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

Life expectancy among the poorest is lower by 9.1 years among men and 6.2 years among women from the corresponding figures for the richest in urban areas, noted a report released recently by Azim Premji University in collaboration with 17 regional NGOs across India.

• The report, “Healthcare equity in urban India”, explores health vulnerabilities and inequalities in cities in India. It also looks at the availability, accessibility and cost of healthcare facilities, and possibilities in future-proofing services in the next decade.
• It notes that a third of India’s population lives in urban areas, with this segment seeing a rapid growth from about 18% (1960) to 28.53% (2001) and 34% (in 2019).
• Close to 30% of people living in urban areas are poor.
• The study also draws insights from data collected through interactions with civil society organisations in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Surat, Lucknow, Guwahati, Ranchi and Delhi.
• This also included an analysis of the National Family and Health Surveys, the Census, and inputs from State-level officials on the provision of healthcare.

The report calls for

• strengthening community participation and governance;
• building a comprehensive and dynamic database on the health and nutrition status, including comorbidities of the diverse, vulnerable populations;
• strengthening healthcare provisioning through the National Urban Health Mission, especially for primary healthcare services;
• putting in place policy measures to reduce the financial burden of the poor’ and
• a better mechanism for coordinated public healthcare services and better governed private healthcare institutions.

Hence both statements are correct.

Indore was ranked the cleanest city for the fifth consecutive year by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in its annual cleanliness ranking.

• The Swachh Survekshan Awards, 2021 handed out by President Ram Nath Kovind included the cleanest State honour for Chhattisgarh for the third time, in the category of States with more than 100 urban local bodies.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, won the award for the cleanest “Ganga city”.
• Among cities, Surat and Vijayawada secured the second and third place, respectively.
• The Ministry said the survey was carried out in 4,320 cities over 28 days, where feedback from 4.2 crore persons was recorded.
• Of States with over 100 urban local bodies (ULBs), Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh were ranked second and third respectively.
• Jharkhand was judged the cleanest State with less than 100 ULBs, followed by Haryana and Goa.
• Among cities with population over 1 lakh, Indore, Surat, Vijayawada, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Ambikapur, Tirupati, Pune, Noida and Ujjain were the top 10, in that order.
• Of cities with population less than 1 lakh, Maharashtra’s Vita was the cleanest, followed by Lonavala and Sasvad.
• The New Delhi Municipal Council’s area was ranked the cleanest in the category of cities with 1-3 lakh population.
• Noida was named the cleanest among medium-sized cities, that is with 3 lakh to 10 lakh population. Among the big cities with population of 10 lakh to 40 lakh, Navi Mumbai was ranked the cleanest.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the state-of-the-art Centre for Nanotechnology (CNT) and Centre for Indian Knowledge System (CIKS) at IIT Guwahati.

• Centre for Nanotechnology (CNT) aims at meeting future challenges and augment academic partnerships with industry in Nanotechnology.
• The key outcomes expected from the Centre for Nanotechnology include nano-enabled healthcare, energy harvesting, and LED prototypes, devices and technologies, start-ups/ incubation ecosystem, high-end R&D outputs, capacity building of highly skilled manpower in the area of nanofabrication and nanoelectronics, etc.
• Centre for Indian Knowledge System (CIKS) will focus on preserving, documenting and sustaining the knowledge that is unique to India.
• The top priorities include Indian classical music, Yoga, Sanskrit, traditional medicines, temple architecture, ceramic tradition and special agricultural practices of North-East India, herbal plants of north-east as health food and metal work of Assam.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

China has officially downgraded its diplomatic ties with Lithuania after it allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in Vilnius.

• China considers the self-ruled and democratically governed Taiwan island as its own territory.
• Taiwan says, it is an independent country called the Republic of China, its official name, and that the People’s Republic of China has never ruled it and has no right to speak for it.
• Taiwan has been upbeat by growing international support for it, especially from the US and some of its allies, in the face of China’s military and diplomatic pressure.

Lithuania

• Lithuania is a country in the Baltic region of Europe.
• It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea.
• Lithuania shares land borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the southwest.
• Its capital and largest city is Vilnius.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Prime Minister Modi attended the 56th DGsP/IGsP Conference at Lucknow on November 20-21, 2021. The Conference was attended by 62 DGsP/IGsP of States/UTs and DGs of CAPFs/CPOs in Lucknow.

