UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 16th JUNE 2021

Solution (c)

The President of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted for by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The President is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly. 

The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States. It is customary that no permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ever serves as UNGA president.

Election for the non-permanent members of UNSC is held by secret ballot. Candidates require a two-thirds majority in UNGA to be elected as non-permanent member. Five countries are elected to Council of 15-member (UNSC) as non-permanent members for two-year term.

Solution (b)

In the wake of G7 summit, India recently signed off on a joint statement by G-7 and guest countries on “open societies” that reaffirm and encourage the values of “freedom of expression, both online and offline, as a freedom that safeguards democracy and helps people live free from fear and oppression”.

The joint statement was signed by the G-7 countries, and India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa, with host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling them “Democracies 11”.

Democracies 11 is facing threats to freedom and democracy from rising authoritarianism, electoral interference, corruption, economic coercion, manipulation of information, including disinformation, online harms and cyber attacks, politically motivated internet shutdowns, human rights violations and abuses, terrorism and violent extremism.

Article Link: India signs joint statement at G-7 for freedom of expression

Solution (c)

PM-SYM is a Central Sector Scheme administered by the Ministry of Labour and Employment and implemented through Life Insurance Corporation of India and Community Service Centers (CSCs)

This scheme seeks to benefit around 42 crore workers from the unorganized sector workers (home based workers, street vendors, mid-day meal workers, head loaders, landless labourers and similar other occupations) whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less.

This scheme seeks to provide minimum assured pension. Each subscriber shall receive minimum assured pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years.

During the receipt of pension, if the subscriber dies, the spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50% of the pension received by the beneficiary as family pension. Family pension is applicable only to spouse.

Article Link: Enrolment in pension scheme for low earners dipping fast

Solution (d)

Polar-Areas Stellar-Imaging in Polarisation High-Accuracy Experiment (PASIPHAE) is an international collaborative sky surveying project. It is an opto polarimetric survey aiming to measure the linear polarization from millions of stars.

The PASIPHAE polarimetric map will be used to perform magnetic tomography of the Milky Way Galaxy. That is, it will deduce the 3-dimensional structure of the magnetic field and the dust that resides in our own Galaxy.

Article Link: How PASIPHAE will peep into the unknown regions of the sky

Solution (a)

Earth Summit 1992 is also known as The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

Earth Summit 1992 succeeded in raising public awareness of the need to integrate environment and development.

The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:

• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• Agenda 21
• Forest Principles

Moreover, important legally binding agreements (Rio Convention) were opened for signature:

• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD): 

• It is a Convention to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought through national action programs (NAP).
• National action programs (NAP) incorporate long-term strategies supported by international cooperation.
• It is the only internationally legally binding framework set up to address desertification.
• It was adopted in Paris, France in 1994 and entered into force in 1996.
• It has 196 parties, making it truly global in reach.
• 2006 was declared “International Year of Deserts and Desertification”.

Article Link: Prime Minister delivers keynote address at the UN ‘High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land degradation and Drought’