Daily Current Affairs MCQ - April 21, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

• The Companies Act, 2013 is an Indian company law which regulates incorporation of a company, responsibilities of a company, directors, dissolution of a company. 

  • The provisions in the Companies Act 2013 only protect small shareholders' rights (and not of minority shareholders) of listed companies by asking such companies to have on their board at least one director elected by such small shareholders. 

• According to the Companies Act, small shareholders are shareholders or shareholders who hold shares of nominal value of not more than Rs. 20,000.

  • The Minority Shareholders are the equity holders of a firm who do not enjoy the firm's voting power by virtue of his or her below 50% ownership of the firm's equity capital.

• Millets, often referred to as Superfood, are nutritionally rich crops having high protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals like iron content. They are also rich in calcium and magnesium.

  • Ragi is known to have the highest calcium content among all the food grains.

• They are also harder and drought-resistant crops, which has to do with their short growing season (70-100 days, as against 120-150 days for paddy/wheat) and lower water requirement (350-500 mm versus 600-1,200 mm). 

• The three major millet crops currently grown in India are jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and ragi (finger millet).

  • Along with that, India grows a rich array of bio-genetically diverse and indigenous varieties of "small millets" like kodo, kutki, chenna and sanwa. 

• Major producers include Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana.

• Asteroids are divided into three classes:

  • First Group: Those found in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter are estimated to contain somewhere between 1.1-1.9 million asteroids.

  • Second Group: It is that of trojans, which are asteroids that share an orbit with a larger planet. NASA reports the presence of Jupiter, Neptune and Mars trojans. In 2011, they reported an Earth trojan as well. 

  • Third Group: Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA) have orbits that pass close by the Earth.

  • Those that cross the Earth's orbit are called Earth-crossers.

  • More than 10,000 such asteroids are known, out of which over 1,400 are classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs).

• International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) founded in 1977, IFAD focuses on rural poverty reduction, working with poor rural populations in developing countries to eliminate poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. 

• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations and was one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference.

• Drought is generally considered as a deficiency in rainfall /precipitation over an extended period, usually a season or more, resulting in a water shortage causing adverse impacts on vegetation, animals, and/or people.

• There is no single, legally accepted definition of drought in India. Some states resort to their own definitions of drought. State Government is the final authority when it comes to declaring a region as drought affected. 

• The Supreme Court of India in its verdict in the matter of Swaraj Abhiyan Vs Union of India stated that drought would certainly fall within the definition of "disaster" as defined under Section 2(d) of the Disaster Management (DM) Act, 2005.

• If external aid / external financing is a grant or coming without interest, no better way to finance the deficit, if we ignore their inflationary effects.

• When the domestic market has limited amount of funds, and if the government desires to borrow a large share of it to finance the fiscal deficit, it tends to raise the demand for funds in the market. This shoots the market interest rate for the funds and causes problems to the domestic investors who now have to pay a higher interest rate to avail the same loan.

• If the same money is borrowed from abroad, the crowing out effect doesn’t occur.

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty adopted by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI) on 16 December 1966, and in force from 23 March 1976 in accordance with Article 49 of the covenant.

• The covenant commits its parties to respect individuals' civil and political rights, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process, and a fair trial.

• The ICCPR is part of the International Bill of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

• The ICCPR is monitored by the United Nations Human Rights Committee (a separate body to the United Nations Human Rights Council), which reviews regular reports of States parties on how the rights are being implemented.

• India is a party to the convention.

The Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), an autonomous think tank, under the patronage of Indian Army has established a joint initiative with Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Mangalore to conduct PhD programme for Army Officers.

• The Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, is an independent think tank on strategic studies and land warfare in the Indian context. CLAWS is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

• CLAWS has taken this initiative to further enhance professional military education (PME) of officers which will eventually benefit the country with better equipped military leaders with in-depth knowledge in respective domains.

• Under the initiative, CLAWS has been recognised as a sub-centre of MAHE by virtue of which five of CLAWS faculties will serve as co-supervisors.

• CLAWS will also initiate the selection process and conduct mandatory research methodology classes, as per guidelines given by the UGC and MAHE, Mangalore.

World liver day is observed on April 19 every year, to spread awareness about the liver-related disease.

• The liver is the second largest and the most complex organ in the body, except the brain. It is a key player in your body’s digestive system.

• The theme for this year is ‘Keep your liver healthy and disease-free.’

The Vande Bharat Mission (VBM), which started repatriating Indians stranded abroad due to COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns since May 7, 2020, has turned out to be one of the largest evacuations of civilians by a country.

• Into the middle of Phase 10, the VBM has surpassed the large-scale airlift of 1,10,000 people in 1990 at the onset of the Gulf War.

• Till now, the Air India (AI) Group has operated 11,523 inbound flights to carry 18,19,734 passengers and 11,528 outbound flights with 13,68,457 passengers.

• The national carrier, which carried out the bulk of air transfers under the mission, was supported by its budget carrier Air India Express.

• The current VBM Phase 10 has international and domestic schedules operating till October 31.

• Air India Express (AIE) used its B-737-800 fleet to lift agricultural produce, mainly fruits and vegetables, to West Asian countries, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

• “Transport bubbles” or “air travel arrangements”, temporary arrangements between two countries aimed at restarting commercial passenger services when regular international flights are suspended as a result of the pandemic, are in place.