Daily Current Affairs MCQ - November 17, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

The Pochampally Village in Telangana State has been selected as one of the best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

• The prestigious award will be given on the occasion of the 24th session of the UNWTO General Assembly on 2nd December 2021 in Madrid, Spain.
• Pochampally, 50 Kms from Hyderabad, is a town in Nalgonda district of Telangana and is often referred to as the Silk City of India for the exquisite sarees that are woven through a unique style called Ikat. This style, Pochampally Ikat, received a Geographical Indicator (GI Status) in 2004.
• Ikat is a Malaysian, Indonesian word which means “Tie and Dye”.
• Ikat involves the process of wrapping (or tying) and dyeing sections of bundled yarn to a predetermined colour pattern before they are woven. The dye penetrates into exposed sections while the wrapped section remains undyed. This pattern formed by the yarn in this process is woven into fabric.
• Pochampally is also known as Bhoodan Pochampally to commemorate the Bhoodan Movement that was launched by Acharya Vinobha Bhave from this village on April 18th, 1951.
• Currently a two room Vinobha Bhave Mandir exists within the village which was earlier the place where Vinobha Bhave resided during his visit to the village.

Best tourism village

• The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Pilot initiative aims to award those villages which are outstanding examples of rural destinations and showcase good practices in line with its specified nine evaluation areas.
• It also aims to support villages to enhance their rural tourism potential through training and access to opportunities for improvement.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Director General Border Roads (DGBR) Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhry received the Guinness World Records certificate on November 16, 2021 for the achievement of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) of constructing and black topping the world’s highest motorable road at 19,024 feet at Umlingla Pass in Ladakh.

• The 52-kilometre long Chisumle to Demchok tarmac road passes through the 19,024 feet high Umlingla Pass and betters the previous record of a road in Bolivia, which connects volcano Uturuncu at 18,953 feet.
• The Umlingla Pass road is another landmark in resurgent India’s achievement as it has been constructed at an altitude higher than the North and South Base Camps of Mount Everest which are at an altitude of 16,900 feet and 17,598 feet respectively.
• The BRO provided a black topped road to the important village of Demchok in Eastern Ladakh that will be a boon to the local population of the region as it will enhance the socio-economic conditions and promote tourism in Ladakh.
• The strategically important road, which is approximately 15 kilometres long, highlights the focus of the Government in developing road infrastructure in border areas.
• Hence, option (b) is the correct answer.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the First Global Innovation Summit of the Pharmaceuticals sector on 18th November 2021 through video conferencing.

• It aims to bring together key Indian and international stakeholders from the government, industry, academia, investors, and researchers to discuss and strategize priorities to foster a thriving innovation ecosystem in the pharmaceuticals industry in India.
• It will also highlight the opportunities in the Indian pharma industry that has huge growth potential.
• The two-day Summit will have 12 Sessions and over 40 national and international speakers deliberating on a range of subjects including the regulatory environment, funding for innovation, industry-academia collaboration, and innovation infrastructure.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the government has decided to re-open the Shri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor. The corridor was shut in March 2020 in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

• The Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, also known as Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, is located in Pakistan’s Narowal district across river Ravi, about five kilometres from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India’s Punjab.
• Guru Nanak Dev, the first Sikh Guru had arrived in Kartarpur between 1520 and 1522, as per historians, and spent the last 18 years of his life there. It was in Kararpur that he laid the foundations of a Sikh religion. At his final resting place stands the gurdwara.
• The Kartarpur Corridor was finally thrown open in 2019 with the two sides agreeing on visa-free travel for Indian pilgrims to the shrine.
• India had signed an agreement with Pakistan on 24th October in 2019 on the modalities for operationalization of the Shri Kartarpur Sahib Corridor at Zero Point, International Boundary, Dera Baba Nanak
• Hence both statements are correct.

Global antibiotic consumption rates increased by 46% in the last two decades, according to a study covering 204 countries from 2000 to 2018, and published in the Lancet Planetary Health by the Global Research on Antimicrobial Resistance (GRAM) Project.

