Daily Current Affairs MCQ - December 4, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Article 280 of the Constitution of India provides for a Finance Commission as a quasi-judicial body. It is constituted by the president of India every fifth year or at such earlier time as he considers necessary.

The commission submits its report to the president. He lays it before both the Houses of Parliament along with an explanatory memorandum as to the action taken on its recommendations.

The recommendations made by the Finance Commission are only of advisory nature and hence, not binding on the government. It is up to the Union government to implement its recommendations on granting money to the states.

India is a signatory to the United Nations Brasilia Declaration on road safety, which called for reducing road fatalities by 50% by 2020.

India has seen 26.48% reduction in road accidents and 22% drop in deaths in 2020 against 2019.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) and Block Chain technology:

• Distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a digital system for recording the transaction of assets in which the transactions and their details are recorded in multiple places at the same time.
• Unlike traditional databases, distributed ledgers have no central data store or administration functionality.
• Whether distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchain, will revolutionize how governments, institutions and industries work is an open question.
• Blockchain technology is a specific kind of DLT that came to prominence after Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that used it, became popular.
• Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin use codes to encrypt transactions and stack them up in blocks, creating Blockchains. It is the use of codes that differentiates cryptocurrencies from other virtual currencies.

• Recently, the Worldwide Cost of Living report has been released highlighting that Tel Aviv (Israel's capital) is the world’s most expensive city to live in. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  • Paris and Singapore came joint second, followed by Zurich and Hong Kong. New York was in sixth, with Geneva in seventh.
• The report is compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). It compares the cost of living indices in different cities. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • The index is benchmarked against prices in New York City, hence cities with currencies that are stronger against the US dollar are likely to appear higher in the rankings.
• In India, Ahmedabad, Gujarat has been listed in the top ten cheapest cities of the survey. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
  • Among the cheapest cities, Damascus (capital of Syria) is at the top. It is followed by Tripoli (Libya,) Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Tunis (Tunisia) and Almaty (Kazakhstan') in the ranking of cheapest cities.

• The Paikas were a class of military retainers who had been recruited since the 16^th century by kings in Odisha from a variety of social groups to render martial services in return for hereditary rent-free land (nish-kar jagirs) and titles.
• The Paika Bidroha (Paika Rebellion) of 1817 took place nearly 40 years before the first sepoy mutiny.
  • Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar Mohapatra Bharamarbar Rai, the highest-ranking military general of Mukund Dev II, and erstwhile holder of the lucrative Rodanga estate, led an army of Paikas to join the uprising of the Kondhs.They confronted the British on 2nd April 1817.
• Recently, the Centre has said that the Paika rebellion cannot be called the first War of Independence.
  • It has also been suggested that it would be included as a case study in the Class 8 National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) history textbook.
  • For the first time in 2017, the Odisha state cabinet had passed a proposal to formally urge the centre to declare the Paika rebellion as the first war of Independence.
• Hence, option C is correct.

• The Government has approved the setting up of 7 PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks in Greenfield/Brownfield sites within a period of seven years up to 2027-28.
• These parks will be developed by a Special Purpose Vehicle which will be owned by the Central and State Government and in a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Mode.
• Each Park will have an incubation centre, a common processing house and a common effluent treatment plant and other textile related facilities such as design centres and testing centres.
• Hence, option A is correct.

"World AIDS Day" is observed on 1 December with a new theme every year and this year's theme “End inequalities. End AIDS” is aimed at WHO and its partner organisations highlighting the need for a special focus on reaching people left behind. It is calling on global leaders to rally to end inequalities that drive AIDS.

Indian Squash star Saurav Ghosal has scripted history as he has become the first Indian squash player to win the Malaysian Open Championships.

Rihanna has been declared the national hero of Barbados.

• Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme is a market-based mechanism to further accelerate as well as incentivize energy efficiency in the large energy-intensive industries. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• The Energy Savings Certificates (ESCerts) were introduced in India in 2011 under the PAT by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) under the National Mission of Energy Efficiency. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
  • NMEEE is one of the eight national missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) launched by the Government of India in the year 2008.
• The underachievers are entitled to purchase ESCerts through two power exchanges - Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) and Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL).
  • Industries that take part in this scheme are referred to as designated shoppers (DC).
• PAT covered about 13 energy-intensive sectors: Thermal power plants (TPP), cement, aluminium, iron and steel, pulp and paper, fertiliser, chlor-alkali, petroleum refineries, petrochemicals, distribution companies, railways, textile and commercial buildings (hotels and airports).