Test: July 2022 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Demographic dividend, as defined by the United Nations Population Fund, is “the economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population is larger than the non-working-age share of the population”.

• Dokra art is non-ferrous metal casting art that uses the lost-wax casting technique. This technique has been in use for over 4,000 years in India, and is still practised by artisans in central and eastern India. It is in great demand in domestic and foreign markets because of its primitive simplicity, folk motifs and forceful form.
• One of the earliest known lost wax artefacts is the dancing girl of Mohenjo-daro.
• The lost wax technique for casting of copper-based alloys has also been found in China, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, Central America, and other places.

• August 12, 2021 the Ministry had issued a notification prohibiting the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified SUP commodities, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene from July 1, 2022.
• The violation of the ban will invite punitive action, including a fine or a jail term or both, detailed under Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act (EPA) and under the bylaws of the respective municipal corporations.
• Plastic used for packaging in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector is not banned but will be covered under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) guidelines. The EPR is a producer’s responsibility to ensure environmentally-sound management of the product until the end of its life.

• The government’s move to keep interest rates on small savings instruments unchanged comes as a setback for small investors. At a time inflation is ruling over 7% and bond yields have risen over 7.4%, not only will the decision result in negative real rate of return – after adjusting for inflation — for savers and pensioners, but the status quo is also likely to prompt banks to go slow in hiking deposit rates.
• Schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF) and the National Savings Certificate (NSC) will continue to carry an annual interest rate of 7.1% and 6.8%, respectively, in the first quarter of the next fiscal.
• Barring PPF and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, all other small saving instruments are currently fetching negative real returns amid high inflation. 
• Small savings rates are linked to yields on benchmark government bonds, but despite the upward movement in G-Sec (government securities) yields, the government has not increased interest rates.

• A space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time. It is like a large laboratory in space, and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
• The Mir space station of the former Soviet Union, and later operated by Russia, was functional from 1986 to 2001. The ISS has been in space since 1998, and has been known for the exemplary cooperation between the five participating space agencies that have been running it: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe), and CSA (Canada).
• The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements.

• PDS is operated under the joint responsibility of the Central and State Governments. The Central Government takes the responsibility for procurement, storage, transportation and bulk allocation of foodgrains, at subsidised prices. The responsibility of distribution to consumers including target groups through a network of various fair price shops (FPSs) rests with the State Governments.
• The buffer stock provides the basic and most flexible instrument for moderating short-term effects of supply or production shortfalls. The concept of a buffer stock was first introduced during the 4th Five Year Plan (1969-74) and a buffer stock of 5 million tonnes of foodgrains was envisaged. The buffer stock figures are normally reviewed after every 5 years.

Anthrax, also known as malignant pustule or woolsorter’s disease, is a rare but serious disease caused by the rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. It occurs naturally in soil and, according to the WHO it is primarily a disease of herbivores, with both domestic and wild animals being affected by it.
Anthrax is a zoonotic disease, meaning that it is naturally transmissible from animals (usually vertebrae) to humans. People can get the disease through contact with infected animals or animal products that are contaminated with bacteria.

How do animals get Anthrax?

• Domestic and wild animals can get infected when they breathe in or ingest spores in contaminated soil, plants or water.
• Host animals shed the bacteria into the ground, which sporulates when exposed to the air. These spores, which can persist in the soil for decades, wait to be taken up by another host, subsequently germinating and multiplying, leading to its spread. Flies also appear to play a significant role in explosive outbreaks of the disease, as per the WHO.

India has come a long way in liberating the capital account transactions in the last three decades and currently has partial capital account convertibility.
Some of the recent moves include increasing the foreign portfolio investment limits in the Indian debt markets, introducing the Fully Accessible Route (FAR) — through which non-residents can invest in specified government securities without any restrictions and the easing of the external commercial borrowing framework by relaxing end-user restrictions. Inward FDI is allowed in most sectors, and outbound FDI by Indian incorporated entities is allowed as a multiple of their net worth.

• The rare earth minerals (REM) are a set of seventeen metallic elements. These include the fifteen lanthanides on the periodic table in addition to scandium and yttrium that show similar physical and chemical properties to the lanthanides.
• They are called ‘rare earth‘ because earlier it was difficult to extract them from their oxides forms technologically.
• For instance, magnets made from rare earths are many times more powerful than conventional ones.
• India has the world’s fifth-largest reserves of rare earth elements, nearly twice as much as Australia, but it imports most of its rare earth needs in finished form from China.

G-secs, or government securities or government bonds, are instruments that governments use to borrow money. G-secs carry the lowest risk of all investments.

How are G-sec yields calculated?