The key findings:

• 10-fold: Variation between countries in total antibiotic consumption rates, ranging from as low as 5 DDD to 45.9 DDD per 1000 population per day.
• 46% up: Between 2000 and 2018, global antibiotic consumption rates increased from 9.8 to 14.3 DDD per 1000 population per day).
• 76%: Increase observed between 2000 and 2018 in low- and middle-income countries (from 7.4 to 13.1 DDD per 1000 per day). In high-income countries, consumption rates remained stable.
• 116%: Increase in antibiotic consumption rates in South Asia. The second largest increase was in the North Africa and Middle East region (111%).

Comment

• Excess and inappropriate use of antibiotics is an important driver of drug resistant infections.
• These findings reveal the huge task ahead, implementing and delivering the WHO Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, which relies on optimising antibiotic use and reducing the incidence of infections.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

• The Build Back Better World (B3W) is an international infrastructure investment initiative announced by the Group of Seven (G-7) richest democracies in June 2021.
• The B3W initiative is being seen as the US' initiative to counter China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
• The Build Back Better Plan is a Covid-19 relief, future economic, and infrastructure package proposed by G-7 countries for developing and lower-income countries.
• Components of B3W: Through B3W, the G7 and other like-minded partners will coordinate in mobilizing private-sector capital in four areas of focus:
  • Climate,
  • Health and health security,
  • Digital technology,
  • Gender equity and equality.
• Hence, option D is correct.

• Recently, Pochampally village in Telangana was selected as one of the Best Tourism Villages by United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). Hence, statement 3 is correct.
  • The award will be given on the occasion of the 24^th session of the UNWTO General Assembly in December 2021 in Madrid, Spain.
• Pochampally in Nalgonda district is often referred to as the silk city of India for the exquisite sarees that are woven through a unique style called Ikat. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
  • This style, Pochampally Ikat, received a Geographical Indicator (GI Status) in 2004. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
    • Pochampally’s unique weaving styles and patterns received special focus through the Prime Minister’s mantra of Vocal 4 Local as a part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat.
• The village is also known as Bhoodan Pochampally to commemorate the Bhoodan Movement that was launched by Acharya Vinobha Bhave from this village on 18^th April, 1951.

• SafaiMitra Suraksha Challenge (SSC) is a week-long awareness campaign launched as part of the ‘World Toilet Day’ celebrations, to run up to the ‘Swachh Amrit Diwas’. Hence statement 1 is correct.
• It was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on 19^th November 2020 on the occasion of World Toilet Day. Hence statement 2 is not correct.
• SSC is aimed to encourage cities to mechanise their sewer and septic tank cleaning operations in order to prevent deaths and fatalities of sanitation workers from ‘hazardous entry’.
  • The Government launched this “challenge” for all states to make sewer-cleaning mechanised by April 2021 — if any human needs to enter a sewer line in case of unavoidable emergency, proper gear and oxygen tanks, etc., are to be provided.

Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Shri Giriraj Singh inaugurated 'Bhumi Samvaad' - National Workshop on Digital India Land Record Modernisation Programme (DILRMP).

• He called upon the states to resolve to complete the digitalization of land records by March 2023.
• To encourage the good work done by the State Governments, the Department of Land Resources has also initiated the National Land Management Award – 2021 and also national level ranking of States based on the best practices for land acquisition for infrastructure projects.
• Unique Land Parcel Identification Numbers (ULPIN) is just like the Aadhar Number of land parcels. In this unique system. a unique ID based on Geo-coordinates of the parcels is generated and assigned to the plots.
• This has been introduced to share the computerized digital land record data among different States/Sectors and a uniform system of assigning a unique ID to the land parcel across the country.
• Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh launched National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) portal and Dashboard.

• NGDRS is an in-house advanced software application for the registration system developed by NIC. It ensures transparency, accountability of the officials executing the documents and reduction in cost, time and number of visits and procedures required for the execution of the registration documents.
• So far, it has already been implemented in 12 States and pilot tested in 3 States covering more than 10 crore population. As per the report, more than 25 lakh documents have already been registered using this system.
• To integrate all the processes and land records database, the Department has also initiated a consolidated effort to computerize the land management system through Integrated Land Management Information System (ILMIS) Project wherein land-related information are available in a single window.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.