Daily Current Affairs MCQ UPSC / IAS / 17-06-19 | PDF Downloads

 
MCQ 1
 Recognise this one

1. Founded by maurice strong
2. One of several implementing agencies for the global environment facility (GEF) and the multilateral fund
3. Helped 100,000 people finance solar power systems in india
4. Not a UN agency

(A) UN-DESA
(B) UNFCCC
(C) UN CBD
 (D) UNEP

• The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a programme of the United Nations, coordinates the organization’s environmental activities and assists developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded by Maurice Strong, its first director, as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Conference) in June 1972 and has overall responsibility for environmental problems among United Nations agencies; however, international talks on specialized issues, such as addressing climate change or combating desertification, are overseen by other UN organizations, like the Bonn-based Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.
• UNEP’s activities cover a wide range of issues regarding the atmosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, environmental governance and green economy. It has played a significant role in developing international environmental conventions, promoting environmental science and information and illustrating the way those can be implemented in conjunction with policy, working on the development and implementation of policy with national governments, regional institutions in conjunction with environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
• UNEP has also been active in funding and implementing environment related development projects.
• UNEP frequently uses the alternative name UN Environment.
• UN Environment has aided in the formulation of guidelines and treaties on issues such as the international trade in potentially harmful chemicals, transboundary air pollution, and contamination of international waterways. Relevant documents, including scientific papers, are available via the UNEP Document Repository.
• The World Meteorological Organization and UN Environment established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988.
• UN Environment is also one of several Implementing Agencies for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, and it is also a member of the United Nations Development Group. The International Cyanide Management Code, a programme of best practice for the chemical’s use at gold mining operations, was developed under UN Environment’s aegis
• UNEP has registered several successes, such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol for limiting emissions of gases blamed for thinning the planet’s protective ozone layer, and the 2012 Minamata Convention, a treaty to limit toxic mercury.
• UNEP has sponsored the development of solar loan programmes, with attractive return rates, to buffer the initial deployment costs and entice consumers to consider and purchase solar PV systems. The most famous example is the solar loan programme sponsored by UN Environment helped 100,000 people finance solar power systems in India. Success in India’s solar programme has led to similar projects in other parts of the developing world, including Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia and Mexico.

UNEP’s structure includes eight substantive Divisions:

• Science Division
• Policy and Programme Division
• Ecosystems Division
• Economy Division
• Governance Affairs Office
• Law Division
• Communication Division

 MCQ 2

1. United Nations has 3 Rio Conventions namely, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
2. Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement linking environment and development issues to the land agenda.
3. United Nations General Assembly declared 5 th June(with environment day) the “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” to promote public awareness and the implementation of the UNCCD in the desertification affected countries.

Choose correct
(A) Only 2
 (B) 1 & 2
(C) 1 & 3
(D) All

• Union Environment Minister today said that we as a country make targets not under any global pressure but for our own country’s real sustainable development, and as in the past India will play a leadership role and will lead by example in combating desertification. Speaking at an event in New Delhi on the occasion of World Day to combat desertification and drought Shri Javadekar announced that India will be hosting the fourteenth session of Conference of Parties (COP – 14) from 29th August – 14th September 2019.
• The Union Minister further highlighted that with about 30% of country’s total geographical area being affected by land degradation; India has high stakes and stands strongly committed to the Convention. Shri Javadekar said that various schemes have been launched by the Government of India such as: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), Soil Health Card Scheme, Soil Health Management Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojna (PKSY), Per Drop More Crop, , etc. which are helping to reduce land degradation. The Union Minister also unveiled the logo of COP-14 on the occasion.
• India is hosting the Fourteenth session of Conference of Parties (COP – 14) from 29th August – 14th September 2019 at India Expo Mart Limited, Greater Noida. One of the primary functions of the COP is to review reports submitted by the Country Parties detailing how they are carrying out their commitments. India will take-over the COP presidency from China for two years until the next COP is hosted in 2021.
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development declares that “we are determined to protect the planet from degradation, including through sustainable consumption and production, sustainably managing its natural resources and taking urgent action on climate change, so that it can support the needs of the present and future generations”.
• Specifically, Goal 15 states our resolve to halt and reverse land degradation.
• The Union Minister also launched a flagship project on enhancing capacity on forest landscape restoration (FLR) and Bonn Challenge in India, through a pilot phase of 3.5 years implemented in the States of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Karnataka. The project will aim to develop and adapt best practices and monitoring protocols for the Indian states and build capacity within the five pilot states on FLR and Bonn Challenge. This will be eventually scaled up across the country through subsequent phases of the project.
• The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 million hectares by 2030.At the UNFCC Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge to bring into restoration 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by the year 2020, and additional 8 million hectares by 2030. India’s pledge is one of the largest in Asia.
• United Nations has 3 Rio Conventions namely, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Established in 1994, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is the only legally binding international agreement linking environment and development issues to the land agenda. In 1994, the United Nations General Assembly declared 17 June the “World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” to promote public awareness and the implementation of the UNCCD in the desertification affected countries.

