Daily Current Affairs MCQ - December 11, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

• PANEX-21 is a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Exercise. It is to be held for the BIMSTEC countries.

• It is a multi-national disaster relief exercise to be held among the BIMSTEC countries: Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.

• The main aim of the exercise is to build regional cooperation in responding to natural disasters.

• Lichens represent a group of greyish green plants which grow on rocks, tree trunks, deadwood, etc. It represents a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi.
• In this unique relationship, algae manufacture food for fungi, and fungi, in turn, absorb and retain water which keeps algal cells moist.
• They are most common in wetlands, rare in streams and rivers, and absent in groundwater.

• Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment also Launches ‘Shreshtha Yojna’ and National Fellowship Management and Grievance Redressal Portal
• ‘ShreshthaYojna’ Aims to Aid Socio-Economic Upliftment and Overall Development of Students Belonging to Scheduled Castes by Providing Quality Residential Education in Reputed Private Schools.

Argentina junior hockey team defeated six-time winner Germany in the FIH Men's Junior Hockey World Cup 2021 final at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha.

Maitri Diwas’ also known as India-Bangladesh Friendship Day, was commemorated in 18 countries across the world on 6 December, 2021.

28 MOUs were signed between India and Russia on various sectors. The Joint Statement titled India-Russia: Partnership for Peace, Progress and Prosperity aptly covers the state and prospects of bilateral ties.

Some of the pathogens to look out for are Acinetobacter baumannii, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Streptococcus pneumoniae and many more. These pathogens are commonly implicated as causative agents of healthcare associated infections because of their ability to develop resistance to antibiotics. 

InvITs are pooled investment vehicles which enable direct investment of capital from investors in primarily operational infrastructure projects. 

Earlier this year, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) allowed domestic insurers to invest in debt securities and subscribe to units of listed InvITs.

The Reserve Bank of India in November 2021 amended foreign exchange regulations allowing foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to invest in InvIT debt securities. Further EPFO, which manages the biggest pension corpus in the country, recently approved investing up to 5 per cent of the annual deposits in alternative investment funds (AIFs) including InvITs. This is in addition to the already established rules by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) which allow private sector (tier 1) NPS subscribers to invest in units issued by InvITs.

Balkrishna Doshi, the most defining architect of post-independent India, won the Royal Gold Medal 2022 in recognition of his lifetime work of over seven decades as a thinker, architect and academic. The award, instituted by the UK’s Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), is among the highest honours in the world for architecture.

• Balkrishna Vithaldas Doshi (born 1927) is an Indian architect.
• He is considered to be an important figure of Indian architecture and noted for his contributions to the evolution of architectural discourse in India.
• Having worked under Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn, he is a pioneer of modernist and brutalist architecture in India.
• His more noteworthy designs include the IIM Bangalore, IIM Udaipur, NIFT Delhi, Amdavad ni Gufa, CEPT University, and the Aranya Low Cost Housing development in Indore which was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Awards

• In 2018, he became the first Indian architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which is considered one of the most prestigious prizes in architecture.
• He has also been awarded the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.
• He has been awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal for 2022.
• Hence both statements are correct.

General Bipin Rawat, India's first Chief of Defence Staff who died in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu, was a strong proponent of India-US defence ties and helped deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries.