Daily Current Affairs MCQ - November 29, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $300 million loan to strengthen and improve access to comprehensive primary health care in urban areas of 13 states that will benefit over 256 million urban dwellers including 51 million from slum areas.

• The programme supports the Government of India’s key health initiatives - Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC) and Pradhan Mantri Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana (PM-ASBY) - which has been renamed as Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM)
• Ayushman Bharat programme, launched in 2018, aims to improve access to comprehensive primary health care as a key strategy to achieve universal health coverage in India.
• With the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that put additional pressure on the country’s health system, the government launched PM-ASBY later renamed as PM-ABHIM in October 2021 to adopt a long-term approach to system strengthening to prepare for future pandemics and other emergencies.
• The programme will be implemented in urban areas across 13 states: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and West Bengal.
• The programme is supported by a $2 million technical assistance grant from ADB’s Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers inaugurated the 2nd Global Chemicals & Petrochemicals Manufacturing Hub (GCPMH).

• The event is being organised by the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India jointly with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), in Phygital format (Physical and Digital) and aims to transform India to a global chemical and Petro-chemical manufacturing hub.
• The summit highlights the true potential of the Indian Chemicals and Petrochemicals Sector to the world.

PCPIRs

• This edition of the Summit will strengthen our effort to establish Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Regions (PCPIRs) as world-class Chemicals and Petrochemicals Manufacturing terminals and Potential and a positive outlook of Indian chemical & petrochemical industry.
• The Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) policy, announced by the Government of India (GoI) in April 2007, envisages the development of Global Scale Industrial Corridors in the Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical sectors of the country.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has expressed gratitude to the people of Kongthong for a special tune in his honour and in appreciation of Government of India’s efforts in promoting the village as a prime tourism destination.

• Meghalaya's Kongthong village, which is also known as the "whistling village", recently honoured Prime Minister Narendra Modi by making him part of a unique tradition that goes back centuries.
• In this village, located in the lush, rolling hills of the northeast state, everyone's name is a melody as mothers compose a special tune for each child when it is born. Everyone in the village, inhabited by the Khasi people, then addresses the person with the individual little tune or whistle for a lifetime. They have conventional "real" names too, but they are rarely used.
• The custom of assigning tunes to residents here is known as "jingrwai lawbei", meaning "song of the clan's first woman", a reference to the Khasi people's mythical original mother.
• The Ministry of Tourism recently nominated the village for the UNWTO Best Tourism Villages Contest from India. To thanks the PM for his efforts, a tune was composed by a woman in the village in his honour.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept in limbo the proposal of its Internal Working Group (IWG) for granting banking licence to big corporate houses amid fears over connected lending and self-dealing if they are allowed in the banking space.

• Connected lending involves the controlling owner of a bank giving loans to himself or his related parties and group companies at favourable terms and conditions. Business groups need financing, and they can get it easily with no questions asked if they have an in-house bank. In short, companies can use the bank as a “private pool of readily available funds”. Big business groups already account for a major chunk of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking system even without becoming promoters of a bank.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Three years after the Department of Telecom permitted WiFi services on commercial flights, it is yet to become a reality for domestic air travellers as airlines grapple with the huge installation costs and the impact of COVID-19 on passenger demand.

• Domestic carriers have been slow in offering the service because retrofitting aircraft with the required antenna is an expensive affair that takes nearly 12 hours. Airlines find it difficult to pass on the costs to the passengers in an extremely competitive market for the cheapest ticket.
• However, international airlines such as Lufthansa, Air France and Emirates have started offering the service, though earlier they were switching it off on entering India skies.
• The equipment costs ₹3 crore to ₹4 crore for one aircraft, which is the entry barrier because it is difficult to recover the cost from passengers.
• Full-service carrier Vistara is the only Indian airline to offer it since September 2020.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

One in two women who go to a private hospital undergoes a Caesarean section (C-section), according to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data.

