Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 20, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The task force set up to take a relook at the age of marriage for women has submitted its report to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

• Chairperson of the committee Jaya Jaitley refused to comment on the report's contents after a delay of five months.

• When the panel was formed in June last year, it was given until July 31, 2020, to finalize its report.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech last year spoke about a panel formed to decide on the “right age of marriage” for women.

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech last year proposed a panel on the “age of a girl entering motherhood” to lower maternal mortality rates and improve nutrition levels.

• Women’s rights activists have opposed the suggestion of raising the age of marriage from 18 to 21 for women and have cited evidence to show that such a move may be used to incarcerate young adults marrying without parents’ consent.

As the problem of non-performing assets (NPAs), or loans on which borrowers have defaulted, persists in a sector stressed by the pandemic, the RBI Governor has agreed to look at a proposal for creating a bad bank.

• A bad bank conveys the impression that it will function as a bank but has bad assets to start with.
• Technically, a bad bank is an asset reconstruction company (ARC) or an asset management company that takes over the bad loans of commercial banks, manages them and finally recovers the money over a period of time.
• The bad bank is not involved in lending and taking deposits, but helps commercial banks clean up their balance sheets and resolve bad loans.
• The takeover of bad loans is normally below the book value of the loan and the bad bank tries to recover as much as possible subsequently.
• US-based Mellon Bank created the first bad bank in 1988, after which the concept has been implemented in other countries including Sweden, Finland, France and Germany.

Indonesia's Mount Semeru has erupted, pouring ash an estimated 5.6km (3.4 miles) into the sky above Java, the country's most densely populated island.

• Semeru - also known as "The Great Mountain" - is the highest volcano in Java and one of the most active. It is also one of Indonesia's most popular tourist hiking destinations.
• The volcano previously erupted in December, when about 550 people were evacuated.
• Within the last week, Indonesia has endured multiple landslides, a deadly earthquake on Sulawesi island, and the loss of a Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737 with 62 people on board.
• Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes.

State Bank of India (SBI) recently raised $600 million of ‘Regulation S’ bonds — via its London branch — at a coupon rate of 1.8%.

• The bond is priced at a spread of 140 basis points over the 5-year U.S. Treasury rate and will be listed on SGX-ST and India INX. The issuance represented SBI’s return to the international public bond markets after a gap of close to two years.
• Regulation S offerings are typically referred to as “Offshore Offering” because they mainly have to either do with a foreign company creating an offering, or an US company that is offerings its debt or equity overseas, i.e. outside the United States.
• A Regulation S offerings is typical of many European offerings and the larger clearing firms in Europe, often grant access to their systems via a Regulation S offering.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) may introduce new monsoon models this year to better forecast changes in rainfall.

1. Three different models could be tested this year. Two of them were dynamical models and one a statistical model.
2. The climate on any particular day is simulated on supercomputers and meteorologists observe the changing daily output in the former.
3. The other is the traditional statistical model that equates relationships of physical parameters, such as sea surface temperatures, snowfall, landmass temperature, etc, with the actual observed rainfall in the past.
4. The three models under consideration are:
   • 12 global circulation models (dynamical) whose outputs would be combined into a single one;
   • a model that gauges rainfall based on the sea surface temperature in the tropics (developed by Professor Sumant Nigam, University of Maryland, U.S.) and
   • the statistical model based on climate variables observed during the pre-monsoon.
5. All of them are ‘ensembles’ meaning smaller models are combined to arrive at an average value.
6. The traditional statistical model would continue to be used this year.
7. The monsoon that concluded in 2020 was unique, in that with monsoon 2019, it was only the third time in a century that India saw back-to-back years of above normal rainfall.
8. In both years — and monsoon 2019 was a 25-year high — the IMD failed to forecast the magnitude of the excess and only indicated that the monsoon would be “above normal”.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has floated a discussion paper on review of ownership and governance norms to facilitate new entrants to set up stock exchanges and depositories, otherwise called as market infrastructure institutions (MIIs).

• As per the key proposals, a resident promoter setting up an MII may hold up to 100% shareholding, which will be brought down to not more than (either 51% or 26%) in 10 years.
• A foreign promoter from Financial Action Task Force FATF member jurisdictions setting up an MII may hold up to 49% shareholding, which shall be brought down to not more than (either 26% or 15%) in 10 years.
• Foreign individuals or entities from other than FATF member jurisdictions may acquire or hold up to 10% in an MII.
• Any person other than the promoter may acquire or hold less than 25% shareholding.
• At least 50% of ownership of the MII may be represented by individuals or entities with experience of five years or more in the areas of capital markets or technology related to financial services.

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal addressed the 1st National Conference of States on Logistics.

• He said that National Logistics Policy, which is under consultation, along with the National Logistics Council and State Logistics Coordination Committee, will work as a template for better coordination and integrated development for logistics centre.
• The Minister said that Logistics is all about 5R's: Getting the Right product - In the Right condition - At the Right place - At the Right time - To the Right customer.
• India has a $200 billion logistics ecosystem. A good part of it is supported by the Indian Railways.
• Citing studies, the minister said that about 13-14 per cent cost of a product is logistics, and "we wish to bring it down to about 8 per cent".

On 18th January, the average freight speed train speed was 46.77 kmph as compared to 22.47 kmph last year in the same period.

The Prime Minister Modi has expressed grief over the demise of Dr. V Shanta.

• Viswanathan Shanta (1927 – 2021) was an Indian oncologist and Adyar Cancer Institute chairperson, Chennai.
• She was best known for her efforts towards making quality and affordable cancer treatment accessible to all patients in her country.
• She was associated with Adyar Cancer Institute since 1955, and held several positions, including that of the director of the institute between 1980 and 1997.
• She served as a member of several national and international committees on health and medicine, including the World Health Organization's Advisory Committee on Health.
• She was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2005.
• was a recipient of the Padma Shri Award in 1986, Padma Bhushan, in 2006 and Padma Vibhushan in 2016.

Government of India has decided to celebrate birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on the 23rd day of January every year as ‘PARAKRAM DIWAS’.

• Objective is to remember Netaji’s indomitable spirit and selfless service to the nation and to inspire people of the country, especially the youth, to act with fortitude in the face of adversity as Netaji did.
• Gazette Notification for declaring 23rd January as “Parakram Diwas” has been published.
• Government of India has decided to celebrate the 125th Birth Anniversary year of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in a befitting manner at national and international level, beginning from 23rd January 2021.
• A High Level Committee, headed by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has been constituted for deciding the programs and supervising and guiding the commemoration.

Indian Air Force and French Air and Space Force will conduct a bilateral Air exercise, Ex Desert Knight-21 at Air Force Station Jodhpur from 20 to 24 Jan 2021. The exercise is unique as it includes fielding of Rafale aircraft by both sides.

• As part of Indo-French defence cooperation, Indian Air Force and French Air and Space Force have held six editions of Air Exercises named 'Garuda', the latest being in 2019 at Air Force Base Mont-de-Marsan, France.
• As measures to further the existing cooperation, the two forces have been gainfully utilizing available opportunities to conduct 'hop-exercises'.
• The French Air and Space Force deployment while ferrying to Australia for Ex Pitchblack in 2018 was hosted by IAF at Air Force Stations Agra and Gwalior for exercise with fighters and MRTT aircraft.
• Presently, the French detachment for Ex Desert Knight-21 is deployed in Asia as part of their 'Skyros Deployment' and will ferry in forces to Air Force Station Jodhpur.