Daily Current Affairs Quiz : November 18,2021

Answer: A

Clean Ocean International Expert Group of UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, is going to present its short list of activities & goals as well as “Clean Ocean Manifesto”.

About:

• The group has set up two aims, in order to help United Nations in attaining the goal of clean ocean:

1. Reducing marine debris by 50-90 per cent and
2. globe circling & high-tech system of monitors.

• The expert group is co-chaired by:

1. Angelika Brandt from Germany- A Southern Ocean & Antarctica biodiversity expert, and
2. Elva Escobar Briones from Mexico- A deep sea biodiversity expert.

• It highlights the challenges and opportunities which Ocean Decade can provide for attaining a clean ocean.
• The expert group also underline that, this process should aim to define and attract financial support in order to meet the initial set of goals for 2025. It should then be followed by goals of 2030.

• Objectives for 2030

The statement notes direct route to a clean ocean, highlighting following objectives for 2030:

1. Enlarge understanding of pathways for spread & fate of pollutants,
2. Reduce and remove top-priority forms of pollution up to 90 per cent and
3. To prevent recurrence, reduce sources or emission of pollutants.

• Three-day online conference

The three-day online conference will also highlight around 30 activities in place or in development across the world, which can make significant contributions by 2030 to clean ocean. These include initiatives of:

1. Successfully and consistently monitoring marine debris from space
2. Operating deep sea observatories from Atlantic
3. Observing vast Southern Ocean to provide early warnings of possible

Answer: C

Recently, Bribery Risk Matrix 2021 was released by TRACE, an anti-bribery standard setting organisation.

About the Matrix:

• It measures business bribery risk in 194 countries, territories, and autonomous and semi-autonomous regions.
• It was originally published in 2014 to meet a need in the business community for more reliable and nuanced information about the risks of commercial bribery worldwide.
• It aggregates relevant data obtained from leading public interest and international organisations, including the United Nations, World Bank, V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg and World Economic Forum.

Calculation Methods: Score is calculated on the basis of four factors:

• Enforcement and anti-bribery deterrence.
• Business interactions with the government.
• Government and civil service transparency.
• Capacity for civil society oversight which includes the media’s role.

Performance of the Countries:

• India:
  • India has slipped to 82nd position in 2021, five places down from 77th rank last year.
    • In 2020, India ranked 77 with a score of 45 while this year, the country stood at 82nd position with a score of 44.
  • India fared better than its neighbours – Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh. Bhutan, meanwhile, secured 62nd rank.
• World:
  • North Korea, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Eritrea pose the highest commercial bribery risk, while Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand present the lowest.
  • Over the past five years, the business bribery risk environment in the United States worsened significantly when compared with global trends.
  • From 2020 to 2021, all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries saw an increase in commercial bribery risk.

• • Related Steps Taken by India: India, in pursuance of its commitment to “Zero Tolerance Against Corruption” has taken several measures to combat corruption which, inter alia, include:

• Systemic improvements and reforms to provide transparent citizen-friendly services and reduce corruption. These, inter alia, include:

• • • Disbursement of welfare benefits directly to the citizens under various schemes of the Government in a transparent manner through the Direct Benefit Transfer initiative.
    • Implementation of E-tendering in public procurements.
    • Introduction of e-Governance and simplification of procedure and systems.
    • Introduction of Government procurement through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
  • The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988:
    • It clearly criminalizes the act of giving bribes and will help check big-ticket corruption by creating a vicarious liability in respect of senior management of commercial organizations.
  • Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), through various orders and circulars recommended the adoption of the Integrity Pact to all the organizations in major procurement activities and to ensure effective and expeditious investigation wherever any irregularity/misconduct is noticed.
  • The institution of Lokpal has been operationalised by the appointment of Chairperson and Members.
    • Lokpal is statutorily mandated to directly receive and process complaints as regards alleged offences against public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988.

Answer: C

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the “First Global Innovation Summit of Pharmaceuticals sector”.

