Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 17-10-19 | Free PDF

MCQ 1

1. GHI is published by WHO every year
2. In addition to the yearly GHI, the Hunger Index for the States of India (ISHI) was published in 2008

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

Peanut paste not a solution for severe malnutrition: study

• Clean drinking water and sanitation as imporant as food’
• Deaths due to severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in India could be about a tenth of what was earlier believed, which implies that instead of taking emergency measures such as providing Ready To Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), there needs to be a focus on non-food interventions such as sanitation, health, clean drinking water along with an emphasis on nutrition, suggests a new study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal on Wednesday.
• The paper, published in PLOS Medicine, provides new evidence at a time when inter-ministerial discussions are under way on formulating guidelines for nutritional management of SAM children and when policy-makers and experts are divided on the issue of providing either RUTF or locally made energy-dense food.
• During the study, the researchers observed 2,704 children in West Singbhum district in Jharkhand and Kendujhar district in Odisha, who were born between October 1, 2013 and February 10, 2015 and alive at six months of age. They were followed up at 9, 12 and 18 months.
• The research found that there were a total of 513 SAM children, of which six died — four within six months of the start of the episode, and two after six months. The fatality for SAM was 0.8% (4/513) within 6 months and 1.2% overall (6/513). GHI Severity Scale ≤ 9.9 low 10.0–19.9 moderate 20.0–34.9 serious 35.0–49.9 alarming ≥ 50.0 extremely alarming 102 India (30.3)
• ‘These figures are much lower than the 10%-20% range for SAM fatality estimated by WHO and often cited by policy makers for prescribing remedial methods. Moreover, 99% of all children with SAM at 6 months of age (227/230) were alive 3 months later, 40% (92/230) were still SAM, and 18% (41/230) had recovered.
• “There are multiple attempts to show that Severe Acute Malnutrition is an acute emergency situation and that afflicted children will either die or never “recover” unless “magical therapeutic food” (RUTF) is provided. We have busted this myth. Mortality in SAM is very low over six months to one-year period and spontaneous recovery occurs in a substantial proportion. In fact, after 32 weeks of starting RUTF (given for 16 weeks), the recovery rates in our studies without CMAM [Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition] are broadly comparable to any therapeutic food. Thus, the current Indian evidence indicates that scare-mongering over SAM is unwarranted. These children are not merely nutrition starved, but are hungry for development,” Professor H.P.S. Sachdev, a paediatric consultant at Sitaram Bhartia Institute for Science and Research, who co-authored the study, told The Hindu.
• Preventive measures, apt nutrition counselling, and care for illnesses are vital aspects of SAM management, he added.
• According to WHO, RUTF is a thick paste of peanuts, vegetable oil, sugar and milk powder and a complex of vitamins and minerals.
• The findings echo results from three other Indian studies, which found fatality rates for SAM to range between 2.7% to 5.2% among children older than 6 months. The study also explains that the most vulnerable children probably died before reaching six months, which is before a child begins complementary feeding along and treatment with RUTF becomes relevant. These deaths are due to premature birth or low birth weight — factors that account for 46.1% of all deaths of children under five years in 2017.
• According to government data shared before Parliament, there were 93.4 lakh SAM children based on National Family Health Survey-4 in 2015-2016.
• Data for the indicators come from data collection efforts by various UN and other multilateral agencies. Undernourishment data are provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
• Child mortality data are sourced from the United Nations Interagency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME).
• Child wasting and child stunting data are drawn from the joint database of UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Bank, as well as from WHO’s continuously updated Global Database on Child Growth and Malnutrition,
• the most recent reports of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), and statistical tables from UNICEF.
• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) calculates GHI scores each year to assess progress, or the lack thereof, in combating hunger.
• The GHI is designed to raise awareness and understanding of the struggle against hunger. By calling attention to the issue, we hope that this report will help to increase the commitment and resources dedicated to ending hunger worldwide.
• All 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—including Goal 2, ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition, and promoting sustainable agriculture—should be achieved by 2030.
• Other global initiatives, like Compact2025, have set the goal of ending hunger worldwide by 2025. Yet this cannot be achieved without increased effort and mobilization of resources. We believe there is truth to the adage that “what gets measured gets done”; thus, we intend to consistently and systematically measure global hunger to help ensure that it will be eradicated quickly and once and for all.
• Global Hunger Index 2019 Report: India ranked 102 out of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2019 that is placed at much below to its South Asian neighbours such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan. The GHI report pointed out that “India is suffering from a serious hunger problem”. The Global Hunger Index measures countries on a 100 points scale, where a score of 0 (zero) is considered as best performing countries and 100 is the worst.
• The Global Hunger Index report, prepared and published jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organization Welt Hunger Hilfewas, calculated on the basis of four indicators that are – child mortality, undernourishment, child wasting (weight for age) and child stunting. The major focus of the index was on the relation between climate change and hunger. The report also explains the impact of extreme weather on food production and food security.

