Daily Current Affairs MCQ- September 15, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

Over 3000 State Mission staff and Self-Help Group (SHG) members logged in from 34 states to attend the third edition of ‘Gender Samwaad’ organised by the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development on the 11th of March 2022.

• It is a national virtual initiative under the DAY-NRLM to generate greater awareness on the mission’s interventions across the country with a gender lens.
• The theme for this edition was ‘Promotion of food and nutrition security through women’s collectives’.
• The event enabled National and State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLM) to listen to voices from SHG women and for SRLMs to share and learn from best practices.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) organised a seminar on “25 Years of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act.

• In the year 1997, TRAI Act was enacted to regulate the telecommunications sector in India.
• The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is a regulatory body set up by the Government of India under section 3 of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.
• It is the regulator of the telecommunications sector in India. It consists of a Chairperson and not more than two full-time members and not more than two part-time members.
• The act also provided for a mechanism of dispute resolution among the stakeholders of telecom sector.
• It was amended in 2000, establishing a Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) to take over the adjudicatory and disputes functions from TRAI.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology visited the Gallium Nitride Ecosystem Enabling Centre and Incubator ( GEECI ) facility at the prestigious Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bengaluru.

• The facility has been jointly set up by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and IISc Bengaluru aimed at establishing Gallium Nitride (GaN) based Development Line Foundry facility for strategic applications.
• Gallium nitride (GaN) is a very hard, mechanically stable wide bandgap semiconductor.
• With higher breakdown strength, faster switching speed, higher thermal conductivity and lower on-resistance, power devices based on GaN significantly outperform silicon-based devices.
• Gallium nitride crystals can be grown on a variety of substrates, including sapphire, silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon (Si).

Hence both statements are correct.

Aimed at providing accessible, standardised and affordable generic medicines, the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) Kendras have added nutraceuticals products, including protein powder and bar, malt-based food supplements and immunity bar for its customers.

• Nutraceuticals are products, which other than nutrition are also used as medicine.
• A nutraceutical product may be defined as a substance, which has physiological benefit or provides protection against chronic disease.

PMBJP Kendras

• Currently, 8,675 PMBJP Kendras function in districts across the country with three IT-enabled warehouses in Gurugram, Chennai and Guwahati and another one ready to start operations in Surat.
• Under the PMBJP being implemented by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, a medicine is priced on the principle of maximum of 50% of the average price of the top three brands of the said medicine. Thus, the prices of Jan Aushadhi medicines are cheaper at least by 50% and in some cases, by 80% to 90% of the market price of the branded medicines.
• In India, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority under the Department of Pharmaceuticals regulates the prices of all drugs, whether branded or generic.
• While it fixes the ceiling price of scheduled medicines specified in the first schedule of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, in case of non-scheduled medicines, the manufactures are free to fix the maximum retail price (MRP) of the drug.

Hence both statements are correct.

Scientists in the United Kingdom as part of a research project, GenOMICC (Genetics of Mortality in Critical Care), have identified 16 new genetic variants that make a person more susceptible to a severe COVID-19 infection.

• The GenOMICC— reportedly the largest of its kind — is a research study that brings together clinicians and scientists from around the world to find the genetic factors that lead to critical illnesses.
• The scientists involved compare the DNA of critically-ill patients with members of the general population. However, ferreting out such differences requires a large number of people and comparing their genetic structures at multiple levels of resolution.
• Since 2015, the GenOMICC has been studying emerging infections such as SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), flu, sepsis, and other forms of critical illness.

​​​​​​​Hence both statements are correct.

Amid mounting calls to prosecute Russian president Vladimir Putin, the International Criminal Court (ICC) earlier this month launched an investigation into the alleged war crimes committed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) is a permanent judicial body based at The Hague in the Netherlands.
• Background: It was created by the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (its founding and governing document), and began functioning on 1 July 2002 when the Statute came into force.
• Mandate: The forum was established as a court of last resort to prosecute offences that would otherwise go unpunished, and has jurisdiction over four main crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
• Members: 123 nations are States Parties to the Rome Statute and recognise the ICC’s authority; the notable exceptions being the US, China, Russia, and India.
• Judges: 18; Elected for 9-year term.
• Relation with UN: While not a United Nations organization, the Court has a cooperation agreement with the United Nations. When a situation is not within the Court’s jurisdiction, the United Nations Security Council can refer the situation to the ICC granting it jurisdiction.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Adani Group has signed a deal for two large power projects in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, six months after it bagged a strategic port terminal project in Colombo that it is now executing with majority stakes.

