Daily Current Affairs MCQ - January 25, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar (PMRBP) awardees on 25th January, 2021.

• The Government of India confers the Bal Shakti Puraskar under Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar.
• It is awarded to the children with exceptional abilities and outstanding achievement in the fields of innovation, scholastic achievements, sports, arts & culture, social service and bravery.
• This year, 32 applicants from across the country, under different categories of Bal Shakti Puraskar, have been selected for PMRBP-2021.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has saluted the daughters of the nation on National Girl Child Day.

1. The National Girl Child Day is celebrated in India every year on January 24.
2. It was started by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2008.
3. Objectives of the day:
   • To spread awareness about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) Scheme Which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015 at Panipat in Haryana.
   • Generating awareness on declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and creating a positive environment around valuing the girl child.

National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 has introduced “Gender Inclusion Fund for targeting the development of girl child. The fund will focus on ensuring 100% enrolment of girls in schooling and a record participation rate in higher education.

Election Commission of India is celebrating 11th National Voters Day on 25th January 2021.

• The National Voters’ Day has been celebrated on January 25 every year since 2011, all across the country to mark the foundation day of India's Election Commission, i.e. 25th January 1950.
• The NVD celebration's main purpose is to encourage, facilitate, and maximize enrollment, especially for the new voters.
• The theme for this year’s NVD, ‘Making Our Voters Empowered, Vigilant, Safe and Informed’.

During the event, the Honourable President of India will confer the National Awards for the year 2020-21 and launch ECI’s Web Radio:‘Hello Voters’.

ECI’s Web Radio:‘Hello Voters’:

• This online digital radio service will stream voter awareness programmes. It will be accessible through a link on the Election Commission of India website.

• The programming style of Radio Hello Voters has been envisaged to match that of popular FM radio services.

• It will provide information and education on electoral processes through songs, drama, discussions, spots, stories of elections etc. in Hindi, English and regional languages from all over the country.

The National Awards for the Best Electoral Practices

• These will be conferred on State and District level officers for their outstanding performance in the conduct of elections in different spheres such as IT initiatives, Security Management, Election Management during COVID-19, Accessible Election, and contribution field of voter awareness and outreach.

• National Awards will also be given to important stakeholders like national icons, CSOs and media groups for their valuable contribution towards voters’ awareness.

The Union Home Minister Amit Shah said the Assam government is setting up three degree colleges in the Bodo region. Tributes are being paid to Shri Upendra Nath Brahma by opening an institute in his name.

• Upendranath Brahma (1956 – 1990) was an Indian Bodo social activist and the former president of All Bodo Students' Union.
• Brahma was born in Boragari village of Dotma, a small township at Kokrajhar district of Assam.
• The title of Bodofa (Guardian of Bodos) was posthumously conferred upon Brahma on 8 May 1990 in recognition of his vision and leadership. His life is celebrated each year on his death anniversary, which is now called Bodofa Day.
• The Bodo is the largest ethnolinguistic group in the Assam. They are concentrated mainly in the Bodoland Territorial Region of Assam.

The Company Law Committee (CLC), headed by the Corporate Affairs Secretary Rajesh Verma, has recommended that 12 offences under the LLP Act be decriminalised and that LLPs be allowed to issue NCDs to raise funds with the aim of improving ease of doing business for limited liability partnership (LLP) firms.

• Several offences related to timely filings, including annual reports and filings on changes in partnership status of the LLP, not related to fraud have been recommended for decriminalisation.
• the panel has recommended that companies be required to pay penalties for non-compliance, instead of fines which are imposed after a partner or the LLP is found guilty of misconduct by a court.
• The Registrar of Companies would have the authority to levy penalties for any contravention of the LLP Act provisions.
• The CLC has also recommended that LLPs currently not allowed to issue debt securities be permitted to issue non-convertible debentures (NCDs) to facilitate raising capital and financing operations.
• The move is likely to benefit startups and small firms in sectors which require heavy capital investment.

In the weeks leading up to US President Joe Biden’s swearing-in, cybersecurity experts examined whether his Peloton bike — a piece of exercise equipment — would be permitted inside the White House. They eventually concluded the bike was safe.

