Daily Current Affairs MCQ- December 12, 2022 - UPSC MCQ

ISRO inks MoU with Social Alpha to establish SpaceTech Innovation Network.

• SpIN is India’s first dedicated platform for innovation, curation, and venture development for the burgeoning space entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• The tie-up is a one-of-a-kind public-private collaboration for start-ups and SMEs in the space industry.
• SpIN will primarily focus on facilitating space tech entrepreneurs in three distinct innovation categories:
  • Geospatial Technologies and Downstream Applications;
  • Enabling Technologies for Space & Mobility;
  • Aerospace Materials, Sensors, and Avionics.

Social Alpha

• Social Alpha is a multistage innovation curation and venture development platform for science and technology start-ups that address the most critical social, economic, and environmental challenges through the power of entrepreneurship and market-creating innovations.
• Since its inception in 2016, Social Alpha has supported more 200 start-ups including 60+ seed investments.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was leading in 5 seats in Gujarat after more than seven hours of counting of votes on December 8, but its vote-share was close to 13%, which meant it is on track to be recognised as a national party by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

• The name suggests that a national party would be one that has a presence ‘nationally’, as opposed to a regional party whose presence is restricted to only a particular state or region.
• National parties are usually India’s bigger parties, such as the Congress and BJP.
• However, some smaller parties, like the communist parties, are also recognised as national parties.
• A certain stature is sometimes associated with being a national party, but this does not necessarily translate into having a lot of national political clout.

Criteria:

• The ECI has laid down the technical criterion for a party to be recognised as a national party.
• A party may gain or lose national party status from time to time, depending on the fulfilment of these laid-down conditions.
• As per the ECI’s Political Parties and Election Symbols, 2019 handbook, a political party would be considered a national party if:
  • it is ‘recognised’ in four or more states; or
  • if its candidates polled at least 6% of total valid votes in any four or more states in the last Lok Sabha or Assembly elections and has at least four MPs in the last Lok Sabha polls; or
  • if it has won at least 2% of the total seats in the Lok Sabha from not less than three states.
• To be recognised as a state party, a party needs:
  • i. at least 6% vote-share in the last Assembly election and have at least 2 MLAs; or
    have 6% vote-share in the last Lok Sabha elections from that state and at least one MP from that state; or
  • ii. at least 3% of the total number of seats or three seats, whichever is more, in the last Assembly elections; or
  • iii. at least one MP for every 25 members or any fraction allotted to the state in the Lok Sabha; or
  • iv. have at least 8% of the total valid votes in the last Assembly election or Lok Sabha election from the state.

What are the other national parties?

• As of now, the ECI has recognised eight parties as national parties — the BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI(M), CPI, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party (NPP), which was recognised in 2019.

Hence, option (d) is the correct answer.

Loss-making One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, recently said its board will meet on December 13, 2022, to decide on a proposal for the buyback of its shares.

• When a listed company buys its own shares from the existing shareholders, it’s known as a share buyback, which is also called a share repurchase.
• The process reduces the number of outstanding shares in the open market over a period of time.
• A company can buy back its shares from shareholders on a proportionate basis through a tender offer, or from the open market via book-building process, stock exchanges, or from odd-lot holders.
• The maximum limit of any buy-back is 25 per cent or less of the aggregate of paid-up capital and free reserves of a company.

What are the reasons for share buyback?

• One of the reasons for a company to go for the buyback of shares is when it feels that its stock is undervalued or has fallen too much.
• By buying outstanding shares, a company reduces the number of shares in the market and this can increase the value of the remaining shares.
• Share buyback also helps in increasing the promoter shareholding, which can act as a safeguard against any threat of hostile corporate takeover.
• There were instances when promoters also participated in the buyback and surrendered their shares.

What is the benefit for shareholders?

• Through buyback, a company can reward its shareholders in a tax-effective manner.
• The dividend that a company pays is taxed at the company level and also at the shareholder level.
• In the case of share buyback, the company pays the tax and shareholders are exempted from paying tax on the income generated in the process.
• If the company offers a higher price than the market price, shareholders, who are not keen to stay invested in the company, can surrender their shares and exit.
• While a company can go for repurchase of its shares when it is sitting on a lot of cash but does not have many avenues to invest and prefers to return cash to shareholders.

Who is eligible to participate in the buyback?

• To be eligible to participate in the share repurchase process, a shareholder needs to hold the shares of the company, which has announced the buyback, before the record date declared in the announcement.
• The share also needs to be held in the demat form.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

58 airports will be covered under Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0

• Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0 was announced on 27 October 2021.

What is the objective?