MCQ 3
What are zoonotic diseases,
choose correct
(A)which is due to antimicrobial resistance
(B)Which cant spread from animals to humans
 (C)Which can spread from animals to humans
(D)They have no cure and all are fatal.

• Zoonoses (also known as zoonosis and as zoonotic diseases) are infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites that spread between animals (usually vertebrates) and humans.
• Major modern diseases such as Ebola virus disease and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in the early part of the 20th century, though it has now mutated to a separate human-only disease. Most strains of influenza that infect humans are human diseases, although many strains of swine and bird flu are zoonoses; these viruses occasionally recombine with human strains of the flu and can cause pandemics such as the 1918 Spanish flu or the 2009 swine flu.
• Taenia solium infection is one of the neglected tropical diseases with public health and veterinary concern in endemic regions. Zoonoses can be caused by a range of disease pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites; of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic.Most human diseases originated in animals; however, only diseases that routinely involve animal to human transmission, like rabies, are considered direct zoonosis.
• Zoonoses have different modes of transmission. In direct zoonosis the disease is directly transmitted from animals to humans through media such as air (influenza) or through bites and saliva (rabies).In contrast, transmission can also occur via an intermediate species (referred to as a vector), which carry the disease pathogen without getting infected. When humans infect animals, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis. The term is from Greek: ζῷον zoon “animal” and νόσος nosos “sickness”.
• According to the OIE, 60% of existing human infectious diseases are zoonotic i.e. they are transmitted from animals to humans; 75% of emerging infectious human diseases have an animal origin.
• Of the five new human diseases appearing every year, three originate in animals.
• 80% biological agents with potential bio-terrorist use are zoonotic pathogens.
• It is estimated that zoonotic diseases account for nearly two billion cases per year resulting in more than two million deaths — more than from HIV/AIDS and diarrhoea.
• One-fifth of premature deaths in poor countries are attributed to diseases transmitted from animals to humans.
• The World Organization of Animal Health, commonly known as OIE (an abbreviation of its French title), summarises the One Health concept as “human health and animal health are interdependent and bound to the health of the ecosystems in which they exist”.
• The philosophy of One Health recognizes inter-connectivity among human health, the health of animals, and the environment.
• Circa 400 BC, Hippocrates in his treatise On Airs, Waters and Places had urged physicians that all aspects of patients’ lives need to be considered including their environment; disease was a result of imbalance between man and environment. So One Health is not a new concept, though it is of late that it has been formalized in health governance systems.
• There is need for strengthening veterinary institutions and services.
• The most effective and economical approach is to control zoonotic pathogens at their animal source.
• It calls not only for close collaboration at local, regional and global levels among veterinary, health and environmental governance, but also for greater investment in animal health infrastructure.
• This calls for strict health surveillance to incorporate domestic animals, livestock and poultry too.
• Humans require a regular diet of animal protein. Thus, loss of food animals on account of poor health or disease too becomes a public health issue even though there may be no disease transmission, and we lose 20% of our animals this way.
• There could not be a stronger case for reinventing the entire animal husbandry sector to be able to reach every livestock farmer, not only for disease treatment but for prevention and surveillance to minimise the threat to human health.
• Early detection at animal source can prevent disease transmission to humans and introduction of pathogens into the food chain.
• So a robust animal health system is the first and a crucial step in human health.
• Disease surveillance has to go beyond humans and encompass preventive health and hygiene in livestock and poultry, improved standards of animal husbandry for greater food safety, and effective communication protocols between animal and public health systems.
• Challenges for India:
• Developing countries like India have much greater stake in strong One Health systems on account of agricultural systems resulting in uncomfortably close proximity of animals and humans.
• The size of India’s human and animal populations is almost the same; 121 crore people (2011 Census) and 125.5 crore livestock and poultry.
• A network of 1.90 lakh health institutions in the government sector form the backbone of health governance, supported by a large number of private facilities.
• On the other hand, only 65,000 veterinary institutions tend to the health needs of 125.5 crore animals; and this includes 28,000 mobile dispensaries and first aid centres with bare minimum facilities.
• Private sector presence in veterinary services is close to being nonexistent.

