Daily Current Affairs MCQ- June 29, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

Prime Minister Modi will be attending this year's G7 Summit. This year’s G7 Summit will be held under the German Presidency on 26-27 June 2022.

• The origin of G7 lies in the oil shocks of 1973 and the corresponding financial crisis.
• In order to address the situation after oil shock, the heads of the world's six leading industrial nations decided to hold a meeting in 1975.
• These six nations were - the US, UK, France, Germany (West), Japan and Italy.
• These countries were joined by Canada in 1976 and G7 came into existence.

Hence, option (c) is the correct answer.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom by one year, and has amended the scheme to raise the incentive rate by an additional 1 per cent, aimed towards incentivising design-led manufacturing in the sector.

• The guidelines for the PLI Scheme for Telecom & Networking Products have been amended to introduce design-led manufacturing with additional incentive rates.
• The design-led manufacturing scheme is open for both medium and small-scale enterprises (MSMEs) and non-MSMEs, including domestic and global companies.
• The DoT also said applications for design-led manufacturing will be prioritised over other manufacturers. The scheme requires an investment threshold of Rs 10 crore for MSMEs and Rs 100 crore for non-MSMEs, excluding land and building cost.
• The Centre will provide additional incentives of over Rs 4,000 crore under the amended scheme.
• The incentives will be based on incremental sales of the manufactured goods, and range between 4 per cent to 7 per cent for different categories over the years. MSMEs will get an additional 1 per cent incentive in the first, second, and third years.
• The DoT has also approved 11 new telecom and network products to the existing list of products that can be manufactured under the scheme.
• Investment made by successful applicants in India from 1st April 2022 onwards and up to Financial Year 2025-2026 shall be eligible, subject to qualifying incremental annual thresholds.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the historic torch relay for the 44th Chess Olympiad at Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi.

• This torch will be taken to 75 cities in a span of 40 days before the final culmination at Mahabalipuram near Chennai. It will then head over to the FIDE Headquarters, Switzerland.
• India is hosting the prestigious Chess Olympiad for the first time and in the process, Asia gets to host the event after a gap of 30 years. Philippines last hosted it from Asia in 1992.
• India, who made its debut at the event in 1956 Moscow (27th position), has a gold medal (joint winners with Russia in 2020) and two bronze medals (2021, 2014) from the Chess Olympiad.
• While the 2020 and 2021 editions were held virtually owing to the Covid 19 pandemic, the 2022 edition will be the first over-the-board Chess Olympiad being held since 2018 in Georgia.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India is inviting applications under the various sub-schemes of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) to set up food processing related facilities / units.

These sub-schemes are:

• Scheme for Creation of Infrastructure for Agro Processing Clusters(APC)
• Scheme for Creation/Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities [Unit Scheme] (CEFPPC)
• Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure (Cold Chain)
• Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure (FTL)
• Operation Greens- long Term Interventions (OG)

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Indian Navy’s stealth Frigate, INS Talwar is presently deployed for OPERATION Sankalp commemorating the 3rd continuous year of Indian Navy’s presence in the Gulf for protection of India’s Maritime Interests.

• In the milieu of the deteriorating security situation in the Gulf region, post attacks on merchant ships in the Gulf of Oman in June 2019, Indian Navy had commenced Maritime Security Operations, code named ‘Op SANKALP’, in the Gulf Region on 19 June 2019 to ensure safe passage of Indian Flag Vessels transiting through the Strait of Hormuz.
• This operation is being progressed in close coordination with all stakeholders including Ministry of Defence, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and DG, Shipping.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Jammu and Kashmir will host the 2023 meetings of the G20, an influential group of the world's major economies.

• The G20 countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was appointed as India's Sherpa for the G20 in September 2021. India will hold the G-20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and convene the first G20 leaders' summit in 2023.
• The participation of the delegates from G-20 countries will be a major boost to the efforts of the Centre to project the situation in J&K as normal, after J&K’s special constitutional position was ended in 2019.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

The Government of India announced the launch of the pilot phase of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) in five cities in April 2022 with an aim to “democratise” the country’s fast growing digital e-commerce space that is currently dominated by the two U.S.-headquartered firms — Amazon and Walmart.

