Daily Current Affairs (MCQ) | Date 23.03.22

Q1. Consider the following statements

1. Greywater includes run-offs from kitchens, bathing and laundry
2. More than 40% of rural households have tap water connection

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 ?

Center launches water reuse project
1. Centre launched a countrywide project to reuse greywater, or run-offs from kitchens, bathing and laundry, and said the country was on track to realizing its “dream” of connecting every rural household with tap water by 2024.
2. Govt launched the ‘Sujalam 2.0’ greywater recycling project. A staggering 31,000 million tonnes of grey water a day is discharged by rural India alone, which goes waste, according to official data, enough to tide over drought if evenly stored across the country.
3. Of India’s 190 million rural households, 90 million households had a tap-water connection as of date, the Jal Shakti minister said. That’s about 47.3%.

4. The country’s groundwater recharge scheme, Atal Bhujal Yojana, 81 water-scarce districts are on course to getting 10.42 million recharge units to capture 1.85 billion cubic metres of monsoon rains.

Q2. Which of the following factors contribute to the water crisis in India?

1. Less availability of freshwater
2. Lack culture of reuse
3. Misuse and wastage in agriculture
4. Faulty agricultural policies and practices

Select the correct answer from the codes given below

a. 1, 2 and 3
b. 2, 3 and 4
c. 1, 2 and 4
d. 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer : d

Why is the Question ?

The real culprit: Mismanagement of Water
1. Yet, a bad monsoon isn’t the real culprit. It’s about how water is utilised in a country with only 4% of the world’s water resources and 16% of the global population.
2. In Meghalaya, one of the rainiest places on Earth, residents faces shortages. The country’s public water-supply systems are leaky.
3. Urban demand is currently 135 litres per person per day, three times as much as rural India’s 40 litres, excluding agricultural use.
4. Agriculture’s demand for water is disproportionately huge. One of the reasons is free electricity and a lot of incentives for crops such as paddy.

Q3. Russia is exporter of following fertilisers

1. Urea
2. Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP)

3. Muriate of potash (MOP)

Select the correct answer from the codes given below

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

Answer : d

Why is the Question ?

War and prices
The surge in fertiliser prices, amid the crisis in Ukraine, affects India. But it can act to mitigate the impact on farmers.
Highlights:
1. Indian farmers may well be collateral beneficiaries of the disastrous Russian invasion of Ukraine.
2. Soaring international prices of agri-commodities, thanks to shipping disruptions in the Black Sea, have improved crop realisation prospects even as a bumper rabi harvest of wheat, mustard, maize and barley is in the offing. The outlook for the ensuing Kharif cropping season seems equally promising.
3. If current prices hold or don’t significantly fall, farmers will have the incentive to plant more area under cotton, maize, soya bean, groundnut, sesamum and sunflower. That would help promote crop diversification, especially weaning farmers away from paddy and sugarcane.
Elephant in the room: Fertilisers
1. India is an importer of plant nutrients, whether in finished form or as raw material and intermediates. Urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) is currently trading at $1,200 and $1,300 per tonne, respectively, as against their corresponding year-ago levels of $400 and $500.

2. The landed price of muriate of potash (MOP) imported into India has, likewise, surged from $247 to $592 per tonne; so have those of inputs such as phosphoric acid (from $795 to $1,530), sulphur ($225 to $450) and ammonia ($475 to $1,150).
3. The reason is simple: Russia is the world’s largest urea exporter and, together with its strategic partner Belarus, accounts for around 40 per cent of the global trade in MOP. Russia also figures among the top five DAP-exporting countries.
4. With a crucial supply source getting cut off by a combination of war-linked suspension of cargo movements and financial sanctions, the entire international fertiliser trade has been thrown into jeopardy.
Way Forward:
1. The first is to rely less on floating import tenders, which will only further drive up global prices in a seller’s market. A better option is to contract directly – with Canada, Israel and Jordan for potash and Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Togo and Egypt for phosphates — using government channels.
2. Similar sourcing of, say, 1.5-2 million tonnes each of urea and DAP is possible even with China. With Kharif sowings starting from mid-June, there is a reasonable time window to tie up supplies.
3. The second is to initiate a campaign, well ahead of the season, to induce farmers to reduce consumption of urea, DAP and MOP and replace these with complex fertilisers having less, but more balanced, nutrient content.
4. Third, the maximum retail price of urea has been unchanged since November 2012. A minimum 25 per cent hike is in order now — to prepare farmers for eventual price decontrol and a flat per-acre subsidy regime.

Q4. Consider the following statements about the presidential election in India

1. The combined value of all the MPs’ votes is roughly equal to the combined value of all the MLAs’
2. The values of vote of All MPs and MLAs is the same

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 : a

Why is the Question ?