Daily Current Affairs MCQ- April 11, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

In its bimonthly monetary policy statement in February, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the key policy rates unchanged.

Reserve Bank of India’s liquidity adjustment facility of LAF helps banks to adjust their daily liquidity mismatches.

LAF has two components: repo (repurchase agreement) and reverse repo.

• Repo Rate: It is the interest rate at which the RBI provides overnight liquidity to banks against the collateral of government and other approved securities under the LAF.
• Reverse Repo Rate: The interest rate at which the RBI absorbs liquidity, on an overnight basis, from banks against the collateral of eligible government securities under the LAF. Basically, banks can park their money with RBI while receiving interest on it.

Hence both statements are correct.

While announcing the monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said RBI has proposed to make card-less cash withdrawal facility available across all banks and ATM networks using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

• RBI Governor said the absence of need for a card to initiate cash withdrawal transactions would help in containing frauds like card skimming, card cloning, etc.
• However, Governor Shaktikanta Das clarified credit & debit cards will be continued.
• Under the cardless cash withdrawal facility, individuals can withdraw cash without using any debit card at Automated teller machines (ATMs).
• The cardless withdrawal request can be initiated for a minimum of ₹100 per transaction and up to a maximum of ₹10,000 per day or ₹25,000 per month for a beneficiary while the limits are subject to change as per regulatory guidelines.

Hence both statements are correct.

As per the initial field report of the Punjab Agriculture department, around 35,000 hectares (86,450 acres) are being used for the cultivation of spring/summer maize.

• The ideal time for sowing maize is from January-end to February 15. But farmers continue to sow it till the end of February or even in early March.
• Utilizing more area for maize cultivation is always a welcome move in a state like Punjab where maize is seen as an alternative to the water-guzzling paddy crop.

Why do experts discourage sowing spring maize in the state?

• But growing maize during spring is not always a good choice in Punjab. From March to June, the temperature in the state is very high and the sunshine hours are also long.
• The temperature starts rising from March from 35 degree centigrade to 45 degree in June. Also, the average sunshine hours remain between 9 to 9.5 hours.
• Due to high temperature, the water gets evaporated soon and frequent watering of the maize crop is needed in peak summer season. This affects the water table drastically.
• According to experts, this crop is ‘big no’ without ‘drip irrigation’ for Punjab where the groundwater table is depleting drastically and there is a need for sustainable farming.

Which crops can be an alternative to spring maize in the state?

• Experts said that summer moong and sunflower crops are the best alternatives.
• Both the crops are extremely vital in the country as India imports 2.5 million tonnes sunflower oil every year and also 2-3 million tonnes of pulses.

Hence both statements are correct.

Forty-three artists were presented the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship and Sangeet Natak Awards for 2018, while the Lalit Kala Akademi’s Fellowship and National Awards for 2021 were given to 23 by Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu at a joint ceremony.

• The Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards are national honours bestowed by the government on performing artists and teachers and scholars in the field of performing arts.
• The awards were given in the categories of music, dance, and theatre. In addition, one category was reserved for traditional, folk, and tribal dance, music, theatre and puppetry.
• An award each was also given for overall contribution and scholarship in performing arts.
• In addition, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, Sattriya dancer Jatin Goswami, Odissi exponent Sonal Mansingh and Thiruvidaimarudur Kuppiah Kalyanasundaram were given fellowships for their contribution to the field of dance.
• Among the 13 honoured for music are Hindustani vocalists Mani Prasad and Madhup Mudgal, santoor player Tarun Bhattacharya, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar for sarod, and Carnatic vocalists Alamelu Mani and Malladi Suribabu.
• Bharatanatyam dancer Radha Sridhar, Mohiniyattam dancer Gopika Varma, Kuchipudi dancer Ramalinga Sastry are among the 10 dancers who got the award.
• Among the eight theatre artistes who have been given the award are Suhas Joshi and Teekam Joshi for acting, Rajiv Naik and Laltluangliana Khiangte for playwriting, and Sanjay Upadhyay for direction.
• Musicians Malini Awasthi and Gazi Khan Barna (folk music), Arjun Singh Dhurve (folk dance) Mohammad Sadiq Bhagat (folk theatre), Anupama Hoskere (string puppetry), and Hem Chandra Goswami (mask making) are awardees in the other categories.
• Sculptor Himmat Shah, and painters Jyoti Bhatt and Shyam Sharma were awarded the prestigious Lalit Kala Akademi fellowship. Diwan Singh Bajeli was awarded the field of overall contribution in performing arts.

Hence both statements are correct.

A SpaceX capsule carrying three paying customers and a former NASA astronaut arrived at the International Space Station, finishing the first leg of this first-of-its-kind mission that will last about 10 days.