India Specific Findings in GHI 2019

• India ranked below Pakistan (94), Bangladesh (88), Nepal (73) and Sri Lanka (66) among other South Asian countries.
• As per the report prepared by Welt Hunger Life, India is one of the 45 countries where hunger causes serious crisis.
• In India, only 9.6% of all children between 6 to 23 months of age are given a minimum acceptable diet. • As per the report, the child wasting rate is the highest (20.8%) in the world while the child stunting rate is 37.9% in India.
• India scores 30.3 on the list and indicates that the level of hunger is serious in the country.
• GHI highlights that the country has improved in some indicators such as under-5 mortality rates and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food.

Global Findings

• The report highlights that the climate crisis is bringing alarming levels of hunger in the world.
• Some countries that are facing alarming situation are – Yemen, Chad, Madagascar and Zambia.
• However, there are nine countries that are categorized in a worse situation. These countries are – the Central African Republic, Yemen, Malaysia, Madagascar, Venezuela, Lebanon, Mauritania, Jordan and Oman.
• The report found that 785 million people were suffering from hunger while 822 million people were found affected with hunger in 2018.
• GHI highlights that among the 117 countries ranked, 47 countries are in ‘serious’ and ‘alarming’ hunger levels and one in ‘critically alarming’.
• How GHI scores calculated?
• Global Hunger Index 2019 was prepared under four indicators, Child Mortality, Child Wasting, Child Stunting and Undernourishment. Each indicator was given a standardized score on a 100-point scale. After that, scores were calculated with all three dimensions of the GHI’s panel.

MCQ 2

1. PM-JAY is one of the two components under Ayushman Bharat scheme/National Health Protection Scheme.
2. It aims to reduce out of pocket hospitalization expenses by providing health insurance coverage up to Rs.5 lakh/family/year for primary, secondary & tertiary health care services.

 Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

• Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme having central sector component under Ayushman Bharat Mission anchored in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). It is an umbrella of two major health initiatives, namely Health and wellness Centres and National Health Protection Scheme.
• Health and Wellness Centres • Under this 1.5 lakh existing sub centres will bring health care system closer to the homes of people in the form of Health and wellness centres. These centres will provide comprehensive health care, including for noncommunicable diseases and maternal and child health services.
• List of Services to be provided at Health & Wellness Centre
• Pregnancy care and maternal health services
• Neonatal and infant health services
• Child health
• Chronic communicable diseases
• Non-communicable diseases
• Management of mental illness
• Dental care
• Eye care
• Geriatric care Emergency medicine
•  Funding – The expenditure incurred in premium payment will be shared between central and state governments in a specified ratio
• 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature.
• 90:10 in NE states and the 3 Himalayan states of J&K, HP and Uttarakhand.
• 100% central funding for UTs without legislature.
• The State governments have the main responsibility of health service delivery.
• States will be allowed to expand the scheme both horizontally and vertically.