• Made by the Peloton company, it is an Internet-connected, stationary, indoor cycling bike with cameras, microphones and tablets attached, so its riders can livestream fitness classes and communicate with one another.
• Priced at upward of $2,500 (around Rs 1.8 lakh), it is made of carbon steel and aluminium and weighs around 60 kg. Users are also required to pay $39 (around Rs 2,895) per month for Peloton’s live and on-demand classes.
• Today, the company, and its exercise bike in particular, have a cult following across the United States.

After taking office as the 46th US President on January 20, Democrat Joe Biden has made a couple of changes to the Oval Office – the commander-in-chief’s principal place of business which is visited by the most powerful people in the world.

• Among the changes is the addition of a Moon rock– a sample of Earth’s natural satellite collected by astronauts of the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.
• Lunar Sample 76015,143, which weighs 332 grams, was collected by Apollo 17 astronaut Ronald Evans and moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan.
• Apollo 17 was the last mission to send humans to set foot on the lunar surface.
• The rock has been placed in the Oval Office “in symbolic recognition of earlier generations’ ambitions and accomplishments, and support for America’s current Moon to Mars exploration approach.
• Biden is not the first US President to put a Moon rock on display. In 1999 NASA loaned lunar sample 10057,30 to the then-President Bill Clinton for the White House.

The two-kilometre time trial — set at eight minutes and 15 seconds for fast bowlers and 8:30 for batsmen, spinners and wicketkeepers — has become mandatory for India’s centrally-contracted cricketers.

• On a standard athletics track, the distance is covered in five laps of 400 metres each. The timings can be measured with a stop-watch or an electronic clock.
• According to Ramji Srinivasan, the 2k time trial is a speed-endurance test, the 2011 World Cup-winning Indian team’s strength and conditioning coach.
• If an athlete meets the standard set for the time trial, he or she can be termed ‘fit’. Another benefit of the time trial is that it will help redraw a cricketer's fitness schedule, if needed.
• According to Srinivasan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and New Zealand also put cricketers through the time-trial test.
• In the Yo-Yo test, two cones are placed 20 metres apart. At the first beep, the athlete starts and must reach the cone at the other end before the second beep, and then turn and run back to cross the starting point before the third beep.
• As the Yo-Yo test level gets tougher, the frequency of the beeps increases and the number of shuttles (up and down runs) also goes up before a player gets a short break.
• Yo-Yo tests have been used in football for ages.

The Indian Sunderbans, which is part of the largest mangrove forest in the world, is home to 428 species of birds, a recent publication of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) states.

• The publication, Birds of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, released by the ZSI, documents the avifauna of the Sundarbans and serves as a comprehensive photographic field guide for the region.
• The scientists said of the 428 birds listed, some, like the masked finfoot and the Buffy fish owl, are recorded only from the Sunderbans.
• The area is home to nine out of 12 species of kingfishers found in the country as well rare species such as the Goliath heron and the spoon-billed sandpiper.
• The Indian Sunderbans, which covers 4,200 sq. km, also includes the Sunderban Tiger Reserve of 2,585 sq. km — home to about 96 royal Bengal tigers (as per the last census in 2020).
• It is a world heritage site and a Ramsar site (a wetland site designated to be of international importance).
• India has over 1,300 species of birds and if 428 species of birds are from the Sunderbans, it means that one in every three birds in the country is found in the unique ecosystem.

A study by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noted that the cost of issuing green bonds has generally remained higher than other bonds in India, largely due to asymmetric information.

• The average coupon rate for green bonds issued since 2015 with maturities between 5 to 10 years have generally remained higher than the corporate and government bonds with similar tenure.
• However, the coupon rate was lower than the corporate bonds for the US dollar-denominated green bonds with tenure of more than or equal to 10 years.
• Most of India's green bonds are issued by the public sector units or corporates with better financial health.
• It is evident from the fact that the private sector issuers of green bonds, on average, reported lower debt-to-assets ratio compared to the non-issuers of green bond.
• Green bonds constituted only 0.7 percent of all the bonds issued in India since 2018, and bank lending to the non-conventional energy constituted about 7.9 percent of outstanding bank credit to the power sector, as of March 2020.
• High borrowing cost has been perhaps the most important challenge and analysis indicates that it could be due to the asymmetric information
• Therefore, developing a better information management system in India may help in reducing maturity mismatches, borrowing costs and lead to efficient resource allocation in this segment.
• A green bond is a type of fixed-income instrument that is specifically earmarked to raise money for climate and environmental projects.