About:

• The global innovation summit will be launched at 4 PM in virtual mode.
• It is a two-day Summit comprising of 12 Sessions.
• In the summit, around 40 national and international speakers will deliberate on several subjects including the regulatory environment, industry-academia collaboration, funding for innovation, and innovation infrastructure.
• The Summit will see the participation of leading members of domestic & global Pharma Industries, investors, officials, and researchers from institutes like- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IIM Ahmedabad, John Hopkins Institute etc.

Aim of the Summit

This summit is a distinctive initiative, that will be held with the aim of bringing together the key Indian and international stakeholders from the government, academia, industry, investors, and researchers for discussing and strategizing priorities to foster an innovation ecosystem in the pharmaceuticals industry in India. The summit will also highlight the opportunities in the Indian Pharmaceuticals industry, that has huge potential for growth.

Pharmaceutical industry in India

Pharmaceutical industry in India is the world’s 3rd largest by overall volume. It is also the world’s largest with respect to providing generic medicines worldwide. In 2021, it accounted for 20% of total global pharmaceutical exports by volume and 3.5% share by value.

Major pharmaceutical hubs in India

Vadodara, Vapi (Gujarat) Ahmedabad, Ankleshwar (Gujarat), Sikkim, Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Aurangabad and Chennai.

Answer: D

‘Water Heroes – Share Your Stories’ Contest will be launched by Jal Shakti Ministry from December 1, 2021.

About:

• This contest is organised with the aim of encouraging and collecting best practices in water conservation and management from the entire of India.
• It also aims to encourage such efforts in India, in a bid to boost transformational action in the water sector.

Entries to the contest

Following the launch of the contest, entries will be invited for consideration of awards per month. A maximum of 10 entries will be considered for the awards. All the selected entries will be awarded a cash prize of 10 thousand rupees, along with a certificate.

How one can participate in the contest?

The participants will require to post their success stories in video format regarding water conservation and management, in order to take part in this contest. The video should be of duration between one to 5 minutes along with a write-up in around 300 words. The participants can share videos with the link of their YouTube video on the “MyGov portal”.

Water Heroes – Share Your Stories’ Contest

The “Water Heroes – Share Your Stories” Contest is organised by the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, working under the parent head of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. This contest seeks to promote the value of water in general as well as to support efforts made across India on water conservation and the sustainable development of water resources. Its objective is to make water conservation a “people’s movement”.

Answer: B

The 21st Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Annual Council of Minister’s (COM) Meeting was held in Dhaka.

About:

• India took part in the conference in virtual mode.
• India was led by Minister of State External Affairs (MoS), Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh.
• IORA COM was held in a hybrid format in Dhaka.
• At the end of this meeting, Dhaka Communique was adopted.

India’s affirmation at the summit

• While addressing the summit, the MoS reaffirmed India’s strong commitment to strengthening IORA, which is the largest and pre-eminent organization in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
• India also reaffirmed the commitment to promote peace, security and prosperity in IOR, as well as in the wider Indo-Pacific.
• Minister also noted the contributions made by India as coordinator of the IORA priority areas of Disaster Risk Management (DRM).
• While addressing the “Strategic Dialogue on “Impact of COVID-19 and perspectives of economic recovery in IOR” MoS highlighted India’s assistance as the first responder to several countries in Indo-Pacific during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Steps were taken by India to strengthen IORA

In order to strengthen IORA, India undertook several initiatives during 2021:

1. Assistance to the IORA Secretariat,
2. Capacity building workshops in areas including Yoga, traditional medicines to Remote sensing.
3. UNCLOS and Ocean Data Management
4. Discussions on various issues under IORA.

Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)

IORA is an international organisation comprising of 23 states surrounding the Indian Ocean. It is a regional forum, tripartite in nature, to bring together representatives of Government, Academia and Business in order to promote co-operation and closer interaction among them. The Coordinating Secretariat of IORA is at Ebene, Mauritius.

