Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 12, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Turlapaty Kutumba Rao (1933 – 2021) was an Indian journalist and orator, known for his service to journalism in Telugu language.

• He is reported to have written over 4000 biographies and delivered over 16000 public speeches which the Telugu Book of Records has recorded as a world record.
• He was a secretary to T. Prakasham, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and was known to have mooted the idea of demarcating states based on language in 1947, when India became independent.
• He was a recipient of the title of Guardian of Telugu from C. Rajagopalachari, then Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
• He was honored in 2002, with the Padma Shri making him the first journalist from the state of Andhra Pradesh to receive the award.

Ministry of Coal launched Single Window Clearance Portal, a unified platform that facilitates grant of clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India.

• Single Window Clearance Portal is in the spirit of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance. It would be a milestone for Ease of Doing Business in the Indian Coal Sector.
• Presently, about 19 major approval or clearances are required to be obtained before starting a coal mine in the country.
• The Portal will map the relevant application formats and process flow for grant of approval or clearances.
• The portal was launched in New Delhi in an event to execute agreements with successful bidders of India’s first ever commercial coal mine auctions.
• Recently, 19 successful bidders were allotted mines under the country's first commercial coal mining auction. This will give the states an estimated revenue of about Rs 6,500 crore per year and will also create more than 70,000 jobs.
   

The State-owned undertakings Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) have turned EBITDA positive in first 6 months of this financial year.

• EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.
• It is a metric used to evaluate a company’s overall financial performance. EBITDA is a measure of profits.
• EBITDA is now commonly used to compare companies' financial health and evaluate firms with different tax rates and depreciation policies.
• Among its drawbacks, EBITDA is not a substitute for analysing a company's cash flow and can make a company look like it has more money to make interest payments than it really does.
• EBITDA also ignores the quality of a company's earnings and can make it look cheaper than it really is.
   

The second edition of the biennial pan-India coastal defence exercise ‘Sea Vigil-21’ will be conducted on 12-13 January 2021.

• The exercise, inaugural edition of which was conducted in January 2019; will be undertaken along the entire 7516 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
• It will involve all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities.
• The Indian Navy is coordinating the exercise.
• The exercise is a build up towards the major Theatre level exercise TROPEX [Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise] which Indian Navy conducts every two years.
• SEA VIGIL and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including transition from peace to conflict.

The North East Venture Fund (NEVF) is gaining popularity among Start-Ups and young entrepreneurs.

• The NDA government introduced it. The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had joined with North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) to set up the North East Venture Fund.
• It the first and the only Venture Fund for Northeast with an initial corpus of Rs. 100 crores.
• The fund targets to invest in Start-Ups and unique business opportunities to provide resources for new entrepreneurships.
• The main focus of NEVF is for mostly the enterprises involved in Food Processing, Healthcare, Tourism, segregation of services, IT, etc.
• The investment size with the Venture Fund Scheme ranges between Rs.25 lakhs and Rs. 10 crores with a long term horizon of five to ten years.

Union Minister for Environment released Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of 146 National Park and Wildlife Sanctuaries in the Country.

• At present, India has a network of 903 Protected Areas in the country covering about 5% of the country's total geographic area. In order to assess the efficacy of Protected Areas, evaluation of management effectiveness is required.
• Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Protected Areas (PAs) has emerged as a key tool for PA managers and is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.
• The present assessment results are encouraging with an overall mean MEE score of 62.01% which is higher than the global mean of 56%.
• With this round of evaluation, the Ministry of Environment successfully completed one full cycle of evaluating all terrestrial National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries of the country from 2006 to 2019.

• The minister also announced that from this year onwards 10 best National Parks, 5 coastal and Marine parks and top five Zoos in the country will be ranked and awarded every year.

• A new framework for MEE of Marine Protected Areas has been also jointly prepared by WII and Ministry of Environment and it will be very useful document to implement.

The Union Environment Minister launched the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Indian Zoos (MEE-ZOO) framework.

• The framework proposes guidelines, criteria, and indicators for evaluating zoos of the country in a discrete, holistic, and independent manner.
• The assessment criteria and indicators look beyond the traditional concepts, include issues of animal welfare, husbandry and sustainability of resources and finance.
• The MEE-ZOO exercise is moving towards developing highest standards in Zoos across India and adhering to core values of accountability, transparency, innovation, use of technology, collaboration and integrity to achieve the mandate of conservation of endangered species.
   

Union Minister for MSME will be launching an innovative new paint developed by Khadi and Village Industries Commission on 12th January.

• The eco-friendly, non-toxic paint, called “Khadi Prakritik Paint” is a first-of-its-kind product, with anti-fungal, anti-bacterial properties.
• The paint has been certified by Bureau of Indian Standards. Khadi Prakritik Emulsion paint meets BIS 15489:2013 standards; whereas Khadi Prakritik Distemper paint meets BIS 428:2013 standards.
• Khadi Prakritik Paint is available in two forms – distemper paint and plastic emulsion paint.
• Chairman KVIC conceptualized the project in March 2020, and later developed by Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute, Jaipur (a KVIC unit).
• Based on cow dung as its main ingredient, the paint is cost-effective and odorless.
• The paint is free from heavy metals like lead, mercury, chromium, arsenic, cadmium and others.
• It will be a boost to local manufacturing and will create sustainable local employment through technology transfer.
• This technology will increase cow dung consumption as a raw material for eco-friendly products and generate additional revenue to farmers and gaushalas. This is estimated to generate additional income of Rs 30,000 (approx.) per annum per animal to farmers/ gaushalas.
• Utilization of cow dung will also clean the environment and prevent clogging of drains.
   

In association with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the Ministry of Power organised the 30th National Energy Conservation Awards (NECA) function.

• During the event, the Standards and Labelling Programme for Air Compressors and Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV was launched on a voluntary basis
• The energy consumption standards will be effective from 01st January 2021.
• This initiative is expected to save around 8.41 Billion Units of electricity for Air Compressors and 9.75 Billion Units for UHD TV till 2030.

SAATHEE (State-wise Actions on Annual Targets and Headways on Energy Efficiency) – A portal for State Designated Agency for state level activities was also launched.

• BEE has developed a Management Information System (MIS) portal namely SAATHEE.
• It will facilitate real-time monitoring of the progress of implementation of various Energy Conservation endeavours at State level.

Apple, Amazon and Google have suspended the social network called Parler, saying that the platform has not taken enough measures to make sure that content inciting violence remains in check.

• Parler is an American alt-tech microblogging and social networking service.
• Launched in August 2018, Parler markets itself as a free speech and unbiased alternative to mainstream social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
• Parler has a significant user base of Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists.
• The move has come following the events of January 6 when an armed mob of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill and clashed with the police as Congress convened to validate Joe Biden’s presidential win.
• Right-leaning users favour the platform and as per media reports were actively used by US President Donald Trump supporters, including several of those who participated in the Capitol Hill siege.