• The two renewable energy projects, involving the Adani Group, were aimed at generating combined capacity of 500 MW, at a cost of $500 million.
• Both projects are in the Northern Province, where India objected to a Chinese energy project last year, citing proximity to the Tamil Nadu coast.
• The agreement was inked the same day that the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) agreed to set up a 100 MW solar power project in Sampur, in the eastern Trincomalee district.
• Sri Lanka has a daily peak demand of over 2000 MW, and is currently experiencing a severe fuel and power shortage, resulting in right hour-long power cuts across the country that citizens’ groups have been protesting.
• Sri Lanka is also in the midst of its worst economic crisis in years, prompting the government to tap assistance from different sources.

Hence both statements are correct.

Credit Guarantee Scheme for Subordinate Debt (CGSSD) extended upto 31.03.2023.

• Government announced creation of ‘Distressed Assets Fund- - Subordinate Debt for Stressed MSMEs’ on 13th May, 2020, under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package.
• Accordingly, a scheme viz. ‘Credit Guarantee Scheme for Subordinate Debt’ was launched in June, 2020 to provide credit facility through lending institutions to the promoters of stressed MSMEs viz. SMA-2 and NPA accounts who are eligible for restructuring as per RBI guidelines on the books of the Lending institutions. Initially the scheme was upto 31.03.2021.
• In order to keep the avenues of assistance to stressed MSME Units open, the Government had earlier extended this scheme upto 31.03.2022.
• Now, on the basis of the requests received from the stakeholders of the scheme, the Government has decided to further extend this scheme till 31.03.2023.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is an international project which seeks to provide information on the entrepreneurial landscape of countries.

• GEM carries out survey-based research on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world and is being led by Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad.
• As per Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) India Report (21-22), India’s entrepreneurial activity expanded in 2021, with its Total Entrepreneurial Activity rate(percentage of adults (aged 18–64) who are starting or running a new business) increased to 14.4% in 2021, up from 5.3% in 2020.
• Further, Established Business Ownership rate (percentage of adults (aged 18–64) who are currently the owner-manager of an established business, i.e. owning and managing a business that has paid salaries, wages or any other payments to the owners, for more than 42 months)increased to 8.5%, from 5.9% in 2020.

Hence both statements are correct.

The term Sanskritisation was Coined and popularised by M.N. Srinivas, an eminent social anthropologist in his book Religion and Society Among the Coorgs of South India (Oxford, 1952).

• Sanskritisation refers to a change in the hierarchical caste system when certain castes that are ranked low in the caste hierarchy are able to elevate and enhance their position by adopting and emulating the socio-cultural beliefs, values, habits, customs and rituals of castes that are ranked higher than them.
• Based on his ethnographic research in Rampura village in Karnataka, Srinivas produced a detailed explanation of the phenomenon of Sanskritisation in ‘A Note on Sanskritisation and Westernisation (Far Eastern Quarterly, 1956)’.
• Initially, ‘Sanskritisation’ referred to the lower castes’ adoption of the “Brahmanical” ways of life.
• But gradually, the process also involved the adoption of the practices and rites of the locally dominant caste in a particular region, which included non-Brahmin castes which were politically powerful, socio-economically influential and ritually higher in the local caste hierarchy.

The rise of anti-caste politics

• Unlike the Sanskritisation model that reifies the unequal and differential caste relations that upholds the Hindu caste order and advances the interests of the ‘caste privileged’, the discourse of anti-caste/casteless socio-politics emphasises the destruction of the caste system and all the other undemocratic/inegalitarian values, customs and institutions associated with it.
• Indian society continues to witness movements of both the types – Sanskritisation as well as anti-caste struggles. Each of these processes requires a separate and also integrated study and analysis, taking into consideration socio-economic, cultural and political factors.

Hence both statements are correct.