MCQ 4
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana State University have predicted that this spring’s record rainfall would produce one of the largest-ever “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico. What are dead zones ?

1. Its areas of high storms
2. It’s the area of depression in atlantic ocean.
3. Unoxygenated “dead zones” appear in waterways wherever algae are overfed by runoff from human activities such as urbanization and agriculture – a phenomenon called eutrophication.
4. Area in ocean filled with plastic where a lot of sharks died recently because of plastic

• What are dead zones?
•  Unoxygenated “dead zones” appear in waterways wherever algae are overfed by runoff from human activities such as urbanization and agriculture – a phenomenon called eutrophication.
•  What caused dead zone in Gulf of Mexico?
• The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, fueled by the nutrientladen water spilling from the mouth of the Mississippi River, is the second-largest in the world.
•  It blooms every summer, when warming waters accelerate the metabolisms of microorganisms, and it is expected to get even worse as the climate continues to change.
• The primary culprits in eutrophication appear to be excess nitrogen and phosphorus—from sources including fertilizer runoff and septic system effluent to atmospheric fallout from burning fossil fuels—which enter waterbodies and fuel the overgrowth of algae, which, in turn, reduces water quality and degrades estuarine and coastal ecosystems.

MCQ 5
Pradhan Mantri Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP).
Choose correct

1. Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana’ is a campaign launched by the Department of Health, Govt. Of India
2. Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI) is the implementing agency of PMBJP.
3. Jan Aushadhi stores are opened for NCDs treatment drugs which are not available in the market

(A) 1 & 2
 (B) 2 only
(C) 2 & 3
(D) All

• Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana’ is a campaign launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. Of India, to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the masses through special kendra’s known as Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra.
• Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendra (PMBJK) have been set up to provide generic drugs, which are available at lesser prices but are equivalent in quality and efficacy as expensive branded drugs.
• Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI) is the implementing agency of PMBJP. BPPI (Bureau of Pharma Public Sector Undertakings of India) has been established under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. of India, with the support of all the CPSUs.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SCHEME:

• Ensure access to quality medicines.
• Extend coverage of quality generic medicines so as to reduce the out of pocket expenditure on medicines and thereby redefine the unit cost of treatment per person.
• Create awareness about generic medicines through education and publicity so that quality is not synonymous with only high price.
• A public programme involving Government, PSUs, Private Sector, NGO, Societies, Co-operative Bodies and other Institutions.
• Create demand for generic medicines by improving access to better healthcare through low treatment cost and easy availability wherever needed in all therapeutic categories.
• Generic medicines are unbranded medicines which are equally safe and having the same efficacy as that of branded medicines in terms of their therapeutic value.
• The prices of generic medicines are much cheaper than their branded equivalent.
• In order to ensure quality of medicines sold through PMBJP Kendras, the medicines are procured only from WHO-GMP certified manufacturers
• The product basket of the scheme covers more than 800 medicines and 154 surgicals & consumables covering all 23 major therapeutic groups such as Anti-infectives, Anti-diabetics, Cardiovasculars, Anticancers, Gastro-intestinal medicines, etc.
• The Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of a medicine sold through PMBJP outlets is fixed in such a way that it is at least 50% below the average MRP of corresponding top three brands of that medicine.
• With developments like more and more doctors prescribing generic medicines and opening of over 5050 Janaushadhi stores across 652 districts, awareness and availability of high quality affordable generic medicines has increased in the country. About 10-15 lakh people benefit from Janaushadhi medicines per day and the market share of generic medicines has grown over three fold from 2% to 7%in last 3 years.
• The Janaushadhi medicines have played a big role in bringing down the out of pocket expenditure of patients suffering from life threatening diseases in India. The PMBJP scheme has led to total savings of approximately Rs.1000 crores for common citizens, as these medicines are cheaper by 50% to 90% of average market price.
• The PMBJP is also providing a good source of self-employment with selfsustainable and regular earnings.

 

 

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