Daily Current Affairs Quiz: July 14, 2022

ANSWER: C

• According to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the Ministry of Defence has set a target of Rs 1.75 lakh crores of defence production by 2025, which includes exports of Rs 35,000 crores.
• Defence PSUs would play a major role in achieving this goal with a contribution of 70-80 per cent.
• The Non-Official Directors (NODs) of DPSUs to ensure smooth implementation of various initiatives taken by the government towards achieving ‘Aatmanirbharta in Defence’.
• The defence minister described NODs as a bridge between DPSUs and the MoD, which not only strengthened corporate governance in public sector companies but also ensured that the work was carried out as per the policies of the government.

He listed various initiatives taken by the MoD to achieve self-reliance.

• Simplification of the acquisition process of defence equipment/platforms under the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.
• Flexibility in Offset guidelines.
• Increase in FDI limit to 74 per cent under Automatic Route and up to 100 per cent under the government route.
• Simplification of the process of obtaining a license.
• Launch of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) initiative and enhanced use of Artificial Intelligence in the defence sector.

ANSWER: B

• The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks gender parity across four key dimensions or sub¬indices — economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
• It measures scores on a 0¬to¬100 scale, which can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity or the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed.
• India ranks poorly among its neighbours and is behind Bangladesh (71), Nepal (96), Sri Lanka (110), Maldives (117) and Bhutan (126). Only the performance of Iran (143), Pakistan (145) and Afghanistan (146) was worse than India in South Asia.
• In 2021, India ranked 140 out of 156 nations
• Iceland retained its place as the world’s most gender-equal country, followed by Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, as per the annual Gender Gap Report 2022 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) released in Geneva.
• Only 11 countries are ranked below India on the index of 146 nations, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo, Iran and Chad being the worst-five.
• The WEF warned that the cost-of-living crisis is expected to hit women hardest globally with a widening gender gap in the labour force and it will take another 132 years (compared to 136 in 2021) to close the gender gap.
• On India, the WEF said its gender gap score recorded its seventh-highest level in the last 16 years, but it continues to rank among the worst performers on various parameters.
• India registered the most significant and positive change to its performance on Economic Participation and Opportunity. But, labour-force participation shrunk for both men and women since 2021.
• The share of women legislators, senior officials and managers increased from 14.6 per cent to 17.6 per cent, and the share of women as professional and technical workers grew from 29.2 per cent to 32.9 per cent.
• The gender parity score for estimated earned income improved; while values for both men and women diminished, they declined more for men.
• However, in the area of political empowerment, the subindex where India ranks relatively higher at 48th place, showed a declining score due to the diminishing share of years women have served as head of state for the past 50 years.
• On the health and survival subindex, India ranked the lowest at 146th place and figured among the five countries with gender gaps larger than 5 per cent — the other four being Qatar, Pakistan, Azerbaijan and China.
• However, India was ranked the top globally in terms of gender parity for primary education enrolment and tertiary education enrolment and at the eighth place for the position of head of state.
• Within South Asia, India was ranked the sixth best on overall score after Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan. Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan scored worse than India.
• South Asia (62.3 per cent) has the largest gender gap of all regions, with low scores across all measured gender gaps and little progress made in most countries since 2021.
• At its current pace, it will take 197 years to close the gender gap in the region. The economic gender gap has closed by 1.8 per cent with increases in the share of women in professional and technical roles in countries including Bangladesh and India as well as Nepal.

