10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz : February 8 2021

The River Alaknanda rises at the confluence and fed of Satopath and Bhagirathi Kharak glacier in Uttarakhand and meet the Sarasvati River tributary at Mana, India, 21 km from Tibet. Three km below Mana the Alaknanda flows past the Hindu pilgrimage centre of Badrinath.

There are many operational dams and HE projects in the Alaknanda basin namely Tapovan, Tharali, Vishnuprayag, Srinagar etc.

Various tributaries joining River Alaknanda are: Dhauliganga river at Vishnuprayag, Nandakini River at Nandaprayag, Pindar River at Karnaprayag, Mandakini River at Rudraprayag, and finally it meets Bhagirathi River at Devprayag.

Statement 1 is correct. The 1st India-EU High Level Dialogue (HLD), co-chaired by the Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal and the European Union Executive Vice-President & Trade Commissioner Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis, was held on 5th February 2021.

Commitment to the establishment of this Dialogue was a major outcome of the 15th India-EU Leader’s Summit held in July 2020, with an objective for a Ministerial level guidance towards the bilateral trade and investment relations.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The “India-EU Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025” was endorsed as a common roadmap to guide joint action and further strengthen the India-EU Strategic Partnership over the next five years at 15th India-European Union Summit on the 15th July 2020.

Statement 1 is incorrect. The World Health Organization (WHO) in December 2020 listed the Comirnaty COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for emergency use, making the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the first to receive emergency validation from WHO since the outbreak began a year ago.

The Comirnaty vaccine requires storage using an ultra-cold chain; it needs to be stored at -60°C to -90°C degrees. This requirement makes the vaccine more challenging to deploy in settings where ultra-cold chain equipment may not be available or reliably accessible.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The COVISHEILD and COVAXIN are the only vaccines that have received authorization from DCGI for emergency use in India.

It has been reported recently that Pfizer has withdrawn its emergency use application in India for want of local trials.

Statement 1 is correct. Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) is the one of the world’s first organizations using the force of tourism coupled with technology to bring solar energy to these remote communities, as recognized by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

GHE conducts “Impact Expeditions” to remote Himalayan villages and uses a portion of the expedition fee to fund the capital cost of the hardware, transportation, installation and training of village-scale solar micro-grids. The micro-grid infrastructure set up by GHE is owned and operated by the community.

Statement 2 is correct. Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) is among the winners of the 2020 UN Global Climate Action Award for ‘Financing for Climate Friendly Investment’.

The EIU Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of world democracy for 165 independent states and two territories. The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation, and political culture.

Based on their scores on 60 indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime or authoritarian regime.

Monetary policy refers to the actions of a central bank to influence a nation’s money supply and economy. Monetary policy is used to influence the employment situation and to manage inflation.

Option 1 and 3 are correct. Expansionary monetary policy is when a central bank uses its tools to stimulate the economy. That increases the money supply, lowers interest rates, and increases demand.

Option 2 is incorrect as higher interest rates lower the money supply thereby decreasing the demand.

# The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das announced Friday at the end of the last monetary policy review meeting of the current fiscal to keep the repo and reverse repo rates unchanged at 4% and 3.35%, respectively, while maintaining an accommodative stance.

Budget is a detailed statement by the government regarding its estimated expenditure and receipts for the next financial year. That means an estimate of expenditure to be made and receipts to be obtained from 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022. The budget also includes statements about two previous budgets. First, there is an actual budget statement of the previous year and a revised estimate of the current year.

So, Budgeted estimates (BE) are budget allocations announced at the beginning of each financial year. Revised Estimates (RE) are estimates of projected amounts of receipts and expenditure until the end of the financial year. Actual amounts are audited accounts of expenditure and receipts in a year.

Therefore, Budget 2021-22 lists Budget Estimate (BE) for 2021-22, Revised Estimate (RE) for 2020-21 and Actual amounts for 2019-20.

The overall coordination of disaster management vests with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) are the key committees involved in the top-level decision-making with regard to disaster management.

The NCMC is chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, it consists of Secretaries of Ministries/Departments and agencies with specific DM responsibilities.

Prime Miniister in his recent visit to Assam launched ‘Asom Mala’, a programme for state highways and major district roads. The ‘Asom Mala’ has been started in line with ‘Bharat Mala Project”. The programme is unique for its emphasis on effective maintenance through continuous field data collection and its linkage with the Road Asset Management System (ROMS).

# He also laid foundation stone for two new medical colleges in Biswanath and Charaideo.

In view of the resource requirement to meet the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India had in May, 2020 enhanced the borrowing limit of the States by 2 percent of their GSDP. Half of this special dispensation was linked to undertaking citizen centric reforms by the States.

The four citizen centric areas for reforms identified were Implementation of One Nation One Ration Card System, Ease of doing business reform, Urban Local body/ utility reforms and Power Sector reforms.

The reforms stipulated in Ease of Doing Business category are:

–Completion of first assessment of ‘District Level Business Reform Action Plan’

–Elimination of the requirements of renewal of registration certificates/approvals/licences obtained by businesses under various Acts.

–Implementation of computerized central random inspection system under the Acts wherein allocation of inspectors is done centrally, the same inspector is not assigned to the same unit in subsequent years, prior inspection notice is provided to the business owner, and inspection report is uploaded within 48 hours of inspection.

Till now, 17 States have carried out at least one of the four stipulated reforms and have been granted reform linked borrowing permissions. [08-02-21]