Daily Current Affairs MCQ - November 6, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Very few election commissions in the world have such wide-ranging powers as the Election Commission of India.

EC takes decisions on every aspect of conduct and control of elections from the announcement of elections to the declaration of results.

It implements the Code of Conduct and punishes any candidate or party that violates it.

During the election period, the EC can order the government to follow some guidelines, to prevent use and misuse of governmental power to enhance its chances to win elections, or to transfer some government officials.

Twice every year — April and October — the IMF comes out with its World Economic Outlook (WEO). It does provide regular “updates” to the WEO on other occasions. The WEO reports are significant because they are based on a wide set of assumptions about a whole host of parameters — such as the international price of crude oil — and set the benchmark for all economies to compare and contrast.

Recently, Ministry for Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) published proposed amendments to the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, easing diversion of forests and exempting certain categories of development from the need to take clearance from the Ministry.

It has been amended only once before, in 1988. Ministry officials have said the current definition of forests has locked land across the country; even private owners cannot utilise their own property for non-forestry purposes. Under the Act, any diversion of any forest land for any purpose, including assignment of leases, needs prior approval of the Centre.

In 1996, ruling in T N Godavarman Thirumulpad v Union of India, the Supreme Court had expanded the definition and scope of forest land to include all areas recorded as forest in any government record, irrespective of ownership, recognition and classification. Previously, the Act had applied largely to reserve forests and national parks. 

• The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physicsis awarded with one half jointly to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and the other half to Giorgio Parisi. This is the first-time climate scientists (Manabe and Hasselmann) have been awarded the Physics Nobel. 
• The IPCC had won the Peace Nobel in 2007, an acknowledgement of its efforts in creating awareness for the fight against climate change,
• The following Indians (or individuals of Indian origin) have been honoured with the Nobel:
  • Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913), C V Raman (Physics, 1930), Hargobind Khorana (Medicine, 1968), Mother Teresa (Peace, 1979), Subramanian Chandrashekhar (Physics, 1983), the Dalai Lama (Peace, 1989), Amartya Sen (Economics, 1998), Venkatraman Ramakrishnan (Chemistry, 2009), and Kailash Satyarthi (Peace, 2014), Abhijit Banerjee (Economics, 2019).

The MGNREGA is a demand driven scheme, guaranteeing 100 days of unskilled work to any rural household that wants it.

At least 100 days of wage employment is guaranteed against the demand made by a rural household.

Unemployment allowances is paid to beneficiaries who could not be employed within 15 days from the date of they have demanded for work. 

All other demands for work, where the beneficiary has already completed 100 days in the current financial year or the beneficiary who demanded work died before 15 days of the date of the demand of work are not eligible for unemployment allowances.

India failed to achieve the earlier Millennium Development Goals on good health and well-being because of the poor performance of the northern States. It is surprising that the Government of India does not hold them responsible and accountable for poor performance. 

Since health is a State subject, the primary onus lies with the State governments. Each State government must focus on public health and aim to improve the health indicators mentioned above. 

The northern States are performing very poorly in these vital health parameters.

Zeolites are highly porous, 3-D meshes of silica and alumina. In nature, they occur where volcanic outflows have met water. Synthetic zeolites have proven to be a big and low-cost boon. One biomedical device that has entered our lexicon during the pandemic is the oxygen concentrator. This device has brought down the scale of oxygen purification from industrial-size plants to the volumes needed for a single person. 

The chemistry here is tailored to the task of separating oxygen from nitrogen in air.

Build Back Better World (B3W) is an initiative undertaken by G7 countries. Launched in June 2021, the initiative is designed to counter China’s strategic influence of the BRI Project (Belt and Road Initiative) by providing an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative for the infrastructure development of the low- and middle-income countries.

Federalism is the most relevant factor of modern constitutionalism. The core objectives of Indian federalism are unity in diversity, devolution in authority, and decentralization in administration. Through federalism, the State pursues the goal of common welfare in the midst of wide diversity in socio-cultural, economic spheres.

The Rajya Sabha indirectly represents the States whose legislators elect it.

The Rajya Sabha is not empowered to neutralise the demographic weight of the populous States with larger representation in the popular chamber; it cannot veto its legislations, unlike the U.S. Senate. It can only delay.

Most of India’s federal conflicts are structural, reinforced by operational abuses. Yet, there is no federal chamber to politically resolve such conflicts.