Test: November 2022 Weekly Current Affair - 2 - UPSC MCQ

• Black carbon (BC) is a component of fine particulate matter. Black carbon consists of pure carbon in several linked forms. It is formed through the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, biofuel, and biomass, and is emitted in both anthropogenic and naturally occurring soot. Black carbon causes human morbidity and premature mortality.
• In climatology, black carbon is a climate forcing agent. Black carbon warms the Earth by absorbing sunlight and heating the atmosphere and by reducing albedo when deposited on snow and ice.
• In the tropics, black carbon in soils significantly contributes to fertility as it is able to absorb important plant nutrients.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) is the most powerful technique for determining the structure of organic compounds. NMR techniques are used successfully in various food systems for quality control and research.

• The period from 1901-1921 is referred to as a period of stagnant or stationary phase of growth of India’s population.
• The decades 1921-1951 are referred to as the period of steady population growth. An overall improvement in health and sanitation throughout the country brought down the mortality rate.
• The decades 1951-1981 are referred to as the period of population explosion in India, which was caused by a rapid fall in the mortality rate but a high fertility rate of population in the country.

• The Indian Constitution mandates local governments to prepare and implement plans for ‘economic development and social justice’ (Articles 243G and 243W).
• Adopted in Union Budget 2017-18, Mission Antyodaya is a convergence and accountability framework aiming to bring optimum use and management of resources allocated by various Ministries/ Department of the Government of India under various programmes for the development of rural areas. It is envisaged as state-led initiative with Gram Panchayats as focal points of convergence efforts.
• The main objective of ‘Mission Antyodaya’ is to ensure optimum use of resources through the convergence of various schemes that address multiple deprivations of poverty, making gram panchayat the hub of a development plan.
• Annual survey in Gram Panchayats across the country is an important aspect of Mission Antyodaya framework.

Several complementary institutions and measures such as the gram sabha to facilitate people’s participation, the District Planning committee (DPC) to prepare bottom up and spatial development plans, the State Finance Commission (SFC) to ensure vertical and horizontal equity, one-third reservation for women (in most States, now 50%), population-based representation to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe communities, and so on were introduced to promote this goal. Even so, India’s decentralisation reforms (with no parallel in federal history) have failed to take the decentralisation process forward in delivering social justice and progress in rural India.

• Emissions from livestock mainly include carbon dioxide (from urea), nitrous oxide (from livestock dung and urine), and methane (from belching) among others. They contribute towards the greenhouse effect as due to these gases, heat gets trapped around the surface of the earth and causes global warming.
• According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of gases is a metric that helps measure “the radiative effect (determined by the ability to absorb energy) of each unit of gas” over a specific period of time such as 100 years, “as expressed relative to the radiative effect of carbon dioxide.”
• Through GWP, we know gases such as nitrous oxide and methane produce more heat around the earth’s surface than carbon dioxide or CO₂, which is taken as a reference. It absorbs more energy than CO₂ but stays in the atmosphere for a shorter duration. Over a 20-year-period, it has 80 times more GWP than that carbon dioxide, according to the UNEP website.

• UV-A rays can penetrate the middle layer of your skin or the dermis and can cause aging of skin cells and indirect damage to cells’ DNA. UV-C radiation from man-made sources has been known to cause skin burns and eye injuries.
• UV-C radiation (wavelength around 254 nm) has been used for decades to disinfect the air in hospitals, laboratories, and also in water treatment. 

Fiscal prudence

• In simple words, fiscal prudence is Spending within budget.
• For any economy to mature, fiscal prudence is critical. If the government continues to spend way more than its revenues, it will either have to print more currency or borrow from the market to meet the shortfall. Printing currency will fuel inflation and, at times, hyper-inflation.
• In a bid to avoid these scenarios and mandate fiscal prudence, the Government of India passed the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act in 2003. Its objective was to institutionalize fiscal prudence and reduce the country’s fiscal deficit in such a manner that it gradually moves towards balancing the Budget.

Disposable income refers to the money that can be used for personal tasks and saved as your savings. At the same time, disposable income is usually lower than nominal. This is explained by the need to deduct mandatory payments and taxes from the total amount.
DPI = PI (personal income) – personal tax (income tax) – non tax payment (fine)

• GDP is the value of the final goods and services produced within a country within an year.
• Indian nationals living abroad do not contribute to India’s GDP. They do however contribute to India’s GNP.
• But, the gross capital investments made during a financial year directly accounts as a part of GDP since it creates infrastructure which has an economic value.

• An angel investor (also known as a private investor, seed investor or angel funder) is a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, typically in exchange for ownership equity in the company.
• Often, angel investors are found among an entrepreneur’s family and friends.
• The funds that angel investors provide may be a one-time investment to help the business get off the ground or an ongoing injection to support and carry the company through its difficult early stages.

The process of cow belching releases more methane into the environment due to enteric fermentation, a digestive process where complex sugars are converted into simpler molecules to be absorbed into the bloodstream, producing methane as a by-product. Whenever a farm animal digests food, methane is released into the atmosphere.