National Health Protection Mission (AB-PMJAY) Benefits

• AB-PMJAY provides a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures.
• To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme.
• The benefit cover will also include pre and post-hospitalization expenses. All pre-existing conditions will be covered from day one of the policy. A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
• The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities. All public hospitals in the States implementing AB-PMJAY, will be deemed empanelled for the Scheme. Hospitals belonging to Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) may also be empanelled based on the bed occupancy ratio parameter. As for private hospitals, they will be empanelled online based on defined criteria.
• To control costs, the payments for treatment will be done on package rate (to be defined by the Government in advance) basis. The package rates will include all the costs associated with treatment. For beneficiaries, it will be a cashless, paper less transaction. Keeping in view the State specific requirements, States/ UTs will have the flexibility to modify these rates within a limited bandwidth.

 Eligibility criteria

• AB-PMJAY is an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.
• The different categories in rural and urban areas include
• families having only one room with kucha walls and kucha roof;
• families having no adult member between age 16 to 59; • female headed households with no adult male member between age 16 to 59;
• disabled member and no able bodied adult member in the family;
• SC/ST households;
• landless households deriving major part of their income from manual casual labour,
• Families in rural areas having any one of the following: households without shelter, destitute, living on alms, manual scavenger families, primitive tribal groups, legally released bonded labour.
• For urban areas, 11 defined occupational categories are entitled under the scheme – Occupational Categories of Workers, Rag picker, Beggar, Domestic worker, Street vendor/ Cobbler/hawker / Other service provider working on streets, Construction worker/ Plumber/ Mason/ Labour/ Painter/ Welder/ Security guard/, Coolie and another head-load worker, Sweeper/ Sanitation worker / Mali, Home-based worker/ Artisan/ Handicrafts worker / Tailor, Transport worker/ Driver/ Conductor/ Helper to drivers and conductors/ Cart puller/ Rickshaw puller, Shop worker/ Assistant/ Peon in small establishment/ Helper/Delivery assistant / Attendant/ Waiter, Electrician/ Mechanic/ Assembler/ Repair worker, Washerman/ Chowkidar.
•  As per the SECC 2011, the following beneficiaries are automatically excluded:
• Households having motorized 2/3/4 wheeler/fishing boat
• Households having mechanized 3/4 wheeler agricultural equipment
• Households having Kisan Credit Card with credit limit above Rs. 50,000/ –
• Household member is a government employee
• Households with non – agricultural enterprises registered with government
• Any member of household earning more than Rs. 10,000/ – per month
• Households paying income tax
• Households paying professional tax
• House with three or more rooms with pucca walls and roof
• Owns a refrigerator
• Owns a landline phone
• Owns more than 2.5 acres of irrigated land with 1 irrigation equipment
• Owns 5 acres or more of irrigated land for two or more crop season
• Owning at least 7.5 acres of land or more with a t least one irrigation equipment

Top Performers

• Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh have emerged as the top performing States under PM-Jan Arogya Yojana Scheme.
• The States have provided free secondary and tertiary treatment worth nearly ₹7,901 crore in one year.
• More than 60% of the amount spent on tertiary care such as Cardiology, Orthopaedics, Radiation Oncology and Urology etc.

 MCQ 3

1. AWSITC centres are established by MHRD
2. They will be established in every district

Choose correct

(A)Only 1
(B)Only 2
(C)Both
(D)None

AWSITC

• Authorized World Skills India Training Centres (AWSITC) was recently launched by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
• It is being set up across 9 cities for the Media and Entertainment sector.
• The centres are not just to compete in the World/India Skills competitions buts also to further develop the skilling eco-system for training candidates for the international market.
• The state of the art AWSITCs is set up in partnership with the MESC (Media & Entertainment Skill Council).
• It will help the candidates to enhance their skill as per the global standards and the training programs will be designed as per the NSFQ level, which will be industry linked.

MCQ 4

1. mHariyali App is launched for better yield in farming
2. It was launched by ICAR

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

mHariyali App

• The mobile app was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• It is aimed to encourage Public engagement in planting trees and other such Green drives.
• The App provides for automatic geo-tagging of plants and will also enable nodal officers to periodically monitor the plantation.