• The main objective of the Krishi Udan Scheme 2.0 is to increase share of air carriage in the modal mix for transportation of Agri-produce, which includes horticulture, fishery, livestock and processed products.
• The scheme assists farmers in transporting agriculture products so that it improves their value realisation.
• The Scheme aims to ensure seamless, cost-effective, time bound, air transportation and associated logistics for all Agri-produce originating especially from North-East, hilly and tribal regions of the country.
  • Few successful examples are air transportation of 'King Chillies, Burmese Grapes & Assamese Lemon' from Gauwahati, 'Jackfruit' from Tripura and 'Litchi' from Darbhanga.

Waiver:

• For facilitating and incentivising movement of agri-produce by air transportation, Airports Authority of India (AAI) provides full waiver of Landing, Parking, Terminal Navigational Landing Charges (TNLC) and Route Navigation Facility Charges (RNFC) for Indian freighters and P2C (Passenger-to-Cargo) Aircraft.
• The Ministry of Civil Aviation has also asked States to reduce sales tax on aviation turbine fuel to one perc ent for airlines under the Krishi UDAN 2.0 scheme.

Budget:

• There is no specific budget allocation under Krishi Udan Scheme.

Ministries/Departments:

• It is a convergence scheme where eight Ministries/Departments namely Ministry of Civil Aviation, Department of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region would leverage their existing schemes to strengthen the logistics for transportation of Agri-produce.

Hence only statement 1 is correct.

Cyclone Mandous, a severe cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal, is likely to bring heavy rainfall to parts of Tamil Nadu on December 9, 2022.

• Cyclones are known as typhoons in the China Sea and Pacific Ocean; hurricanes in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean; tornados in the Guinea lands of West Africa and southern USA; willy-willies in north-western Australia and tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean.
• Cyclones are caused by atmospheric disturbances around a low-pressure area distinguished by swift and often destructive air circulation.
• Cyclones are usually accompanied by violent storms and bad weather.
• The air circulates inward in an anticlockwise direction in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere.

Types:

• Cyclones are classified as:
  • (i) extra tropical cyclones; and
  • (ii) tropical cyclones.
• According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), ‘Tropical Cyclone’ covers weather systems in which winds exceed ‘Gale Force’ (minimum of 34 knots or 63 kph).
• Extra tropical cyclones (also called temperate cyclones) occur in temperate zones and high latitude regions, though they are known to originate in the Polar Regions.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has taken a number of initiatives to empower women through the schemes and programmes implemented in the country. 

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development has formulated ‘Mission Shakti’, an Integrated Women Empowerment Programme, as Umbrella Scheme for the Safety, Security and Empowerment of Women for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period.
• It aims at strengthening interventions for safety, security and empowerment of women in a mission mode through institutional and convergence mechanism for greater efficiency, effectiveness and financial prudence.
• The Umbrella Scheme of Mission Shakti has two sub-schemes namely:
  • "Sambal" for safety and security of women and "Samarthya" for empowerment of women.
  • Under 'Samarthya' sub- scheme, a new component i.e. Hub for Empowerment of Women (HEW) has been included with the aim to facilitate inter-sectoral convergence of schemes and programs meant for women at the Central, State/ UT and District levels for creating an environment in which women are able to realize their full potential.
  • The support under the HEW provides for guiding, linking and hand holding women to various institutional and schematic set ups for their empowerment and development including access to healthcare, quality education, career and vocational counseling/ training, financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, backward and forward linkages, health and safety for workers, social security and digital literacy at districts/ Blocks/ Gram Panchayats level across the country.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

Delegates from 196 countries — Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — are meeting in Montreal, Canada from December 7-21 with the aim to hammer out a new global agreement on halting environmental loss.

• Many of the 24 conservation targets under discussion at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) aim to avoid past mistakes and improve on the world’s last set of conservation goals — the Aichi Biodiversity Targets that expired in 2020.
• No single country met all 20 Aichi Targets within its own borders, according to a September 2020 UN assessment.

Aichi Targets:

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Aichi Biodiversity Targets at the Nagoya conference in 2010.
• The Aichi Biodiversity Targets laid out a 10-year plan (Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020), which had 20 global biodiversity targets, divided under five goals, with a deadline of 2020.
  • Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.
  • Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use.
  • Strategic Goal C: Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.
  • Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services.
  • Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building
• It included goals such as reducing deforestation by at least half during the coming decade and curbing pollution so that it no longer harmed ecosystems.
• Many of the targets, however, included vague language and did not hold countries to a specific action.
• After parties adopted the Aichi Targets, they were expected to devise their own national biodiversity strategies that would mimic the goals laid out by Aichi.
• Nearly all parties created these strategies, but most were never fully implemented.

Hence only statement 2 is correct.

The new trisonic wind tunnel at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) was inaugurated recently by conducting the first blow-down test successfully.