• G-sec yields change over time; often several times during a single day. This happens because of the manner in which G-secs are structured.
• Every G-sec has a face value, a coupon payment and price. The price of the bond may or may not be equal to the face value of the bond.
• Here’s an example: Suppose the government floats a 10-year G-sec with a face value of Rs 100 and a coupon payment of Rs 5.
• If one were to buy this single G-sec from the government, it would mean that one will give Rs 100 to the government today and the government will promises to 1) return the sum of Rs 100 at the end of tenure (10 years), and 2) pay Rs 5 each year until the end of this tenure.
• At this point, the face value of this G-sec is equal to its price, and its yield (or the effective interest rate) is 5%.
   

How do G-sec yields go up and down?

• Imagine a scenario in which the government floats just one G-sec, and two people want to buy it. Competitive bidding will ensue, and the price of the bond may rise from Rs 100 (its face value) to Rs 105. Now imagine another lender in the picture, which pushes the price further up to Rs 110.
• But here is the crucial thing: the coupon payment on the G-sec is still Rs 5.
• So, if you bought the bond at Rs 100, then the yield is 5% but if the price of the bond goes up to Rs 105 then the yield will fall; it will become 4.76% because the second person will be getting Rs 5 over an investment of Rs 105.
• Further, if bidding leads to the price going to Rs 110, then the third person (who finally bought the bond at Rs 110) will find that the yield has fallen further to 4.54%; because the third person would have invested Rs 110 for the same return of Rs 5.
   

What do G-sec yields show?

• G-secs are the safest investments in any economy, and the G-sec yield is the lowest risk-free interest rate in any economy. As such, they are a good way to figure out the broader trend of interest rates in the economy.
• If G-sec yields (say for a 10-year bond) are going up, it would imply that lenders are demanding even more from private sector firms or individuals; that’s because anyone else is riskier when compared to the government.
• It is also known that when it comes to lending, interest rates rise with the rise in risk profile. As such, if G-sec yields start going up, it means lending to the government is becoming riskier.
• If you read that the G-sec yields are going up, it suggests that the bond prices are falling. But the prices are falling because fewer people want to lend to the government.

How do animals get Anthrax?

• Domestic and wild animals can get infected when they breathe in or ingest spores in contaminated soil, plants or water.
• Host animals shed the bacteria into the ground, which sporulates when exposed to the air. These spores, which can persist in the soil for decades, wait to be taken up by another host, subsequently germinating and multiplying, leading to its spread. Flies also appear to play a significant role in explosive outbreaks of the disease, as per the WHO.

How do humans get infected?

• Humans almost always contract the disease directly or indirectly from animals or animal products.
• People get infected with anthrax when spores enter the body, through breathing, eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water, or through cuts or scrapes in the skin. The spores then get “activated” and multiply, spreading across the body, producing toxins and causing severe illness.

How can it be treated?

• Antibiotic therapy that is administered early in the course of the infection has been proven to be responsive, according to the WHO. Penicillin has long been the antibiotic of choice and in recent years, ciprofloxacin and doxycycline have also been used as alternatives.
• One way to prevent the disease is by vaccination of livestock so that the disease cannot spread. There are also vaccines for humans, but their availability is usually restricted to at-risk individuals, such as lab workers and people who handle animals.

• Saharia are an ethnic group in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Saharia tribe comes under the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs).
• The Saharias are expert woodsmen and forest product gatherers. They are particularly skilled in making catechu from Khair trees. 

India-Bangladesh Friendship Bridge (Maitri Setu) over the Feni river at Sabroom in south Tripura.

• The Department of Financial Services (DFS) oversees several key programs/initiatives and reforms of the Government concerning the Banking Sector, the Insurance Sector and the Pension Sector in India.
• The Department provides policy support to the Public Sector banks (PSBs), Public Sector Insurance Companies (PSICs) and Development Financial Institutions (DFIs) like National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

What is on tap licensing?

• It means the RBI window for granting banking licences will be open throughout the year.

• Cyanobacteria are microscopic organisms common in water and sometimes found in soil. Not all produce toxins but scientists say toxic ones are occurring more frequently as climate change drives up global temperatures.
• Some cyanobacterial blooms can harm people and animals and scientists are concerned about their potential impact as climate change leads to warmer water temperatures, which many cyanobacteria prefer.

• Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska, was on July 5 named as one of four recipients of the 2022 Fields Medal, an honour that is often described the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
• The Fields Medal is awarded by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), an international non-governmental and non-profit scientific organisation that aims to promote international cooperation in mathematics.

• Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
• World Network of Biosphere Reserves, created in 1971 by UNESCO. 
• The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was the first biosphere reserve in India designated in the year 1986 by UNESCO. It stretches across the States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

The Mediterranean is positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south, and Asia to the east.

The Mediterranean Sea connects:

• to the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltar in the west
• to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, by the Straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus respectively, in the east

The 163 km (101 mi) long artificial Suez Canal in the southeast connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. 

Apollo 11 became one of the most publicly recognised missions of NASA and was the first manned mission to the Moon.