ANSWER: C

• Consul-General of Japan in Chennai Taga Masayuki conferred Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star to Vice Chairman of the Sanmar Group Narayanan Kumar in recognition of his contribution to the strengthening economic relations between Japan and India.
• Kumar is among the Spring 2022 Imperial Decorations recipients.
• He has been instrumental in promoting friendship, goodwill and mutual understanding between Japan and India by organising economic delegations to Japan as well as a number of events on Japanese economy and culture.
• He is also the Chairman of the Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former President of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

ANSWER: D

• Headquartered in New Delhi, Prasar Bharati is a statutory autonomous body set up by an Act of Parliament. It comprises the Doordarshan Television Network and All India Radio (AIR), which were earlier media units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

KEY POINTS

• The new logo was released by the secretary I&B Apurva Chandra, secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) in the presence of Mayank Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Prasar Bharati, DPS Negi, Member (Finance), Prasar Bharati, and officers of Ministry of I&B and Prasar Bharati.
• In the earlier format, the corporate office of Prasar Bharati used both AIR and Doordarshan logos on both the sides of the written text ‘PRASAR BHARATI’ along with the Indian emblem in the middle.
• Inspired from the identities of both All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan, the new logo of Prasar Bharati is defined as a blend of both AIR and Doordarshan.
• As per the broadcaster, the new logo of Prasar Bharti is replete with rich meaning. The elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security, and perfection for the common man.
• While the elements in the central circle and map of India signify the service of trust, security and perfection to the Nation, its colour, ‘Dark Moderate Blue’ represents both the sky and the sea and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, inspiration, and sensitivity.
• Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, and intelligence. The colour blue also pays tribute to the Indian ethos and traditions associated with religious figures; mythological characters found in the Indian miniature paintings.

ANSWER: A

• The second phase of the Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission’s project to provide jobs to 20 lakhs educated unemployed is under way in Kerala.
• In this phase, jobseekers whose basic details have been collected by the Kudumbashree will be registered on a digital platform.
• To identify jobseekers at the local body level, the Kudumbashree had conducted a promotion campaign ‘My job, my pride’ and a job survey in May.
• In the second phase, the Kudumbashree will initially register those in the 21-¬40 age group who have undergraduate, postgraduate, diploma, and ITI qualifications from among the 53,42,094 job¬seekers it had identified during the survey.
• A mobile app designed by Digital University Kerala and made available by the Knowledge Economy Mission will be used for the profiling.
• The district ¬level training of master trainers would be completed by July 20.
• The training will focus on what the ‘My job, my pride’ campaign is all about, how to approach job-seekers and introduce them to the Knowledge Economy Mission activities, how to register the job-seekers on the Digital Workforce Management System (a platform that brings together job-seekers, employers, and skill training agencies), and how they can get employment.
• The 304 master trainers, in turn, will conduct the block¬level training for enumerators who will do the ward ¬level profiling.
• In hard to access areas such as Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe colonies, the enumerators would visit job¬seekers at their doorstep and complete the profiling.

ANSWER: B

• The Tamil Nadu government has established District Climate Change Missions in all 38 districts. The missions will be headed by the Collectors as Mission Directors. The District Forest Officers will function as Climate Officers.
• The missions will help strengthen the government’s climate response at the grassroots.
• The missions will create strong policy support across all sectors of governance, devise strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and bench¬mark industries to move towards green manufacturing. They will also promote eco¬friendly technologies, such as solar and wind energy technologies, biodegradable packaging and e-¬vehicles.
• Educating local communities in the management of climate change and creating technologies for evidence based green models for adaptation and practical models for green mobility are the other objectives of the missions.
• The government has initially sanctioned ₹ 3.80 crore for 38 district missions which will function under the supervision of the Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission.

