Daily Current Affairs Quiz : November 26,2021

 Answer- B

India’s Top 10 Police Stations for2021 released by the Ministry of Home Affairs(MoHA)

• Gangapur PS in Ganjam, Odisha is adjudged as 2nd best followed by Bhattu Kalan PS, Fatehabad, Haryana as the 3rd best.

Conference

• Union Home Minister Amit Shah presented the trophies to the Station House Officers(SHOs) of the top 3 stations at the Directors General of Police (DGP) conference organised by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

Answer- A

He has already been the PM since 2019.

• He was reappointed by an Emiri order (Head of the State) issued by Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
• Kuwait is an emirate, the Emir is the head of state and the Al Sabah is the ruling family which dominates the country’s political system
• Kuwait is a Western Asia country. It borders Iraq and Saudi Arabia

 Answer: B

Recently, the 6th edition of the biennial India-France Army exercise ‘Ex Shakti-2021’ culminated after 12 days of intense joint military training, which the Army said proved to be “another remarkable milestone towards the pledge of terrorism-free world”.

About ‘Ex Shakti-2021’

What is it?

• The 6th edition of the biennial India-France Army exercise

Hosted by:

• This edition of the exercise hosted by France saw the two sides exhibiting their combat power and dominance over the extremist groups in simulated counter-insurgency, counterterrorism environment.

Phases of exercise:

• The exercise was conducted in two phases involving combat conditioning and tactical training of counterterrorism operations, culminating with validation of training in semi-urban environment.

Significance:

• India and France have steadily deepened their defence cooperation, and France has emerged as one of India’s top strategic partners.

Answer: A

Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, currently circulating in South Africa, as a ‘variant of concern’. It also named it Omicron.

About Omicron variant of Covid-19

Identified by:

• The Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) had identified the variant recently.
• It had detected a group of related SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which belong to a lineage named B.1.1.529.
• Early indications are that this variant is possibly even more transmissible than the highly infectious Delta variant, and that current vaccines may be less effective against it.

What we do know so far about Omicron?

• 1.1.529 has multiple spike protein mutations, and preliminary analysis suggests it is highly infectious.
• South Africa has reported a four-fold increase in new cases over the last two weeks, coinciding with the emergence of B.1.1.529.

What are the mutations that characterise this variant?

• On the mutation profile of the new variant, the NGS-SA has said that B.1.1.529 has “very unusual constellations of mutations” — with 30 in the region that encodes the spike protein, which is responsible for the virus’s entry in human cells.
• It has said that some of the mutations are well characterised with a known phenotypic impact, affecting transmissibility and immune evasion. Some of these mutations have already been detected in the Alpha and Delta variants.
• But many other mutations, the NGS-SA said, have been “rarely observed until now and not well characterised”.
• So, the full significance of these mutations remain uncertain at this point.
• “More investigations are underway to determine the possible impact of these mutations on the capacity of the virus to transmit more efficiently, to impact vaccine effectiveness and evade immune response, and/or to cause more severe or milder disease,” the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has said.

Answer: B

India’s Minister for Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh, who chaired the 9th BRICS Science & Technology Ministers meet held on November 26, 2021, has called for working towards rightful place for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in the Global Innovation Index and this, he said, can be achieved through further strengthening the cooperation in the field of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI).

About BRICS

Member countries:

• BRICS is an acronym for 5 emerging economies of the world viz. – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as “BRIC” (or “the BRICs”) before the induction of South Africa in 2010.

Term coined by:

• The term BRIC was coined by Jim O’ Neil, the then chairman of Goldman Sachs in 2001.

First BRIC Summit:

• The first BRIC summit took place in the year 2009 in Yekaterinburg (Russia).

Significance:

• The BRICS have a combined area of 39,746,220 km2 (15,346,101.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 3.21 billion, or about 26.656% of the world land surface and 41.53% of the world population.
• Four out of five members are among the world’s ten largest countries by population and by area, except for South Africa, the twenty-fourth in both.

Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the poorest states in India, according to Niti Aayog’s first Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report.

About Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report.

Released by: Niti Aayog

Some important statistics:

• Top five poor states in India: As per the index, 51.91 per cent population of Bihar is poor, followed by 42.16 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.79 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. While Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) has been placed fourth in the index, Meghalaya (32.67 per cent) is at the fifth spot.
• 5 lowest poverty states in India: Kerala (0.71 per cent), Goa (3.76 per cent), Sikkim (3.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (4.89 per cent) and Punjab (5.59 per cent) have registered the lowest poverty across India and are at the bottom of the index.
• Poverty in Union territories: Among union territories (UTs), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (27.36 per cent), Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh (12.58), Daman & Diu (6.82 per cent) and Chandigarh (5.97 per cent), emerged as the poorest UTs. Puducherry having 1.72 per cent of its population as poor, Lakshadweep (1.82 percent), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (4.30 per cent) and Delhi (4.79 per cent) have fared better.
• Number of malnourished people: Bihar has the highest number of malnourished people followed by Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Bihar is also the worst performer when it comes to the percentage of population deprived of maternal health, percentage of population deprived of years of schooling, school attendance and percentage of population deprived of cooking fuel and electricity.

• Worst in the child and adolescent mortality: Uttar Pradesh ranked the worst in the child and adolescent mortality category, followed by Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.
• Percentage of population deprived of sanitation: Jharkhand performed the worst when it comes to the percentage of population deprived of sanitation, followed by Bihar and

Significance:

• The development of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index of India is an important contribution towards instituting a public policy tool which monitors multidimensional poverty, informs evidence-based and focused interventions, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind.