Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 13, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

• Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) is conducted by the National Statistical Organization (NSO), MoSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation). Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• The Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) is part of the All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES). It is released by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour and Employment. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
  • It covers establishments employing 10 or more workers in the organised segment in 9 sectors.
  • These nine sectors are Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation and Restaurant, IT/ BPO and Financial Services.

African Swine Fever

• It is a highly contagious and fatal animal disease that infects and leads to an acute form of hemorrhagic fever in domestic and wild pigs. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• Other manifestations of the disease include high fever, depression, anorexia, loss of appetite, hemorrhages in the skin, vomiting and diarrhea among others.
• It was first detected in Africa in the 1920s. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
  • Historically, outbreaks have been reported in Africa and parts of Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.
  • However, more recently (since 2007), the disease has been reported in multiple countries across Africa, Asia and Europe, in both domestic and wild pigs.
  • In 2021, cases were also detected in India.
• The mortality is close to 100% and since the fever has no cure, the only way to stop its spread is by culling the animals.
• ASF is not a threat to human beings since it only spreads from animals to other animals.
• ASF is a disease listed in the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) Terrestrial Animal Health Code and thus, reported to the OIE.

Witness Protection in India

• In 2018, the SC approved the Witness Protection Scheme 2018 which aimed at enabling a witness to depose fearlessly and truthfully. Under the Judgement, SC held that:
  • Right of witnesses to testify freely in courts is part of Article 21 (Right to Life). Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • The scheme will be the law under Article 141/142 of the Constitution of India.
  • The bench has also asked all States and UTs to set up vulnerable witness deposition complexes.
• Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) expanded the meaning of vulnerable witnesses to also include among others sexual assault victims, those with mental illness and people with speech or hearing impairment.
  • The SC directed that all High Court’s (HC) adopt and notify a Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centre (VWDC) scheme within a period of two months.
• The need to protect witnesses has been emphasised by Law Commission reports and court judgments for years.
  • The State of Gujarat v. Anirudh Singh (1997), 14th Law Commission Report and Malimath Committee Report has recommended a witness protection scheme. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• The Agreement on Agriculture is aimed to remove trade barriers and to promote transparent market access and integration of global markets. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Three pillars of Agreement on Agriculture:
  • Domestic Support: It calls for reduction in domestic subsidies that distorts free trade and fair price.
    • Under this provision, the Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) is to be reduced by 20% over a period of 6 years by developed countries and 13% over a period of 10 years by developing countries.
    • Under this, Subsidies are categorized into:
      • Green Box:
        • Subsidies that do not distort trade, or at most cause minimal distortion.
        • They are government-funded and must not involve price support.
        • They also include environmental protection and regional development programmes. Hence, statement 2 is not correct.
        • “Green box” subsidies are therefore allowed without limits, provided they comply with the policy-specific criteria.
      • Amber Box:
        • All domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade (with some exceptions) fall into the amber box as all domestic supports except those in the blue and green boxes.
        • These include measures to support prices, or subsidies directly related to production quantities. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
      • Blue Box:
        • This is the “amber box with conditions”. Such conditions are designed to reduce distortion.
        • Any support that would normally be in the amber box is placed in the blue box if the support also requires farmers to limit production.
        • At present, there are no limits on spending on blue box subsidies.
  • Market Access: Market access for goods in the WTO means the conditions, tariff and non-tariff measures, agreed by members for the entry of specific goods into their markets.
    • Market access requires that tariffs fixed (like custom duties) by individual countries be cut progressively to allow free trade. It also required countries to remove non-tariff barriers and convert them to Tariff duties.
  • Export Subsidy: Subsidy on inputs of agriculture, making export cheaper or other incentives for exports such as import duty remission etc are included under export subsidies.
    • These can result in dumping of highly subsidized (and cheap) products in other countries and damage the domestic agriculture sector of other countries.

Since Covid-19 inoculation exercise commenced for the 18-44 age group, finding an available slot at a vaccine centre has become a challenge, especially given that it is mandatory for this age group to make an appointment on the CoWin app.

• With an aim to resolve this, the National Health Authority (NHA) — the nodal agency managing the CoWin app — has opened up the APIs for vaccine appointments to the public.
• An open API refers to a publicly available application programming interface (API) that provides developers access to a proprietary software application. For instance, you have a Google Maps API that integrates with food delivery or travel portal, or the UPI API used by a range of apps to enable easy payments.
• In this case, the NHA has allowed anyone to access a set of requirements needed to communicate and interact with the CoWin platform. This has enabled developers to build third-party tools that allow users to set alerts for slot availabilities according to various parameters.
• People can use these third-party tools to enter their details and they will get an alert whenever a slot opens up.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Centre has waived off IGST on the import of COVID related medical supplies including Remdesivir Injection/API, Medical Oxygen, O2 Concentrators, Cryogenic tanks & COVID Vaccines among others. The exemption has been granted till 30th June for free distribution of these medical supplies. Earlier the Centre had waived the import duty & health cess on such medical supplies.

