Daily Current Affairs MCQ - July 16, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

PM Modi inaugurated various development projects in Varanasi which includesTourist Facilitation Centre under the Project “Development of Varanasi Under PRASHAD Scheme – Phase II” and operation of Cruise Boat from Assi Ghat to RajGhat under the Project “Development of River Cruise in Varanasi under PRASHAD Scheme”.

• The ‘National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) is a Central Sector Scheme fully financed by the Government of India launched by the Ministry of Tourism in the year 2014-15.
• Its objective is integrated development of identified pilgrimage and heritage destinations.
• The project “Development of Varanasi Under PRASHAD Scheme – Phase II” was approved by the Ministry of Tourism with the cost of Rs. 44.69 crores in Feb. 2018.

Hence statement 2 is incorrect.

Government approves implementation of a special livestock sector package consisting of several activities by revising and realigning various components of Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying schemes for next 5 years starting from 2021-22.

• This package envisages Central Government’s support amounting to Rs.9800 crore over duration of 5 years for leveraging total investment of Rs. 54,618 crore for 5 years.

As per this, all the schemes of the Department will be merged into three broad categories as

1. Development Programmes which includes Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD), National Livestock Mission (NLM) and Livestock Census and Integrated Sample Survey (LC & ISS) as sub-schemes,
2. Disease Control programme renamed as Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH & DC) which includes the present Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH & DC) scheme and National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) and
3. Infrastructure Development Fund wherein, the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development fund (AHIDF) and the Dairy Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) are merged and the present scheme for support to Dairy Cooperatives and Farmer Producer Organizations engaged in Dairy activities is also included in this third category.

Hence both statements are correct.

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered grievance management application in New Delhi on July 15, 2021, developed by Ministry of Defence with the help of IIT-Kanpur.

• This is the first AI based system developed to improve grievance redressal in the Government.
• The AI tool developed as part of the initiative has capability to understand the content of the complaint based on the contents therein. As a result, it can identify repeat complaints or spam automatically.
• Based on the meaning of the complaint, it can categorise complaints of different categories

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

PM Modi addresses World Youth Skill Day Programme.

• The United Nations, at its General Assembly in November 2014, declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day.
• The Day is an opportunity for technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions to acknowledge the importance of equipping young people with skills for employment.

SDG 4

• Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.
• The vision of the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030 is fully captured by Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has requested States and Union Territories (UTs)to direct all police stations under their jurisdiction not to register cases under the repealed Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

• It has also asked the States and UTs to sensitize law enforcement agencies for the compliance of the order issued by the Supreme Court on 24.03.2015.
• The MHA has also requested that if any case has been booked in States and UTs under section 66A of the IT Act, 2000, such cases should be immediately withdrawn.
• The Supreme Court in its judgment on 24.03.2015 in the matter of Shreya Singhal Vs. Union of India, had struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
• This made Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 null and void with effect from the date of the order, therefore 24.03.2015 and hence no action could be taken under this section.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Plant genetic engineering methods were developed over 30 years ago, and since then, genetically modified (GM) crops or transgenic crops have become commercially available and widely adopted in many countries.

In India, Bt cotton was approved by Government of India in March 2002 as the first transgenic crop for commercial cultivation.

Though, it is widely claimed that transgenic crops offers dramatic promise for meeting some of greatest challenges but like all new technologies, it also poses certain risks, because of the fact that transgenic crops can bring together new gene combinations which are not found in nature having possible harmful effects on health, environmental and non-target species.

Transgenic crops are not toxic nor are likely to proliferate in the environment. However, specific crops may be harmful by virtue of novel combinations of traits they possess.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has notified the inclusion of retail and wholesale trade under the ambit of the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) category. 

This will help retail and wholesale trade benefit from priority sector lending under RBI guidelines.

As many as 2.5 crore retail and wholesale traders stand to benefit from the revised guidelines. The move will also let them register on the Udyam portal for MSMEs. 

Udyam Registration portal is the government’s official portal to register an MSME. The beneficiaries of the new change would be retail and wholesale trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, retail trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles, and wholesale trade except of motor vehicles and motorcycles.

In order to mitigate the stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on several sectors across the country, the government has announced an Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, which incorporates ECLGS 1.0, ECLGS 2.0 and ECLGS 3.0. The scheme aimed to provide Rs 3 lakh crore worth of collateral-free, government-guaranteed loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across India to mitigate the distress caused by the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The BASIC group was formed as the result of an agreement signed by the four countries on November 28, 2009.

They are a bloc of four large newly industrialized countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China.

Significance of the grouping:

• Objectives: The signatory nations have a broadly common position on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and raising the massive funds that are needed to fight climate change.
• The BASIC countries constituted one of the parties in the Copenhagen Accord reached with the US-led grouping; the Accord, was, however, not legally binding.
• BASIC is one of several groups of nations working together to fight climate change and carry out negotiations within the UNFCCC.

• International Solar Alliance was launched by the Prime Minister of India and the President of France on 30th November 2015 in Paris, France on the side-lines of the Conference of the Parties (COP-21), with 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn as prospective members. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• PM- KUSUM:
  • KUSUM stands for Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan.
  • It’s objective is to provide financial and water security to farmers through harnessing solar energy capacities of 25,750 MW by 2022. Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• Every year, 15^th July is observed as the World Youth Skills Day.
  • It was designated by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2014. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
  • The aim is to equip young people around the world with essential skills for employment, work, and entrepreneurship.
• According to the estimates of UNESCO, schools were shut down for over 30 weeks in 50% of the countries between March 2020 and May 2021.
  • Youth employment fell 8.7% last year, compared with 3.7% for adults.
• The Prime Minister of India announced the 75 newly sanctioned Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JJSs) and also launched a portal made specifically for JSS.
  • JSSs aim to provide vocational training to non-literates, neo-literates as well as school dropouts in rural areas, by identifying skills that might be relevant to the market of that region. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Special Initiatives for Skill Development of the Tribal Community:
  • 'Going Online As Leaders' -GOAL are helping tribal population with areas like art and culture, handicraft, textiles and digital literacy among tribal areas leading to entrepreneurship development among the tribal population. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
  • Similarly, Van Dhan Yojna is effectively connecting the tribal society with new opportunities.