Answer: D

Indian Railways has opened the first Pod retiring rooms for passengers of Indian Railways as well as common people, at the Mumbai Central station.

About:

• As per a senior Western Railway (WR) official, one is required to pay Rs 999 for 12 hours and Rs 1,999 for 24 hours to stay in this pod hotel.
• It will also provide facilities like Wi-Fi, TV, adjustable mirror, small locker, and reading lights.
• The pod hotel was inaugurated virtually by the Union minister of state for Railways Raosaheb Danve.

What is a pod hotel?

• Pod hotel or capsule hotel comprises of small bed-sized capsules and provide affordable overnight accommodation.
• Total cost of the projects and facilities is worth Rs 230 crore.

Key Features of the pod hotel

• Pod hotels are a significant feature of international tourism in Japan. It allows travellers to find accommodation at cheaper rates as compared to conventional hotels.
• Japanese-style pod hotel in Mumbai comprises of building with multiple small capsules, which will offer overnight stay for the passengers.
• These pods will provide facilities like Wi-Fi, key card access, air conditioning, CCTV surveillance, washrooms and other basic amenities.
• Waiting rooms have been constructed on the first floor of the station. The cheapest pod will cost Rs 999 for 12 hours. For 24 hours, it will cost Rs 1,999.
• For private pod, passengers will require to pay Rs 1249 for 12 hours, and Rs 2499 for 24 hours.

Answer: B

16th Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2021 (Rural) was published by the Pratham foundation.

About:

• ASER provides reports on the schooling status of children in the age group of 5-16 age across rural India including the ability to do basic reading & arithmetic tasks.
• This year, ASER followed a phone-based survey format, as a field survey was not possible due to the covid-19 pandemic.
• Survey was conducted during September-October 2021.
• It tries to find out how children in aged between 5-16 studied at home since the onset of a covid-19 pandemic as well as challenges those schools & households now face in the backdrop of opening up of schools.

Key Findings of the report

Important findings of the ASER 2021 report are as follows:

• As per the report, there was an overall increase in the proportion of children enrolled in govt schools in between 2018 and 2020. Enrolment increased from 64.3% to 65.8%. But in 2021, enrolment suddenly increased to 70.3%.
• The enrolment rate in private schools has decreased as compared to last year. In 2020, the enrolment rate was 28.8% which decreased to 24.4% in 2021.
• In 2021, 73.1% of school respondents received training to implement Covid-19 prevention measures.
• Even though the availability of smartphones increased to 67.6% in 2021 as compared to 36.5% in 2018, around 79% of children in private schools had smartphones at home as opposed to 63.7% of children in government schools.
• The number of school-going children taking tuition increased by 40% during the closure of their schools.
• 52% of the respondents cited financial distress caused by the covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the increase in enrolments in government schools.

Answer: C

India was re-elected to the executive board of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) for the term of 2021-2025.

About:

• India was re-elected with 164 votes.
• Among Group IV Asian & Pacific States, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Cook Islands and China were also elected.

UNESCO Executive Board

UNESCO Executive Board is one among the three constitutional organs of the UN agency. It is elected by the General Conference. The board acts under the authority of General Conference. It examines the programme of work for organisation and corresponding budget estimates, which is submitted by Director-General. The board comprises of 58 member-states, each having a four-year term of office.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO is a specialised agency of United Nations (UN). It aims to promote world peace & security through international cooperation in education, science, arts, and culture. It comprises of 193 member states and 11 associate members besides partners in intergovernmental, non-governmental, and private sector. The agency is headquartered at World Heritage Centre in Paris, France. Apart from that, it has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions which facilitate its global mandate.

History of UNESCO

UNESCO was founded in 1945 by succeeding the League of Nations’ International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. Its constitution establishes the goals, operating framework and governing structure of the agency.

UNESCO’s Program

UNESCO works across five major program areas namely, education, social or human sciences, natural sciences, culture and communication or information. It sponsors projects to improve literacy, protect independent media, provide technical training & education, and promote cultural diversity.