ANSWER: C

• The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has included clean power and transport among the fundamentals to deal with air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR) and adjoining areas.
• Besides, greening and plantation on a large scale also feature in its new policy to abate the menace of air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
• According to CAQM report, High-level protection will have to be accorded to the entire stretch of Aravalli range in Haryana and Delhi, and its different categories of forest areas, calling for dust and pollution mitigation through forest sinks to control pollution.
• This green walling is needed against desertification and ingress of dust and cleansing of toxic gases,” stated the report aimed at overall amelioration of air quality through differentiated geographical approach and timely action.
• The new plan also entails a ban on BS IV four-wheeler diesel vehicles, barring those engaged in essential services, in Delhi and the bordering districts of NCR if the air quality index (AQI) breaches the 450-mark.
• An AQI of more than 450 is classified as “severe plus”.
• The policy has received a mixed response from experts.
• The policy focuses on industries, transport, construction and demolition (C&D), dust from roads and open areas, municipal solid waste burning and stubble-burning, among other things.
• It also lays emphasis on thermal power plants, clean fuels and electric mobility, public transportation, road traffic management, diesel generators and bursting of firecrackers.
• The policy, in its chapter on the management of paddy straw through different in-situ measures, stated: “By 2021, more than 13,100 Happy Seeders and 17,600 Super Seeders were available in Punjab, besides other categories of crop residue management (CRM) machinery, including combine harvesters.

ANSWER: A

• The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has launched comprehensive research into the exact period when Sushruta, widely recognised as the “father of plastic surgery”, began conducting his medical procedures, the range of instruments he used and the expanse of reconstructive surgeries he performed.
• The idea is to establish evidence of the existence of medical and surgical knowledge in India as far back as 600 BC, when Sushruta lived.
• Dr Maneesh Singhal, head of the department of plastic, reconstructive and burns surgery at AIIMS, is leading the project.
• According to Dr Singhal, Sushruta is the father of plastic surgery. As far back as in 600 BC, he took India to the forefront of surgery. We are trying to find out all about Sushruta’s work and document it with evidence. Interestingly, we have found that the instruments Sushruta describes in his works exactly match with the metallurgy of his times. From 600 BC, Hippocrates and other physicians consumed Indian science and knowledge. It was from India that the science of surgery went all over the world. We are retracing our own steps.
• AIIMS, in collaboration with the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India, will mark the National Plastic Surgery Day on July 15.
• The institute, in a first, will showcase films documenting life-changing reconstructive procedures — from burns reconstruction to cancer reconstruction — which experts from across India have performed.
• The festival is named “Sushruta” and its publicity material mentions that ancient Indian surgeons performed nose jobs and skin grafts.

ANSWER: A

• Dharamsala city will soon have 10 charging stations for electric cars and two-wheelers. These stations will be set up at places having ample parking facilities.
• According to Commissioner of the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation (MC), a subsidiary of the BHEL had been given the contract of charging stations under the Smart City Project.
• Each station would have one point for charging four-wheelers and five points for two-wheelers.
• After installation, the company would hand over the charging stations to the MC.

ANSWER: C

• Various ambitious schemes and programmes are being run by the government for giving a fillip to the agriculture sector, besides strengthening the socio-economic condition of farmers and a provision of Rs 628.52 crore has been made for the agriculture sector in the financial year.
• Majority of the population of Himachal Pradesh is dependent on agriculture and allied sectors for their livelihood and this sector is providing direct employment to about 70 percent people.
• About 9.44 lakh hectares of land is under cultivation in the state and it contributes about 13.62 percent of the GDP.
• Special emphasis is being laid on increasing the production of high value crops by adopting modern Prakritik Kheti, Khushhal Kisan Yojna is being implemented by the state government to encourage natural farming.
• The objective of this scheme is to enhance the farmers, income by reducing the cost of crop production and to save the soil and human from the harmful effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Rs. 58.46 crore has been spent under this scheme till date.
• As many as 1,71,063 farmers have adopted natural farming covering 9,421-hectare area of ​​the state. The state government has set a target of bringing 50 thousand acres of land under natural farming and 50 thousand farmers will be certified as natural farmers during this financial year.
• Himachal Pradesh Crop Diversification Promotion Project is being implemented to promote crop diversification in the state. In view of the successful results of JICA phase-1 in the state, JICA phase-2 has also been approved. Under this, a budget of Rs. 1010.13 crore has been proposed.
• The State Agricultural Mechanisation Programme for the mechanisation in the agriculture sector is being implemented in the state.