Daily Current Affairs MCQ / UPSC / IAS / 20-07-19 | PDF Downloads

MCQ 1

HeliNa & NAMICA, in defence sector are related to

1. Aircraft Carrier
2. Submarine
3. Guided bombs
4. Anti Tank missile

NAG missile

• Indian Army has successfully carried out trials of third Generation NAG Missile.
• It is a fire-and-forget, Anti-tank guided missile developed by DRDO.
• It is designed to destroy tanks and other heavily armoured targets.

NAG has five variants,

1. HeliNa (Helicopter-launched Nag)
2. Land version (with mast-mounted missile launcher)
3. Man Portable NAG,
4. Air-launched version for tactical interdiction aircraft
5. NAMICA (NAg MIssile Carrier), a tank destroyer variant built for the army.

• It is equipped with Active Imaging infra-red (IIR) seeker and millimetric wave (mmW) active radar homing seeker.
• It is all weather missile with a range of 3 to 7 km.
• It is developed under Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP)
• Other missiles developed under IMGDP project includes Agni, Prithvi, Trishul and Akash.

MCQ 2

Albendazole is a

1. Antibiotic
2. Antiviral Medicine
3. A Magnetic layer around Some planets
4. None

• Albendazole, also known as albendazolum, is a medication used for the treatment of a variety of parasitic worm infestations. It is useful for giardiasis, trichuriasis, filariasis, neurocysticercosis, hydatid disease, pinworm disease, and ascariasis, among others.
• It is taken by mouth

Deworming Programme

• It is an initiative of ‘Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’, to make every child (ages of 1-19 years) in the country worm free.
• It is done through the platform of schools and Anganwadis.
• According to WHO, 241 million children in India are at risk of parasitic intestinal worms called SoilTransmitted Helminths (STH).
• ‘Helminths’ are transmitted through soil contaminated with faecal matter.
• The infections can lead to anemia, malnutrition, impaired mental, physical and cognitive development..
• Children are most vulnerable as their immune system is not yet fully developed.
• Untreated infections prevent children’s healthy growth, and reduce their capacity to concentrate and learn.
• During Deworming, single dose of ‘Albendazole’ is administered.
• Practices promoted by government to reduce worm infections are,
• Using sanitary toilets, not defecating outside.
• Hand-washing, before eating and after using toilets.
• Washing fruits and vegetables in safe and clean water.
• Eating properly cooked food.

MCQ 3

1. Solar charkha mission is by ministry of textile
2. It is being implemented by khadi and village industries commission (KVIC).

Choose correct

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

 Solar Charkha Mission

• It is the employment generating venture of Ministry of MSME to train rural people in weaving.
• The looms and spindles will be completely powered by Solar energy.
• It is being implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

Objectives of the mission,

• To ensure inclusive growth by generation of employment, especially for women and youth.
• Sustainable development through solar charkha clusters in rural areas.
• To leverage low-cost, innovative technologies, boost rural economy etc
• The geographical distribution of the clusters covers throughout the country.
• At least 10% clusters located in the North Eastern Region (NER), J&K and hilly states.
• The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) is a statutory body formed by the Government of India, under the Act of Parliament, ‘Khadi and Village Industries Commission Act of 1956’.
• It is an apex organisation under the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, with regard to khadi and village industries within India, which seeks to – “plan, promote, facilitate, organise and assist in the establishment and development of khadi and village industries in the rural areas in coordination with other agencies engaged in rural development wherever necessary.” In April 1957, it took over the work of former All India Khadi and Village Industries Board. The First Director of KVIC was Late Sardar KA Venkataramaiya, a veteran freedom fighter from Karnataka.
• Its head office is based in Mumbai but challenged by Naresh Kadyan, Secretary General, National KVIB Employees Federation, to shift HQ to Delhi, whereas its six zonal offices in Delhi, Bhopal, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Guwahati.
• Other than its zonal offices, it has offices in 29 states for the implementation of its various programmes

MCQ 4

 Recently in news Mission Kaktiya is related to

1. Restore Kaktiya dynasty Monuments
2. To save crows population in eastern ghats
3. To restore tanks and lakes
4. To manage land rights for farmers

