Daily Current Affairs (MCQ) | Date 19.01.22

Q1. Consider the following statements

1. Bangladesh has more per capita GDP than India
2. In bangladesh female labour force participation is nearly double that of India

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer : c

Why is the Question ?

Examples in the neighbourhood: Bangladesh
1. We need not look too far to learn how. In 2020, Bangladesh overtook India in per capita GDP. Bangladesh has thrived by putting millions to work in manufacturing.
2. A booming garment sector employs 4.4 million. A large garment factory in Bangladesh employs 30,000-50,000 people — 10 times what you’d find in India.
3. As 80 per cent of those employed in garment factories are women, Bangladesh has twice the female labour force participation ratio of India.

4. In 2020, the government passed four labour laws that are a major step forward in helping balance flexibility with protection for labour, formal and informal.
5. These laws have since been left dormant. The budget should announce a time frame for implementation, notification by the Union government and then by the states.

Q2. Consider the following statements

1. Under 5 percent of workforce in India is formally skilled
2. National Skill Development Corporation is a not-for-profit public limited company tasked with promotion of skilling in India

Which of the above statements is/are correct?

a. 1 only
b. 2 only
c. Both 1 and 2
d. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer : c

Why is the Question ?

Skilling:
1. The budget must also look at investments in education and skilling. In the absence of massive employment in unskilled occupations, we must depend on education and skills.

2. India has among the least skilled workforces in the world. Under 5 percent of our workforce is formally skilled, compared to 96 per cent in South Korea, 75 per cent in Germany and 52 per cent in the US.
3. That is why the work of the National Skills Development Corporation is so important and must go much further and faster.
4. National Skill Development Corporation is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated on July 31, 2008 under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. NSDC was set up by the Ministry of Finance as a Public Private Partnership model.

Education:
1. Education is even more important, especially primary education. Pratham’s education reports make for sobering reading. Their last comprehensive report says that just 44 per cent of children in Class V can read a text meant for Class II. And just 23 per cent of children in Class V can do division.
2. With schools closed for the last year and a half in most states, education outcomes have fallen further.
3. The New Education Policy has a proposal that every second standard child should be able to read and do arithmetic at the second standard level as a foundation for further education. This welcome initiative must receive greater dedication and focus from both government and industry.
4. School education is a state subject, so the Union budget can at best incentivise states to do the right things, say by linking the flow of additional funds to those that demonstrate improved second standard learning outcomes.

5. Industry can help too. As a part of CSR, many companies work actively with schools. Education is already the largest single area for CSR spending, accounting for one-third of the Rs 9,000 crore spent by the top 100 companies.

Q3. Recently in news houthi rebels belong to country of

a. Yemen
b. Oman
c. Saudi Arabia
d. Israel

Answer : a

Why is the Question ?

Saudi Arabia hits back at Houthi rebels after UAE drone attack

Green coloured region is Marib
1. An airstrike killed about 14 persons in a building in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a during strikes across the city launched by the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group.
2. The UAE has armed and trained Yemeni forces that recently joined fighting against the Houthis in Yemen’s energy-producing regions of Shabwa and Marib.
3. The Houthi-claimed attack on two sites in the UAE set off explosions in fuel trucks, killing three persons, including two Indians and a Pakistani.
4. In response, the UAE said it reserved the right to respond to “terrorist attacks and criminal escalation”.
Who are the Houthis?
1. Founded in the 1990s by Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, a member of Yemen’s Shia majority, the Houthi movement has a pretty straightforward slogan or sarkha: “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, the curse on the Jews, victory to Islam.” After Yemeni soldiers killed Hussein in 2004, his brother Abdul Malik took over.
2. After Yemen’s civil war in 1962-70, the once-powerful Zaidis first started to get sidelined. They were further alienated from the 1980s onwards when Sunni ideals were increasingly rising to prominence in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
3. At the time, several disgruntled Shia Yemenis, unhappy with their long-time authoritarian president and Saudi ally Ali Abdullah Saleh, joined Saudi militant groups who were fighting against Riyadh.

Q4. Which of the following is correctly matched?

