Test: February 2023 Weekly Current Affair - 3 - UPSC MCQ

• Recently the Government launched a nationwide Mass Drug Administration (MDA) campaign aimed at ending disease transmission through the door-to-door administration of anti-filarial drugs, especially in 10 filaria affected states. All those above two years of age, except pregnant women and ailing persons, will be administered the antifilarial drugs.
• Lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, is a neglected tropical disease. Infection occurs when filarial parasites are transmitted to humans through Culex mosquitoes. Infection is usually acquired in childhood causing hidden damage to the lymphatic system.
• The painful and disfiguring visible manifestations of the disease, lymphoedema, elephantiasis and scrotal swelling (hydrocele) occur later in life and can lead to permanent disability.

• The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) — which is the average number of children who would be born to any women in her lifetime – has declined from 2.2 in 2015-16 to 2.0 in 2019-21. It was revealed in the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey, or NFHS-5.
• Replacement level fertility represents the level at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next, thus leading to zero population growth if the level sustained over a sufficiently long period. This rate is roughly 2.1 children per woman for most countries, although it may modestly vary with mortality rates.
• According to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), demographic dividend means:
• The economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger, and 65 and older)”.

Ten states — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Telangana — have notified Fifth Schedule areas that cover (partially or fully) several districts in each of these states.

Annual Financial Statement (AFS) is a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government in a financial year. In addition to it, the Budget contains:

• Estimates of revenue and capital receipts,
• Ways and means to raise the revenue,
• Estimates of expenditure,

The economic and financial policy of the coming year, i.e., taxation proposals, prospects of revenue, spending programme and introduction of new schemes/projects.

• The ICJ is not a supreme court to which national courts can turn; it does not act as a court of last resort for individuals. Nor is it an appeal court for any international tribunal. It can, however, rule on the validity of arbitral awards.
• The Court can only hear a dispute when requested to do so by one or more States. It cannot deal with a dispute on its own initiative. Neither is it permitted, under its Statute, to investigate and rule on acts of sovereign States as it chooses.
• Judgments are final and without appeal. If there is a dispute about the meaning or scope of a judgment, the only possibility is for one of the parties to make a request to the Court for an interpretation. In the event of the discovery of a fact hitherto unknown to the Court which might be a decisive factor, either party may apply for revision of the judgment.
• United Nations Charter authorizes the UN Security Council to enforce Court rulings. However, such enforcement is subject to the veto power of the five permanent members of the council.

• Two awards, the Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan were first instituted in 1954 as India’s highest civilian honours.
• While the Bharat Ratna is treated as an exceptional award with only 45 Bharat Ratnas being handed over till date, the Padma Awards are annually conferred to deserving civilians. Except for interruptions in 1978, 1979 and between 1993 and 1997, every year the names of the recipients are announced on Republic Day eve.
• Typically, not more than 120 awards are given in a year, but this does not include posthumous awards or awards given to NRIs and foreigners. While the award is normally not conferred posthumously, the Government can consider posthumous felicitation in exceptional circumstances.
• The first ever Padma Vibhushan awardees in 1954 were scientist Satyendra Nath Bose, artist Nandalal Bose, educationist and politician Zakir Hussain, social worker and politician Balasaheb Gangadhar Kher, and diplomat and academic V.K. Krishna Menon. The first ever non-Indian Padma Vibhushan awardee was Bhutanese king Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, who also received the award in 1954.

• Co-location is a data centre facility where third parties can lease space for servers and other computer hardware. They provide infrastructure like power supply, bandwidth and cooling for setting up servers and storage of data. Customers usually rent out space by rack, cabinet, cage or room.
• The NSE introduced co-location facilities in 2009 and offered traders/brokers the ability to place their servers within NSE’s data centre for a fee. By being in close proximity to the stock exchange servers, traders/brokers would have faster access to the price feed and the execution of trades, due to the low latency connectivity.
• Securities Appellate Tribunal is a statutory and autonomous body created as per provisions of section 15K of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act, 1992. Jurisdiction of Securities Appellate Tribunal extends to companies situated across India.

• Changes in sovereign credit ratings significantly affect bond and stock markets.
• Donors’ as well as recipients’ credit ratings impact FDI flows. Countries in high rated regions may receive more FDI.
• Ratings affect own-country exchange rates as well as have strong regional spill over effect on exchange rates.

Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula.

• A Gold ETF is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to track the domestic physical gold price. They are passive investment instruments that are based on gold prices and invest in gold bullion.
• One Gold ETF unit is equal to 1 gram of gold and is backed by physical gold of very high purity. Gold ETFs combine the flexibility of stock investment and the simplicity of gold investments.
• Gold ETFs are listed and traded on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd. (BSE) like a stock of any company. Gold ETFs trade on the cash segment of BSE & NSE, like any other company stock, and can be bought and sold continuously at market prices.
• Buying Gold ETFs means you are purchasing gold in an electronic form. You can buy and sell gold ETFs just as you would trade in stocks. When you actually redeem Gold ETF, you don’t get physical gold, but receive the cash equivalent. Trading of gold ETFs takes place through a dematerialised account (Demat) and a broker, which makes it an extremely convenient way of electronically investing in gold.
• Because of its direct gold pricing, there is a complete transparency on the holdings of a Gold ETF. Further due to its unique structure and creation mechanism, the ETFs have much lower expenses as compared to physical gold investments.

