Daily Current Affairs MCQ- December 9, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

The government has approved the Print and Digital Media Association (PADMA) as a self-regulatory body for publishers of news and current affairs across the country.

• The organisation — with 47 digital news publishers on board — will look at grievances related to digital media news content on their platforms.
• With this, the Ministry has approved nine self-regulatory bodies since May 2021 under rule 12 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
  • They include DIGIPUB News India Foundation, Confederation of Online Media (India), and NBF- Professional News Broadcasting Standards Authority, among others.
• Self-regulatory bodies will “oversee and ensure adherence by the publisher to the code of ethics; address grievances which have not been resolved by publishers within 15 days; hear appeals filed by the complainant against the decision of publishers etc.

Hence both statements are correct.

Recently, the Jeevan Pramaan Patra have been disbursed by the Government using the network of Postmen and Gramin Dak Sevaks in the country.

• Jeevan Pramaan is a biometric enabled digital service for pensioners. Pensioners of Central Government, State Government or any other Government organization can take benefit of this facility.
• The scheme was launched on November 10, 2014.
• In order to get this life certificate the individual drawing the pension is required to either personally present oneself before the Pension Disbursing Agency or have the Life Certificate issued by authority where they have served earlier and have it delivered to the disbursing agency.
• Using Jeevan Pramaan, a pensioner can now digitally provide proof of his/her existence to authorities for continuity of pension every year instead of requiring to present himself/herself physically or through a Life Certificate issued by specified authorities.
• The Digital Life Certificate facility is not available to Remarried or Re-employed Pensioners. They are required to submit the Life Certificate the conventional way to their Pension Disbursing Authority.

Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

According to the ‘India Digital Payments Report’ for the third quarter of 2022, UPI clocked over 19.65 billion transactions worth ₹32.5 trillion.

• UPI is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application (of any participating bank).
• It does so by merging several banking features, seamless fund routing & merchant payments into one hood.
• The interface is regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and works by instantly transferring funds between two bank accounts on a mobile platform.
• It was launched in 2016, by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Working of UPI:

• In UPI, a user just needs to download the UPI app, register details, and create a virtual payment address (VPA). The user needs to link the VPA to their bank account.
• This VPA becomes the users' financial address and the user need not remember the details like beneficiary account number, IFSC codes, or net banking user id and password for sending or receiving money.
  The UPI interface allows multiple bank accounts to be added into a single mobile application.

What is National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)?

• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
• It is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007, for creating a robust Payment & Settlement Infrastructure in India.
• It has been incorporated as a Not for Profit Company with an intention to provide infrastructure to the entire banking system in India for physical as well as electronic payment and settlement systems.
• The Company is focused on bringing innovations in the retail payment systems through the use of technology for achieving greater efficiency in operations and widening the reach of payment.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Recently, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) floated a consultation paper seeking comments about the potential introduction of a Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) feature.

• The feature would provide an individual with information about the calling party (similar to ‘Truecaller’ and ‘Bharat Caller ID & Anti-Spam’).
• The idea is to ensure that telephone subscribers are able to make an informed choice about incoming calls and curb harassment by unknown or spam callers.

What is its purpose?

• Existing technologies present the number of the calling entity on the potential receiver’s handset.
• Since subscribers are not given the name and identity of the caller, they sometimes choose not to answer them believing it could be unsolicited commercial communication from unregistered telemarketers. This could lead to even genuine calls being unanswered.
• Additionally, there have been rising concerns about robocalls (calls made automatically using IT-enabled systems with a pre-recorded voice), spam calls and fraudulent calls.
• Truecaller’s ‘2021 Global Spam and Scam Report’ revealed that the average number of spam calls per user each month in India, stood at 16.8 while total spam volumes received by its users were in excess of 3.8 billion calls in October alone.

Hence both statements are correct.

The World Bank recently lifted its growth forecast for India’s economy this year to 6.9%, after having downgraded it to 6.5% in October, 2022, citing resilience in economic activity despite a deteriorating external environment.

• It was released by World Bank.
• India Development Report titled ‘Navigating the Storm’.

Highlights:

• It revised the GDP forecast considering the strong upturn in the July to September quarter of 2022-23, when it grew 6.3% despite inflationary pressures and tighter financing conditions, “driven by strong private consumption and investment”.
• The government’s focus on bolstering capital expenditure also supported domestic demand in the first half of 2022-23.
• It expects the Indian economy to grow at a slightly slower 6.6% in 2023-24 as a challenging external environment and faltering global growth will affect its economic outlook through different channels.
• The report said that while a one percentage point decline in growth in the United States is associated with a 0.4 percentage point decline in India’s growth, the effect is around 1.5 times larger for other emerging economies, and the result is similar for growth spillovers from the EU and China.
• It cautions about trade-offs between trying to limit the adverse impact of global spillovers on growth and the available policy space.
• The RBI’s gradual withdrawal of liquidity and policy rate hikes have been aimed at anchoring inflation expectations. However, this has increased borrowing costs, which along with elevated input prices have potentially constrained private investment.
• RBI’s management of short-term volatility in exchange rates has contributed to a decline in reserves, though they are still at a relatively high level.
• A widening goods trade deficit, driven by rising imports and softening exports, has expanded India’s current account deficit to 2.8% of GDP in Q2 this year from 1.5% in the first quarter.
• The adoption of several regulatory and policy measures—including introduction of a new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and creation of the new National Reconstruction Company Limited—facilitated an improvement in financial sector metrics over the past five years.

