Daily Current Affairs MCQ - June 22, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

NFRA has invited suggestions from public on consultation paper on NFRA’s engagement with its stakeholders.

• NFRA is an independent regulatory body set up under Section 132 of the Companies Act.
• History:
  • It was established by the Central Government in October 2018.
  • After the Satyam scandal took place in 2009, the Standing Committee on Finance proposed the concept of the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) for the first time in its 21st report.
• Mandate
  • It oversee compliance with Accounting and Auditing Standards by companies that can be described as Public Interest Entities (PIEs). This group includes all listed companies, and large unlisted companies.
  • To discharge this mandate, NFRA is in the process of creating a verified and accurate database of companies and auditors that come under the regulatory ambit of NFRA.
• HQ: New Delhi
• Composition: NFRA consists of one chairman, three full-time members and one secretary. Former IAS officer Rangachari Sridharan was appointed as the first chairman of the body in October 2018.

Hence both statements are correct.

According to the State of Environment in Figures 2021 report released by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), there was a fivefold increase in major farmers’ protests since 2017.

• In 2017, there were 34 major protests across 15 States. The number has now shot up to 165 protests across 22 States and Union Territories.
• This was due to the three contentious Central farm laws, apart from procurement and agricultural market price-related failures.
• 12 of these are pan-India protests, including 11 agitations against the three farm reform laws introduced last year.
• Battles against acquisition of farm land for development projects, including highway and airport construction, are the prime cause of 17 agitations.
• At least seven agitations have been to demand loan waivers or to protest poor insurance coverage and delayed compensation.
• Although Punjab and Haryana farmers have caught the limelight for the recent protests outside Delhi, data shows that the largest number of recent protests have taken place in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Other statistics

• The report notes that India now has more farm labourers than landowning farmers and cultivators. This is true in 52% of the country’s districts, as well as in all districts of Bihar and Kerala.
• More than 28 agricultural workers and cultivators end their lives every day. The latest data available shows that 5,957 farmers and an additional 4,324 farm labourers died by suicide in 2019.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

An analysis of more than one million SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences has led to the identification of a new variant that, over the past weeks, has been spreading mostly in Mexico but has also been found in Europe.

• The scientific name of new variant is T478K.
• Like other strains, this presents a mutation in the spike protein.
• This variant has been increasingly spreading among people in North America, particularly in Mexico.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Two doses of Covishield vaccine produced more antibodies than Covaxin doses, but there were relatively fewer instances of ‘breakthrough infections’ after the latter, reports a study of healthcare workers (HCW) in India.

COVISHIELD

• On 1 January 2021, the Drug Controller General of India, approved the emergency or conditional use of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine AZD1222 (marketed as Covishield).
• It is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
• It’s a viral vector vaccine based on replication-deficient Adenovirus that causes cold in Chimpanzees.

COVAXIN

• On 2 January 2021, BBV152 (marketed as COVAXIN), received approval from the Drug Controller General of India for its emergency or conditional usage.
• COVAXIN has been developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV).
• COVAXIN is a whole-Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine (which is also used to manufacture vaccines like Influenza, Rabies and Hepatitis-A), created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus.
• The vaccine has been formulated with ‘Algel-IMDG’, which contains chemically absorbed TLR7/8 as an agonist or an adjuvant onto aluminium hydroxide gel to generate the requisite type of immune responses without damaging the body.
• Composition of Covaxin includes inactivated Corona Virus, Aluminium Hydroxide Gel, TLR 7/8 agonist, 2-Phenoxyethanol and Phosphate Buffered Saline[NKA1].
• Hence both statements are correct.

In a first-of-its-kind project, radio telemetry has been deployed to identify corridors used by tigers in the Vidarbha landscape, tracking their actual movement.

• The study indicates that the animals are moving in a much wider swathe of area outside the protected areas than previously known.
• The investigators belonged the Maharashtra Forest Department and Wildlife Institute of India (WII),
• Vidarbha has 331 tigers in a forest area of around 26,775 sq km, dissected by 84,202 km of roads, apart from irrigation canals and other projects. There have been growing instances of man-tiger conflict in the region.
• The project, carried out between 2017 and 2020 using radio signals, identified 37,067 sq km, in all, of tiger corridors.
• They tracked the epic journey of Walker (as the tiger was dubbed) over 3,000 km from Tipeshwar Sanctuary in Yavatmal district to Dnyanganga Sanctuary in Buldhana district.
• Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has become an Associate Member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

About IOSCO:

• It is the international body that brings together the world’s securities regulators and is recognized as the global standard setter for the securities sector.
• IOSCO develops, implements and promotes adherence to internationally recognized standards for securities regulation.
• It works intensively with the G20 and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) on the global regulatory reform agenda.

Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021:

• Recently, the government has notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.
• These new rules broadly deal with social media and over-the-top (OTT) platforms.
• These rules have been framed in exercise of powers under section 87 (2) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and in supersession of the earlier Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2011.
• The Rules establish a soft-touch self-regulatory architecture and a Code of Ethics and three tier grievance redressal mechanism for news publishers and OTT Platforms and digital media.

The United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration runs from 2021–2030. Similar to other nature related international decades, its purpose is to promote the United Nation’s enviromental goals.

Following on from the 2011 – 2020 United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, the decade on Ecosystem Restoration was launched in June 2021.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration is co-led by two UN agencies – the UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Other key bodies involved are the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF).

On June 18, 2021, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) released a report titled “Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction: Special Report on Drought 2021”. About: It will be a part of discussions at crucial UN climate talks called Cop26, planned to take place in Glasgow in November 2021. According to the report, Drought is a secret worldwide emergency that can turn into “the next pandemic” if no critical move is made on water and land and handle environmental crises. About 1.5 billion individuals are directly affected by drought this century.

Footprints from at least 6 species of dinosaurs, the very last dinosaurs to walk on the UK soil 110 million years ago have been found in Kent, a county in southeastern England. About: The footprints were discovered in the cliffs and on the foreshore in Folkestone, Kent, where stormy conditions affect the cliff and coastal waters and are constantly revealing new fossils. According to the Professor of Palaeobiology, David Martill, it is quite an extraordinary discovery because these dinosaurs would have been the last to roam in this country before becoming extinct.