Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Polity (Governance)) – July 15, 2020

The Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority Act was passed on 19th September, 2013 and the same was notified on 1st February, 2014.

• PFRDA is regulating NPS, subscribed by employees of Govt. of India, State Governments and by employees of private institutions/organizations & unorganized sectors.
• Atal Pension Yojana (APY), a pension scheme launched by Government of India and run by PFRDA is focused on the unorganized sector workers.
• Under the APY, minimum guaranteed pension of Rs. 1,000/- or 2,000/- or 3,000/- or 4,000 or 5,000/- per month will start after attaining the age of 60 years depending on the contributions by the subscribers for their chosen pension amount.

eShakti or Digitization of SHGs is an initiative of Micro Credit and Innovations Department of NABARD in line with our Hon’ble PM statement, ‘we move with the dream of electronic digital India…’

• Digital India is an Rs 1.13-lakh crore initiative of Government of India to integrate the government departments and the people of India and to ensure effective governance. It is to “transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy”.
• Keeping in view the Government of India’s mission for creating a digital India, NABARD launched a project for digitization of all Self Help Group (SHG) in the country.
• The project is being implemented in 250 districts across the country.

Tamil Nadu has bagged the top position in the composite ranking for good governance index (GGI), followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to data provided by the Personnel Ministry.

• The states and union territories have been divided into three groups — big states, north-east and hill states, and union territories — for the rankings based on certain indicators separately.
• The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and union territories, enable them to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result oriented approaches and administration.

The 14th edition of National Health Profile and its e-book (digital version) has been released by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI).

• CBHI has been publishing (annually) the National Health Profile since 2005 and its digital version since 2015.
• Life expectancy in India has increased from 49.7 years in 1970-75 to 68.7 years in 2012-16, as per the National Health Profile 2019.
• For the same period, the life expectancy for females is 70.2 years and 67.4 years for males.

India’s MMR has declined from 130 per 1 lakh live births in 2014-2016 to 122 per 1 lakh live births in 2015-2017 as per the recently released Sample Registration System (SRS) 2015-2017 bulletin for MMR. A decline of 8 points (6.2%) has been observed.

• The bulletin categorizes the country into three groups: Empowered Action Group (EAG), Southern States and other states.
• The following states are comes under EAG are Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Rajasthan.

Healthy States, Progressive India is an annual report of Niti Aayog ranks states and Union territories innovatively on their year-on-year incremental change in health outcomes, as well as, their overall performance with respect to each other.

The report has been prepared by Niti Aayog in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and technical assistance from the World Bank.

The Global Education Monitoring Report is released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The Bhilwara COVID-19 containment “model” refers to the steps taken by the administration in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district to contain the disease, after it emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus positive cases.

• The measures taken by the Rajasthan government include imposing a curfew in the district which also barred essential services, extensive screening and house-to-house surveys to check for possible cases, and detailed contact tracing of each positive case so as to create a dossier on everybody they met ever since they got infected.
• The Bhilwara model (in Rajasthan) has become a successful example for the world to emulate in tackling the Covid-19 crisis because of the efforts of local bureaucracy.
• This earmarks the importance of the role of civil services in containing the spread of disease at community level.

The report of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution red-flagging tap water quality in major Indian cities comes as no surprise, given that many official water distribution agencies routinely advise consumers to consume only boiled water.

• Going by the matrix of tests carried out by the Bureau of Indian Standards for the Ministry, Delhi has abysmal water quality, Chennai and Kolkata rank very low, and Mumbai is the only city with acceptable results.
• City water systems are normatively required to comply with the national standard for drinking water IS 10500:2012, but most obviously feel no compulsion to do so.

The Constitution of India (Article 148) provides for an independent office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

• He is the head of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department.
• He is the guardian of the public purse and controls the entire financial system of the country at both the levels—the Centre and the state.
• His duty is to uphold the Constitution of India and laws of Parliament in the field of financial administration.
• The CAG is appointed by the president of India by a warrant under his hand and seal.