• The Ax-1 mission, which was organized by Houston company Axiom Space, is flying on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour.
• Axiom Mission 1 (or Ax-1) is a private crew mission to the International Space Station (ISS), operated by Axiom Space out of Axiom Space's Mission Control Center (or MCC-A) in Houston, TX. The flight launched on 8 April 2022, from Kennedy Space Center.
• Axiom Space was founded in 2016 with the goal of creating the world's first commercial space station.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

All India Radio News has launched a new weekly interactive programme, Abhyaas for Competitive Examinations.

• It is aimed at reaching out to students and job-seekers preparing for competitive examinations.
• The programme is in Hindi and is broadcasted every Saturday between 9.30-10pm.
• Every week a subject is chosen. Students can ask questions through WhatsApp or email and a guest speaker or expert responds to their queries. Questions on each subject are selected on the basis of crowd sourcing from students across the country.
• The program also includes segments like Explainer, Factfile, Examination Calendar and Question of the Week.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Supreme Court approved the measures taken by the Centre’s Air Quality Commission to create an ‘Enforcement Task Force’ and flying squads to prevent and penalise polluters in Delhi NCR.

• The task force was formed on December 2. The task force has two independent members. It will meet at 6 p.m. every day. The task force will take action on behalf of the commission against violators.
• 17 flying squads were formed on Thursday and would be increased to 40 in the next 24 hours. The flying squads, which have conducted 25 surprise checks so far, would directly report to the task force
• The court directed the Centre and the Delhi Government to implement the commission’s anti-pollution measures.
• Thermal plants within a 300-km radius of Delhi would continue to be regulated. Only five of 11 plants were functional. The rest would remain closed till December 15.

Hence both statements are correct.

Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor moved a private member’s Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking to establish permanent Benches of High Courts in State capitals.

• In Kerala, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Goa, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh, the State High Court is situated outside the capital city.
• The private member’s Bill was moved in the Lok Sabha after a gap of nearly two years.
• “Establishment of permanent benches of high courts at state capitals Bill” had been pending since 2019.
• As many as 153 private members’ Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday, including one that sought compulsory teaching of the Bhagavad Gita in educational institutions.

Private Vs Government Bills

• An MP who is not a minister is a private member. While both private members and ministers take part in the lawmaking process, Bills introduced by private members are referred to as private member’s Bills and those introduced by ministers are called government Bills.
• While a government Bill can be introduced and discussed on any day, a private member’s bill can only be introduced and discussed on Fridays.
• Government Bills are backed by the government and also reflect its legislative agenda.

Hence both statements are correct.

In a major discovery, the longest in-country migration route of lesser floricans, the endangered birds of the bustard group, has been tracked for the first time from Rajasthan to Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.

• The mystery of the fast-disappearing birds may soon be resolved with the help of satellite transmitters fitted on them.
• The telemetry exercise was undertaken in the Shokaliya landscape of Ajmer district to trace the journey of lesser floricans from their breeding grounds to their places of origin, presumably in down South.

Lesser florican

• Lesser florican, taxonomically classified as Sypheotides indicus, is a small and slender bird species belonging to the bustard group, found in tall grasslands, for which Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has launched a recovery programme.
• The endangered bird is observed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and some other regions during the monsoon season, when it breeds and later disappears with its chicks to unknown places.
• The bird is listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and its population has been identified as “decreasing”.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Two years after PepsiCo India provoked outrage by suing nine Gujarati farmers for allegedly infringing patent rights by growing its registered potato variety, the company’s registration of the variety has been revoked by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights’ Authority (PPV&FRA).

• This judgment is a historic victory for the farmers of India. It should also prevent any other seed or food corporation from transgressing legally granted farmers’ seed freedoms in India.
• The PPV&FRA questioned the documentation produced by PepsiCo claiming it was the owner of the variety, and thus could be considered the Registered Breeder under the law.
• Several farmers have been put to hardship including the looming possibility of having to pay huge penalty on the purported infringement they were supposed to have been committing... This violates public interest,” added the order from PPV&FRA chairperson K.V. Prabhu.
• The FL-2027 variety of potatoes, used in Lays potato chips, came to the limelight in April 2019, when it became the centrepiece for a fight in the potato belt of northern Gujarat.
• The potato was grown by about 12,000 farmers with whom the company had an exclusive contract to sell seeds and buy back their produce.
• In 2016, the company registered the variety under the PPV&FR Act, 2001. Alleging that farmers who were not part of its “collaborative farming programme” were also growing and selling this variety in Gujarat, PepsiCo had filed rights infringement cases against nine farmers.
• The Govt. of India enacted “The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001” adopting sui generis system. Indian legislation is not only in conformity with International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), 1978, but also have sufficient provisions to protect the interests of public sector breeding institutions and the farmers.
• The legislation recognizes the contributions of both commercial plant breeders and farmers in plant breeding activity and also provides to implement TRIPs in a way that supports the specific socio-economic interests of all the stakeholders including private, public sectors and research institutions, as well as resource-constrained farmers.
• It aims to facilitate the growth of seed industry in the country which will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers.

Hence both statements are correct.