Daily Current Affairs MCQ - March 11, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted people on the occasion of the Herath festival.

• Herath festival is one of the biggest festivals of Kashmiri Pandits.
• The festival is marked by a night of praying followed by a day of feasting.
• Some say Herath means the night of Lord Shiva.

The Union Cabinet has approved the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Nidhi (PMSSN) as a single non-lapsable reserve fund for share of Health from the proceeds of Health and Education Cess levied under Section 136-b of Finance Act, 2007.

• A non-lapsable reserve fund for Health in the Public Account;
• Proceeds of share of health in the Health and Education Cess will be credited into PMSSN;
• Accruals into the PMSSN will be utilized for the flagship schemes of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare namely,
  (i) Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY)
  (ii) Ayushman Bharat - Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs)
  (iii) National Health Mission
  (iv) Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)
  (v) Emergency & disaster preparedness and responses during health emergencies
  (vi) Any future programme/scheme that targets to achieve progress towards SDGs and the targets set out in the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017.
• Administration and maintenance of the PMSSN is entrusted to Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; and
• In any financial year, the expenditure on such schemes of the MoHFW would be initially incurred from the PMSSN and thereafter, from Gross Budgetary Support (GBS).
• The major benefit will be: enhanced access to universal & affordable health care through availability of earmarked resources, while ensuring that the amount does not lapse at the end of financial year.
• In the budget speech 2018, the Finance Minister while announcing Ayushman Bharat Scheme, also announced replacement of existing 3% Education Cess by 4% Health and Education Cess.

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) received the prestigious “King Bhumibol World Soil Day - 2020 Award” of FAO.

• The international recognition was announced by the FAO, Rome on the eve of World Soil Day - 2020 in view of the ICAR’s excellent contributions in “Soil Health Awareness” on the theme “Stop soil erosion, save our future” during the last year.
• Launched in 2018, the King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award acknowledges individuals or institutions that raise public awareness of soils by organising successful and influential World Soil Day celebrations.
• The award, sponsored by the Kingdom of Thailand, is named after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand for his lifelong commitment to raising awareness of the importance of sustainable soil management and rehabilitation for food security, poverty alleviation and more. 
• Formers winners of the King Bhumibol World Soil Day Award include Practical Action in Bangladesh in 2018 and the Costa Rican Soil Science Society (AACS) in 2019.

Indian Navy’s third stealth Scorpene class Submarine INS Karanj has been commissioned at the Naval Dockyard Mumbai through a formal commissioning ceremony.

• Six Scorpene Class submarines are being built in India by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) Mumbai, under collaboration with M/s Naval Group, France.
• INS Karanj would form part of the Western Naval Command’s Submarine fleet.
• The Scorpene Submarines are one of the most advanced conventional submarines in the world.
• These platforms are equipped with the latest technologies in the world. More deadly and stealthier than their predecessors, these submarines are equipped with potent weapons and sensors to neutralise any threat above or below the sea surface.

The India – Uzbekistan joint military exercise “DUSTLIK II” commenced in Foreign Training Node Chaubatia, Ranikhet (Uttarakhand). It will continue till 19th March 2021.

• 45 Soldiers each from Uzbekistan and Indian Army are participating in the exercise.
• Both contingents will be sharing their expertise and skills in the field of counter terrorist operations in mountainous/rural/urban scenario under UN mandate.
• This is the Second Edition of annual bilateral joint exercise of both armies.
• The first edition of the exercise was held at Uzbekistan in Nov 2019.

The Kerala High Court restrained the Centre from taking coercive action against Live Law Media Private Ltd., which owns a legal news portal, for not complying with Part III of the new IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

• The court issued notice to the Centre on a petition filed by the firm challenging the rules regulating digital news media, curated content (OTT platforms), and social media intermediaries.
• The petition said Part III of the rules imposed an unconstitutional three-tier complaints and adjudication structure on publishers.
• The creation of a grievance redressal mechanism, through a governmental oversight body (an inter-departmental committee constituted under Rule 14) amounted to excessive regulation.
• Rule 4(2), which makes it mandatory for every social media intermediary to enable tracing of originators of information on its platform, purportedly in furtherance of Section 69 of the IT Act, violated Article 19(1)(a) (freedom of speech and expression).
• It also deprived the intermediaries of their “safe-harbour protections” under Section 79 of the IT Act.
• The rules obligating messaging intermediaries to alter their infrastructure to “fingerprint” each message on a mass scale for every user to trace the first originator was violative of the fundamental right to privacy of Internet users.

The country’s biggest floating solar power plant till date, by generation capacity, which is being developed by the NTPC in the reservoir of its thermal plant at Ramagundam in Peddapalli district, Telangana, is set to be commissioned by May-June next.

• Work on this 100 megawatt floating solar power plant at Ramagundam is in the final stages of completion.
• This will be one of the renewable (solar) energy plants being developed by the NTPC with an installed capacity of 447 MW in the southern region and the entire capacity will be commissioned by March 2023.
• Except for the 230 MW ground-mounted solar power plant at Ettayapuram in Tamil Nadu, the remaining 217 MW capacity was to be commissioned by May-June this year.

The Parliament has passed the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2021 with Lok Sabha approving it. Rajya Sabha had already passed the bill last month.

• The legislation aims to amend the National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second Act, 2011. The 2011 Act was valid till 31st December last year. The Bill seeks to extend this deadline to till the end of December 2023.
• The 2011 Act provided for the regularisation of unauthorised colonies in the National Capital which existed as on 31st March , 2002, and where construction took place till 1st June, 2014.
• The Bill amends this to provide that unauthorised colonies will be identified for regularisation as per the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Act, 2019, and the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Regulations, 2019.
• The legislation provides that the unauthorised colonies which existed as on 1st June 2014, and have 50 per cent development as on 1st January, 2015, will be eligible for regularisation.

The Parliament gave its nod to the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 with Rajya Sabha passing it. The Lok Sabha has already passed the bill last month.

• The legislation seeks to amend the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The Act contains provisions to deal with domestic and international arbitration and defines the law for conducting conciliation proceedings.

• The Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 provides for the following:

  • to grant unconditional stay of enforcement of arbitral awards, where the underlying arbitration agreement, contracts or arbitral award is induced by fraud or corruption;

  • to omit Eighth Schedule of the Act which laid down the qualifications, experience and norms for accreditation of arbitrators; and

  • to specify by regulations the qualifications, experience and norms for accreditation of arbitrators and the said amendment is consequential in nature.

Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises inaugurated two technology centres at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, three extension centres of big technological centres and seven mobile Udyam Express.

• The Ministry of MSME has rolled out the Technology Centres Systems Programme to develop the competitiveness ecosystems of MSME in the country.

• These Technology Centres will train more than 16 thousand students annually and have infrastructure for training and production.

• The minister also launched the 7 Udyan Express Mobile Vans with a view to provide assistance to MSME in remote areas and also make aware the youth of rural areas about government’s schemes.