• As per the strategy paper on ONDC, it is a not-for-profit organisation that will offer a network to enable local digital commerce stores across industries to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled applications.
• It is neither an aggregator application nor a hosting platform, and all existing digital commerce applications and platforms can voluntarily choose to adopt and be a part of the ONDC network.
• The ONDC aims to enable buying of products from all participating e-commerce platforms by consumers through a single platform.
• Currently, a buyer needs to go to Amazon, for example, to buy a product from a seller on Amazon. Under ONDC, it is envisaged that a buyer registered on one participating e-commerce site (for example, Amazon) may purchase goods from a seller on another participating e-commerce site (for example, Flipkart).
• The ONDC model is trying to replicate the success of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in the field of digital payments. UPI allows people to send or receive money irrespective of the payment platforms they are registered on.
• The open network concept also extends beyond the retail sector, to any digital commerce domains including wholesale, mobility, food delivery, logistics, travel, urban services, etc.
• Current Status: Presently, ONDC is in its pilot stage in five cities — Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Shillong and Coimbatore — with a target of onboarding around 150 retailers.

Analysis: Benefits and Issues

• The ONDC will standardise operations like cataloguing, inventory management, order management and order fulfilment, hence making it simpler and easier for small businesses to be discoverable over network and conduct business.
• However, experts have pointed out some likely potential issues such as getting enough number of e-commerce platforms to sign up, along with issues related to customer service and payment integration.

Hence both statements are correct.

At the G33 Ministerial Meeting in Geneva, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal expressed his concerns over the stalemate in reaching a permanent solution on the issue of public stockholding and special safeguard mechanism (SSM) for food security.

• The G33 Ministerial Meeting was held on the sidelines of the 12th World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in the Swiss town of Geneva.
• The G33 (or the Friends of Special Products in agriculture) is a coalition of developing and least developed countries. Despite the name, there are currently 48 member nations including China, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan etc.
• It was established prior to the 2003 Cancun ministerial conference, that have coordinated during the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, specifically in regard to agriculture.
• Dominated by India, The group has "defensive" concerns regarding agriculture in relation to World Trade Organization negotiations, and seeks to limit the degree of market opening required of developing countries.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a moratorium of three years (2020-21, 2021-22 & 2022-23) to Cochin Port Authority (CoPA) towards repayment of the balance outstanding Government of India (GoI) loans amounting to Rs. 446.83 crore to tide over the financial crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic.

• Cochin Port has been brought under the Major Port Authorities Act, 2021 with effect from November 2021.
• Cochin Port or Kochi Port is a major port in the city of Kochi, Kerala. It was established in 1928.
• The port lies on two islands in the Lake of Kochi: Willingdon Island and Vallarpadam, towards the Fort Kochi river mouth opening onto the Laccadive Sea.
• It is also the first trans-shipment port in India. The International Container Trans-shipment Terminal (ICTT), part of the Cochin Port, is the largest container trans-shipment facility in India.

Major ports in India are Mumbai, Kandla, Mangalore, JNPT, Mormugao, Cochin, Chennai, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, Kolkata, and Ennore.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

In a medical trial, 12 patients in the United States were completely cured of rectal cancer without requiring any surgery or chemotherapy.

• The trial used a monoclonal antibody called dostarlimab every three weeks for six months for the treatment of a particular kind of stage two or three rectal cancer.
• The trial showed that immunotherapy alone – without any chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgery that have been staples of cancer treatment – could completely cure the patients with a particular kind of rectal cancer called ‘mismatch repair deficient’ cancer.
• ‘Mismatch repair deficient’ cancer is most common among colorectal, gastrointestinal, and endometrial cancers. Patients suffering from this condition lack the genes to correct typos in the DNA that occur naturally while cells make copies.

PD1 blockades

• The immunotherapy belongs to a category called PD1 blockades that are now recommended for the treatment of such cancers rather than chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
• PD1 is a type of protein that regulates certain functions of the immune system, including by suppressing T cell activity, and PD1 blockade therapy looks to release the T cells from this suppression.

Hence both statements are correct.