MCQ - Current Affairs (September - 2019) - UPSC MCQ

The Eastern Economic Forum was established by decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in 2015 to support the economic development of Russia’s Far East and to expand international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. This year, as we celebrate the Forum’s 5th anniversary we have an opportunity to look back on everything that has been achieved since 2015. It was the first time when Vladivostok hosted the trendsetters from Russian and international business communities, government officials, foreign dignitaries, researchers, and experts – in other words, everyone who was prepared to cooperate with Russia and work in the Russian Far East; everyone, who was ready to launch new production facilities and develop those already in place; everyone, who aimed to create new jobs, construct roads, housing, and hospitals – namely improve the life of our Eastern territories.

The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum that addresses issues faced by the Arctic governments and the indigenous people of the Arctic. Eight member countries constitute the council: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States as these are the eight countries with sovereignty over the lands within the Arctic Circle. Outside these, there are some observer states.

The United States and ten Southeast Asian countries kicked off maritime drills on Monday, as part of a joint exercise extending into the flashpoint South China Sea with eight warships, four aircraft and more than a thousand personnel. The first ASEAN-US Maritime Exercise (AUMX) between the regional bloc and Washington will last for five days, starting at the Sattahip Naval Base in Thailand and ending in Singapore. The drills come at a time of stepped-up US engagement in the region and tensions between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations over the South China Sea, parts of which are claimed by ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Pune is the best city to live in India, while Delhi is among the worst cities in terms of economic prospects, according to the Ease of Living Index rankings published recently by the union ministry of housing and urban affairs. In terms of safety and security, Bengaluru is among the worst, the Ease of Living report suggests. The Ease of Living Index rankings are based on 79 indicators, which are grouped under four “pillars”: institutional, social, economic, and physical. Physical services, which include housing, water supply, sanitation, etc, are allotted the highest weight (45%) in determining the city rankings. Economy and employment are together assigned a mere 5% weight.

Household air pollution has emerged as one of the key causes of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and 12% of all CVDs in low-income countries are attributable to it, a new report has said. Hypertension is the largest risk factor for CVD in low-income countries (which include India), followed by high non-HDL cholesterol and household air pollution.
Household air pollution is a greater risk factor for CVD in India than diabetes, tobacco use, low physical activity and poor diet. An earlier report from a Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiologic (PURE) study (Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2014) showed that Indians had the lowest lung function among the 21 countries studied.
At least 65% of homes in India use biomass fuel for cooking and heating. In urban areas, the use of mosquito coils, dhoop sticks and agarbattis contribute to high household air pollution.

The ‘Samudrayaan’ project undertaken by the NIOT, Chennai, is in line with the ISRO’s ambitious ‘Gaganyaan’ mission of sending an astronaut to space by 2022. The ‘Samudrayaan’ is a part of the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ pilot project for deep ocean mining for rare minerals. The indigenously developed vehicle is capable of crawling on the sea bed at a depth of six kilometre for 72 hours. The success of the ‘Samudrayaan’ will help India to join the league of developed nations in exploration of minerals from oceans.

The Eastern Economic Forum 2019 will take place on 4–6 September in Vladivostok on the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) campus. The Eastern Economic Forum was established by decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in 2015 to support the economic development of Russia’s Far East and to expand international cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Plenary Session at the 5th Eastern Economic Forum, said India will give a line of credit worth USD 1 billion for the development of the Far East. “The relation of India and the Far East is not new but ages old. India is the first country which opened its consulate in Vladivostok. Even during Soviet Russia when there were restrictions on other foreigners, Vladivostok was open for Indians,” PM Modi said. “For the development of Far East, India will give a line of credit worth USD 1 Billion. My government has actively engaged in East Asia as part of its ‘Act East’ policy. This will also give a new dimension to our economic diplomacy,” he added.