Select the correct answer from the codes given Below

a. 1 and 2 only
b. 2 only
c. 3 only
d. 1, 2 and 3

Answer : b

Why is the Question ?

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a strategic route for oil and natural gas shipments (It is near Houthi Affected/controlled areas in Yemen), Other significant geographical areas in the area, Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, countries bordering these

Q5. Which of the following countries is shifting its capital to Nusantara due to Sea level rising?

a. Singapore
b. Indonesia
c. Malaysia
d. Australia

Answer : b

Why is the Question ?

Rising sea levels prompt Indonesia to relocate the capital

1. Indonesia’s parliament passed a law approving the relocation of its capital from slowly sinking Jakarta to a site 2,000 kilometres away on the jungle-clad Borneo island that will be named “Nusantara”.
2. The House of Representatives vote provides the legal framework for the move citing rising sea levels and severe congestion on densely populated Java island.
3. Home to more than 30 million people in its greater metro area, Jakarta has long been plagued by serious infrastructure problems and flooding exacerbated by climate change.
4. The new capital will cover about 56,180 hectares in East Kalimantan province on the Indonesian part of Borneo.
5. Early plans for the new capital depict a utopian design aimed at creating an environmentally friendly “smart” city, but few details have been confirmed.
6. Environmentalist critics of the capital’s move have warned it could damage ecosystems in the region. 

Q6. “Nord Stream 2” is oil and gas pipeline between

a. Russia and Germany
b. France and Germany
c. Ukraine and Russia
d. Norway and France

Answer : a

Why is the Question ?

‘Germany may consider halting Nord Stream 2’
Germany is ready to discuss halting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline should Russia attack Ukraine, responding to increasing domestic and international pressure amid a Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders.

Q7. “Amma Unavagam” had become a roaring success by involving peers in self-help groups, employing the poor to serve hygienic food to eradicate the problem of hunger on the streets. The scheme is implemented by state of

a. Tamilnadu
b. Karnataka
c. Odisha
d. Kerala

Answer : a

Why is the Question ?

No one died of hunger in recent times: Centre
Highlights:
1. The Supreme Court’s questions on hunger deaths saw the Union government insist that no one died of starvation in recent times across the country, even during the pandemic.
2. Thanks to the progress made by the nation since Independence and the comprehensive policies and steps taken by both State and Central governments, there have been no starvation deaths in the country during recent times, even during adverse situations like the pandemic.

3. But the court’s insistence on specific data to back the claim of zero deaths saw a scattered response from the government.
4. The Centre’s reply in court spanned from urging the court to ask the States for the data to making sweeping comments about malnutrition in “developing countries” and reading statistics out of a 2015 health survey report and a newspaper article.
5. Our limited question is whether your officers have the latest information on starvation deaths... Is there any survey report indicating whether starvation deaths are happening or not? Give us some data. Ask your officers to furnish some
information,” the CJI asked.
Conscious effort to identify starvation deaths
1. Petitioners intervened to submit that starvation deaths could only be detected through autopsy. The authorities have to make a conscious effort to identify starvation deaths.
2. The CJI underscored that the “hunger of the poor on the streets has to be satisfied”.
Welfare schemes
1. Mr Venugopal (Attorney General of India) said that the Centre was on the front foot in food welfare schemes. We have 131 food-related programmes.
2. That malnutrition exists is not disputed by us. That community kitchens are needed is not disputed. The problem is the funding, he observed.

3. The States have to source the funds for community kitchen programmes by themselves, even if by additional taxation, and the panchayats were obliged under the Constitution to provide the logistics for distribution.
4. The Bench asked the Centre to explore the possibility of a “model” community kitchen scheme by which it could support the States to ensure food security for the poor.
5. It said it was not up to the judiciary to formulate a “uniform” community kitchen scheme for the States, but the Centre ought to do it in consultation with the States.
6. The Attorney-General agreed to convey to the Union government the court’s suggestion to provide the States with an additional 2 per cent food grains.
Best Practice:
The petition was filed jointly by various activists. It drew attention to how Tamil Nadu’s Amma Unavagam had become a roaring success by involving peers in self-help groups, employing the poor to serve hygienic food to eradicate the problem of hunger on the streets.