Daily Current Affairs Quiz: April 04, 2022

ANSWER: C

• In order to meet the domestic food security needs of poor population, India has invoked peace clause of World Trade Organisation (WTO) for exceeding the 10% ceiling on support offered to rice farmers.
• India informed the WTO that value of its rice production in 2020-21 was $45.56 billion while it gave subsidies worth $6.9 billion, which comes out to 15.14% as against the permitted 10%.
• India became the first country to invoke peace clause in 2020 as rice subsidies exceeded cap in 2018-19.
• Under peace clause, WTO member countries are refrained from challenging any breach in prescribed subsidy ceiling given by a developing nation at dispute settlement forum of WTO.

Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and Peace Clause

• 3 Pillars of AoA:
• Under market access conditions, both developed and developing nations were to convert all non-tariff barriers into tariffs.
• Domestic support includes the classification of subsidies into ‘boxes’ depending their effects on production and trade.
• Export Subsidies and other methods used to make exports artificially competitive.
• AoA contains a “due restraint” or “peace clause” which regulates the application of other WTO agreements to subsidies in respect of agricultural products.

Green Box

• These measures are exempted from reduction commitments and, indeed, can even be increased without any financial limitation under the WTO.
• Applies to both developed and developing country members but in the case of developing countries special treatment is provided in respect of governmental stockholding programmes for food security purposes and subsidized food prices for urban and rural poor. (India’s PDS does not come under Green Box)

Amber Box

• All domestic support measures considered to distort production and trade (with some exceptions) fall into the amber box.
• For instance, MSP, Procurement Price, sum total of subsidies on inputs like fertilizer, water, credit, power, etc.

Blue Box

• These are basically Amber Box subsidies, but they tend to limit the production. Any support that would normally be in the amber box, is placed in the blue box if the support also requires farmers to limit their production.
• These measures are also exempted from reduction commitments.

Special and Differential Treatment Box

• It comprises of investment subsidies like tractors and pump sets. Agricultural input services like fertilizers to farmers etc.
• SOT box subsidies can be given by only developing and low-income countries.

ANSWER: A

• Punjab will be the first state in the country to provide “digitized form J1” in real-time to farmers from this Rabi procurement season.
• ‘J form’ is the sale receipt of a farmer’s agricultural produce in mandis (grain market) which acts as an income proof for a farmer who sells his crop.
• These forms were earlier issued manually by arthiyas (commission agents).
• It can be used for raising finance, IT waivers, subsidy claims, farmers’ insurance etc.
• It will act as a record of land under cultivation for both the wheat and paddy crops in state.
• J Forms can also be stored in DigiLocker.

ANSWER: D

• Accessible India Campaign’s targets will finally be achieved in June 2022.
• The original deadlines for different projects under the three heads were between July 2016 and July 2019. These have now been revised to June 14, 2022.

About Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan)

• Objective -to achieve universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs).
• For creating universal accessibility for Persons with Disabilities (PwD), the campaign has been divided into three verticals;
  • Built-up environment,
  • Transportation sector (airports, railways, public transport) and
  • Ict ecosystem (websites and public documents, sign language interpreters and TV viewing).
• Ministry: Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

ANSWER: C

• National Medical Commission has recommended a modified Maharishi Charak Shapath for candidates on introduction to medical education.
• Acharya Charak, also known as Pranacharya Charak, was born in Kashmir and remembered as Father of Indian Medicine.
• He was an Ayurvedic practitioner and considered to be a court physician of King Kanishka.
• He wrote Charaka Samhita, a Sanskrit text on Ayurveda dealing with subjects such as basic physiological and anatomical details of humans, Tridosha (vata, pitta and kapha), etc.
  • Charaka Samhita is dedicated to Maharshi Bharadwaja, as it traces its root to Atharva Veda with verses from Maharshi Bharadwaja to treat various ailments.
  • Agnivesha Samhita (by Rishi Agnivesha) on Ayurveda is also mentioned in Charaka Samhita.

ANSWER: D

• Uttar Pradesh has become the top producer of vegetables, getting back its first position by demoting West Bengal to the second position, with a difference of a million tonnes in production in 2021–22 Crop Year (CY) (July–June), after two years since 2020.
• Vegetable production in Uttar Pradesh is expected to be 29.58 million tonnes (mt) in the 2021–22 crop year (July–June), down from 29.16 mt in 2020–21, while West Bengal output is expected to dip to 28.23 mt in 2021-22 from 30.33 mt in 2020-21.
• Other top producers of vegetables as per the data in the current year 2021-22 include Madhya Pradesh at 20.59 mt, Bihar at 17.77 mt and Maharashtra at 16.78 mt.
• Andhra Pradesh remains the top fruit producer. India’s horticulture output is likely to drop marginally by 0.4% to 333.25 mt in 2021–22 from the previous year (2020–21) as production of vegetables, spices, and plantation crops is set to decline.
• In 2021–22, Andhra Pradesh is expected to produce 18.01 million tonnes of fruit, up from 17.7 million tonnes in 2020–21. Maharashtra is anticipated to produce 12.3 million tonnes of fruit, up from 11.74 million tonnes in 2020–21.

ANSWER: C

• Dr S Raju has taken over as the Director-General of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) with effect from April 01, 2022. He succeeds  S. Garkhal who superannuated on March 31, 2022. Prior to this, Dr Raju was holding the post of Additional Director General and National Head, Mission-III & IV at GSI HQ.
• S. Raju joined the Geological Survey of India in 1988. During the initial period of his career, he was instrumental in geological mapping of Bundelkhand Granitic Complex in Uttar Pradesh and also executed an investigation on gold mineralization and carried out a geo-environmental appraisal of Jhansi district of Bundelkhand Region, Uttar Pradesh.
• With his expertise, he has also supplemented in the geology of Tamil Nadu especially, establishing the metamorphic and techtono-magmatic history of the Satyamangalam Group of rocks.

ANSWER: C

• The International Children’s Book Day (ICBD) is organised annually on the 2nd of April since 1967, by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). IBBY is an international non-profit organization, to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.
• In 2022, Canada is hosting International Children’s Book Day with this chosen theme: “Stories are wings that help you soar every day.” Every year, a different international section of IBBY hosts a children’s books event on or around April 2 (which is the birthday of classic children’s book author Hans Christian Andersen).
• The host country picks a theme and invites a well-known author and illustrator to create a message for children around the world.