10 PM Current Affairs Quiz: December 29, 2020

Option 1 is correctly matched. German architect Otto Koenigsberger worked for the Maharaja of Mysore in the late 1930s, when he was commissioned by Tata & Sons to develop the industrial township of Jamshedpur in the early 1940s. He would later design the masterplan for Bhubhaneswar (1948) and Faridabad (1949).
Option 2 is correctly matched. With English architect Maxwell Fry and his wife Jane Drew, Le Corbusier with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret would design many of Chandigarh’s civic buildings, from courts to housing. Corbusier’s modernist approach, without decoration, gave India its brutalist, bare concrete buildings.
Option 3 is incorrectly matched. The American Architect Louis Kahn had designed the IIT Ahmedabad campus. The design for IIM Ahmedabad (1962-1974) carried the essence of learning in the humility of its material, and the way spaces were managed — placing the dormitories, the library and classrooms at the same level, or the faculty residences across a waterbody.

Serum Institute of India (SII) unveiled India’s first indigenously developed pneumococcal vaccine recently. Pneumosil, was developed through a collaboration spanning over a decade with the health organisation PATH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It targets the pneumococcal bacterium, which causes pneumonia and other serious life-threatening diseases such as meningitis and sepsis.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a privacy and security law of the European Union. Though it was drafted and passed by the European Union (EU), it imposes obligations onto organizations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU.
Some of the key privacy and data protection requirements of the GDPR include:
–Requiring the consent of subjects for data processing
–Anonymizing collected data to protect privacy
–Providing data breach notifications
–Safely handling the transfer of data across borders

CANZUK is an acronym for the theoretical cultural, political, and economic community comprising Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom as part of an international body similar in scope to the former European Economic Community.
The idea of a trade bloc between Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand gained traction after the 2016 Brexit vote.

Statement 1 is correct. The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020 allows intra-state and inter-state trade of farmers’ produce outside: (i) the physical premises of market yards run by market committees formed under the state APMC Acts and (ii) other markets notified under the state APMC Acts.
Such trade can be conducted in an ‘outside trade area’, i.e., any place of production, collection, and aggregation of farmers’ produce including: (i) farm gates, (ii) factory premises, (iii) warehouses, (iv) silos, and (v) cold storages.
The act prohibits state governments from levying any market fee, cess or levy on farmers, traders, and electronic trading platforms for trade of farmers’ produce conducted in an ‘outside trade area’.
Statement 2 is correct. The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 provides for a farming agreement between a farmer and a buyer prior to the production or rearing of any farm produce.
The price of farming produce should be mentioned in the agreement. For prices subjected to variation, a guaranteed price for the produce and a clear reference for any additional amount above the guaranteed price must be specified in the agreement. Further, the process of price determination must be mentioned in the agreement.

Statement 1 is incorrect. In order to promote medicinal plants sector, Government of India set up National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) in 2000. Currently the board is working under the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha & Homoeopathy).
Statement 2 is correct. The primary mandate of NMPB is to develop an appropriate mechanism for coordination between various ministries/ departments/ organization and implementation of support policies/programs for overall (conservation, cultivation, trade and export) growth of medicinal plants sector both at the Central /State and International level.
# NMPB has recently launched a Consortia for Medicinal Plants to address/deliberate (not limited to) on Quality Planting Material, Research & Development, Cultivation, Trade of medicinal plants/market linkage etc.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare holds the National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices and Innovations in Public Healthcare Systems in India. While the first one was held in 2013 at Srinagar to recognize, showcase and document various best practices and innovations in public healthcare system, the last was held at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare digitally inaugurated the 7th National Summit on Good, Replicable Practices through a video conference recently.
The New Health Management Information System (HMIS) along with the Operational Guidelines for TB services at AB-HWCs and the Operational Guidelines 2020 on Active Case Detection and Regular Surveillance for Leprosy were also launched.

Option 1 is correctly matched. The Malayali is a tribal group found in the Eastern Ghats of northern Tamil Nadu. The name derives from malai-alam meaning “hill-place,” denoting an inhabitant of the hills. They are the largest Scheduled Tribe in Tamil Nadu.
Option 2 is correctly matched. The Pateliya tribals found in the Indian states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and some parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. The term ‘Pateliya’ has been derived from the term Patel which locally means ‘headman’.
Option 3 is correctly matched. Oraon are a Dravidian-speaking ethnic group inhabiting in Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. They predominantly speak Kurukh as their native language.

Blue Flag certification is a globally recognised eco-label accorded by “Foundation for Environment Education in Denmark” based on 33 stringent criteria.
India secured the International Blue Flag Certification for eight beaches on 6th October 2020, when an International Jury comprising of member organizations UNEP, UNWTO, UNESCO, IUCN, ILS, FEE etc. announced the award at Copenhagen, Denmark.
The beaches where the International Blue Flags were hoisted recently are: Kappad (Kerala), Shivrajpur (Gujarat), Ghoghla (Diu), Kasarkod and Padubidri (Karnataka), Rushikonda (Andhra Pradesh), Golden (Odisha) and Radhanagar (Andaman & Nicobar Islands).

Statement 1 is incorrect. Unlike traditional bonds that pay a fixed rate of interest, floating-rate bonds have a variable rate of interest. The maturity period is not variable.
Statement 2 is correct. The rate of interest of a floating rate bond is linked to a benchmark rate and is reset at a regular interval.
Interest rate risk is largely mitigated as these bonds will pay higher return when prevailing rates are high. Central banks issue floating rate bonds from time to time.
# The Government of India recently announced the Sale (Re-issue) of ‘GoI Floating Rate Bonds, 2033’ for a notified amount of Rs2,000 crore (nominal) through price based auction.