• is a programme for restoring all the minor irrigation tanks and lakes in Telangana State, India. The programme helps in rejuvenating 46,531 tanks and lakes, storing 265 TMC water across the state in five years.
• This is the first program to be taken up by the Government of Telangana after coming into power in June 2014.
• The tanks and lakes are dug to remove silt for increasing water storage capacity. The household agricultural income has also increased 78.50% in the tank ayacut area
• The government of Telangana launched a massive rejuvenation movement in form of “Mission Kakatiya”which involves the restoration of irrigation tanks and lakes/minor irrigation sources built by the Kakatiya dynasty.
• From the perspective of inter-generational justice, this is a move towards giving future generations in the State their rightful share of water and, therefore, a life of dignity.
• The city of Hyderabad is now moving towards a sustainable hydraulic model with some of the best minds in the country working on it.
• This model integrates six sources of water in a way that even the most underdeveloped areas of the city can have equitable access to water resources and the groundwater levels restored in order to avoid a calamity of the kind that has gripped Chennai now.
• The Kakatiya dynasty was a South Indian dynasty whose capital was Orugallu, now known as Warangal. It was eventually conquered by the Delhi Sultanate.
• The demise of Kakatiya dynasty resulted in confusion and anarchy under alien rulers for sometime, before the Musunuri Nayaks brought stability to the region

MCQ 5

Which of the following are among the codes of labour laws

1. Code on Wages Bill
2. Code of Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill, 2019
3. Code on Industrial Relations
4. Code on Social Security
5. Code on gender equality
6. Code on equal payment

 Choose correct

(A) 1,2,4,5,6
(B) 1,2,3,5,6
(C) All
 (D) 1,2,3,4

• As a part of its ease of doing business initiative, the government will be subsuming a total of 44 labour laws into four codes — on wages, social security, industrial safety and welfare and industrial relations. The Four codes of Labour laws are:

1. Code on Wages Bill
2. Code of Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill, 2019
3. Code on Industrial Relations
4. Code on Social Security

• As part of its commitment to simplify and consolidate labour rules and laws under four codes, the Union Cabinet has cleared the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, earlier it approved the Code on Wages Bill.
• The Code on Wages Bill:
• The Code on Wages Bill seeks to include more workers under the purview of minimum wages and proposes a statutory national minimum wage for different geographic regions, to ensure that States will not fix minimum wages below those set by the Centre.
• The Code of Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Bill, 2019:
• The Code on labour safety and working conditions include regular and mandatory medical examinations for workers, issuing of appointment letters, and framing of rules on women working night shifts.
• Other codes that await Cabinet approval include the Code on Industrial Relations and the Code on Social Security.

 Labour reforms: No one knows the size of India’s informal workforce:

• The Economic Survey of 2018-19, says “almost 93%” of the total workforce is ‘informal’. But the Niti Aayog’s Strategy for New India at 75, said: “by some estimates, India’s informal sector employs approximately 85% of all workers”.
• There is yet another government report, ‘Report of the Committee on Unorganised Sector Statistics’ of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), 2012, which says the share of the informal workforce is “more than 90%” of the total.
• So is the case with its contribution to the economy. The government does recognise that the informal sectorand workers contribute significantly. The NSC’s 2012 report pegs it at “about 50% of the national product” without revealing how it arrived at such a conclusion.
• Stressing the importance of labour law reforms, it said that according to the latest comparable figures available with the International Labour Organisation, the man-days lost in India were a staggering 23.34 lakh as compared with 1.7 lakh in the UK and 7.4 lakh in the US, with Russia at a low of only 10,000.

MCQ 6

1. Rome statute established International court of justice
2. India is a signatory but not a ratifier
3. India has not even signed Genocide convention yet.

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

• Neither ‘crimes against humanity’ nor ‘genocide’ has been made part of India’s criminal law, a lacuna that needs to be addressed urgently.
• This was the lament of Justice S. Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court, while pronouncing the judgment in State v. Sajjan Kumar (2018).
• The case concerned the mass killing of Sikhs during the anti-Sikh riots in 1984 in Delhi and throughout the country.
• The court categorically stated that these kind of mass crimes “engineered by political actors with the assistance of the law enforcement agencies” fit into the category of crimes against humanity (CAH).
• In State v. Sajjan Kumar, the Delhi High Court also said that “a familiar pattern of mass killings” was seen “in Mumbai in 1993, in Gujarat in 2002, in Kandhamal, Odisha in 2008, and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh in 2013”, where the criminals “have enjoyed political patronage and managed to evade prosecution”.
• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948 as General Assembly Resolution 260. The Convention entered into force on 12 January 1951.
• It defines genocide in legal terms, and is the culmination of years of campaigning by lawyer Raphael Lemkin.
• All participating countries are advised to prevent and punish actions of genocide in war and in peacetime. As of May 2019, 150 states have ratified or acceded to the treaty, most recently Turkmenistan on 26 December 2018. One state, the Dominican Republic, has signed but not ratified the treaty.
• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention) is an instrument of international law that codified for the first time the crime of genocide.
• According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is a crime that can take place both in time of war as well as in time of peace.
• The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948 and signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War.
• Its adoption marked a crucial step towards the development of international human rights and international criminal law as we know it today.
• The definition of the crime of genocide, as set out in the Convention, has been widely adopted at both national and international levels, including in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• The Rome Statute established four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. Those crimes “shall not be subject to any statute of limitations”.
• Importantly, the Convention establishes on State Parties the obligation to take measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide, including by enacting relevant legislation and punishing perpetrators, “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals” (Article IV).
• Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) mentioned in International Criminal Court (ICC):
• Internationally, CAH are dealt with under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• They are defined as offences such as murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, torture, imprisonment and rape committed as a part of “widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack”.
• India is not a party to the Rome Statute, which means that it is under no obligation at present to enact a separate legislation dealing with CAH.
• Even after ratification of the Genocide Convention (1948), India has not enacted it in domestic legislation.

