companies to boost their sales.
• Therefore, it is necessary for renowned personalities/celebrities to register their names to save their personality rights.
• A large list of unique personal attributes contribute to the making of a celebrity.
• All of these attributes need to be protected, such as name, nickname, stage name, picture, likeness, image and any identifiable personal property, such as a distinctive race car.

Personality rights and Publicity rights:

• Personality rights are different from publicity rights.
• Personality rights consist of two types of rights:
  • Firstly, the right of publicity, or the right to keep one’s image and likeness from being commercially exploited without permission or contractual compensation, which is similar (but not identical) to the use of a trademark; and
  • Secondly, the right to privacy or the right to not have one’s personality represented publicly without permission.
• However, under common law jurisdictions, publicity rights fall into the realm of the ‘tort of passing off’.
• Passing off takes place when someone intentionally or unintentionally passes off their goods or services as those belonging to another party.
• Often, this type of misrepresentation damages the goodwill of a person or business, resulting in financial or reputational damage.
• Publicity rights are governed by statutes like the Trade marks Act 1999 and the Copyright Act 1957.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister for Civil Aviation Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia recently launched Digi Yatra from the Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi for three airports in the country, namely New Delhi, Varanasi and Bengaluru.

• Digi Yatra is conceived to achieve contactless, seamless processing of passengers at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).
• To use this facility, one-time registration on Digi Yatra app is required using Aadhar based validation and a self-image capture.
• The project has tremendous advantages of improving passenger convenience and ease of travel.
• With Digi Yatra, India will now stand in the ranks of world class airports like Heathrow in London and Atlanta in United States of America.
• Privacy features of the project:
  • There is no central storage of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
  • Passenger’s ID and travel credentials are stored in a secure wallet in the passenger’s smartphone itself.
  • The uploaded data will utilise blockchain technology and all the data will be purged from the servers within 24 hours of use.
• It saves passenger time.
  • For example, Dubai Airport where passenger time upto 40 percent was saved due to this technology.
  • A similar technology saved nine minutes per aircraft time at the Atlanta Airport.
• The service is presently being launched for domestic flights passengers only.
• It is voluntary is nature.

Hence both statements are correct.

External Affairs Ministry recently said that India will assume chairmanship of Wassenaar arrangement on 1 Jan 2023.

• The Wassenaar Arrangement has been established in order to contribute to regional and international security and stability, by promoting transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, thus preventing destabilising accumulations.
• The body came into being in 1996 to succeed the Cold War-era Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls.
  • The name comes from Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague, where the agreement to start such a multi-lateral cooperation was reached in 1995.
• Members: 42
• India: India joined the Wassenaar Arrangement in December 2017 as its 42nd participating state.

The Arrangement is based on five crucial principles:

• It contributes to regional and international security and stability.
• It promotes transparency and greater responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies.
• It complements and reinforces the export control regimes for weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.
• It is not directed against any state or group of states.
• It uses export controls as a means to combat terrorism.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.