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

Union Health Minister has released the 14th National Health Profile (NHP), 2019. The National Health Profile (NHP) has been prepared by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI). The National Health Profile was first published in 2005.Ever since the profile has been released every year. The profile provides information on demographic, socio-economic health status, health finance indicators, health infrastructure and health of human resources in the country.

The Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India(ECGC) has said that the Nirvik scheme announced by the Union Government would give a fillip to export lending and insurance cover for export credit. The scheme aims to ease the lending process and enhance loan availability for exporters. Under the scheme, the insurance cover guaranteed will cover up to 90% of the principal and interest. The insurance cover will include both pre and post-shipment credit. The enhanced cover will ensure that Foreign and Rupee export credit interest rates will be below 4% and 8% respectively for exporters. The gems, jewellery and diamond (GJD) sector borrowers with a limit of over Rs 80 crore will have a higher premium rate in comparison to the non-GJD sector borrowers of this category due to the higher loss ratio.

UNESCO has announced that Mumbai and Hyderabad have been included in its network of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN). Mumbai has been designated as Creative City of Films and Hyderabad a Creative City of Gastronomy. Earlier, Chennai and Varanasi were included as UNESCO cities of music while Jaipur was included as the City of Crafts and Folk Arts.

The Global Microscope for Financial Inclusion report is produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report was first published in 2007. The report is a benchmarking index that assesses the enabling environment for financial access in 55 countries. The report assessed countries across four basic enabler’s namely (a) allowing non-banks to issue e-money (b) presence of financial service agents (c) proportionate customer due diligence and (d) effective financial consumer protection. The 2019 Global Microscope report also features 11 new gender focused indicators that measure financial inclusion for both women and men.

National Pension System (NPS) is a government-sponsored pension scheme. It was launched in 2004 for government employees. However, in 2009, it was opened to all sections. NPS is being implemented and regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority in the country. The scheme allows subscribers to contribute regularly in a pension account during their working life. Upon retirement, subscribers can withdraw a part of the corpus in a lump sum and use the remaining corpus to buy an annuity to secure a regular income after retirement.

The first ever container cargo consignment will sail on National Waterway-2 from Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) to the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) terminal at Pandu in Guwahati on 4 November, 2019. As per the National Waterways Act, 2016, 111 have been declared as National Waterways (NW). These waterways pass through 24 states and two union territories, with an approximate total length of 20274 km. The Ganga – Bhagirathi – Hooghly river system between Haldia (Sagar) and Allahabad (1620 km) was declared as National Waterway-1 (NW-1) in 1986. National Waterway 2 (NW-2) 891km long stretch in Brahmaputra River extending from Sadiya to the Dhubri near Bangladesh border in Assam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Fifth India International Science Festival at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, Kolkata, on 5th November 2019. It is an annual event organised jointly by science and technology related Ministries and Departments of the Government of India and Vijnana Bharati (Vibha). The first IISF was held in 2015 in New Delhi. It aims to build a strategy for inclusive advancement of Science and Technology. It seeks to instill scientific temper among the masses, showcase India’s contribution in the field of S&T over the years and encourage translation of its benefits to people.

ICEDASH is an ease of doing business (EoDB) monitoring dashboard of the Indian Customs helping public see the daily customs clearance times of import cargo at various ports and airports. It will be an effective tool that can help businesses compare clearance times across ports and plan their logistics accordingly. The dashboard has been developed by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Indian Prime minister has attended the 14th East Asia Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. The East Asia Summit (EAS) was established in 2005.It is a forum of 18 countries. The summit has evolved as a forum for strategic dialogue and cooperation on political, security and economic issues of common regional concerns. The EAS comprises the ten member states of the ASEAN countries along with 8 members Australia, China, Japan, India, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.

S-400 Triumf Missile System is a mobile, surface-to-air missile system (SAM). It can detect, track and destroy hostile strategic bombers, jets spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of 380-km. It can engage all types of aerial targets such as aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). It can track 100 airborne targets including super fighters such as the American built F-35 and engage six of them simultaneously. India had signed a $5 billion deal with Russia for the purchase of five S400 systems during the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit in 2018.

PRAGATI stands for Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation. The platform was launched in 2015. The platform is aimed at addressing common man’s grievances and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by State Governments. The major objectives of the program are (a) Grievance redressal (b) Project implementation (c) Project monitoring.

Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 24 countries and the European Commission (on behalf of the European Union). The mission aims to accelerate public and private clean energy innovation to address climate change, make clean energy affordable to consumers and create green jobs and commercial opportunities. The mission was announced at the COP21 on November 30, 2015 as world leaders came together in Paris, France to commit to ambitious efforts to combat climate change. India is a founding member of the Mission Innovation. Union Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Health and Family Welfare has inaugurated the Mission Innovation (MI) Face to Face meeting of Innovation Challenges (IC).

