10 PM Current Affairs Quiz : February 4, 2019

Statement 1 is incorrect-  World Trade Organisation views education as a tradable commodity, not as a right that every citizen can demand of the state.

Statement 2 is correct –The UGC, however, was formally established only in November 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India. In order to ensure effective region-wise coverage throughout the country, the UGC has decentralised its operations by setting up six regional centres at Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati and Bangalore.

Statement 1 is incorrect- Kerala has become the first State to set up a price monitoring and research unit (PMRU).

Statement 2 is correct –PMRU will  track violation of prices of essential drugs and medical devices under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO).

Statement 1 is correct-It is under Department of Pharmaceuticals of Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers

Statement 2 is correct –NPPA is an organization of the Government of India which was established, inter alia, to fix/ revise the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce prices and availability of the medicines in the country, under the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 1995.

• The organization is also entrusted with the task of recovering amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the controlled drugs from the consumers.

• It also monitors the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels.

Statement 1 is incorrect-Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) is a statutory market committee constituted by a State Government in respect of trade in certain notified agricultural or horticultural or livestock products, under the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act issued by that state government.

Statement 2 is correct –APMCs are intended to be responsible for:

• • ensuring transparency in pricing system and transactions taking place in market area;
  • providing market-led extension services to farmers;
  • ensuring payment for agricultural produce sold by farmers on the same day;
  • promoting agricultural processing including activities for value addition in agricultural produce

• Publicizing data on arrivals and rates of agricultural produce brought into the market area for sale; and
• Setup and promote public private partnership in the management of agricultural markets

Statement 1 is incorrect- The Ministry of Human Resource Development’s All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) Report 2017-18 notes that the Gross Enrolment Ratio across institutions of higher education has risen to 25.8% from 19.4% in 2010-11.

Statement 2 is incorrect –To portray the status of higher education in the country, Ministry of Human Resource Development has endeavoured to conduct an annual web-based All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) since 2010-11.The survey covers all the Institutions in the country engaged in imparting of higher education.

Source – http://aishe.nic.in/aishe/home

Statement 1 is incorrect – The Ministry of Statistics and Programme and Implementation has launched Periodic Labour Force Survey in April 2017 which will supersede the earlier system where data was available only every five years.

Statement 2 and 3 is correct –

• The survey will supersede the earlier system where data was available only every five years.
• The survey would supply data for both the formal and informal sector.
• The data will be collected from both large and small enterprises and so that it is possible to measure informal sector activity as well.

Both the statements are correct

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 39 countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.Greenpeace was founded in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, Canadian and US ex-pat environmental activists.

Greenpeace states its goal is to “ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its diversity” and focuses its campaigning on worldwide issues such as climate change, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling, genetic engineering, and anti-nuclear issues. It uses direct action, lobbying, research, and ecotage to achieve its goals.

Operation Cyclone was the code-name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the mujahideen, in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the military intervention by the USSR in support of its client, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Both the statements are correct

United States (US) President Donald Trump has announced that US will unilaterally pull out of three-decade-old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty signed with Russia during Cold War.

It was Signed in Washington, D.C. by President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on 8 December 1987, the treaty was approved by the United States Senate on 27 May 1988 and ratified by Reagan and Gorbachev on 1 June 1988.

Both the statements are correct

It is a global analytical company providing ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory services. CRISIL’s majority shareholder is Standard & Poor’s, a division of McGraw Hill Financial and provider of financial market intelligence.

CriSidEx , India’s first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL and SIDBI.