Member-countries of the World Health Organisation (WHO) South-East Asia Region have resolved to eliminate highly infectious childhood killer diseases measles and rubella by 2023. A resolution to eliminate the diseases was adopted at the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia in Delhi. Measles is particularly dangerous for the poor, as it attacks malnourished children and those with reduced immunity. It can cause serious complications, including blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea, ear infection and pneumonia, while rubella/ congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) causes irreversible birth defects.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a scheme for universal screening of children below 18 years for leprosy and tuberculosis (TB). It is a part of the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK). It was launched in 2013 under the National Health Mission. It is implemented by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Aim: early identification  and  early  intervention  for  children  from  birth  to  18  years to cover 4 ‘D’s viz. Defects at  birth,  Deficiencies,  Diseases,  Development  delays  including  disability.
Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services under RBSK covers 30 selected health conditions for screening, early detection and free management. Tuberculosis and Leprosy were previously not a part of it.

The Union Cabinet had approved India’s largest Skill Certification Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), on 20 March, 2015. The Scheme was subsequently launched on 15 July, 2015, on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day by Honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. PMKVY is implemented by National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) under the guidance of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). With a vision of a “Skilled India”, MSDE aims to skill India on a large scale with speed and high standards. PMKVY is the flagship scheme that is driving towards greater realisation of this vision. Individuals with prior learning experience or skills shall be assessed and certified under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) component of the Scheme. RPL aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country to the NSQF.

The Tamil Nadu government has banned sex reassignment surgeries for intersex infants and children in a move which is being seen as progressive. The development comes after the Madras High Court’s direction to the Department of Health and Family Welfare in April to issue an order “enshrining the mandate of the Supreme Court”.
The order, however, mentioned that the reassignment surgeries will be allowed in cases of life-threatening situations, which will be decided after the recommendations of a committee comprising a pediatric surgeon or a urologist, an endocrinologist, a social worker, and a government representative not below the rank of an under-secretary. The committee will be constituted by the Director of Medical Education.

A powerful typhoon with potentially record winds and rain battered the Tokyo region early Monday, sparking evacuation warnings to tens of thousands, widespread blackouts and transport disruption. Typhoon Faxai, packing winds of up to 216 kilometres (134 miles) per hour, made landfall in Chiba just east of the capital before dawn, after barrelling through Tokyo Bay. Authorities issued non-compulsory evacuation warnings to more than 390,000 people, as forecasters cautioned the rain and wind could reach “record” proportions. Nearly 290,000 households lost power in the region, while at least 10 houses were damaged in Shizuoka with windows shattered and cars flipped onto their sides, according to local media.

Close to 1.1 million cases of malaria were recorded in India in 2014. While the caseload has shown a declining trend since 2002, large parts of the Indian population remains vulnerable to the disease. At the same time, neighboring Sri Lanka has managed to eliminate the disease from the country using integrated vector-control approaches. Indian government has released a National Strategic Plan (NSP) for malaria elimination for years 2017-2022, targeting eradication by 2030. Under the plan, malaria transmission in the country’s districts have been divided into four categories: no cases in 3 years, less than 1 case per 1,000 people, more than 1 but less than 2 cases per 1,000 people, and more than 2 cases per 1,000 people.

