Daily Current Affairs MCQ - February 2, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

The Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament.

• 157.94 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered as on 16th January 2022; 91.39 crore first dose and 66.05 crore second dose.
• With revival of economy, employment indicators bounced back to pre-pandemic levels during last quarter of 2020-21.
• As per the quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PFLS) data up to March 2021, employment in urban sector affected by pandemic has recovered almost to the pre-pandemic level.
• According to Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data, formalization of jobs continued during second COVID wave; adverse impact of COVID on formalization of jobs much lower than during the first COVID wave.
• Expenditure on social services (health, education and others) by Centre and States as a proportion of GDP increased from 6.2 % in 2014-15 to 8.6% in 2021-22 (BE)
• As per the National Family Health Survey-5:
  • Total Fertility Rate (TFR) came down to 2 in 2019-21 from 2.2 in 2015-16
  • Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), under-five mortality rate and institutional births have improved in 2019-21 over year 2015-16
• Under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), 83 districts have become ‘Har Ghar Jal’ districts.
• Increased allotment of funds to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) to provide buffer for unorganized labour in rural areas during the pandemic.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament.

• Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew at 17.4 percent (YoY) during April-November 2021 as compared to (-)15.3 percent in April-November 2020.
• Capital expenditure for the Indian railways has increased to Rs. 155,181 crores in 2020-21 from an average annual of Rs. 45,980 crores during 2009-14 and it has been budgeted to further increase to Rs. 215,058 crores in 2021-22 – a five times increase in comparison to the 2014 level.
• Extent of road construction per day increased substantially in 2020-21 to 36.5 Kms per day from 28 Kms per day in 2019-20 – a rise of 30.4 percent.
• Net profit to sales ratio of large corporates reached an all-time high of 10.6 percent in in July-September quarter of 2021-22 despite the pandemic (RBI Study).
• Introduction of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, major boost provided to infrastructure-both physical as well as digital, along with measures to reduce transaction costs and improve ease of doing business, would support the pace of recovery.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament.

• India’s overall score on the NITI Aayog SDG India Index and Dashboard improved to 66 in 2020-21 from 60 in 2019-20 and 57 in 2018-19.
• Number of Front Runners (scoring 65-99) increased to 22 States and UTs in 2020-21 from 10 in 2019-20.
• In North East India, 64 districts were Front Runners and 39 districts were Performers in the NITI Aayog North-Eastern Region District SDG Index 2021-22.
• India has the tenth largest forest area in the world.
• In 2020, India ranked third globally in increasing its forest area during 2010 to 2020.
• In 2020, the forests covered 24% of India’s total geographical, accounting for 2% of the world’s total forest area.
• In August 2021, the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, was notified which is aimed at phasing out single use plastic by 2022.
• Draft regulation on Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic packaging was notified.
• The Compliance status of Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) located in the Ganga main stem and its tributaries improved from 39% in 2017 to 81% in 2020.
• The consequent reduction in effluent discharge has been from 349.13 millions of litres per day (MLD) in 2017 to 280.20 MLD in 2020.
• The Prime Minister, as a part of the national statement delivered at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow in November 2021, announced ambitious targets to be achieved by 2030 to enable further reduction in emissions.
• The need to start the one-word movement ‘LIFE’ (Lifestyle for Environment) urging mindful and deliberate utilization instead of mindless and destructive consumption was underlined.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2021-22 in Parliament.

• Repo rate was maintained at 4 per cent in 2021-22.
• RBI undertook various measures such as G-Sec Acquisition Programme and Special Long-Term Repo Operations to provide further liquidity.
• YoY Bank credit growth accelerated gradually in 2021-22 from 5.3 per cent in April 2021 to 9.2 per cent as on 31st December 2021.
• The Gross Non-Performing Advances ratio of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) declined from 11.2 per cent at the end of 2017-18 to 6.9 per cent at the end of September, 2021.
• Net Non-Performing Advances ratio declined from 6 percent to 2.2 per cent during the same period.
• Capital to risk-weighted asset ratio of SCBs continued to increase from 13 per cent in 2013-14 to 16.54 per cent at the end of September 2021.
• Rs. 89,066 crore was raised via 75 Initial Public Offering (IPO) issues in April-November 2021, which is much higher than in any year in the last decade.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The government has invited stakeholder comments on a proposal that seeks to establish ‘Federated Digital Identities’ to optimise the number of digital identities that a citizen needs to have, by linking various consumer identification data into a single unique ID for digital transactions such as authentication and eKYC services.