• The increasing trend in private medical facilities, which have seen a rise in such operations from 40.9% to 47.4%, has led to a jump in pan-India numbers — from 17.2% in 2014-2015 to 21.5% in 2019-2020, according to NFHS-5. This means that one in five women who go to any medical facility, private or public, undergoes a C-section.
• When medically justified, a C-section can effectively prevent maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity. According to the World Health Organization, the ideal rate is between 10% and 15%.
• When the rates rise towards 10% across a population, the number of maternal and newborn deaths decreases. When the rate goes above 10%, there is no evidence that mortality rates improve.
• There are many States and Union Territories where private hospitals conduct seven or eight out of 10 deliveries through C-section. These include West Bengal (82.7%), Jammu and Kashmir (82.1%), Tamil Nadu (81.5%), Andaman and Nicobar (79.2%) and Assam (70.6%).
• Hence both statements are correct.

Ministry of Communications has said that Starlink Internet Services is not licensed to offer satellite-based internet services in India as being advertised to the public.

• It has come to notice that Starlink has started pre-selling or booking of the satellite based Starlink Internet Services in India and the same is also evident from the website of Starlink wherein satellite-based internet services can be booked by users in Indian territory.
• For rendering satellite-based services in India, requisite licenses from Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications is required.
• The Ministry informed the public at large that the company has not obtained any license or authorization for rendering satellite-based internet services that are being booked on their website.

Starlink

• Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX providing satellite Internet access to most of the Earth.
• The constellation consists of over 1600 satellites in mid-2021, and will eventually consist of many thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with designated ground transceivers.
• SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

NASA has once again changed the launch date of the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from December 18 to December 22.

• JWST will be launched on an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from French Guiana in South America. The rocket system is being contributed by the European Space Agency (ESA).
• The telescope is the result of an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
• JWST, which is a large infrared telescope, will study “every phase” in the history of the universe, including the Big Bang, the formation of solar systems that are capable of supporting life on other planets and also, the evolution of our own Solar System.
• It is also considered a successor of the Hubble Telescope and will extend and complement its discoveries.
• Because of JWST’s longer wavelengths, for instance, it will be able to look further back in time, “to find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, and to peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today”.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited have announced the launch of Model Retail Outlet Scheme and a Digital Customer Feedback Program called Darpan@petrolpump.

• Three oil PSUs have joined hands to launch Model Retail Outlets to enhance service standards and amenities, across their networks, which serve over 6 Crore consumers everyday.
• In order to keep pace with the rapidly changing consumer behavior and a view to offer a heightened customer experience in retail outlets, Oil Marketing Companies aim to benchmark Retail Outlet standards for ensuring standardized customer facilities through these initiatives.
• The scheme involves an intense 5 Level evaluation process of over 70000 retail outlets in the country on a set of core service and facility parameters as well as standard of customer amenities e.g., clean and hygienic washrooms, customer centric innovative offerings etc.
• The Retail Outlets have been divided into 4 categories based on sales performance, facilities offered and their percentage of digital transactions at the point of sale in keeping with the Digital India imperative.
• Top performers will be awarded the “Shresth” and “Uttam”, Awards by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the “Rajya Sarv Pratham” awards by the respective Oil Companies.
• The digital customer feedback program, darpan@petrolpump, a unique, real time feedback program was also launched and customers will be encouraged to give their valuable feedback which will go a long way in enhancing service standards at the retail outlets
• Hence both statements are correct.

The National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) Phase 2 data was released on November 24, 2021.

• India has also officially hit a total fertility rate (TFR) of 2.0 that indicates a decrease from the 2.2 in the NFHS-4.
• India has more females than males with its overall sex ratio having risen to 1,020 women for 1,000 men after seeing a dip from 1,000 in 2005-06 to 991 in 2015-16.
• The sex ratio at birth (SRB) or the number of female births for every 1,000 male births, however, was still worryingly low at 929, despite an improvement from the previous survey.
• Children who were either stunted or displayed signs of wasting only dropped by a maximum of three percentage points
• The proportion of anaemic children (5-59 months) increased from 58% to 67%. Women aged 15-49 who were anaemic increased from 53% to 57% and men of the same age increased from 29% to 31% between both editions of the NFHS.
• Births in institutional facilities, such as a hospital, improved by nearly eight percentage points from 78.9% to 88.6%.
• The proportion of children (12-23 months) who were fully vaccinated improved from 62%-76%
• Children under 6 months who were exclusively breastfed showed a sharp improvement from 54.9 to 63.7%.
• Hence both statements are correct.