Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 10, 2022 - CLAT MCQ

International Labour Day is being celebrated across the world on May 1.

• International Labour Day/international Workers Day is often referred to as May Day.
• The day is celebrated to honour the contribution of working men and women and to pay tribute to workers sacrifices in achieving economic and social rights all over the world.
• It is observed on May Day (1^st May), an ancient European spring festival. The date was chosen by a pan-national organization of socialist and communist political parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair, which occurred in Chicago on 4 May 1886.
• In India, the first Labour day or May Day was celebrated in 1923 in Chennai.
• During industrialization at the beginning of the 19th Century, the industrialists used to exploit the labour class and made them work up to 15 hours a day.
• The workers at Haymarket affair, in Chicago rose against this exploitation and demanded paid leaves, proper wages and breaks for the workforce.
• The day marks the victory of the workers' movement for eight hours of work.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

TRIFED has now entered into a collaborative project titled “Sustainable Livelihoods For Tribal Households in India” with The LINK Fund, a philanthropic operational foundation which is mandated to eradicate extreme poverty and mitigate the effects of climate change.

TRIFED and The LINK Fund have entered into a MoU on April 29, 2021 to work together towards Tribal Development and employment generation by providing support to tribals for increasing value addition in their produce and products. Hence statement 1 is incorrect.

As a part of this association, both the organizations will also work together to creating women-centered infrastructure and innovation and entrepreneurship. The LINK Fund (TLS) is a practitioner-led fund that , headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and works to end extreme poverty and mitigate the effects of climate change.

TRIFED, as the nodal agency working for the empowerment of tribals, has been focusing its efforts on finding new ways to improve the lives and the livelihoods of the tribal people. Hence statement 2 is correct.

The Ministry of Finance, Government of India has decided to provide an additional amount of upto Rs. 15,000 crore to States as interest free 50 year loan for spending on capital projects.

• The Department of Expenditure has issued fresh guidelines in this regard on the “Scheme of Financial Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure” for the financial year 2021-22.
• Under the Scheme, financial assistance is provided to the State Governments in the form of 50-year interest free loan. An amount not exceeding Rs.12,000 crore was earmarked for the scheme for the financial year 2020-21, and a sum of Rs.11,830.29 crore was released to the States. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• This helped to sustain state level capital expenditure in the pandemic year.
• In view of the positive response to the scheme and considering the requests of the State Governments, the Government has decided to continue the scheme in the year 2021-22.

The Scheme for Special Assistance to States for Capital Expenditure for 2021-22 has three Parts:

• Part-I: This part of the scheme is for the North-East and Hill States and an amount of Rs.2,600 crore has been earmarked for this part. Out of this, Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand will get Rs 400 crore each while remaining States in this group have been allocated Rs 200 crore each. Hence statement 2 is incorrect.
• Part-II: This part of the scheme is for all other States not included in Part-I. An amount of Rs 7,400 crore is earmarked for this part. This amount has been allocated amongst these States in proportion to their share of central taxes as per the award of the 15th Finance Commission for the year 2021-22.
• Part-III: This part of the scheme is for providing incentives to States for monetization/recycling of infrastructure assets and disinvestment of the State Public Sector Enterprises (SPSEs).
  • An amount of Rs.5,000 crore is allocated for this part of the scheme.
  • Under this part, States will receive interest free 50 years loan ranging from 33% to 100% of the amount realised by them, through assets monetization, listing and disinvestment.

The Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) has finalised and recommended quality standards for four spices; cloves, oregano, basil, and ginger, during its fifth session held virtually from 20th -29th April 2021.

• The committee forwarded these four new standards to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) for adoption at final step 8, as full -fledged Codex standards.
• The committee also took up the following new work items: to develop Codex standards for small cardamom and turmeric, and to develop the first group standard for spices that fall under the class 'dried fruits and berries'.
• CCSCH is the youngest of the Codex Commodity Committees. The Committee is Chaired by India and Spices Board India is its Secretariat. This committee is mandated to elaborate worldwide, science-based quality standards for spices and culinary herbs, in accordance with the Codex principles of consumer protection and fair trade practices. Dr M.R. Sudharshan is the current Chairman of the Committee.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The U.S. State Department recently approved the proposed sale of six P-8I patrol aircraft and related equipment to India, a deal estimated to cost $2.42 billion.

