Test: February 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

A trademark is a symbol, design, word or phrase that is identified with a business. When a trademark is registered, its owner can claim “exclusive rights” on its use.
A trademark is valid for 10 years, and can be renewed by the owner indefinitely every 10 years.

AT1 bonds are unsecured bonds that have perpetual tenor. In other words, these bonds, issued by banks, have no maturity date. They have a call option, which can be used by the banks to buy these bonds back from investors. These bonds are typically used by banks to bolster their core or tier-1 capital.

• Statement 1 – In the light of high NPAs, Banks tend to lower the interest rates on deposits on one hand and likely to levy higher interest rates on advances.
• Statement 2 – As per Basel norms, banks are required to maintain adequate capital on risk-weighted assets on an ongoing basis. Every increase in NPA level adds to risk weighted assets which warrant the banks to shore up their capital base further.
• Statement 3 – The increased NPAs put pressure on recycling of funds and reduces the ability of banks for lending more and thus results in lesser interest income.

• The Trademark Act,1999, governs the regime on trademark and its registration. The Act guarantees protection for a trademark that is registered with the Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trademarks, also known as the trademark registry.
• Using a registered trademark without authorisation of the entity that owns the trademark is a violation or infringement of the trademark.
• Using a substantially similar mark for similar goods or services could also amount to infringement. In such cases, courts have to determine whether this can cause confusion for consumers between the two.
• There are several ways in which a trademark can be infringed. However, the trademark owner has to show that the trademark has a distinct character.

The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a principle-based framework for businesses, stating ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. Under the Global Compact, companies are brought together with UN agencies, labor groups and civil society.

• 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.

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

• 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.

• 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.
• 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.

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.

In a bid to strengthen ties, India and Maldives signed pacts on development projects. The pact included grant assistance of 100 million Rufiyaa [currency of Maldives] for the High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP) scheme. A number of socio-economic development projects are planned to be implemented throughout the country under this funding.

The concept of Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS), conceived under Section 37 of India’s Biological Diversity Act, 2002, was one of the most imaginative steps taken to protect these vanishing biodiversity-rich regions.

• The National Commission on Agriculture, Government of India, first used the term ‘social forestry’ in 1976.
• It aims at raising plantations by the common man so as to meet the growing demand for food, fuel wood, fodder, fiber and fertilizer (5 F’s) etc, thereby reducing the pressure on the traditional forest area.
• It does not aim at the displacement or exploitation of traditional forests, but supplementing them with community grown forests.

• The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Artemis program intends to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
• The program’s long-term goal is to establish a permanent base camp on the Moon and facilitate human missions to Mars.
• The Artemis program is a collaboration of government space agencies and private spaceflight companies, bound together by the Artemis Accords and supporting contracts.

The law does contain what is commonly referred to as an ‘escape clause’. Under Section 4(2) of the Act, the Centre can exceed the annual fiscal deficit target citing grounds that include national security, war, national calamity, collapse of agriculture, structural reforms and decline in real output growth of a quarter by at least three percentage points below the average of the previous four quarters.

Parliament under Article 3 can increase or diminish the area of any State or alter the boundaries or change the name of any State.

• Fixed capital is assets used in the productive process. Examples of Fixed Capital Formation include – Building or expanding existing factory, Road and bridge construction, Purchase of transport equipment, Office equipment, such as computers, printers, Machinery used in the productive process, Energy infrastructure etc.
• Generally, the higher the capital formation of an economy, the faster an economy can grow its aggregate income. Increasing an economy’s capital stock also increases its capacity for production, which means an economy can produce more. Producing more goods and services can lead to an increase in national income levels.
• Fixed capital formation (growth of productive infrastructure etc.) is directly related with economic growth rate.
• Only short-term growth may be achieved if resources from Fixed Capital are diverted towards consumption. In the long-term quality and quantity of infrastructure is a major determinant of economic growth.
• Dwellings (a house, flat, or other place of residence) are not directly utilised by businesses and the government to produce output. Since dwellings do not add to the productive capacity of the economy, even if its growth rate reduces, the economy can still grow.

• TRAFFIC, a global wildlife trade monitoring organisation has revealed. CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments, whose aim is to ensure that international trade in specimen of wild animals and plants, does not threaten the survival of the species.
• Red Sanders Pterocarpus santalinus, or red sandalwood, is an endemic tree species with distribution restricted to the Eastern Ghats of India. 
• Under the foreign trade policy of India, the import of Red Sanders is prohibited, while export is restricted.
• Listed under Schedule IV of The Wildlife Protection Act and Endangered as per IUCN Red List, Red Sanders is a very slow-growing tree species that attains maturity in natural forests after 25-40 years.

• Globally, wetlands cover 6.4 per cent of the geographical area of the world. In India, according to the National Wetland Inventory and Assessment compiled by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), wetlands are spread over 1,52,600 square kilometres (sq km) which is 4.63 per cent of the total geographical area of the country. Of the 1,52,600 sq km, inland-natural wetlands account for 43.4% and coastal-natural wetlands 24.3%.
• Rivers/streams occupy 52,600 sq km, reservoirs/barrages 24,800 sq km, inter-tidal mudflats 24,100 sq km, tanks/ponds 13,100 sq km and lake/ponds 7300 sq km.
• India has 19 types of wetlands. In state-wise distribution of wetlands, Gujarat is at the top with 34,700 sq km (17.56% of total geographical area of the state), or 22.7% of total wetlands areas of the country thanks to a long coastline. It is followed by Andhra Pradesh (14,500 sq km), Uttar Pradesh (12,400 sq km) and West Bengal (11,100 sq km).

Exit policy means the policy regarding the retrenchment of the surplus labour force resulting from restructuring of industrial units and workers displaced by the closure of sick units. Exit may become necessary due to strategic reasons, financial constraints and environmental changes.

Bond yield is the return an investor gets on that bond or on a particular government security. The major factors affecting the yield is the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of India, especially the course of interest rates, the fiscal position of the government and its borrowing programme, global markets, economy, and inflation.

The Kedar Nath ruling on sedition (Kedarnath Singh v State of Bihar)
A five-judge Constitution Bench overruled the earlier rulings of the high courts and upheld the constitutional validity of IPC Section 124A. However, the court attempted to restrict its scope for misuse. The court held that unless accompanied by an incitement or call for violence, criticism of the government cannot be labelled sedition. The ruling restricted sedition only insofar as seditious speech tended to incite “public disorder”- a phrase Section 124A itself does not contain but was read into it by the court.

• Cabinet Committees are extra-constitutional in emergence. In other words, they are not mentioned in the Constitution. However, the Rules of Business provide for their establishment.
• They are an organizational device to reduce the enormous workload of the Cabinet. They also facilitate in-depth examination of policy issues and effective coordination. 
• They not only sort out issues and formulate proposals for the consideration of the Cabinet, but also take decisions. However, the Cabinet can review their decisions.

The I2U2 Group is a grouping of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. The group’s joint statement states that the countries aim to cooperate on “joint investments and new initiatives in water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security.”