10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz | February 24 2021

The inelastic demand occurs when the demand for a product doesn’t change as much as the price. Inelastic demand is one of the three types of demand elasticity. It describes how much demand changes when the price does. The other two are:

–Elastic demand is when changes in price impact the quantity demanded.

–Unit elastic demand is when changes in price cause an equal change in demand.

Major factors for a product having inelasticity of demand are:

–No substitutes; if there is an easy substitute for a good or service, the substitute makes the demand for the good more elastic.

–having little or no competition in the market; if a firm has monopoly power, then it is able to charge higher prices

Statement 1 is correct. National Urban Digital Mission aims to build the shared digital infrastructure that will strengthen the capacity of the urban ecosystem to solve complex problems at scale and speed. It is built as a public good and provides the ecosystem actors the foundational digital building blocks, ready-to-use platforms, standards, specifications and frameworks.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) has been launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

The NUDM will be anchored by the Centre for Digital Governance (CDG) at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).

Both statements are incorrect.

The focus of the Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0 will be the children and pregnant women who have missed their vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic. They will be identified and vaccinated

during the two rounds. Beneficiaries from migration areas and hard to reach areas will be targeted as they may have missed their vaccine doses during COVID19.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0 (IMI 3.0) aimed to reach the unreached population with all the available vaccines under Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and thereby accelerate the full immunization and complete immunization coverage of children and pregnant women.

As per the Guidelines released for IMI 3.0, the districts have been classified to reflect 313 low risk; 152 as medium risk; and 250 as high-risk districts. IMI 3.0 will have two rounds starting from February 22 and March 22, 2021 and will be conducted in pre-identified 250 districts/urban areas across 29 States/UTs in the country.

Both statements are correct.

The India Urban Data Exchange has been developed in partnership between the Smart Cities Mission and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. IUDX serves as a seamless interface for data providers and data users, including ULBs, to share, request, and access datasets related to cities, urban governance, and urban service delivery.

IUDX is an open-source software platform which facilitates the secure, authenticated, and managed exchange of data amongst various data platforms, 3rd party authenticated and authorised applications, and other sources. As the number of cities on IUDX expands, this will scale up to uniform and seamless sharing between data producers and data consumers across urban India.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979 is applicable to, every establishment in which five or more interstate migrant workmen (whether or not in addition to other workmen) are employed or who were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months.

Statement 2 is correct. Employment of inter-State migrant workmen in any establishment is prohibited unless it is duly registered under this Act.

Some of the important duties of the employer are:

–Maintain the registers indicating the details of interstate workers and make available for scrutiny by the statutory authorities.

–Principal employer shall be liable to bear the wages and other benefits to interstate workers in case of failure by the contractor to affect the same. Liable for the prescribed punishments for violations committed under this Act.

–In case of any employment injury or fatal accident, ensure the same is informed to authorities of States concerned and to the kins of the deceased through the contractor.

# NITI Aayog, along with a working subgroup of officials and members of civil society, has prepared a draft national migrant labour policy. It mentions that the Ministry of Labour and Employment should amend the 1979 Act for effective utilisation to protect migrants.

What is known as the International Bill of Human Rights is made up of:

–Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

–International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

–International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)

–Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

–Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

In 1948 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the UDHR. This was the first time that countries agreed on a comprehensive statement of inalienable human rights. The UDHR is not a treaty, so it does not directly create legal obligations for States.

The covenants, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were opened for signature in 1966 and entered into force in 1976. India ratified both the covenants in 1979.

Statement 1 is correct. Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures are quarantine and biosecurity measures which applied to protect human, animal or plant life or health from risks arising from the introduction, establishment and spread of pests and diseases and from risks arising from additives, toxins and contaminants in food and feed.

Statement 2 is incorrect. India and Mauritius recently signed a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement.

The CECPA is the first trade Agreement signed by India with a country in Africa. The Agreement is a limited agreement, which will cover Trade in Goods, Rules of Origin, Trade in Services, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, Dispute Settlement, Movement of Natural Persons, Telecom, Financial services, Customs Procedures and Cooperation in other Areas.

Statement 1 is correct. The 2015 Paris Agreement established a goal to limit average global temperature rise to well below 2˚ degrees C, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5˚ degrees C.

To meet this goal, every country is expected to prepare and communicate a nationally determined contribution (NDC) every five years. NDCs include targets, measures and policies and are the basis for national climate action plans.

Statement 2 is correct. Starting in 2023 and then every five years, governments will take stock of the implementation of the Agreement to assess the collective progress towards achieving the purpose of the Agreement and its long-term goals.

The outcome of the global stock-take will inform the preparation of subsequent NDCs, in order to allow for increased ambition and climate action to achieve the purpose of the Paris Agreement and its long-term goals.

# The United Kingdom is holding the Presidency of the UNSC for the month of February 2021 and it is organizing the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on “Addressing climate-related risks to international peace and security”.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Brent blend is a blend of crude oil extracted from oilfields in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Norway.

Statement 2 is correct. Crude from this region is light and sweet, making them ideal for the refining of diesel fuel, gasoline, and other high-demand products.

# Indian Crude Basket is weighted average of Dubai and Oman (sour) and the Brent Crude (sweet) crude oil prices.

# Sweet crude oil contains small amounts of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide and it is commonly used for processing into gasoline, kerosene, and high-quality diesel. Before sour crude oil can be refined into gasoline, impurities need to be removed, therefore increasing the cost of processing.

Thermoelectricity is formed when heat is converted into energy. What makes a material have the ability to create thermal electricity is both high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity.

Electrons flow back and forth on what is called a temperature gradient. Since we generally know that metal is a good energy conductor, electrons that are responsible for creating the thermoelectric energy can flow easily through metal.

Furthermore, a typical thermoelectric material should have low thermal conductivity and thus must maintain a temperature gradient.

# Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science & Technology (DST) have identified a lead-free material called Cadmium (Cd) doped Silver Antimony Telluride (AgSbTe2) which can efficiently allow recovery of electricity from ‘waste heat’.