• The massive structure, which can perform tests in three speed regimes, equips the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with a robust in-house support system for space missions.
• Trisonic Wind Tunnel is a system to aid aerodynamic design of rockets and re-entry spacecrafts by characterising a scaled model by evaluating forces, moments, load distribution, unsteady pressures, acoustic levels etc.
• The tunnel has an overall length of about 160m and has a maximum cross section of 5.4m.
• The tunnel can be used for testing various space vehicles in three flight regimes —
  • below the speed of sound (subsonic),
  • at the speed of sound (transonic) and
  • above the speed of sound (supersonic),
• hence the name trisonic wind tunnel
• The tunnel can simulate flight conditions from 0.2 times the speed of sound (68 m/s) to 4 times the speed of sound (1360 m/s).
• Its parts include air storage vessels, a settling chamber where the airflow is ‘smoothened’ out, and nozzles for releasing the air into the test section.
• Implementation: The trisonic wind tunnel was implemented through M/s Tata Projects India Ltd with the assistance of industries across the country.
• For years, ISRO had depended on the trisonic wind tunnel at the National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), Bengaluru.
• Hypersonic wind tunnel:
  • The VSSC is already equipped with a hypersonic wind tunnel for testing parameters of re-entry missions.
  • Commissioned in 2017, this tunnel can simulate flow speeds up to Mach 12.

Hence both statements are correct.

Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat recently chaired 10th meeting of Empowered Task Force of National Mission for Clean Ganga.

• NMCG was established in 2011 under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 as a registered society.
• NMCG under National Ganga Council is supported by the State level Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal.
• It is an initiative taken by the Government of India to address the pollution of the river Ganga by providing financial and technical assistance.
• Aims and objectives:
  • To accomplish the mandate of National Ganga Council
  • Prevention, control and abatement of environmental pollution and rejuvenation of the river Ganga by adopting a river basin approach.
  • To maintain minimum ecological flows in the river Ganga with the aim of ensuring water quality and environmentally sustainable development.
• Vision:
  • Restoring the wholesomeness of the river defined in terms of ensuring:
    • Aviral Dhara - that is continuous flow of water
    • Nirmal Dhara - that is unpolluted flow of water
    • Geologic and ecological integrity
• Structure:
  • It has a two-tier management structure, comprising of Governing Council and Executive Committee
  • The work of coordinating, supervising and deliberating on funding Namami Ganga projects is carried out by an executive committee of the NMCG that meets every month.
• In 2020, the World Bank has approved a five-year loan (for the second phase) to the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) or Namami Gange Project worth Rs.3,000 crore to help stem pollution in the Ganga river basin.

Hence both statements are correct.

The Government of India has said that more than three crore sixty lakh pregnant women have received comprehensive antenatal care under the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan programme across all States and Union Territories.

• The Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan has been launched by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India.
• The program aims to provide assured, comprehensive and quality antenatal care, free of cost, universally to all pregnant women on the 9th of every month.
• It guarantees a minimum package of antenatal care services to women in their 2nd / 3rd trimesters of pregnancy at designated government health facilities.
• The programme follows a systematic approach for engagement with private sector which includes motivating private practitioners to volunteer for the campaign developing strategies for generating awareness and appealing to the private sector to participate in the Abhiyan at government health facilities.
• It envisages to improve the quality and coverage of Antenatal Care (ANC) including diagnostics and counselling services as part of the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) Strategy.

Objectives of the program:

• • Ensure at least one antenatal checkup for all pregnant women in their second or third trimester by a physician/specialist
  • Improve the quality of care during ante-natal visits. This includes ensuring provision of the following services:
    • All applicable diagnostic services
    • Screening for the applicable clinical conditions
    • Appropriate management of any existing clinical condition such as Anaemia, Pregnancy induced hypertension, Gestational Diabetes etc.
    • Appropriate counselling services and proper documentation of services rendered
    • Additional service opportunity to pregnant women who have missed ante-natal visits
  • Identification and line-listing of high risk pregnancies based on obstetric/ medical history and existing clinical conditions.
  • Appropriate birth planning and complication readiness for each pregnant woman especially those identified with any risk factor or comorbid condition.
  • Special emphasis on early diagnosis, adequate and appropriate management of women with malnutrition.
  • Special focus on adolescent and early pregnancies as these pregnancies need extra and specialized care.
• One of the critical components of the Abhiyan is identification and follow up of high risk pregnancies.
• A sticker indicating the condition and risk factor of the pregnant women would be added onto MCP card for each visit:
  • Green Sticker- for women with no risk factor detected
  • Red Sticker – for women with high risk pregnancy

Hence only statement 2 is correct.