Daily Current Affairs MCQ - March 9, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Minister of Civil Aviation flagged off the first flight from Delhi to the newly upgraded Trishul Military Airbase, Bareilly Airport, Uttar Pradesh.

• The Bareilly airport has been upgraded for commercial flight operations under the Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the Government of India.

• Trishul Military Airbase, Bareilly belongs to the Indian Air Force and the land was handed over to the Airport Authority of India for construction of the interim civil aviation operations. The upgradation was undertaken by the AAI with a cost of Rs. 65 crores.

• Alliance Air was awarded the Delhi - Bareilly route under the UDAN-4 bidding process last year.

Union Minister of Culture and Tourism informed Lok Sabha about the Declaration Of World Heritage Sites By UNESCO.

• At present, India has 38 World Heritage Properties. All the sites under the Ministry are conserved as per ASI's Conservation Policy.

• At present, India has 42 sites listed under Tentative List which is a pre-requisite condition for inscription as World Heritage Site.

  • 'Dholavira: A Harappan City' has been submitted for nomination of World Heritage Site in 2019-2020.

  • Nomination dossiers of 'Santiniketan, India' and 'Sacred Ensemble of Hoysalas' have been submitted to UNESCO for the year 2021-22 cycle.

• Augmentation of sites on the World Heritage List/Tentative List is a continuous process and sites are selected on the basis of their potential for fulfilling criteria under Operational Guidelines and demonstration of Outstanding Universal Value.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas informed Lok Sabha about SATAT scheme.

• SATAT scheme was launched on October 01, 2018 wherein Oil and Gas Marketing Companies (OGMCs) are inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential entrepreneur to procure Compressed Bio Gas (CBG).

• Under this scheme few of the enablers like assured price for offtake of CBG with long term agreements by OGMCs; inclusion of bio manures produced from CBG plants as Fermented Organic Manure (FOM) under Fertilizer Control Order 1985; inclusion of CBG projects under Priority Sector Lending by RBI have been provided.

• So far 9 CBG plants have been commissioned and started supply of CBG under SATAT scheme. These plants are located in Andhra Pradesh (1 No.), Gujarat (3 No.), Haryana (1 No.), Maharashtra (3 No.) and Tamil Nadu (1 No.).

• These plants are set up by entrepreneurs and private companies who have raised financial resources to develop these plants on the basis of LoIs issued by OGMCs.

Indian Railway announced integrated Rail Madad Helpline number "139" for all type of queries/complaints/assistance during travel.

• To overcome the inconvenience over multiple helpline numbers for grievances and enquiry during railway travel, Indian Railway has integrated all railway helplines into single number 139 (Rail Madad Helpline) for quick grievance redressal and enquiry during the journey.

• As the new helpline number 139 will take over all the existing helpline numbers, it will be easy for the passengers to remember this number and connect with Railways for all their needs during the travel.

• The Helpline 139 will be available in twelve languages.

• There is no need of a smart phone to call on 139, thus, providing easy access to all mobile users.

• Ministry of Railways has also launched Social Media campaign #OneRailOneHelpline139 to inform and educate the passengers.

Following below are the Programmes launched by Government to promote women entrepreneurship across the country.

• The Ministry of Skill Development is implementing Pradhan Mantri YUVA (PM YUVA) Yojana, a pilot scheme, for creating an enabling ecosystem through entrepreneurship education, training, advocacy and easy access to entrepreneurship network.

• Ministry of Skill Development is implementing the pilot project, 'Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Startups by Women' in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Germany.

• Ministry of MSME is implementing the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which has the target to generate self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises for non-farm sector.

• Ministry of Rural Development is implementing Skill development program through Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) enabling a trainee to take Bank credit and start his/her own Micro-enterprise.

• Ministry of Rural Development is also implementing Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) which aims at eliminating rural poverty through promotion of multiple livelihoods for each rural poor household.

• Under the Sub-scheme i.e. Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) covered under DAY-NRLM, a total of 194,144 enterprises have been set-up ( up to 31st January, 2021).

The Centre has reconstituted an advisory committee to chalk out a plan for studying the mythical Sarasvati river for the next two years, after the earlier panel's term ended in 2019.

A boy was killed in a tiger attack at Belluru village in Ponnampet taluk of Kodagu (Coorg) district, Karnataka. the Forest Department team has tracked the animal to a sacred grove or devara kaadu.

• Devara Kaadu (Sacred Forest) is a small forest like grove marked as the adobe of the local deities.

• Coorg has many hundred such sacred groves scattered all over the region.

• Some of them are sprawling mini forests with many hundred acres of span, while the rest are of smaller scales anything from an acre upwards.

• As these areas are considered sacred, the groves are left un touched. The trees and never pruned, no paths are cut into the groves, not even the fallen trees, leaves or twigs are cleared.

• Inside the Devara Kaadu there are shrines dedicated to various deities.

The groves in Maharashtra are called deorais or devrais and are concentrated in Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Kolhapur. A rare variety of biodiversity prevails in these areas. The entire state contains approximately 250 groves.

In Bihar it is known as sarnas, the groves in Bihar are fairly small and only consist of 2 to 20 trees. Full of creepers, shrubs and grasses, these trees are generally collected in the Chotanagpur region.

According to information provided to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources, Only half of government schools and anganwadis have tap water supply, despite a 100-day campaign for 100% coverage being launched by the Jal Shakti Ministry in October 2020.

• Less than 8% of schools in Uttar Pradesh and 11% in West Bengal have it, while it is available in only 2-6% of anganwadis in Assam, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bengal.

• The campaign to provide potable piped water supply for drinking and cooking purposes and tap water for washing hands and in toilets in every school, anganwadi and ashramshala or residential tribal school was launched on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti.

• The 100-day period should have ended on January 10, 2021. However, as of February 15, only 48.5% of anganwadis and 53.3% of schools had tap water supply, the Ministry told the Parliamentary panel.

• Seven States — Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Punjab — achieved 100% coverage.

The Prime Minister Modi led National Committee to commemorate 75 years of independence, Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav held its first meeting.

• The Prime Minister informed that 5 pillars have been decided for the celebration of the 75 years.

• These are Freedom Struggle, Ideas at 75, Achievements at 75, Actions at 75 and Resolve at 75.

• Various members of the National Committee attended the meeting including Governors, Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, political leaders, scientists, officials, media personalities, spiritual Leaders and eminent persons from other walks of life.

For effective implementation of various schemes and programmes of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, all Ministry's major schemes have been classified under 3 umbrella schemes viz. Mission Poshan 2.0, Mission Vatsalya and Mission Shakti.

Schemes included under the Umbrella Scheme are as follows:

1. Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0:

   • Umbrella ICDS - Anganwadi Services, Poshan Abhiyan, Scheme for Adolescent Girls, National Creche Scheme.

2. Mission VATSALYA:

   • Child Protection Services and Child Welfare Services.

3. Mission Shakti (Mission for Protection and Empowerment for Women):

   • SAMBAL (One Stop Centre, Mahila Police Volunteer, Women's Helpline/Swadhar/Ujjawala/Widow Homes etc.)

   • SAMARTHYA (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Creche, Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana/ Gender Budgeting/Research/

• Mission Shakti will run in convergence with the other Missions/ Umbrella Schemes of M/o WCD [viz. Mission POSHAN 2.0; Mission VATSALYA; & Mission SAKSHAM-ANGANWADI (including-common-knowledge-cum-admin-backbone-from-national-to-panchayat-level).