• In November 2019, the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, approved the procurement of the long-range maritime surveillance aircraft manufactured by Boeing.
• The original proposal was for 10 more aircraft but was cut down to six due to budgetary constraints as well as because the Navy had adopted some fleet rationalisation measures and was considering long-endurance unmanned platforms.
• The possible sale comes through the Foreign Military Sale route and requires that the U.S. Congress be notified.
• With India having signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) foundational agreement with the U.S., the six aircraft will come fitted with encrypted systems.
• These systems were replaced with commercial off-the-shelf systems in the earlier deals.
• The P-8I is based on the Boeing 737 commercial aircraft and India was its first international customer.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The World Health Organization has given the go-ahead for emergency use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

• The mRNA vaccine from the U.S. manufacturer joins vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in receiving the WHO’s emergency use listing.
• Messenger RNA vaccines—also called mRNA vaccines—are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases.
• Similar approvals for China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines are expected in the coming days and weeks.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Global warming and melting glaciers could have redistributed the global water fronts to such an extent that they have redefined the ‘polar wander’ or the drifting of the Earth’s axis, finds a study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

• Polar wander is the motion of a pole in relation to some reference frame. It can be used, for example, to measure the degree to which Earth's magnetic poles have been observed to move relative to the Earth's rotation axis.
• True polar wander represents the shift in the geographical poles relative to Earth's surface, after accounting for the motion of the tectonic plates. This motion is caused by the rearrangement of the mantle and the crust in order to align the maximum inertia with the current rotation axis.
• This is the situation with the lowest kinetic energy for the given, unchanging, angular momentum of the earth, and is attained as kinetic energy is dissipated due to the non-rigidity of the earth.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Over the past year, there have been deadly fires in hospital buildings, including those treating COVID-19 patients.

• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) says 330 people died in commercial building fires in 2019, while fatalities for residential or dwelling buildings were much higher at 6,329.
• Electrical faults are cited as the leading cause of fires but State governments are widely criticised for being lax with building safety laws and for failing to equip public buildings with modern technology.
• Hospital ICUs (intensive care units) are a great fire risk because they are oxygen-suffused, and need to meet high standards.
• Part 4 of the National Building Code of India deals with Fire and Life Safety. The document provides specifications and guidelines for design and materials that reduce the threat of destructive fires. Hospitals come under the institutional category in the code.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

India on Sunday received assistance from Taiwan, including oxygen concentrators and cylinders, with more batches of medical equipment set to follow from Taipei.

• Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China (ROC).
• It is a state in East Asia with Neighbouring states include the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the north-east, and the Philippines to the south.
• The East China Sea lies to its north, the Philippine Sea to its east, the Luzon Strait directly to its south and the South China Sea to its southwest.
• The Taiwan Strait separates the island of Taiwan from mainland China. The strait is currently part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north.
• Taipei is the capital.
• Taiwan is no longer a member of the UN, having been replaced by the PRC in 1971. Taiwan is claimed by the PRC, which refuses diplomatic relations with countries that recognise the ROC.
• Taiwan maintains official ties with 14 out of 193 UN member states and the Holy See.
• The bilateral relations between India and Taiwan have improved since the 1990s despite both nations not maintaining official diplomatic relations.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Several Covid positive patients with mild to moderate Covid symptoms, and some with negative RT-PCR reports but Covid symptoms are coming for CT scans.

• A CT scan is also known as computed tomography scan (formerly known as computed axial tomography or CAT scan).
• It is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to get detailed images of the body noninvasively for diagnostic purposes.
• The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers or radiology technologists.
• CT scanners use a rotating x-ray tube and a row of detectors placed in the gantry to measure X-ray attenuations by different tissues inside the body.
• The multiple X-ray measurements taken from different angles are then processed on a computer using reconstruction algorithms to produce tomographic (cross-sectional) images (virtual "slices") of a body.
• The use of ionizing radiations sometimes restricts its use owing to its adverse effects.
• Hence both statements are correct.