Daily Current Affairs MCQ - Feb 19, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The UK is set to conduct the first COVID-19 human challenge trials (HCT) within a month from now.

• The UK government is spending £33.6 million for the trials, being conducted jointly by the government’s Vaccines Taskforce, Imperial College London, the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and the clinical company called hVIVO. The trial was first announced in October 2020.

• In this study, over 90 healthy volunteers between the ages of 18-30 will be deliberately exposed to small amounts of the virus in controlled settings, in order to test treatments and vaccines.

• In this way, the participants are “challenged” by the virus.

• This is not the same as standard vaccine clinical trials, where the vaccine is given to participants who have acquired the infection naturally.

Significance

• While HCTs are not a necessary part of vaccine development, some developers request that such a trial be conducted with humans rather than animals. This is because not all conclusions drawn from studying animal models of diseases can be accurately applied to humans.

• HCTs are able to give more precise information about the disease and its effects on humans, and also give results about the efficacy of vaccines on infected humans.

Decks are being cleared systematically for the mega listing of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), India’s largest financial institution with assets of over Rs 32 lakh crore.

• Market regulator SEBI has relaxed the norms to make the listing process easier and smooth.

• Currently, issuers with a post-issue market capitalisation of Rs 4,000 crore are required to offer at least 10 per cent of the post-issue capital to the public and achieve a minimum public holding of 25 per cent within three years.

• SEBI has now said the issuer with a post-issue market capitalisation needs to make an offer of Rs 10,000 crore and five per cent of the incremental amount beyond the Rs one lakh crore. The size will ultimately depend on the valuation.

• Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian state-owned insurance and investment corporation.

• It was established on September 1, 1956, when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance of India Act that nationalized the insurance industry in India.

• It is headquartered in Mumbai.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution issued separate guidelines for sugar mills and cane commissioners in regards to the sale of sugar below the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of Rs 3,100/- per quintal.

• To control the constant slide in ex-mill prices of sugar, the central government had in June 2018 specified the concept of MSP for sugar.

• Back then the MSP was fixed at Rs 2,850/- per quintal which was subsequently raised to Rs 3,100/- per quintal.

• Along with MSP, the centre had also fixed mill wise sales quota.

• Mills who breached either of the conditions were liable for action under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 which would include fine as well as a jail term(ranging from 3 months to 7 years) or both.

• These out of box measures were brought in to arrest the constant sugar slide and keep the demand-supply ratio to a safe limit.

• It was reasoned that both these measures would help mills generate enough revenue to pay their farmers the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for cane purchased from farmers.

Hyderabad has won a green contest among cities in India and emerged as one of the ‘Tree Cities of the World’.

• That title has been bestowed by the Arbor Day Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

• Hyderabad has been selected for its commitment to growing and maintaining urban forestry under the State government’s Haritha Haram programme and its Urban Forest Parks plan.

• With the recognition, the city joins 120 others from 23 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia.

• The city was evaluated on five metrics: ‘Establish Responsibility’, ‘Set the Rules’, ‘Know What You Have’, ‘Allocate the Resources’, and ‘Celebrate the Achievements’.

Air pollution claimed approximately 54,000 lives in Delhi in 2020, according to a Greenpeace Southeast Asia analysis of the cost to the economy due to air pollution.

• Six Indian cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Lucknow — feature in the global analysis.

• Globally, approximately 1,60,000 deaths have been attributed to PM (particulate matter) 2.5 air pollution in the five most populous cities — Delhi, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Tokyo.

Cost Estimator

• The ‘Cost Estimator’ is an online tool that estimates the real-time health impact and economic cost from fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) air pollution in major world cities,

• According to the report, this tool was deployed in a collaboration between Greenpeace Southeast Asia, IQAir and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

• Using real-time ground-level PM 2.5 measurements collated in IQAir’s database, the algorithm applies scientific risk models in combination with population and public health data to estimate the health and economic costs of air pollution exposure.

