Daily Current Affairs MCQ - June 5, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

India along with Govt. of United Kingdom launched new workstream to promote industrial energy efficiency under the Clean Energy Ministerial’s (CEM) – Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (IDDI) at the 12th Chief Energy Ministerial (CEM) . The 12th CEM is ongoing from May 31st and will continue till 6th June 2021.

• The Clean Energy Ministerial Industrial Deep Decarbonisation Initiative (IDDI) is a global coalition of public and private organisations who are working to stimulate demand for low carbon industrial materials.
• Coordinated by United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the IDDI is co-led by the UK and India. Additional members include Germany and Canada.
• The initiative also includes organizations like the Mission Possible Platform, the Leadership Group for the Industry Transition, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the World Bank.
• The objective is to tackle carbon intensive construction materials such as steel and cement by infusing green technologies and stimulate demand for low-carbon industrial material.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Ministry of Labour & Employment has constituted the Expert Group to provide recommendations to the government on fixation of Minimum Wages and National Floor Minimum Wages.

• The Group has been constituted for a period of three years from the date of notification.
• The Expert Group is chaired by Prof Ajit Mishra, Director, Institute of Economic Growth.

Present status

• The current floor wage, which was fixed in 2017, is at Rs 176 a day, but some states have minimum wages lower than it.
• Under the Code on Wages, which is yet to be enforced, a National Floor Level Minimum Wage will be set by the Centre to be revised every five years, while states will fix minimum wages for their regions, which cannot be lower than the floor wage.
   

Anoop Satpathy committee

• This is the second expert committee on minimum wages formed by the government within the last two years.
• The earlier panel, headed by Anoop Satpathy, Fellow, VV Giri National Labour Institute, was set up by the ministry on January 17, 2018, to determine methodology for fixing national minimum wage.
• The recommendations, which weren’t accepted by the Centre, included setting the national floor wage at Rs 375 per day (Rs 9,750 per month) as per July 2018 prices.

Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

The Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, launched the SAGE (Seniorcare Aging Growth Engine) initiative and SAGE portal to support India’s elderly persons.

• The SAGE portal will be a “one-stop access” of elderly care products and services by credible start-ups.
• The SAGE portal will be opened for applications from 5th June, 2021 onwards.
• The start-ups selected under SAGE will be those which will provide new innovative products and services to elderly persons in various areas like health, travel, finance, legal, housing, food among others.
• The SAGE portal has been prepared and finalised in record time by Mr. Chandrasekhar Buddha, CEO, NEAT, M/o Education along with Dr. Elengovan, Assistant Innovation Director, M/o Education.
• The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment will act as a facilitator for this scheme.
• A fund of uptoRs.1 crore as one-time equity will be granted to each selected start-up.
  1. An amount of Rs 100 crore has been assigned for the promotion of the silver economy.
  2. An allocation of Rs 25 crores has been made for the SAGE project in the current financial year i.e 2021-22.

Statistics

• India’s elderly population is on the rise, and as per surveys, the share of elders, as a percentage of the total population in the country, is expected to increase from around 7.5% in 2001 to almost 12.5% by 2026, and surpass 19.5% by 2050.
• Accordingly, there is an urgent need to create a more robust elder care ecosystem in India
• Earlier a Senior Citizen Welfare Fund was started in 2016.

Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Union Minister of Corporate Affairs launched “Hisaab Ki Kitaab”.

• Hisab Ki Kitaab is a series of 6 short films/modules of Investor Education & Protection Fund Authority (IEPFA).
• It has been developed by CSC eGov as a part of their training tool.
• There are 6 short films/ modules of 5 minutes duration each highlighting the importance of budget, saving, importance of Insurance schemes, various social security schemes of the government etc. thus promoting financial literacy.

About IEPF Authority:

• Parent body: Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
• Established in: 2016.
• Status: A statutory body under Companies Act 2013.
• Mandate: The Authority is entrusted with the responsibility of administration of the Investor Education Protection Fund (IEPF), make refunds of shares, unclaimed dividends, matured deposits/debentures etc. to investors and to promote awareness among investors.
• Administration: Secretary Ministry of the Corporate Affairs is the Chairperson of the Authority.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

As on June 3, 2021, 50,000 startups across have been recognized as startups by DPIIT, of which 19,896 have been recognized since April 1, 2020.

• With the launch of the Startup India initiative, recognized startups have now spread across 623 districts. Each State and UT has at least one startup.
• Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have the greatest number of startups.
• Over 16,000 startups were recognized in the year 2020-2021.
• 5.5 Lakh jobs were reported by 48,093 startups with an average number of 11 employees per startup. About 1.7 lakh jobs were created by recognized startups in the 2020-2021 period alone.
• The sectors that had the maximum registered startups were ‘Food Processing’, ‘Product Development’, ‘Application Development’, ‘IT Consulting’ and ‘Business Support Services’.
• The leadership teams of 45% startups have a women entrepreneur.
• Funding opportunities to startups have been enhanced through the Fund of Funds Scheme with an overlay of INR 10,000 crore and the recently launched Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) with an outlay of INR 945 crores.
• Multiple programs are conceived and implemented by DPIIT -National Startup Awards, State Ranking Framework, Global VC Summit, Prarambh: Startup India International Summit.

Hence both statements are correct.

The World Intellectual Property Organisation defines a GI as “a sign used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin”.

GIs are typically used for agricultural products, foodstuffs, handicrafts, industrial products, wines and spirit drinks. Darjeeling tea, Kullu shawl, Mysore agarbathi, champagne (France), Swiss watches etc are some of its examples.

Internationally, GIs are covered as an element of intellectual property rights under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. They are also covered under the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement.

The majority Hutus and minority Tutsis have had a troubled relationship in Rwanda that goes back to the German and Belgian colonial period.

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) regime was promoted by the World Trade Organization in 1995 for uniform global IPR rules. TRIPS is founded on the principle of “product patents”.

TRIPS does have a provision to enable governments to enforce ‘compulsory licensing’. They can demand that an innovator company must allow domestic, lower cost, producers to increase the supply of the drug in an emergency, with compensation to the inventor of course.

Recently, NITI Aayog released the third edition of the Sustainable Development Index for 2020-2021. The index evaluated progress of states and Union Territories with respect to social, economic and environmental parameters. Kerala has topped in the recently released 3rd edition of Sustainable Development Index for 2020-2021, with a score of 75. Jharkhand, Bihar, and Assam were the worst performers. Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh retained 2nd spot with a score of 74.

Recently, China successfully launched its 1st satellite of a new generation meteorological satellite into planned orbit. This satellite is named Fengyun-4B (FY-48). It will be used for fields of weather analysis, environmental and disaster monitoring. Fengyun-48: It was launched by a Long March-3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province. It will strengthen observation and response capability of small & medium scale disaster events and provide information security services in sectors including agriculture, meteorological, marine, aviation, and environmental protection.