10 PM Daily Current Affairs Quiz | March 20 2021

The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2021 was passed in Lok Sabha on March 19, 2021. The Bill amends the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.

Statement 1 is correct. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 empowers the central government to reserve any mine (other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals) to be leased through an auction for a particular end-use (such as iron ore mine for a steel plant). Such mines are known as captive mines. The Bill provides that no mine will be reserved for particular end-use.

Statement 2 is incorrect. Under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, states conduct the auction of mineral concessions (other than coal, lignite, and atomic minerals). Mineral concessions include mining lease and prospecting license-cum-mining lease.

The Bill empowers the central government to specify a time period for completion of the auction process in consultation with the state government. Only if the state government is unable to complete the auction process within this period, the auctions may be conducted by the central government.

Motions and resolutions are procedural devices to raise a discussion in the House on a matter of general public interest. In its widest sense, the term ‘motion’ means any proposal submitted to the House for eliciting its decision.

Every matter is determined in the House by means of a question put from the Chair on a motion made by a member and resolved either in the affirmative or negative. The decision which has thus been elicited, turns the motion into a resolution or order of the house. In other words, by a motion, the House discusses a matter, by a resolution the House declares its own opinion.

Statement 1 is correct. A resolution can be moved by a member or Minister on a matter of general public interest.

Statement 2 is incorrect. State Legislative Assemblies are not explicitly barred from passing resolutions against Central Laws. Further, Supreme Court on recently said that it finds prima facie no harm in State Legislative Assemblies passing resolutions against Central laws.

A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India, said these resolutions are merely “opinions” of the majority members of a Legislative Assembly and do not have the force of law.

Statement 1 is correct. In May 2016, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act, 1934 was amended to provide a statutory basis for the implementation of the flexible inflation targeting framework.

The amended RBI Act also provides for the inflation target to be set by the Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank, once in every five years. Accordingly, the Central Government has notified in the Official Gazette 4 per cent Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation as the target for the period from August 5, 2016 to March 31, 2021 with the upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent and the lower tolerance limit of 2 per cent.

Statement 2 is correct. Section 45ZB of the amended RBI Act, 1934 also provides for an empowered six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) to be constituted by the Central Government. Governor of the Reserve Bank of India is the ex-officio Chairperson of the MPC having three government nominated members.

The quorum for the meeting of the MPC is four members. Each member of the MPC has one vote, and in the event of an equality of votes, the Governor has a second or casting vote.

Statement 1 is correct. The Government has set up a dedicated fund Nirbhaya Fund, which can be utilized for projects specifically designed to improve the safety and security of women.

Statement 2 is incorrect. It is a non-lapsable corpus fund, being administered by Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Ministry of Finance; it is the nodal Ministry for any accretion into and withdrawal from the corpus.

As per the guidelines, the responsibility of Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) includes (i) nodal Ministry to appraise/ recommend proposals and schemes to be funded under Nirbhaya Fund and (ii) to review and monitor the progress of sanctioned schemes/ projects in conjunction with the line Ministries/Departments.

Statement 1 is correct. Sowa-Rigpa is one of the oldest, living and well documented medical tradition popular in the world. The term ‘Sowa Rigpa’ is derived from Bhoti language which means ‘Knowledge of Healing’. It is an ancient Indian medical system which was enriched in the entire Trans-Himalayan region.

Statement 2 is incorrect. The Government is working on formulating standards for AYUSH products to increase its international trade.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has taken the initiative to formulate International Standards in collaboration with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). At the behest of BIS, a Working Group (WG–10) on ‘Traditional Medicine’ has been created in the ISO/TC-215 ‘Health Informatics’.

Statement 1 is incorrect. India Meteorological Department (IMD) has a shared mandate with Central Water Commission (CWC) for flood forecasting. River basin floods are dealt by the CWC.

–Flood Meteorological Offices (FMOs) operated by IMD provide meteorological support to the CWC for issuing flood warnings in respect of the 43 rivers of India covering 153 river basins.

–CWC issues flood forecasts for about 6 hrs. to 30 hrs. in advance for 176 stations using Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) received from FMOs of IMD and in-situ hydro-meteorological data.

Statement 2 is correct. Flash Floods are highly localized events of short duration with a very high peak and usually have less than six hours between the occurrence of the rainfall and peak flood.

In order to cater to the services of hydro-meteorological events occurring in short duration of time, IMD has implemented a Flash Flood Guidance System (FFGS) with the technical help from World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Statement 1 is incorrect. Candida Auris is a species of fungus that grows as yeast. It is often multidrug-resistant, meaning that it is resistant to multiple antifungal drugs commonly used to treat Candida infections.

Statement 2 is correct. Candida Auris has been causing severe illness in hospitalized patients. In some patients, this yeast can enter the bloodstream and spread throughout the body, causing serious invasive infections. It has caused bloodstream infections, wound infections, and ear infections.

The diatom test could be considered as an auxiliary evidence in determination of cause of death in body found in the water.

Diatom a silicaceous walled unicellular microorganism which like plants can photosynthesize is found in all the open water bodies which have all the essential micro and macro nutrients essential for their growth besides sun’s energy.

# If the person is alive when he enters the water, the diatoms will enter the lungs when the person inhales water while drowning. These diatoms then get carried to various parts of the body, including the brain, kidneys, lungs and bone marrow by blood circulation. If a person is dead when is thrown in the water, then there is no circulation and there is no transport of diatom cells to various organs

NAG is a third Generation (Fire and Forget) mechanized infantry ATGM, with top attack capability to destroy armored vehicle equipped with Explosive Reactive Armour, moving and stationary targets.

The Milan-2T is a Tandem Warhead ATGM with the range of 1,850 metres, produced by BDL under license from MBDA Missile Systems, France. These missiles can be fired from ground as well as vehicle-based launchers and can be deployed in Anti-Tank Role for both offensive & defensive tasks.

Prahaar is an Indian solid-fuel road-mobile tactical ballistic missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

# Acquisition Wing of Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a contract with Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) for supply of 4,960 MILAN-2T Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGMs) to Indian Army.

Trade and Development Report (TDR) is an annual report of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development provides comprehensive and authoritative analysis of economic trends and policy issues of international concern.

# Trade and Development Report 2020 Update (March 2021) states that developing countries have experienced some of the worst personal income drops relative to gross domestic product (GDP) because of the pandemic and government actions will at best lead to an uneven K-shaped recovery within and across countries.

# A Pew Research Centre report released recently says that the coronavirus pandemic may have shrunk India’s middle-class population by 32 million and driven 75 million below the poverty line in 2020.