Willingness-to-pay

• To show the impact of air pollution-related deaths on the economy, the approach used by Greenpeace is called ‘willingness-to-pay.

• Under this, a lost life year or a year lived with a disability is converted to money by the amount that people are willing to pay in order to avoid this negative outcome.

• The cost estimator also sustained the estimated air pollution-related economic losses of ₹1,23,65,15,40,000.

Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar launched Software Applications and instruction manuals with questionnaires for five All India Surveys on Labour.

• The five All India Surveys are being conducted by the Labour Bureau in Chandigarh.

• These five surveys being undertaken by Labour Bureau are

  • All India Survey on Migrant workers,

  • All India Survey on Domestic Workers,

  • All India survey on employment generated by Professionals,

  • All India survey on employment generated in Transport Sector and

  • All-India Quarterly Establishment based Employment Survey (to assess the employment situation in establishments with more than 10 workers and also less than 10 workers).

• Labour Bureau, an attached office of Ministry of Labour& Employment, has been at the forefront in fulfilling the data needs of various stakeholders in the field of labour and employment since 1920.

The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has received the Asia Environmental Enforcement Award-2020 awarded by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

• WCCB got the award twice in three years. Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) has been awarded this year under the Innovation category.

• Earlier, the Bureau had received the award in 2018 under the same category.

Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB):

• Status: A statutory body constituted under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

• Parent Agency: Ministry of Environment and Forests.

• Mandate: To combat organized wildlife crime in the country.

• Location: The Bureau has its headquarter in New Delhi and five regional offices at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Jabalpur.

• WCCB has developed an online Wildlife Crime Database Management System to get real-time data to analyse trends in wildlife crimes across India.

• This system has been successfully used for carrying out operations such as Operation Save Kurma, Thunderbird, Wildnet, Lesknow, Birbil, Thunderstorm, Lesknow-II etc resulting in huge seizures of Tiger/Leopard Skin/bones, Rhino Horn, Elephant Ivory etc.

Delimitation Commission chaired by Retd. Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai held a meeting in New Delhi with the Associate Members from Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, for seeking their suggestion on the process of delimitation in respect of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

• An overview of the process of delimitation based on the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019 and Delimitation Act, 2002 was presented before the Members detailing various Sections of these Acts related to the delimitation exercise.

• Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats to represent changes in population so that the population of all seats, so far as practicable, is the same.

• The main objective of delimitation is: To provide equal representation to equal segments of a population; fair division of geographical areas so that one political party doesn’t have an advantage over others in an election.

• Constitutional provisions: Under Article 82, the Parliament enacts a Delimitation Act after every Census.

• Delimitation is carried out by an independent Delimitation Commission. Delimitation Commissions have been set up four times — 1952, 1963, 1973 and 2002 under the Acts of 1952, 1962, 1972 and 2002. There was no delimitation after the 1981 and 1991 Censuses.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi will interact online with students, teachers and parents all over the world during ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha 2021’.

• Pariksha pe Charcha is a programme in which Prime Minister interacts with the cross-section of Students and Teachers from India and abroad to beat exam stress.

• It is a unique interaction where students, teachers, parents and the Prime Minister will come together to discuss issues related to exams esp. stress-free examination.

• The first three editions were held at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the sixth meeting of the Governing Council of NITI Aayog on 20th February 2021.

• The agenda of the meeting includes deliberations on agriculture, infrastructure, manufacturing, human resource development, service delivery at the grassroots level and health & nutrition.

• The Governing Council presents a platform to discuss inter-sectoral, inter-departmental and federal issues.

• It comprises the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers of States and Union Territories (UTs), with Legislatures and Lt Governors of other UTs.

• The sixth meeting will witness the entry of Ladakh for the first time, in addition to the participation of Jammu and Kashmir as a UT. This time, other UTs headed by administrators have also been invited to join.

• The meeting will also be attended by the ex-officio members of the Governing Council, Union Ministers, Vice Chairman, Members and CEO of NITI Aayog, and other senior officials of Government of India.