MCQ 5

Bluetongue is a

1. AI technology
2. A bacterial disease
3. Accounting standard
4. None

Bluetongue

• It is a non-contagious, viral disease affecting domestic and wild ruminants primarily sheep and including cattle, goats, buffalo, antelope, deer, elk and camels.
• It is transmitted by insects, particularly biting midges of the Culicoides species.
• The virus which causes this disease belongs to the member of the Reoviridae family.
• It is a disease listed under the OIE Terrestrial Animal Health Code and it must be reported to the World Organization for Animal Health.
• It has significant distribution in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and several islands in the tropics and subtropics, where culicoides species is present.
• Without the insect vector, the disease cannot spread from animal to animal.
• Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has released diagnostic kits Bluetongue sandwich ELISA (sELISA) and the Japanese Encephalitis lgM ELISA for the control of Swine and Detection of Antigen.

MCQ 6

1. A novel security ink has been synthesized by researchers from the Delhi-based National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL).
2. It emits green colour soon after the UV source is turned off due to Fluorescence phenomenon.

 Choose correct

 (A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

 Synthesis of New Ink

• A novel security ink has been synthesized by researchers from the Delhi-based National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL).
• The ink emits that emits intense red colour when exposed to 254 nm wavelength UV due to florescence.
• It emits green colour soon after the UV source is turned off due to phosphorescence phenomenon. • Both red and green can be clearly seen with the naked eye under ambient conditions.
• This is the first report that the ink emit different colours at different wavelengths when exposed to UV light of a particular wavelength.
• The ink has the potential to be used as a security feature on currency notes and passports.

Fluorescence and Phosphorescence

• Phosphorescence is an emission of light from a substance exposed to radiation and persisting as an afterglow after the exciting radiation has been removed.
• In Fluorescence, the absorbed light is spontaneously emitted about 10-8 second after excitation, • Phosphorescence requires additional excitation to produce radiation and may last from about 10-3 second to days or years, depending on the circumstances.

MCQ 7

1. Van Dhan Vikas Kendras initiative aims to promote MFPs-centric livelihood development of tribal gatherers and artisans.
2. Implemented through Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Nodal Department at the Central Level and TRIFED as Nodal Agency at the National Level.

Choose correct

(A) Only 1
(B) Only 2
(C) Both
(D) None

Van Dhan Internship Programme of TRIFED launched.

Key features of the programme:

• Organised by TRIFED under Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
• 18 interns (to be called Minister’s interns) from some of the reputed Institutes of Rural Management/ Management Institutions/ Institutes of Social Work/ Social Services of the country are participating.
• These Interns will help the tribal population in becoming self reliant and entrepreneurs.
• They will support the TRIFED activities on livelihood promotion, value addition of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFTs), marketing and credit linkages.
• They will develop tools and techniques on institutional development including mechanism for determination of a just price or producer price of Minor Forest Products.

About Van Dhan Vikas Kendras initiative:

• The initiative aims to promote MFPs-centric livelihood development of tribal gatherers and artisans.
• It mainstreams the tribal community by promoting primary level value addition to MFP at grassroots level.
• Significance: Through this initiative, the share of tribals in the value chain of Non-Timber Forest Produce is expected to rise from the present 20% to around 60%.

 Implementation:

• Implemented through Ministry of Tribal Affairs as Nodal Department at the Central Level and TRIFED as Nodal Agency at the National Level.
• At State level, the State Nodal Agency for MFPs and the District collectors are envisaged to implement at grassroot level.
• Locally the Kendras are proposed to be managed by a Managing Committee (an SHG) consisting of representatives of Van Dhan SHGs in the cluster.
• Composition: As per the plan, TRIFED will facilitate establishment of MFP-led multi-purpose Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, a cluster of 10 SHGs comprising of 30 tribal MFP gatherers each, in the tribal areas.

 Significance of MFP:

• Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a major source of livelihood for tribals living in forest areas. The importance of MFPs for this section of the society can be gauged from the fact that around 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFPs for food, shelter, medicines and cash income.
• It provides them critical subsistence during the lean seasons, particularly for primitive tribal groups such as hunter gatherers, and the landless. Tribals derive 20-40% of their annual income from MFP on which they spend major portion of their time.
• This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the MFPs are collected and used/sold by women. MFP sector has the potential to create about 10 million workdays annually in the country.

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