10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz | February 27 2021

Several categories of citizens are eligible to vote through postal ballot in India in which a voter can cast her vote remotely by recording her preference on the ballot paper and sending it back to the election officer before counting.

Members of the armed forces like the Army, Navy and Air Force, members of the armed police force of a state (serving outside the state), government employees posted outside India and their spouses are entitled to vote only by post.

Voters under preventive detention are also allowed to vote through postal ballot.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) had written to the Law Ministry on November 27 last year with the proposal of extending postal ballots to overseas electors. This facility would not be extended to them for the upcoming elections to the Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal Assemblies.

Statement 1 is correct. The Legislative Council of a State shall not be subject to dissolution, but as nearly as possible one third of the members thereof shall retire as soon as may be on the expiration of every second year in accordance with the provisions made in that behalf by Parliament by law.

Statement 2 is incorrect. As per article 173 of the Constitution a person shall not be qualified to be chosen to fill a seat in the Legislature of a State unless he—

–is a citizen of India, and makes and subscribes before some person authorised in that behalf by the Election Commission an oath or affirmation according to the form set out for the purpose in the Third Schedule;

–is, in the case of a seat in the Legislative Assembly, not less than twenty-five years of age and, in the case of a seat in the Legislative Council, not less than thirty years of age.

Statement 3 is incorrect. The Election Commission of India is the authority to conduct the elections to the State Legislatures.

National Statistical Office (NSO) is mandated to prepare national accounts as well as publishes annual estimates of national product, government and private consumption expenditure, capital formation, savings, estimates of capital stock and consumption of fixed capital, as also the state level gross capital formation of supra-regional sectors and prepares comparable estimates of State Domestic Product (SDP) at current prices.

The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has recently released the Second Advance Estimates of National Income, 2020-21.

The approach for compiling the advance estimates is based on Benchmark-Indicator Method. The sector-wise estimates are obtained by extrapolation of indicators like Index of Industrial Production (IIP), financial performance of Listed Companies in the Private Corporate Sector, Second Advance Estimates of Crop Production, Accounts of Central & State Governments among others.

Syria is bounded by Turkey to the north, by Iraq to the east and southeast, by Jordan to the south, and by Lebanon and Israel to the southwest.

Statement 1 is correct. Significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable identification of the first originator of the information that is required only for the purposes of:

–prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of an offence related to sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order or of incitement to an offence relating to the above or in relation with rape, sexually explicit material or child sexual abuse material punishable with imprisonment for a term of not less than five years.

Intermediary shall not be required to disclose the contents of any message or any other information to the first originator.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The OTT platforms, called as the publishers of online curated content in the rules, would self-classify the content into five age-based categories- U (Universal), U/A 7+, U/A 13+, U/A 16+, and A (Adult).

Platforms would be required to implement parental locks for content classified as U/A 13+ or higher, and reliable age verification mechanisms for content classified as “A”.

E-Daakhil portal launched by National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission (NCDRC) for Consumer grievance redressal is now operational in 15 States/UTs.

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, which has come into force from 20th July, 2020, has provision for e-filing of consumer complaints in the Consumer Commissions and online payment of the fees for filing a complaint. A web application for E-filing of consumer complaints named e-daakhil has been developed by NIC for the purpose.

The e-daakhil portal empowers the consumer and their advocates to file the consumer complaints along with payment of requisite fees online from anywhere for the redressal of their complaints. It also facilitates the consumer commissions to scrutinize the complaints online to accept, reject or forward the complaint to the concerned commission for further processing.

Statement 1 is correct. National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) covers both economic (Power, Telecom, Shipping etc.) and social (education, water, health etc.) infrastructure projects- based on the updated Harmonized Master List of Infrastructure.

Out of the total expected capital expenditure of Rs 111 lakh Crore, projects worth Rs 44 lakh Crore (40%) are under implementation, projects worth Rs 33 lakh Crore (30%) are at a conceptual stage, projects worth Rs 22 lakh Crore (20%) are under development (project identified and DPR prepared, but yet to draw-down funds) and the balance projects worth Rs 11 lakh Crore (10%) are unclassified.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The overall funding mix for the NIP is likely to be through the Central and state budgets, borrowings and private sector participation. The Centre (39 per cent) and states (40 per cent) are expected to have an almost equal share in implementing the projects, while the private sector has a 21 per cent share.

While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 the Union Minister for Finance announced that in order to achieve the target of National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) in the coming years the Government proposes following three steps: creation of institutional structures, big thrust on monetizing assets and enhancing the share of capital expenditure in Central and State budgets.

The Union Cabinet has approved the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for IT Hardware. The scheme proposes production linked incentive to boost domestic manufacturing and attract large investments in the value chain of IT Hardware. The Target Segments under the proposed Scheme include Laptops, Tablets, All-in-One PCs and Servers.

The Scheme shall, extend an incentive of 4% to 2% / 1% on net incremental sales (over base year 2019-20) of goods manufactured in India and covered under the target segment, to eligible companies, for a period of four years.

Statement 1 is correct. UN specialized agencies are international organizations working with the UN, in accordance with relationship agreements between each organization and the UN.

Specialized Agencies each have a process for admitting members and appointing their administrative head. WIPO is a self-funding organization and a specialized agency of United Nations.

Statement 2 is correct. The Global Innovation Index is published annually by Cornell University, INSEAD and the WIPO. Its 80 indicators explore a broad vision of innovation, including political environment, education, infrastructure and business sophistication.

Statement 3 is correct. The WIPO Technology and Innovation Support Center (TISC) program provides innovators in developing countries with access to locally based, high quality technology information and related services, helping them to exploit their innovative potential and to create, protect, and manage their intellectual property (IP) rights.

Statement 1 is correct. COVAXIN, India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine by Bharat Biotech is developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) – National Institute of Virology (NIV).

Statement 2 is incorrect. The vaccine developed by BBIL is a highly purified, whole virion, inactivated SARS-CoV2.

The vaccine is developed using Whole-Virion Inactivated Vero Cell derived platform technology. Inactivated vaccines do not replicate and are therefore unlikely to revert and cause pathological effects. They contain dead virus, incapable of infecting people but still able to instruct the immune system to mount a defensive reaction against an infection.

# The vaccine is formulated with Algel-IMDG, which contains chemisorbed TLR7/8 agonist onto aluminium hydroxide gel to generate the requisite type of immune responses. A CSIR constituent lab, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad, was approached by BBIL to develop the synthetic route for the agonist molecule with indigenous chemicals.