• The proposal is part of the Electronics and IT Ministry’s India Enterprise Architecture 2.0 (IndEA 2.0) framework that aims to enable the governments and the private sector enterprises to design IT architectures that can span beyond organisational boundaries for delivery of integrated services.
• “As various government platforms across domains are being digitised, there is a tendency to create more IDs each with its own ID card, ID management, and effort to make it unique, etc,” the Ministry has said in the draft, on which stakeholder comments have been invited till February 27.
• InDEA 2.0 proposes a model of Federated Digital Identities that seeks to optimise the number of digital identities that a citizen needs to have. The model empowers the citizen by putting her in control of these identities and providing her the option of choosing which one to use for what purpose. It gives the agency to the citizens and protects privacy-by-design.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Delhi University has officially notified that it would be scrapping its MPhil programme from the coming academic year (2022-23), in line with the National Education Policy (NEP), which mandates this.

• The National Education Policy document simply states that the MPhil programme should be discontinued. The document does not provide a reason or rationale.
• The Master of Philosophy (MPhil) is a postgraduate degree.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Union Minister VK Singh called The New York Times “supari media” over its report that India was among the countries that bought Israel’s company NSO Group’s spying software ‘Pegasus’.

• Supari or the areca nut is more popularly known as the betel nut as it is used with betel leaves to make pan.
• However, over a period of times it has been used by the underworld to indicate a contract given to a person to kill someone else in exchange for money.
• Over the past few years, it has not been restricted to giving a contract to kill someone but also to damage the reputation of another person.
• One of the major supari killings was that of music baron Gulshan Kumar who had been shot dead on August 12, 1997 outside a temple in Andheri.
• As per police, the plot to bump him off was hatched in Dubai by Dawood’s brother Anees Ibrahim and Rs 25 lakh had been paid to the killers.
• Hence both statements are correct.

India is laying out the red carpet for Oman’s top defence official Mohammed Nasser Al Zaabi, who will be in India from January 30 to February 4 on an official visit.

• Zaabi will be in Delhi to co-chair the Joint Military Cooperation Committee (JMMC) with Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar.
• The JMCC is the highest forum of engagement between India and Oman in the field of defence that evaluates and provides guidance to the overall framework of defence exchanges between the two sides.
• The JMCC is expected to meet annually, but could not be organised since 2018 when the meeting of the 9th JMCC was held in Oman.

Why is Oman important from a defence and strategic point of view?

• Oman is India’s closest defence partner in the Gulf region and an important anchor for India’s defence and strategic interests.
• Defence cooperation has emerged as a key pillar for the robust India-Oman strategic partnership. Defence exchanges are guided by a Framework MOU which was recently renewed in 2021.
• Oman is the only country in the Gulf region with which all three services of the Indian armed forces conduct regular bilateral exercises and staff talks, enabling close cooperation and trust at the professional level. Oman also provides critical operational support to Indian naval deployments in the Arabian sea for anti-piracy missions.
• Bilateral training cooperation between the two sides is also robust with Omani forces regularly subscribing to training courses in India both at professional as well as higher command level.
• Indian armed forces also subscribe to the Staff and Command courses conducted at NDC, Oman. Oman also actively participates in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS).
• Hence both statements are correct.

• The Reverse Repo Normalisation means the reverse repo rates will go up i.e. raising the reverse repo rate in one or two stages. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • In the face of rising inflation, several central banks across the world have either increased interest rates or signalled that they would do so soon.
  • In India, too, it is expected that the RBI will raise the repo rate. But before that, it is expected that the RBI will raise the reverse repo rate and reduce the gap between the two rates.
• The process of normalisation is mainly aimed at curbing inflation. Hence, statement 2 is correct
• However, it will not only reduce excess liquidity but also result in higher interest rates across the board in the Indian economy.
  • Thus reducing the demand for money among consumers (since it would make more sense to just keep the money in the bank) and making it costlier for businesses to borrow fresh loans. Hence, statement 3 is correct.

• Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of infections that are most common among marginalised communities in the developing regions of Africa, Asia and the Americas. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• NTDs are especially common in tropical areas where people do not have access to clean water or safe ways to dispose of human waste.
• They are caused by a variety of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, protozoa and parasitic worms. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• NTDs affect more than a billion people globally.
  • They are preventable and treatable. However, these diseases - and their intricate interrelationships with poverty and ecological systems - continue to cause devastating health, social and economic consequences.
  • There are 20 NTDs that impact over 1.7 billion people worldwide.
  • Hence, statement 3 is not correct.