• IGST meaning Integrated Goods and Service Tax, is one of the three categories under Goods and Service Tax (CGST, IGST and SGST) with a concept of one tax one nation.
• IGST falls under Integrated Goods and Service Tax Act 2016.
• IGST is charged when movement of goods and services from one state to another. For example, if goods are moved from Tamil Nadu to Kerala, IGST is levied on such goods.
• The revenue out of IGST is shared by state government and central government as per the rates fixed by the authorities.
• Under Article 269A of the Constitution,
  • The GST on supplies in the course of interState trade shall be levied and collected by the Government of India and
  • such tax shall be apportioned between the Union and the States according to the provisions of law on the recommendations of the Goods and Services Tax Council.
• Under the IGST scheme, 50% of the collections will go to the Centre (as the Central Goods and Services Tax component) and the remaining 50% will be allocated to the States and Union Territories (as the State Goods and Services Tax component). And, 42% of the CGST will be devolved to the States and Union Territories.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Democratic Republic of Congo declared the end of an Ebola outbreak that infected 12 people in the eastern province of North Kivu and killed six of them.

• The outbreak was contained using Merck's Ebola vaccine, which was given to more than 1,600 of the patients' contacts and contacts of contacts.
• The cases were genetically linked to the 2018-20 Ebola epidemic that killed more than 2,200 People, the second-highest toll recorded in the disease's history.
• Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
• Virus species: The virus family Filoviridae includes three genera: Cuevavirus, Marburgvirus, and Ebolavirus. Within the genus Ebolavirus, five species have been identified: Zaire, Bundibugyo, Sudan, Reston and Tai Forest.
• Transmission:
  • The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats) and then spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
  • It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts.
  • People can get the virus through sexual contact as well.
• Health impact: The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
• Treatment: Early supportive care with rehydration, symptomatic treatment improves survival. There is as yet no licensed treatment proven to neutralize the virus but a range of blood, immunological and drug therapies are under development.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has issued detailed operational scheme guidelines and has launched an online portal for ‘Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry’(PLISFPI)

• As a part of Prime Minister’s announcement of Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, Government of India has approved a new Central Sector Scheme namely‘ Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry’ for implementation during 2021-22 to 2026-27 with an outlay of Rs. 10,900 crore.
• Its objective is to support creation of global food manufacturing champions commensurate with India's natural resource endowment and support Indian brands of food products in the international markets.

Ministry of Food Processing Industries is inviting applications for availing sales based incentives and grants for undertaking Branding & Marketing activities abroad under the scheme from three categories of Applicants:

• Category-I: Applicants are large entities who apply for Incentive based on Sales and Investment Criteria. Applicant under this category could undertake Branding & Marketing activities abroad also and apply for grant under the scheme with a common application.
• Category-II: SMEs Applicants manufacturing innovative/ organic products who apply for PLI Incentive based on Sales.
• Category-III: Applicants applying solely for grant for undertaking Branding & Marketing activities abroad.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs and Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Governor for India Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the Governor’s Seminar on “Cooperation for a Resilient Future”, held as part of ADB’s annual meeting 2021.

It was conceived in the early 1960s when a resolution was passed at the first Ministerial Conference on Asian Economic Cooperation held by the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East in 1963.

The institution was opened in 1966 at Manila (Philippines capital) with 31 initial members. Hence statement 1 is incorrect.

Members: It has 67 members—of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside. India is one of the founding members. Hence statement 2 is correct.

• Objective:
  • It was conceived as a financial institution that would be Asian in character and foster economic growth and cooperation in one of the poorest regions in the world.
  • As a multilateral development finance institution, ADB provides loans, technical assistance and grants.
• Working:
  • The ADB was modelled closely on the World Bank, and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are distributed in proportion with members' capital subscriptions.
  • As of 31 December 2016, Japan and United States hold the largest proportion of shares at 15.607%. China holds 6.444%, India holds 6.331%, and Australia holds 5.786%

ADB is an official United Nations Observer. Hence statement 3 is correct.

Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas flagged off the first supply of UCO (Used Cooking Oil) based Biodiesel blended Diesel under the EOI Scheme from Indian Oil’s Tikrikalan Terminal, Delhi.

• To create an eco-system for collection and conversion of UCO into Biodiesel, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas had initiated Expressions of Interest for “Procurement of Bio-diesel produced from Used Cooking Oil” on the occasion of World Biofuel Day on 10th August 2019.
• Under this initiative, OMCs offer periodically incremental price guarantees for five years and extend off-take guarantees for ten years to prospective entrepreneurs.
• Under this initiative, IndianOil has received 51KL of UCO-Biodiesel at its Tikrikalan terminal in Delhi as of 31.3.2021.
• It is a landmark in India’s pursuance of Biofuels which will have a positive impact on the environment.
• Biodiesel is an alternative fuel, similar to conventional or ‘fossil’ diesel.
• It can be produced from vegetable oils, animal fats, tallow and waste cooking oil.
• A significant advantage of Biodiesel is its carbon-neutrality, i.e. the oilseed absorbs the same amount of CO2 as is released when the fuel is combusted in a vehicle.
• Also, Biodiesel is rapidly biodegradable and completely non-toxic.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.