With a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children, the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995. In 2001 MDMS became a cooked Mid Day Meal Scheme under which every child in every Government and Government aided primary school was to be served a prepared Mid Day Meal with a minimum content of 300 calories of energy and 8-12 gram protein per day for a minimum of 200 days. The Scheme was further extended in 2002 to cover not only children studying in Government, Government aided and local body schools, but also children studying in Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) centres.
In September 2004 the Scheme was revised to provide for Central Assistance for Cooking cost @ Re 1 per child per school day to cover cost of pulses, vegetables cooking oil, condiments, fuel and wages and remuneration payable to personnel or amount payable to agency responsible for cooking. Transport subsidy was also raised from the earlier maximum of Rs 50 per quintal to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states and Rs 75 per quintal for other states. Central assistance was provided for the first time for management, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme @ 2% of the cost of foodgrains, transport subsidy and cooking assistance. A provision for serving mid day meal during summer vacation in drought affected areas was also made.
In July 2006 the Scheme was further revised to enhance the cooking cost to Rs 1.80 per child/school day for States in the North Eastern Region and Rs 1.50 per child / school day for other States and UTs. The nutritional norm was revised to 450 Calories and 12 gram of protein. In order to facilitate construction of kitchen-cum-store and procurement of kitchen devices in schools provision for Central assistance @ Rs. 60,000 per unit and @ Rs. 5,000 per school in phased manner were made. In October 2007, the Scheme was extended to cover children of upper primary classes (i.e. class VI to VIII) studying in 3,479 Educationally Backwards Blocks (EBBs) and the name of the Scheme was changed from ‘National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education’ to ‘National Programme of Mid Day Meal in Schools’. The nutritional norm for upper primary stage was fixed at 700 Calories and 20 grams of protein. The Scheme was extended to all areas across the country from 1.4.2008.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will scale up its ambition to restore degraded land. PM Modi’s announcement, at the ongoing 14th Conference of Parties (CoP) of the United Nation’s Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Greater Noida, is significant from the standpoint of the country’s global environmental commitments. The country will now restore 26 million hectares by 2030, five million hectares more than what it had pledged at the Paris Climate Change Meet in 2015. Monday’s announcement is also salutary given the growing crisis of desertification. According to ISRO’s Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas, nearly 30 per cent of land in the country is degraded. This, PM Modi said, “would be reversed by adopting a landscape-restoration approach”. It will require the environment ministry to shift focus from its plantation-oriented afforestation schemes and recognize the importance of ecosystem services of land and forests such as watershed management, biodiversity conservation and improving soil health.

PUNJAB IS hosting the Nobel Prize Series 2019, which started Wednesday, at Mohali and Ludhiana. This year’s theme is ‘teaching and learning’. This is the third such series in India and the first in Punjab. It is the result of collaboration between Nobel Media AB and the ministry of science and technology based upon a MoU signed by the government in 2016.

Over 15,000 soldiers backed by tanks, medium artillery, helicopters and transport aircraft will be part of the Mountain Strike Corps’ maiden exercise, ‘HimVijay’, at over 10,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh next month. The exercise will be held away from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China. It will coincide with the expected visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. The exercise assumes greater significance because the Army will for the first time see in action its integrated battle groups (IBGs)-the brainchild of Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat. Operation ‘HimVijay’ will see the participation of 15,000 personnel, with each IBG consisting of nearly 5,000 troops backed by a combination of tanks, artillery and other assets. The IAF will be roped in for strategic airlift of personnel and equipment. The exercise will see in action the AN32s, C130J Super Hercules and the C17s besides helicopters from both the Army Aviation and the IAF.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a so-called mega-regional economic agreement being negotiated since 2012 between the 10 ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) governments and their six FTA partners: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea. RCEP is largely driven by ASEAN. Indeed, the project originated in, and expands upon, the stitching together of five existing ASEAN+1 trade agreements, that ASEAN signed with Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia and New Zealand. The stated goal of the negotiations is to “boost economic growth and equitable economic development, advance economic cooperation and broaden and deepen integration in the region through the RCEP,” according to the ASEAN website. From what is known of the agreement’s contents, the proposed RCEP would cover almost every aspect of economy such as goods, services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property rights (IPR), rules of origin, competition and dispute settlement.

Not a single Indian university has featured in the World University Rankings 2020, for the first time since 2012. While Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) Bangalore retains the top position in the country, it has failed to figure among the top 300 best institutes, the ranking of which is compiled by UK-based Times Higher Education (THE). The IISc Bangalore’s position has slipped from the 251-300 ranking cohort in the previous year to the 301-350 grouping. However, it improved in the research environment, teaching environment and industry income. Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar debuts in the same bracket (301-350), followed by IIT Indore.

