Daily Current Affairs MCQ - April 6, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

• Part-IV of the constitution deals with Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP).

  • They are positive rights and impose positive obligations on the state.

• DPSP, as defined in Article 37, is not justiciable (not enforceable by any court). 

• The principles laid down under DPSPs are fundamental in governance.

• India has fallen 28 places in the World Economic Forum'sForum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2021. 

• The Global Gender Gap Report was first published in 2006 by the WEF.

  • It benchmarks 156 countries on their progress towards gender parity in four dimensions:

  • Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment.

  • Over the Index, the highest possible score is 1 (equality) and the lowest possible score is 0 (inequality).

• India is now one of the worst performers in South Asia, it is now ranked 140 among 156 countries. 

  • In South Asia, Bangladesh ranked 65, Nepal 106, Pakistan 153, Afghanistan 156, Bhutan 130 and Sri Lanka 116.

  • India was ranked 112th among 153 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index 2020.

• Political Empowerment:

  • India has declined on the political empowerment index by 13.5 percentage points, and a decline in the number of women ministers, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021. 

  • However, it has still performed relatively well compared to other countries, ranking at 51 in women's participation in politics.

• The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is a statutory and institutionalized framework under the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, for maintaining price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth. 

• The Governor of RBI is ex-officio Chairman of the committee. 

• The MPC determines the policy interest rate (repo rate) required to achieve the inflation target (4%).

  • It is the Central Government of India that determines the Inflation Target. 

• An RBI-appointed committee led by the then deputy governor Urjit Patel in 2014 recommended establishing the Monetary Policy Committee.

At Chang La in the Himalayas, India has its seed storage facility at the height of 17,300 feet. The vault is a joint venture of the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (which comes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research) and the Defence Institute of High-Altitude Research (under Defence Research and Development Organisation).

• The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. It is the only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter.

• Disappearing sea ice impacts Emperor Penguins directly, as the animals use it as a home base for their nine-month breeding season and feeding and moulting.

The gross amount of the following six segments of money at any point of time is known as the Reserve Money (RM) for the economy or the Government:

• RBI'sRBI's net credit to the Government;

• RBI'sRBI's net credit to the Banks;

• RBI'sRBI's net credit to the commercial banks;

• Net forex reserve with the RBI;

• Government'sGovernment's currency liabilities to the public;

• Net non-monetary liabilities of the RBI.

India'sIndia's forex reserves stood at US$ 584.24 as of January 15, 2021, greater than India'sIndia's total external debt (including that of the private sector) of US$ 556.2 bn as of September 2020.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an Advanced Chaff Technology to safeguard the naval ships against enemy missile attack.

• Defence Laboratory Jodhpur (DLJ), a DRDO laboratory, has indigenously developed three variants of this technology namely Short Range Chaff Rocket (SRCR), Medium Range Chaff Rocket (MRCR) and Long Range Chaff Rocket (LRCR) meeting Indian Navy'sNavy's requirements.

• Chaff is a passive expendable electronic countermeasure technology used worldwide to protect naval ships from enemy radar and Radio Frequency (RF) missile seekers.

• This development's importance lies in the fact that very less quantity of chaff material deployed in the air acts as a decoy to deflect the enemy's missiles for safety of the ships.

INS Viraat, the Navy's decommissioned aircraft carrier, has become the "private property" of a ship-breaker who has already torn down 40% of its body, chiefly for scrap, the Supreme Court told a private company, that wants to turn the vessel into a maritime museum-cum-adventure center.

• On February 10, the court had ordered a stay in the process of dismantling the ship.

• The carrier was bought by the Gujarat-based Shree Ram Group, a ship-breaking firm, in a bid. The 67-year-old iconic warship was towed to the breaking yard after over three decades' service in the Navy.

• INS Viraat was a Centaur-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy.

• INS Viraat was the flagship of the Indian Navy before INS Vikramaditya was commissioned in 2013.

• The ship was completed and commissioned in 1959 as the Royal Navy's HMS Hermes, and decommissioned in 1984. It was sold to India in 1987. INS Viraat was commissioned into the Indian Navy in 1987 until 2016 when it was decommissioned.

Spices Board India and UNDP India's Accelerator Lab signed a MoU, intending to build a blockchain-based traceability interface for Indian spices to enhance transparency in supply chain and trade.

• The project will be piloted with over 3,000 farmers engaged in chilli and turmeric farming in select Districts of Andhra Pradesh.

• Blockchain is a decentralized process of recording transactions on an open and shared electronic ledger. This allows for ease and transparency in data management across a complex network, including farmers, brokers, distributors, retailers and consumers, thus simplifying the supply chain.

• Spices Board is one of the five Commodity Boards functioning under the Ministry of Commerce &Industry.

• It is an autonomous body responsible for the export promotion of the 52 scheduled spices and development of Cardamom (Small & Large).

The Union Minister of Health, Harsh Vardhan launched the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP).

• The Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) is the next generation highly refined version of the presently used Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP).

• According to the minister, India is the first country in the world to adopt such an advanced disease surveillance system.

• The new version of IHIP will house the data entry and management for India’s disease surveillance program.

• In addition to tracking 33 diseases now as compared to the earlier 18 diseases, it shall ensure near-real-time data in digital mode, having done away with the paper mode of working.

• Terming this as the world's biggest online disease surveillance platform, he stated that it is in sync with the National Digital Health Mission.