10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: April 11, 2020

Operation Shield has been announced by the Delhi Government to fight against Coronavirus. Under this, a six pronged strategy “SHIELD” has been prepared which stands for a) sealing b) home quarantine c) isolation and tracing d) essential supply e) local sanitation and f) door-to-door checks.

The Constitution makes the following provisions with regard to the borrowing powers of the Centre and the states:

• The Central government can borrow either within India or outside upon the security of the Consolidated Fund of India or can give guarantees but both within the limits fixed by the Parliament.However,as of now there is no such law.
• A state government can borrow within India (and not abroad) upon the security of the Consolidated Fund of the State or can give guarantees, but both within the limits fixed by the legislature of that state.
• The Central government can make loans to any state or give guarantees in respect of loans raised by any state.Any sums required for the purpose are to be charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.
• A state cannot raise any loan without the consent of the Centre, if there is still outstanding any part of a loan made to the state by the Centre or in respect of which a guarantee has been given by the Centre.

The first international agreement limiting the use of chemical weapons dates back to 1675, when France and Germany came to an agreement, signed in Strasbourg, prohibiting the use of poison bullets. Almost exactly 200 years later, in 1874, the next agreement of this sort was concluded: the Brussels Convention on the Law and Customs of War. The Brussels Convention prohibited the employment of poison or poisoned weapons, and the use of arms, projectiles or material to cause unnecessary suffering, although the agreement never entered into force. Before the turn of the nineteenth century, a third agreement came into being. The chemical disarmament efforts of the twentieth century were rooted in the 1899 Hague Peace Conference. The contracting parties to the 1899 Hague Convention declared their agreement to ‘abstain from the use of projectiles, the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases’. A second Hague Convention, in 1907, reiterated earlier bans on employing poison or poisoned weapons.

Operation Decisive Storm is a Saudi-Arabia led military intervention in Yemen which began in 2015. Operation Decisive Storm has declared ceasefire in Yemen for 2 weeks. Members of operation are Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Senegal.

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has prepared a National Analytical Platform for Dealing with Intelligent Tracing, Tracking and Containment (NAADI). It is a data science-based tool which aims to make easy the task of tracking the movements of Covid-19 patients or quarantined people across the country.

Statement 1 is correct. India has never hosted the Olympic and Paralympic games.

Statement 2 is incorrect. International Paralympics Committee (IPC), an international non-profit organisation, is the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement and it organizes the Paralympic Games.

Statement 1 is correct. WHO defines severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases as an acute respiratory infection with: history of fever or measured fever of ≥ 38 C°; and cough; with onset within the last 10 days; and requires hospitalization.

Statement 2 is incorrect. SARI can be caused by various viral diseases like influenza, SARS and COVID-19 as well.

Statement 1 is incorrect. National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority is an attached office of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers and works as an independent regulator for pricing of drugs and to ensure availability and accessibility of medicines at affordable prices.

Statement 2 is correct. Its functions include to implement and enforce the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order in accordance with the powers delegated to it.

Statement 3 is correct. The organization is entrusted with the task of recovering amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the controlled drugs from the consumers.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act, 2019 amended this provision to provide that a person who has been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or a Judge of the Supreme Court can be the chairperson of the NHRC.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Under the Act, chairpersons of National Commission for Scheduled Castes, National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, National Commission for Minorities and National Commission for Women are members of the NHRC.  The amendment act, 2019 provided for including the chairpersons of the National Commission for Backward Classes, the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, and the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities as members of the NHRC.

Statement 1 is incorrect. It is not a specialised agency but part of “Other Bodies & Entities”, it focuses exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Statement 2 is correct. The “World survey on the role of women in development” comes out every five years, the UN-Women is the publishing entity for the survey.

The Delhi Durbar, also known as Imperial Durbar, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India, were held three times, in 1877, 1903, and 1911 when Lord Lytton, Lord Curzon and Lord Hardinge were Viceroy of India respectively.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Bancassurance is an arrangement between a bank and an insurance company allowing the insurance company to sell its products to the bank’s client base.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Banks and insurance companies in India are regulated by RBI and IRDA respectively, Each of them have elaborate and descriptive rules, restrictions and guidelines.. As per bancassurance regulations, a bank can only market three life, general and health insurance companies products.

A Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) in India is regulated by different regulators in India depending upon the sector they work in. RBI regulates the companies dealing in lending, accepting deposits, financial leasing etc. The companies that take up activities like stock broking, merchant banking etc. are regulated by SEBI while the Nidhi and Chit Fund companies are regulated by the Department of Company Affairs. Housing finance companies are regulated by the National Housing Bank.

Statement 1 is correct. As per the act “no person, shall conduct or cause to be conducted or aid in conducting sex selection on a woman or a man or on both or on any tissue, embryo, conceptus, fluid or gametes derived from either or both of them”.

Statement 2 is correct. The act empowers the Central government to constitute a Central Advisory Board with Minister, Health & Family Welfare as ex-officio chairman to advise government, monitor, implement & review the act and increase awareness among the public against the practice of pre-conception sex selection and prenatal determination.

Statement 1 is correct. It is a statutory body established by the National Commission for Women Act 1990.

Statement 2 is incorrect. As per the act; the Chairperson of the commission,  committed to the cause of women, is nominated by the Central Government.

Statement 3 is correct. The commission regularly publishes a monthly newsletter, Rashtra Mahila, in both Hindi and English.