Daily Current Affairs MCQ - March 24, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Ties between China and Taiwan, which have historically been rocky over issues such as sovereignty, foreign relations and military build-up, are now being tested by pineapples.

• On March 1, China banned the import of pineapples from Taiwan, alleging there was a risk of "harmful creatures" that could threaten its own agriculture.

• Since then, an angry Taiwan has refuted China's claims of pests being found in imported pineapples, and has gone on to insist that the move is aimed at increasing political pressure on Taiwan, which China considers its own province.

• Following this, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen kicked off a "pineapple challenge" on social media to attract more Taiwanese consumers to buy the fruit and counter China's move.

• Taiwan's foreign minister also urged "like-minded friends around the globe to stand with #Taiwan & rally behind the #FreedomPineapple".

The larger dispute between Taiwan and China

• Under its "One China" policy, Beijing considers Taiwan a province of China, even though Taiwan is a democratic, self-ruled country.

• Although the two participate separately in international events, China repeatedly insists that Taiwan should be called "Chinese Taipei", in efforts to prevent international recognition of Taiwan as a country.

• Towards the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, and before the post-war treaties were to be signed, members of the Kuomintang party (KMT) were driven out of the mainland by the Communists, who would later establish the People's Republic of China (PRC).

• The KMT retreated to Taiwan, becoming a government in exile. For some time, Taiwan was internationally recognised as the government of the Republic of China (RoC), and still officially calls itself so.

Some people may experience parosmia as a symptom of COVID-19.

• Parosmia is a medical term used to describe a condition in which affected individuals experience "distortions of the sense of smell".

• A person with parosmia can detect certain odours, but they might experience the smell of certain things as different and often unpleasant. For instance, to someone with parosmia, coffee may smell like burnt toast.

• Parosmia is a temporary condition and is not harmful.

• This abnormality is typically experienced by those people who are recovering their sense of smell following loss from a virus or an injury.

• Some common triggers of parosmia include roasted, toasted or grilled foods, coffee, onions, chocolate, garlic and eggs.

• It is likely that parosmia manifests itself due to the damage caused to the olfactory neurons when "the delicate and complex structure in the nose is attacked by a virus."

In a coordinated move, the European Union, the US, Britain, and Canada imposed sanctions on Chinese officials and entities, for human rights abuses against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province. The sanctions from EU, UK and Canada include travel bans and freezing of assets.

• This is the first time the EU has imposed sanctions on China since an arms embargo after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. That embargo is still in place.

• Although the EU sanctions are not very damaging, they show a hardening of stance against its largest trading partner. Also significant is that the Western powers moved together.

• China retaliated with sanctions of its own. It has consistently denied all reports of atrocities against Uighurs, maintaining it is only "deradicalizing" elements of its population in the interests of security.

Background:

• Xinjiang has a large number of Uighurs, Muslims of Turkic descent.

• Over the past few decades, more and more Han Chinese have settled in Xinjinag, which saw violent clashes between them and the Uighurs.

• China is now accused of putting over a million people in internment camps to "de-Muslimise" them and make them integrate better in the Communist country.

• Survivors and human rights organisations have alleged physical, psychological and sexual torture.

• People can be sent to the camps for showing any signs of "extremism" — sporting beards, fasting during Ramzan, dressing differently from the majority, sending Eid greetings, praying "too often" etc.

"Catalans" are the citizens of Catalonia, an autonomous community in Spain.

Kurds inhabit a mountainous region straddling the borders of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia. They make up the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.

World Tuberculosis Day is being observed on 24th March, 2021 to raise public awareness about TB.

• World Tuberculosis Day, which is observed every year on March 24.

• On this day in the year 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacteria that causes TB. It paved the way for diagnosis and cure of this deadly disease.

• The theme of World TB Day 2021 - 'The Clock is Ticking' –conveys the sense that the world is running out of time to act on the commitments to end TB made by global leaders.

• India has committed to end TB by 2025, five years ahead of the global targets.

The Union Cabinet was apprised on the progress under National Health Mission (NHM) during FY 2019-20.

The Cabinet noted that NHM has envisaged new Initiatives in 2019-20 as:

• Social Awareness and Actions to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) initiative was launched to accelerate action to reduce deaths due to childhood pneumonia.

• Surakshit Matritva Aashwasan (SUMAN) initiative was launched to provide assured, dignified, respectful and quality healthcare at no cost and zero tolerance for denial of services and all existing Schemes for maternal and neonatal health have been brought under one umbrella.

• Midwifery Services Initiative aims to create a cadre of Nurse Practitioners in Midwifery who are skilled in accordance to competencies prescribed by the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and are knowledgeable and capable of providing compassionate women-centered, reproductive, maternal and new-born health care services.

• School Health and Wellness Ambassadors Initiative has been launched under the AB-HWCs Programme in partnership with Ministry of Education to promote health and well-being through an active lifestyle amongst school children.

Targets under it:

• Reduce MMR to 1/1000 live births

• Reduce IMR to 25/1000 live births

• Reduce TFR to 2.1

• Reduce prevalence of Leprosy to < 1 /10000 population and incidence to zero in all districts

• Annual Malaria Incidence to be < I/1000

• Ending the TB epidemic by 2025 from the country.

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID), a central PSU under Ministry of Power has established an e-Tendering Portal-PRANIT.

• It will lead to less paperwork and ease of operation, making the tendering process more transparent.

• It has been certified by Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification Directorate (STQC), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.

• With this, POWERGRID is now the only organization in India to have an eProcurement solution on SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM), complying with all applicable requirements relating to security and transparency as stipulated by STQC.

India abstained from a crucial vote on Sri Lanka's rights record at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

• The resolution on 'Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka' was, however, adopted after 22 states of the 47-member Council voted in its favour.

• Sri Lanka, which had earlier deemed the resolution "politically motivated", was quick to reject the UN move to collect and preserve evidence of war crimes in the country, committed by the armed forces and the LTTE.

• The Sri Lanka resolution was the first to be voted on using the extraordinary e-voting procedures established for the UNHRC 46th Session, which has been held virtually.

• The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system.

• It meets at the UN Office at Geneva.

• It was founded in 2006. It replaced the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) that had been strongly criticised for allowing countries with poor human rights records to be members.

• It investigates allegations of breaches of human rights in UN member states.

• Membership:

  • The Council is made of 47 Member States, which are elected by the UN General Assembly. The Council's Membership is based on equitable geographical distribution.

  • Members of the Council serve for a period of three years and are not eligible for immediate re-election after serving two consecutive terms.

  • India has been elected to the UNHRC for a period of three years beginning January 1, 2019. India had previously been elected to the UNHRC for the 2011-2014 and 2014-2017 terms.

Eminent Carnatic vocalist and guru Lalitha died due to cardiac arrest. She was 70.

• Ms. Lalitha, along with her sister Haripriya, was an indomitable force on the classical music scene. The duo, known as Hyderabad Sisters, was known to draw houseful audiences to their concerts.

• Known for their 'manodharma' — the extempore rendition of ragas and sticking to pure traditional style — the sisters often enlightened the audience by presenting rare ragas and kritis.

• Both sisters have performed in all the leading sabhas of the country and abroad.

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha that "presently, there is no proposal to implement panchayat system in Sixth Schedule areas of Assam".

• The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution protects tribal populations and provides autonomy to the communities through creation of autonomous development councils that can frame laws on land, public health, agriculture and others.

• As of now, 10 autonomous councils exist in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.

• The specified tribal areas are the North Cachar Hills, Karbi Anglong and the Bodoland Territorial Area in Assam, Khasi Hills, Jaintiya Hills and Garo Hills in Meghalaya, Tribal Areas in Tripura, and Chakma, Mara and Lai districts in Mizoram.

• On January 23, 2019, the Union Cabinet approved amendments to increase the financial and executive powers of the autonomous councils.

• The Constitution (125th Amendment) Bill, 2019, was subsequently introduced in the Rajya Sabha on February 6, 2019, that provides for elected village municipal councils.

• The Bill that is still active proposes that the State Election Commissions would hold elections to the autonomous councils, village and municipal councils.

• The Bill was introduced in the Upper House so that the legislation remains active even as the House was adjourned sine die before the 2019 general election.

After a gap of more than two and half years Indian and Pakistani delegations began the 116th Meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission.

• The Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) is a bilateral commission consisting of officials from India and Pakistan.

• It was created to implement and manage the goals and objectives and outlines of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) which was signed in September 1960 with World Bank standing guarantee for any dispute resolution.

• The last meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission was held on August 29, 2018.

• The meeting which coincided with the National Day of Pakistan is being viewed as part of the broader process of normalisation of bilateral ties between the two neighbours.

• The two-day meeting of the Commission is being led on the Indian side by Indus Water Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Saxena. The Pakistani delegation is led by Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mohammad Mehr Ali Shah.