• He stressed on review of SMART Policing concept introduced in 2014 and suggested development of a roadmap for its continuous transformation and institutionalisation of the same in Police forces.
• The Prime Minister also awarded the President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service to IB personnel. For the first time, as per the directives of the Prime Minister, IPS officers from various States had submitted articles on contemporary security issues, which added more value to the conference.
• Earlier, the Conference was inaugurated by the Union Home Minister on November 19, 2021, wherein he had awarded trophies to the three-best Police Stations of the country.

According to a recent Supreme Court order senior police officers with a residual tenure of six months before normal retirement could be considered for the post of DGP. On July 3, 12 years after introducing drastic reforms to free the police from political influence, the Supreme Court had barred State governments from appointing DGPs without first consulting the UPSC.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to the Centre to disinvest its 29.54 per cent residual shares in Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL).

• The top court also directed a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the process of disinvestment of 26 per cent of government shares in the company in 2002.
• Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL) is an Indian integrated mining and resources producer of zinc, lead, silver and cadmium.
• It is a subsidiary of Vedanta Limited. Earlier it was a Central Public Sector Undertaking, sold by Government of India to Vedanta Limited when Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Bharatiya Janta Party Government was in power in the year 2003.

What is the history of HZL?

• The Metal Corporation of India Limited was incorporated in 1944 as a public limited company under the Companies Act 1913.
• Hindustan Zinc Limited was incorporated from the erstwhile Metal Corporation of India on 10 January 1966 as a Public Sector Undertaking.
• On August 2, 1976, the President promulgated the Metal Corporation (Nationalisation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance. This ordinance was replaced by The Metal Corporation (Nationalisation and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1976.

Hence both statements are correct.

Cairn Oil & Gas has announced that it is partnering US-based Halliburton to start shale exploration in the Lower Barmer Hill formation, Western Rajasthan.

• The company is also looking to increase the recoverable reserves at its offshore assets by 10 times via enhanced use of technology, in partnership with Halliburton.
• The key difference between shale oil and conventional crude is that the former, also called ‘tight oil’, is found in smaller batches, and deeper than conventional crude deposits. Its extraction requires creation of fractures in oil and gas rich shale to release hydrocarbons through a process called hydraulic fracking.
• Russia and the US are among the largest shale oil producers in the world, with a surge in shale oil production in the US having played a key role in turning the country from an importer of crude to a net exporter in 2019.
• Currently, there is no large-scale commercial production of shale oil and gas in India.
• State-owned ONGC had, in 2013, started exploration and, by the end of FY21, assessed shale oil and gas potential in 25 nomination blocks, but has reduced investments over the past few years after only getting limited success in shale exploration efforts.
• Hence both statements are correct.

The Ganga Expressway, an ambitious project of Uttar Pradesh government, connecting Meerut to Prayagraj district has got environmental clearance.

• Projects covered under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Notification of 2006 need to get environmental clearance before work under the project can be started.
• The clearance has paved the way for the construction of what is being touted as the longest expressway in the country, whose more than 90 Percent land acquisition work is complete. The tendering process for the 594-km Ganga Expressway project has already started.
• The estimated cost of the project is 36,230 crore rupees. The expressway will start at Bijauli in Meerut district from the Meerut-Bulandshahr highway and conclude at the Prayagraj bypass near the Joodapur Dandu village in Prayagraj district.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

The Union Minister of Textiles Piyush Goyal announced that the Ministry of Textiles has decided to set up a Handloom Village at Moirang of Manipur.

• The city- Moirang of Manipur is a very important place in the history of India's freedom movement. The Netaji Subhas Chandra led INA hoisted the tricolour flag at Moirang in its Imphal Campaign during the second World War.
• An INA Museum is there at Moirang and tourists across the globe visit the Museum. To showcase the rich handloom products of Manipur and attract the tourists, the ministry decided to set up the Handloom Village there and work on it will be started very soon.
• Hence, option (a) is the correct answer.

Food Corporation of India (FCI) under Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) has developed India's first state-of-art laboratory for in house testing of food grain samples in Gurugram.

• Now food grains to be issued from FCI depots under various welfare schemes of the Government of India will be checked in-house for pesticide residues, Mycotoxin, Uric acid and fortification level of vitamins to ensure the food grain safety and nutritional security of the consumers.
• The laboratory has been set up under the able guidance of the Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysuru in Karnataka.

Key facts

• The Food Corporation of India (FCI) is a statutory corporation created and run by the Government of India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India formed by the enactment of Food Corporation Act, 1964[2] by the Parliament of India
• It was set up in 1965 with its initial headquarters at Chennai. Later this was moved to New Delhi.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.