A two-week long United Nations-led Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) ended with a commitment to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030. Such neutrality is defined by the U.N. as ensuring that enough land is available across the world to ensure a sustainable future.

The Delhi Declaration, a consensus document, agreed upon by more than 100 countries “welcomed” the proposed adoption of a “voluntary” land degradation neutrality target by India, which has committed to restoring at least 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. The Declaration doesn’t detail commitments by other countries.
Almost 122 nations, including India, have made voluntary commitments in previous years to ensure that a certain percentage of their degraded land was restored. India had agreed, again on a voluntary basis, to restore 20 million hectares by 2020. Nearly 96 million hectares of land is deemed ‘degraded’ in India.

T-Wallet, the official digital wallet of Telangana government, is to be used extensively by the Welfare Department for transferring scholarships to students throughout the State. This is after a successful pilot project of allowing 20,000 students in Nizamabad district to draw money directly making use of the wallet rather than through bank account. Launched in June 2017, it will be the first mobile wallet to offer such a service and is also purported to be the only digital wallet initiated by any State government across the country. It was recently given permission by Reserve Bank of India to facilitate such cash withdrawals. The Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) wing of the Information Technology, Electronics and Communication (ITEC) Department has once again sought the permission of the RBI to roll out the T-Wallet service of withdrawing money from various MeeSeva Centres in Telangana.

Nandankanan Zoological Park is a premier large zoo of India. Unlike other zoos in the country, Nandankanan is built right inside the forest and set in a completely natural environment. The animals are housed in enclosures with greenery with a feel of real forest and live with no fear or apprehension of becoming the hunter’s prey.
Nandankanan is 15 kms from Odisha’s capital, Bhubaneswar.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable. Vaccines against malaria: RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) is the first and, to date, the only vaccine to show partial protection against malaria in young children. It acts against P. falciparum, the most deadly malaria parasite globally and the most prevalent in Africa.
The number of malaria cases reported till September 16 this year is higher than those recorded last year, as per data released by the Delhi municipal corporations. The data reveal that 247 cases of malaria were reported this year till the second week of September. Nearly 100 cases were reported in the past two weeks. During the same period in 2018, there were 225 cases; 410 in 2017; 286 in 2016; 66 in 2015; and 120 in 2014.

Special Training Program for Maldivian Civil Servants under the India-Maldives MoU on Training and Capacity Building Programme between the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) and the Maldives Civil Service Commission (CSC) will be conducted from September 16-28, 2019 at Mussoorie and Delihi.
The Prime Minister of India in his visit to Maldives in June 2019, had emphasised India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy and assured India's full support to Maldives in realising its aspirations for broad based socio-economic development and strengthening of democratic and independent institutions. One of the MoUs signed during the visit was between the National Center for Good Governance, India and the Civil Services Commission of Maldives which envisaged capacity building activities for 1000 Civil Servants of Maldives at the National Centre for Good Governance over the next 5 years. Under the MOU, 10 training programmes will be conducted from September 2019 to December 2020. The first 3 training programs under the MOU would be held in 2019 (a) September 16-28, 2019 and November 18-30, 2019 for 60 officers of the middle management level (b) December 2-14, 2019 for 30 officers of top management level.

India on Tuesday signed a non-binding cooperation agreement with Russia that reiterated interest of Indian firms in taking stake in oilfields in Far East region of the former Soviet Republic. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan discussed investment opportunities when he met Igor Sechin, chief executive of Russian oil major Rosneft, here on Tuesday. “We discussed elaborately for raising oil imports from Russia,” he told reporters after the meeting.
During the talks, the two sides reviewed existing stake of Indian firms in Russian oilfields such as Sakhalin-1, Taas-Yuryakh and Vankor fields. “In the presence of Minister Pradhan, the Indian consortium of four oil and gas PSUs (Bharat PetroResources Ltd, Indian Oil Corp, ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Ltd) and Rosneft exchanged a non-binding cooperation agreement, reiterating their interest in participation of the Indian companies in the Eastern Cluster project of Russia,”.