Reasons for India’s reluctance to enact laws:

• The most probable reason for India’s reluctance to actively participate in the negotiation process on a separate Convention on CAH, which started in 2014, could be the adoption of the same definition of CAH as provided in the Rome Statute.
• The Indian representatives at the International Law Commission (ILC) have stated that the draft articles should not conflict with or duplicate the existing treaty regimes.
• India had objected to the definition of CAH during negotiations of the Rome Statute on three grounds:
• First, India was not in favour of using ‘widespread or systematic’ as one of the conditions, preferring ‘widespread and systematic’, which would require a higher threshold of proof.
• Second, India wanted a distinction to be made between international and internal armed conflicts. • This was probably because its internal conflicts with naxals and other non-state actors in places like Kashmir and the Northeast could fall under the scope of CAH.
• The third objection related to the inclusion of enforced disappearance of persons under CAH.
• It is pertinent here that India has signed but not yet ratified the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances as it would put the country under an obligation to criminalise it through domestic legislation.

MCQ 7

The Economic Survey mentioned Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), What is means

1. A farming by private players with funding from their own resources
2. A farming model of totally organic farming by food processing industries
3. A farming without any budget by forest dwellers
4. None

• Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a set of farming methods, and also a grassroots peasant movement, which has spread to various states in India.
• It has attained wide success in southern India, especially the southern Indian state of Karnataka where it first evolved. The movement in Karnataka state was born out of collaboration between Mr Subhash Palekar, who put together the ZBNF practices, and the state farmers association Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS).
• Importance of ZBNF highlighted in Economic Survey 2018-19:
• The Economic Survey mentioned Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) along with Vedic Farming, Homa Farming and Cow Farming and how these “climate friendly” agricultural practices can enable “elimination of chemical pesticides” and restoration of soil organic matter and fertility.
• But an even bigger push for ZBNF and in the Union Budget speech of Finance Minister, where she talked of the need to “go back to basics” and “replicate this innovative model (that) can help in doubling our farmers’ income in time for our 75th year of Independence”.
• Four wheels of ZBNF to be implemented in practically:
• The “four wheels” of ZBNF are ‘Jiwamrita’, ‘Bijamrita’, ‘Mulching’ and ‘Waaphasa’, says Palekar, a Padma Shri awardee.
• Jiwamrita is a fermented mixture of cow dung and urine (of desi breeds), jaggery, pulses flour, water and soil from the farm bund. This isn’t a fertiliser, but just a source of some 500 crore micro-organisms that can convert all the necessary “non-available” nutrients into “available” form.
• Bijamrita is a mix of desi cow dung and urine, water, bund soil and lime that is used as a seed treatment solution prior to sowing.
• Mulching, or covering the plants with a layer of dried straw or fallen leaves, is meant to conserve soil moisture and keep the temperature around the roots at 25-32 degrees Celsius, which allows the microorganisms to do their job.
• Waaphasa, or providing water to maintain the required moisture-air balance, also achieves the same objective.
• Palekar also advocates the use of special ‘Agniastra’, ‘Bramhastra’ and ‘Neemastra’ concoctions again based on desi cow urine and dung, plus pulp from leaves of neem, white datura, papaya, guava and pomegranates for controlling pest and disease attacks.

 MCQ 8

Joint Military Exercise ‘Hand-in-Hand’ is between

1. India & France
2. India & USA
3. India & Myanmar
4. India & China

• The 2019 Hand-in-Hand exercise will be 8th edition of India and China military drill that was resumed in 2018 following a freeze over Doklam stand-off.
• The 2018 exercise, which was 7th edition, was held in Chengdu in December 2018.
• In Umroi, Meghalaya the India and China military exercise will be at company level, it means that around 100-120 infantry troops from both sides will be participating.

MCQ 9

The International Police Expo 2019 on theme ‘Challenges to strengthen peace and security’ was organized in

1. China
2. India
3. Germany
4. Japan

• At the Expo, more than 25 countries are showcasing combat/armoured vehicles, advanced firearms and a plethora of disruptive technologies in cyber security, homeland security, drones and safety and rescue. Over 100 leading manufacturers and technology players from Israel, Singapore, China, South Korea, Taiwan, UK, US, Malaysia, Germany, Australia, Poland and other nations are displaying best and advanced technologies.

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