The Union Minister for Home Affairs addressed the 10th Meeting of the Heads of Departments of SCO Member States, dealing with the prevention and elimination of emergency situations, in New Delhi. India is organizing an SCO Ministerial Meeting for the first time.

ATITHI is a mobile app for international travelers to file the Customs declaration in advance. Passengers can use this app to file declaration of dutiable items and currency with the Indian Customs even before boarding the flight to India. The app would in particular create a tech-savvy image of India’s customs and would encourage tourism and business travel to India.

Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) is a statutory authority. It comes under the Department for the Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry. It is the apex department to control and administer manufacture, storage, transport and handling of explosives, petroleum, compressed gases and other hazardous substances in India. The Diwali be less polluted this year due to unavailability of crackers because of strict certification norms by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO).

Cloud seeding is a kind of weather modification technology to create artificial rainfall. It works only when there are enough pre-existing clouds in the atmosphere. Rain happens when moisture in the air reaches levels at which it can no longer be held and cloud seeding aims to facilitate and accelerate that process by making available chemical ‘nuclei’ around which the condensation can take place. These seeds of rain can be the iodides of silver or potassium, dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) or liquid propane. The seeds can be delivered by plane or simply by spraying from the ground.

Nepal government has objected to the inclusion of ‘Kalapani’ under the Indian Territory as per the newly released political map of India after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. Kalapani is a 35 square kilometre area.The Kali River in the Kalapani region demarcates the border between India and Nepal. Both India and Nepal claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territories with India as part of Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district and Nepal as part of the Darchula district.

The Jal Shakti Ministry has finalised a committee to draft a new National Water Policy (NWP). It will be chaired by Mihir Shah, who is a former Planning Commission member and a water expert. The committee has 10 principal members, including Shashi Shekhar, a former secretary of Water Resources, and A.B. Pandya, former chairman of the Central Ground Water Board. The committee is expected to produce a report within six months.

The Ministry of Environment is undertaking a mass cleanliness drive in 50 identified beaches under the Swachh – Nirmal Tat Abhiyaan. The objective of the abhiyaan is to make beaches clean and create awareness amongst people about the importance of coastal ecosystems. The identified beaches are in 10 coastal States/Union Territories (UTs) namely Gujarat, Daman & Diu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra 

The Bhavantar Bharpayee Yojana was launched by the Haryana government in 2018. The scheme has been designed and developed for safeguarding the investment of the farmers. Under the scheme, the state agricultural department will fix the least selling price of certain crops. In case the farmer gets the price lower than the price fixed by the government, the difference will be paid as an incentive to the farmers directly into their bank accounts.

The BrahMos is a supersonic cruise missile. A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled (till the time of impact) guided vehicle that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Supersonic cruise missile travels at a speed of around 2-3 Mach i.e.; it travels a kilometre approximately in a second. The BAPL is a joint venture between the Russian Federation’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Telugu poet K Siva Reddy has been awarded the prestigious Saraswati Samman, 2018. K Siva Reddy was awarded the Saraswati Samman award for his collection Pakkaki Ottigilite in 2018. Saraswati Samman award was instituted by the KK Birla Foundation in 1991. The award is given annually for an outstanding literary work written in any official Indian languages and published during the preceding 10 years. It is the highest recognition in the field of Indian literature and carries a cash purse of Rs 15 lakh apart from a citation and a plaque.

Atal Tinkering labs (ATL) have been established under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). ATL is a workspace where young minds can give shape to their ideas through hands-on do-it-yourself mode and learn innovation skills. The objective of this lab is to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, and physical computing among others. AIM will provide grant-in-aid that includes a one-time establishment cost of Rs.10 lakh and operational expenses of Rs. 10 lakh for a maximum period of 5 years to each ATL. Schools (minimum Grade VI – X) managed by Government, local body or private trusts/society are eligible to set up ATL.

Tobacco Board of India has been awarded the Golden Leaf Award in the Most Impressive Public Service Initiative category for the year 2019. Tobacco Board is a statutory body established under the Tobacco Board Act, 1975. It comes under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The tobacco board is headquartered in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. The main functions of the Board include (a) regulating the production and curing of Virginia tobacco in India (b) improving the yields and quality of tobacco, (c) facilitating the sale of tobacco through e-auctions (d) undertaking various grower welfare measures and (e) export promotion of tobacco.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution formed in 2016. The bank was proposed by China in 2013.It is headquartered in Beijing, China. The purpose of the bank is to provide finance to infrastructure projects in the Asia-Pacific region. By investing in sustainable infrastructure and other productive sectors in Asia and beyond, the bank aims to better connect people, services and markets that over time will impact the lives of billions and build a better future. Currently, the bank has 74 members as well as 26 prospective members from around the world.