Daily Current Affairs MCQ- July 8, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

The government is expecting costs of the tricolour to come down as a result of the change made to the Flag Code of India 2002.

• The first national flag is said to have been hoisted on August 7, 1906, at the Parsee Bagan Square, near Lower Circular Road, in Calcutta (now Kolkata).
• It consisted of three horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green.
• Later, in 1921, freedom fighter Pingali Venkayya met Mahatma Gandhi and proposed a basic design of the flag, consisting of two red and green bands.
• After undergoing several changes, the Tricolour was adopted as our national flag at a Congress Committee meeting in Karachi in 1931.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam at Varanasi.

• The Samagam is being organized by the Education Ministry in association with University Grants Commission and Banaras Hindu University.
• The three-day event will bring together over 300 Vice-Chancellors and Directors from public and private universities, educationists, policymakers, as also industry representatives.
• The summit will provide a platform for leading Indian Higher Educational Institutions to discuss, deliberate, and share insights on strategies, success stories, and best practices in implementing the National Education Policy-2020.
• The key highlight of the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam will be the adoption of the Varanasi Declaration on Higher Education which will showcase India’s extended vision and a renewed commitment to help achieve the goals of higher education system.

Hence both statements are correct.

A study in Nature Scientific Data describes the Australian Shark-Incident Database, with comprehensive reports of 1,196 shark bites in Australia over 231 years (1791–2022).

• LOCATION OF BITE: Deaths most often occurred following shark bites to the torso, the analysis found.
• SHARK SPECIES: Tiger sharks were found proportionally responsible for the most fatalities of all shark species in Australia (38% of all tiger shark bites result in fatality), followed by bull sharks (32% of bites fatal), and white sharks (25% of bites fatal).

Hence both statements are correct.

• Parliamentary Committees drew members from both Houses roughly in proportion to the strength of the political parties in the respective Houses. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• The three financial committees are the Public Accounts Committee, the Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings. 

Hence, statement 2 is correct.

• European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory and best known as operator of the Large Hadron Collider, which found the elusive God’s particle, Higgs boson in 2012. Hence, statement 1 and statement 2 are correct.
• CERN is based in Geneva on the French-Swiss border. It has 22 member states. India in 2016 became an associate member of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).
• India’s association with CERN goes back decades with an active involvement in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components/systems and its commissioning and software development and deployment in the machine.
• India was inducted as an ‘Observer’ at CERN in 2004. Its upgrade as associate member allows Indian companies to bid for lucrative engineering contracts and Indians can apply for staff positions at the organisation.

• Foreign portfolio investors are those that invest funds in markets outside of their home turf. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
  • Examples of FPIs include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs).
• FPI is part of a country’s capital account and is shown on its Balance of Payments (BOP). Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
• FPI is often referred to as “hot money” because of its tendency to flee at the first signs of trouble in an economy. FPI is more liquid, volatile and therefore riskier than FDI. 

Hence, statement 2 is not correct.

Direct Seeded Rice (DSR)

• Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), also known as the 'broadcasting seed technique,' is a water-saving method of sowing paddy. Hence statements 1 is correct.
• In this method, seeds are directly drilled into the fields. In contrast to the traditional water-intensive method of transplanting rice seedlings from a nursery to waterlogged fields, this method saves groundwater. Hence statements 2 is not correct.
  • There is no nursery preparation or transplantation involved in this method.
  • Farmers have to only level their land and give one pre-sowing irrigation.

Advantages of DSR

• Require less Number of Labours:
  • DSR can solve labour shortage problems because like the traditional method it does not require a paddy nursery and transplantation of 30 days old paddy nursery into the main puddled field.
• Avenues for Groundwater:
  • It offers avenues for ground water recharge as it prevents the development of hard crust just beneath the plough layer due to puddled transplanting.
  • It matures 7-10 days earlier than the puddle transplanted crop, therefore giving more time for management of paddy straw.
• Hence statements 3 is not correct.

The Global Findex Report 2021

• Recently, the World Bank has released 'The Global Findex Report 2021'.
• The Global Findex surveys over 125,000 adults in 123 economies during Covid-19 to better understand how people use formal and informal financial services and digital payment. Hence statement 1 and 2 is correct.
• The account ownership worldwide increased by 50 % to reach 76 % of the global adult population.
  • Recent growth in account ownership has been widespread across dozens of developing economies and most of the newly account opened in India and China. Hence statement 3 is correct.
• Access of Formal Banking:
  • Large shares of the global population without formal banking (130 million and 230 million, respectively) lives in India and China because of their size.
  • Women are often excluded from formal banking services because they lack official forms of identification, do not own a mobile phone or other forms of technology and have lower financial capability.
    • 74 % of men had an account in developing countries whereas women are six points behind, accounts for 68%.

The Finance Ministry released the fourth instalment of revenue deficit grant of ₹7,183 crore to 14 States for the current fiscal.

• The States for which Post Devolution Revenue Deficit (PDRD) Grant had been recommended by the 15th Finance Commission during FY23 are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
• The 15th Finance Commission had recommended a total PDRD Grant of ₹86,201 crore to 14 States for FY23.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a slew of temporary measures aimed at boosting foreign exchange inflows, including a doubling in the overseas borrowing limit for corporates and removal of interest rate ceilings for NRIs’ foreign currency deposits.

• The move comes as persistent capital outflows and a widening trade deficit have led to a sharp depreciation in the Indian rupee to new lows against the dollar.
• In order to further diversify and expand the sources of forex funding so as to mitigate volatility and dampen global spillovers, it has been decided to undertake measures to enhance forex inflows while ensuring overall macroeconomic and financial stability.
• As part of the measures, banks have been exempted from maintaining the stipulated Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) on incremental FCNR(B) and NRE term deposits mobilised up to November 4.
• It also freed banks to temporarily raise fresh FCNR(B) and NRE deposits without reference to extant regulations on interest rates, with effect from July 7 and up to October 31, 2022.
• To encourage foreign portfolio investment into debt, the RBI said the choice of government bonds available for investment under the fully accessible route (FAR) would be widened, with all new issuances of G-Secs of 7-year and 14-year tenors, including the current issuances of 7.10% GS 2029 and 7.54% GS 2036, designated as specified securities.
• The RBI also temporarily doubled the annual limit for External Commercial Borrowings (ECB) to $1.5 billion or its equivalent.

Hence both statements are correct.