The near side of the Moon is the lunar hemisphere that always faces towards Earth, opposite to the far side. Only one side of the Moon is visible from Earth because the Moon rotates on its axis at the same rate that the Moon orbits the Earth—a situation known as tidal locking.
Atmospheric refraction helps planets, stars twinkle and doesn’t decide which side of them is visible or invisible on earth.
Statement 3 is incorrect.

• A depository is an organization which holds securities (like shares, debentures, bonds, government securities, mutual fund units etc.) of investors in electronic form at the request of the investors through a registered depository participant. It also provides services related to transactions in securities.
• At present two Depositories viz. National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL) are registered with SEBI.

The profundal zone is a very cold zone, such as an ocean or a lake, located below the range of effective light penetration. This is typically below the thermocline, the vertical zone in the water through which temperature drops rapidly. The lack of light in the profundal zone determines the type of biological community that can live in this region, which is distinctly different from the community in the overlying waters. The profundal zone is part of the aphotic zone.

The Arctic Ocean is located within the Arctic Circle and surrounds the North Pole. It is connected with the Pacific Ocean by a narrow stretch of shallow water known as berring strait.

• An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities.
• Vehicle exhaust emits CO₂, NOX and other GHGs that capture heat.
• The concrete and metals in buildings and the asaphalt of roads get heated up during the day. This heat is released during the night.
• Also, the crowded high-rise buildings of the cities trap the warm air and thus raise the temperature of the cities.
• Forest moderate temperature, cool the surroundings by transpiration and capture the carbon dioxide that traps heat. Deforestation and low forest cover contribute to urban heat islands.
• Density of population and industrial economic activity automatically increase the heat generated per unit area.

Forest produce can be divided into several categories. From the point of view of usage, forest produce can be categorized into three types: Timber, Non-Timber and Minor Minerals. Non-timber forest products [NTFPs] are known also as minor forest produce (MFP) or non-wood forest produce (NWFP).
MINOR FOREST PRODUCES (MFPs)

• Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change in ways that render the medications used to cure the infections they cause ineffective. When the microorganisms become resistant to most antimicrobials they are often referred to as “superbugs”. 
• Antimicrobial resistance is the broader term for resistance in different types of microorganisms and encompasses resistance to antibacterial, antiviral, antiparasitic and antifungal drugs.

• Ruminant species are hooved grazing or browsing herbivores that chew cud. Ruminants such as cows, sheep, goats, and buffaloes have a special type of digestive system that allows them to break down and digest food that non-ruminant species would be unable to digest.
• Stomachs of ruminant animals have four compartments, one of which, the rumen, helps them to store partially digested food and let it ferment. This partially digested and fermented food is regurgitated by the animals who chew through it again and finish the digestive process.
• However, as grass and other vegetation ferments in the rumen, it generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Ruminant animals such as cows and sheep release this methane mainly through burping.
• Given the very large numbers of cattle and sheep on farms in dairy-producing countries, these emissions add up to a significant volume. It is estimated that the ruminant digestive system is responsible for 27 per cent of all methane emissions from human activity.

• The iconic Mughal Gardens at the Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s House) in Delhi have been renamed. “The collective identity of all the gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan will be ‘Amrit Udyan’.
• Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have a number of Mughal gardens.
• The Mughals were known to appreciate gardens. In Babur Nama, Babur says that his favourite kind of garden is the Persian charbagh style (literally, four gardens). The charbagh structure was intended to create a representation of an earthly utopia – jannat – in which humans co-exist in perfect harmony with all elements of nature.
• Defined by its rectilinear layouts, divided in four equal sections, these gardens can be found across lands previously ruled by the Mughals. From the gardens surrounding Humanyun’s Tomb in Delhi to the Nishat Bagh in Srinagar, all are built in this style – giving them the moniker of Mughal Gardens.
• A defining feature of these gardens is the use of waterways, often to demarcate the various quadrants of the garden.

• One way of saving lives in case of a natural calamity is to reconnect with older methods of architecture and construction. Uroosi, a Mughal-era home architectural element, is one such.
• Uroosi are wooden shutters used as partition walls within homes, instead of concrete walls. 
• Uroosi work includes octagonal and decagonal ornamental pillars too. Jalali House is a landmark in Srinagar that has this architectural element.
  

Anamorphic projection essentially involves projecting on a large surface a distorted image which, with the use of optical transformation devices such as mirrors or lenses, gives the illusion of reality.

• The Economic Survey may have presented an optimistic growth outlook for the next year, but it did highlight the risks of an “entrenched inflation” and hence “higher and longer” interest rates, and a “depreciating rupee” leading to higher current account deficit, both on account of global headwinds.
• Transitory inflation tends to be short-lived and circumstantial, while entrenched inflation tends to stick around even after the immediate problems that spurred it on have resolved.
• If inflation were entrenched, it would mean that prices would not come back down, and that the new prices we see in the market would be a more permanent fixture in the economic life of citizens.

Revenue receipts can be defined as those receipts which neither create any liability nor cause any reduction in the assets of the government. They are regular and recurring in nature and the government receives them in the normal course of activities.
Revenue receipts include the proceeds from taxes and other duties levied by the Centre; the interest and dividend it receives on its investments; and the fees and charges the government receives for its services.
Simply put, revenue receipts must satisfy two basic conditions:

• No liability:Revenue receipts do not create any liability for the government. For example, taxes received by the government, unlike borrowings, do not create any liabilities for it.
• No asset reduction: Revenue receipts do not lead to any reduction in the government’s assets. So, the government cannot show its earnings from sale of stake in a public-sector undertaking as revenue receipts because the stake sale resulted in reduction of its assets.