Further, the cultivation of paddy, which floods the fields, prevents oxygen from penetrating the soil and creates suitable conditions for methane-emitting bacteria.

WHO initiated the High Burden to High Impact (HBHI) initiative in some of the high malaria burden countries, including India.

Bioremediation refers to the use of specific microorganisms or plants to metabolize and remove harmful substances. These organisms are known for their biochemical and physical affinity to hydrocarbons among other pollutants. Various types of bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, and some species of plants are all able to break down specific toxic waste products into safer constituents.

The Strait of Malacca or Straits of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra. As the main shipping channel between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, it is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.

The Strait of Hormuz is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

About East Asia Summit:

• EAS is an initiative of ASEAN and is based on the premise of the centrality of ASEAN.
• The first summit was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 14 December 2005.
• India has been participating in the EAS since its very inception in 2005.
• EAS has evolved as a forum for strategic dialogue and cooperation on political, security and economic issues of common regional concern and plays an important role in the regional architecture.
• There are six priority areas of regional cooperation within the framework of the EAS. These are – Environment and Energy, Education, Finance, Global Health Issues and Pandemic Diseases, Natural Disaster Management, and ASEAN Connectivity. India endorses regional collaboration in all six priority areas.

Under the RBI Act, 1934, if the central bank fails to meet the inflation target for three consecutive quarters, it is required to provide the following information to the government:

• reasons for the failure to achieve the inflation target;
• remedial actions proposed to be taken; and
• an estimate of the time period within which the inflation target shall be achieved pursuant to timely implementation of the proposed remedial actions.

Reserved Forests:

• Reserve forests are the most restricted forests and are constituted by the State Government on any forest land or wasteland which is the property of the Government.
• In reserved forests, local people are prohibited, unless specifically allowed by a Forest Officer in the course of the settlement.
• The term was first introduced in the Indian Forest Act, 1927 in British India, to refer to certain forests granted protection under the British crown in British India, but not associated suzerainty.

Movements in the FCA occur mainly on account of purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI, income arising out of the deployment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the Central Government and changes on account of revaluation of the assets.

Monitoring the trade deficit is crucial as this has a direct bearing on the current account deficit (CAD). Disconcertingly, foreign direct investment, which typically helps bridge the CAD, has seen a moderation. And, the wider the CAD, the greater the downward pressure on the rupee, which has already weakened considerably since the conflict in eastern Europe began in February. A weaker rupee, in turn, makes imports costlier, potentially widening the trade deficit, and thus triggering a vicious cycle.

In the US, higher inflation is in large part because of the rapid economic recovery. This is called the “demand-pull” inflation. In the wake of the pandemic, the US government extended massive support to the economy in the form of giving stimulus money and this created a huge surge in overall demand that not only boosted the GDP but also bumped up the price level.

There was another cause for inflation — the so-called “cost-push” inflation. This was in the form of supply bottlenecks — such as shortage of workers or breaking up supply chains — leading to higher costs, such as higher wages for workers, which, in turn, led to higher prices and higher inflation. The spurt of higher food and energy prices in the wake of the Ukraine crisis added to this cost-push inflation.

Most of the methane on Earth has a biological origin. Microorganisms called methanogens are capable of generating methane as a metabolic byproduct. They do not require oxygen to live and are widely distributed in nature. They are found in swamps, dead organic matter, and even in the human gut. They are known to survive in high temperatures and simulation studies have shown that they can live in Martian conditions. Methanogens have been widely studied to understand if they can be a contributor to global warming.

• Alopecia areata is a condition that causes sudden hair loss in patches. The condition is developed after the immune system attacks the hair follicles, resulting in hair loss, which cannot be observed easily.
• Not just the scalp, sudden hairfall may also occur in other parts of the body. “It can occur suddenly in any part of your body like the scalp, beard, moustache, underarms etc.
• It may also develop slowly and occur again periodically or repeatedly after years between instances.
• In this disorder, your own cells attack the hair and cause them to shed, forming clear patches of hair loss. It mostly occurs in people who have a family history of auto-immune conditions, such as diabetes and thyroid.

In India, the Constitution gives the government the right to levy taxes on individuals and organisations, but makes it clear that no one has the right to levy or charge taxes except by the authority of law. Any tax being charged has to be backed by a law passed by the legislature or Parliament.

Taxes in India come under a three-tier system based on the Central, State and local governments, and the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution puts separate heads of taxation under the Union and State list. There is no separate head under the Concurrent list, meaning Union and the States have no concurrent power of taxation.

Alternative Investment Funds are an avenue to pool in funds for investing in private equity, real estate or hedge funds.
There are 3 categories of AIFs :

• Category I AIF are those funds that invest in start-ups or social venture funds, infrastructure funds, SME funds, and so on. The government or regulators consider this category of funds as socially viable or economically desirable.
• Category II Funds are those that do not leverage or borrow, other than to meet the day-to-day operational requirements. This category typically consists of Private Equity Funds and Debt funds.
• Category III funds typically comprised of Hedge Funds that employ diverse or complex trading strategies. By investing in listed or unlisted derivatives, AIF managers try to employ leverage.