Hence both statements are correct.

Photometric observations recently taken with the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope have provided vital information on the earliest phase of a kilonova ever detected, radically changing the understanding of scientists about the origin of GRBs.

• GRBs are powerful astronomical cosmic bursts of high-energy gamma-ray.
• GRB emits more energy in a few seconds than our Sun will emit in its lifetime and has two distinct emission phases:
  • the short-lived prompt emission (the initial burst phase that emits gamma-rays), followed by a long-lived multi-wavelength afterglow phase.
• The prompt emission (initial gamma-ray emission) of GRBs are automatically discovered by space-based gamma-ray missions such as NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and India’s AstroSat.

Kilonova:

• In recent years, scientists have discovered a special phenomenon called a kilonova of visible and infrared light with short-period GRBs, also known as a potential source of gravitational waves.
• It has been hypnotized that the heat produced by the radioactive decay of heavier elements may emit kilonova.
• This process also produces heavier elements, such as gold and platinum.
• However, observing kilonovas at near-infrared wavelengths is technically challenging, and only a few telescopes on Earth, including the 3.6-meter Devasthal Optical Telescope of the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), can detect kilonova and gravitational wave objects at these wavelengths upto faint limits.

Hence both statements are correct.

The State of Punjab has recently furthered the cause of right to life and personal liberty of prisoners by allowing conjugal visits for inmates.

Conjugal rights:

• Conjugal rights are rights created by marriage, that is, the right of the husband or the wife to the company of their spouse.
• In the context of prisons, however, conjugal visits refer to the concept of allowing a prisoner to spend some time in privacy with his spouse within the precincts of a jail.
• Impacts:
  • It is often argued that conjugal visits can have positive impacts in the form of psychological health benefits for prisoners, preservation of marital ties and, reduction in the rates of homosexuality and sexual aggression within prisons.
• Aside from the above, it is also argued that conjugal visits are a fundamental right of the spouses of the prisoners.
• Prisoner rights are internationally recognised through the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights etc.
• Through such instruments, prisoners are guaranteed the right to life and inherent dignity.
• The right to maintain family relations including conjugal visits are included in these treaties.
• Most prison Acts and Rules across the country accept the importance of maintenance of continuity in family and social relations.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has recently asked Google to comply with its advisory to refrain from publishing or broadcasting advertisements of online betting platforms or any surrogate product depicting them.

• The latest guideline was issued by the Ministry in October after it noted violations of a previous advisory in June 13, 2022, as some online offshore betting platforms had started using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise betting platforms on television channels.
• Online betting platforms were advertising themselves as professional sports blogs, sports news websites, etc. while providing an indicative list of online betting platforms which were using news for surrogate advertising.
• In view of the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements-2022 under the Consumer Protection Act, read with the Advertising Code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act, advertisements of the news websites that were in fact surrogate promotions, did not appear to be in strict conformity with the laws.

Betting and gambling:

• Betting and gambling, illegal in most parts of the country, pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children, the advisory states.
• These advertisements on online betting are misleading and have the effect of promoting this largely prohibited activity.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Foreign Direct Investment into India is continuously increasing since 2014-15. In the last seven financial years, over 443 US billion dollars’ worth of FDI inflows have come into the country.

• Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment from a party in one country into a business or corporation in another country with the intention of establishing a lasting interest.
• With FDI, foreign companies are directly involved with day-to-day operations in the other country.
• FDI enters in India through either of the two routes:
• Automatic route
  • The non-resident or Indian company does not require prior nod of the RBI or government of India for FDI.
• Government-approval route
  • The government's approval is mandatory and the company will have to file an application through Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India recently increased the repo rate by 35 basis points (bps) to 6.25%, and the Standing Deposit Facility stands raised to 6%.

• Since May, the board has now increased the key rate by 225 bps in FY23.
  • A 100 basis points equal one percentage point.
• Retail price inflation in India reduced to 6.77 percent YoY in October 2022 from a five-month high of 7.41 percent in September, 2022.
• However, the fact that it continued to be above the central bank's acceptable limit of 2 to 6 percent for a tenth consecutive period prompted RBI to raise the repo rate for the fifth time.
• Inflation is expected to be 6.7% this year, with CPI inflation for the first quarter of 2023-24 projected at 5% and the second quarter at 5.4% on the assumption of a normal monsoon.
• The central bank’s key committee also marginally lowered the GDP projection to 6.8% for 2022-23, with the third quarter registering 4.4% growth.
• The rupee has appreciated by 3.2% in real terms even as several other currencies have dropped.

Monetary Policy Committee

• The Monetary Policy Committee of India is responsible for fixing the policy interest rate, to achieve the objectives of monetary policy.

Composition:

• Three officials of the Reserve Bank of India, with Governor of RBI as Chairperson, ex officio
• Three external members appointed by the Government of India
• The external members hold office for a period of four years.
• Decisions of the MPC are taken on the basis of majority, with Governor having the casting vote in case of a tie.
• The MPC meets least 4 times a year and it publishes its decisions after each such meeting.

Hence both statements are correct.