Daily Current Affairs MCQ- April 1, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

Legendary Argentine footballer, Diego Maradona, widely regarded among the greatest football players of all time passed away following a heart attack.

• Diego Armando Maradona (1960 – 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager.
• Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award.
• Maradona was given the nickname "El Pibe de Oro" ("The Golden Kid").
• Maradona played in four FIFA World Cups, including the 1986 World Cup in Mexico where he captained Argentina and led them to victory over West Germany in the final, and won the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player.
• In the 1986 World Cup quarter final, he scored both goals in a 2–1 victory over England that entered football history for two different reasons.
  • The first goal was an unpenalized handling foul known as the "Hand of God".
  • The second goal followed a 60 m (66 yd) dribble past five England players, voted "Goal of the Century" by FIFA.com voters in 2002.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed that the government is using eVIN – Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network in association with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to identify primary beneficiaries and vaccine distribution networks.

• Electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network is an indigenously developed technology that digitises vaccine stocks and monitors the temperature of the cold chain through a smartphone application.
• The innovative eVIN was first launched across 12 states in 2015 to support better vaccine logistics management at cold chain points.
• eVIN supports the central government’s Universal Immunization Programme by providing real-time information on vaccine stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points across states and UTs.
• The Centre has begun its preparations for introduction of Covid-19 vaccine and a National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) has been formed as the highest group that will guide the strategies for vaccine introduction.

Hence both statements are correct.

The UP Cabinet cleared an ordinance to ban religious conversion for marriage. The new law will put the onus on the defendant to prove that conversion was not for marriage.

• The Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance, 2020, recommends 1-5 years imprisonment if an accused fails to prove that the conversion of the woman was not for marriage or by use of force, allurement etc.
• The jail sentence for the offence would be 3-10 years if the woman is from the SC/ST community or is seen as part of mass conversion.
• The notice period to the district magistrate for the religious conversion has been doubled to two months from a month in an earlier draft.
• The ordinance comes days after the Allahabad high court said in a verdict that the right to choose a partner or live with a person of choice was part of a citizen’s fundamental right to life and liberty. The verdict also said earlier court rulings that ‘religious conversion for marriage was unacceptable’ was not good in law.
• UP CM Yogi Adityanath cited earlier HC verdicts to support his government's decision to bring a law against ‘love jihad’, a term used by RSS outfits to call what they believe is a conspiracy by Muslims to convert Hindu women by luring them into love and marriage.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment e-inaugurated a ‘Garima Greh: A Shelter Home for Transgender Persons’ in Vadodara, Gujarat.

• Under the Scheme of ‘Shelter Home for Transgender Persons’, the ministry has decided to set up shelter homes for transgender persons who have been forced to leave their homes or abandoned by the family. The first such home in Vadodara in Gujarat was inaugurated.
• By March 31 next year, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Patna, Kolkata, Jaipur, Raipur, Bhubaneswar and Manipur will also have such homes to be called “Garima Greh” with a capacity for 25 persons.
• They will be run by transgender community-led organisations. These shelters will also provide skill training to connect the community members with livelihood opportunities.
• This is a pilot project, and on its successful completion, similar schemes will be extended to other parts of the country.

Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment launched a ‘National Portal for Transgender Persons’.

• This National Portal for Transgender Persons has been developed within 2 months of Notification of Transgender Persons (Protectionof Rights) Rules, 2020 on 29 September, 2020.
• This Portal would help a transgender person in applying for a Certificate and Identity card digitally from anywhere in the country.
• The most important benefit is that it helps the transgender person to get the I-Card without any physical interface and without having to visit any office. Through the Portal, they can monitor the status of their application that ensures transparency in the process.
• Getting Transgender Certificate and Identity Cards as per their self-perceived identity is an important provision of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

Hence both statements are correct.

Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved ₹2,480 crore foreign direct investment (FDI) in ATC Telecom Infra Pvt Ltd. ATC Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd is looking to acquire 12.32% stake in ATC Telecom Infra Pvt Ltd through the FDI route.

ATC Telecom Infrastructure Private Limited is engaged in the business of providing telecom infrastructure services to telecom operators. Founded in 2006, ATC Asia Pacific Pte Ltd's business includes holding or owning securities of companies other than banks.

FDI up to 100% is allowed in Telecom Services Sector wherein 49% under automatic route and beyond 49% through government route subject to observance of licensing and security conditions by the licensee as well as investors as notified by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) from time to time. Under the Automatic Route, the non-resident investor or the Indian company does not require any approval from Government of India for the investment.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

To drive infrastructure creation in the country, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the infusion of ₹6,000 crore equity in National Infrastructure Investment Fund’s (NIIF’s) debt platform in the next two years.

• Out of the proposed amount, ₹2,000 crore will be infused in the current financial year.
• NIIF Debt Platform is sponsored by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), comprising of Aseem Infrastructure Finance Limited (AIFL) and NIIF Infrastructure Finance Limited (NIIF-IFL).
• The NIIF Strategic Opportunities Fund has set up a Debt Platform comprising an NBFC Infra Debt Fund and an NBFC Infra Finance Company.
• NIIF through its Strategic Opportunities Fund (‘NIIF SOF’) owns a majority position in both the companies and has already invested ~ Rs.1,899 crore across the Platform.
• The Strategic Opportunities Fund (SOF fund) through which the NIIF investment has been made will continue to support the two companies apart from investing in other suitable investment opportunities.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to the Scheme of Amalgamation of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited (LVB) with DBS Bank India Limited (DBIL).

• On 17.11.2020, to protect depositors' interest and in the interest of financial and banking stability, on RBI's application under section 45 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, LVB had been under moratorium for a period of 30 days.
• In parallel, RBI, in consultation with Government, superseded the Board of Directors of LVB and appointed an Administrator to protect the depositors' interest.
• RBI prepared and provided a scheme for the bank's amalgamation. With the approval of the scheme, LVB will be amalgamated with DBIL from the appointed date, and with this there will no further restrictions on the depositors regarding withdrawal of their deposits.
• DBIL is a banking company licenced by RBI and operating in India through wholly owned subsidiary model, DBIL has the advantage of a strong parentage of DBS, a leading financial services group in Asia and headquartered in Singapore.

Hence both statements are correct.

With the consideration of TRAI Recommendation on “Ensuring Adequate Numbering Resources for Fixed Line and Mobile Services” Department of Telecommunications has taken the decision of implementing the following:

• All Fixed to Mobile calls will be dialed with prefix ‘0’ from 15th January, 2021.
• There will be no change in dialing plan from fixed to fixed, mobile to fixed and mobile to mobile calls.
• Suitable announcement will be made for the same. This announcement shall be played whenever a subscriber dials a fixed to mobile call without prefixing ‘0’.
• All fixed line subscribers will be provided with ‘0’ dialing facility.
• A total of approximately 2539 million numbering series is expected to be generated from the above. This will free up sufficient numbering resources for future use.
• With the freeing up of sufficient numbering resources, more number ofconnections can be added in future which will be beneficial to the mobile customers at large.

Hence both statements are correct.

This year’s theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!”.

• The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134).
• The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence.
• The date is based on the date of the 1960 assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic; the killings were ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo (1930–1961). On December 17, 1999, the date received its official United Nations (UN) resolution.

Hence both statements are correct.