UPSC Quiz – 2024 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 24th July 2024

·      MSME Trade Enablement and Marketing Initiative” (MSME-TEAM Initiative) aims at assisting five lakh Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to onboard the Open Network Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform, through awareness workshops which will include hand-holding assistance for onboarding onto ONDC.

·      It aims to provide financial assistance to micro and small enterprises (MSEs)through Seller Network Participants, for catalogue preparation, account management, logistics, and packaging material and design.

·      Of the total five lakh MSEs to be benefited, two and a half lakhMSEswould be women owned MSEs.

·      The objective of MSME-TEAM Initiative is to provide assistance to MSEs all across the country.

·      However, awareness workshops will be conducted preferably in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and MSME Clusters, for greater outreach, especially among women and SC/ST owned MSMEs.

·      The MSME TEAM Initiative, being a sub-scheme, is for a period of three years upto March 2027.

·      However, MSMEs can continue to onboard onto ONDC, which is an open network.

Key Facts about RAMP Scheme:

·      It is a World Bank-assisted program that aims to improve the performance of MSMEs in India.

·      It is a Central Sector Scheme launched on 30 July, 2022, by the Ministry of MSME.

The RAMP scheme has a number of objectives, including:

·      Improving access to markets and credit for MSMEs

·      Strengthening institutions and governance at the central and state levels

·      Improving center-state linkages and partnerships

·      Addressing issues of delayed payments

·      Greening of MSMEs

·      The National MSME Council has been set up by the Ministry to work as an administrative and functional body of the RAMP Programme.

ONDC

·      It is a network based on open protocol and will enable local commerce across segments, such as mobility, grocery, food order and delivery, hotel booking, and travel, among others, to be discovered and engaged by any network-enabled application.

·      Specifically, ONDC is a set of protocols and specifications that allow different e-commerce platforms to connect and interoperate with each other.

·      The platform aims to create new opportunities, curb digital monopolies, and support MSMEs and small traders by helping them get on online platforms.

·      It is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

·      In this system the rocket will carry its fuel, but will not carry an on-board oxidiser.

·      Instead, this system will utilise atmospheric oxygen as an oxidiser to burn the fuel. This makes rockets significantly lighter and more efficient.

·      However, such air-breathing technologies can be used only within the denser layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, where there is an adequate supply of oxygen.

·      Such technologies might be feasible in the denser layers of Earth’s atmosphere (up to 70kilometres altitude), and thereafter the rocket must switch to another stage that has both fuel and an on-board oxidizer.

Types of air-breathing propulsion

·      Ramjet: It is an air breathing propulsion engine operating on the principle of supersonic combustion. It has the absence of any rotator and relies solely on the forward motion of the engine to compress incoming air.

·      Scramjet: It is an upgraded version of the Ramjet and generates thrust through supersonic air flow and combustion. It moves at hypersonic speed and performs best at high speeds, greater than Mach 5.

·      In 2023, India became the fourth country to successfully demonstrate the flight testing of a Scramjet Engine.

·      Dual-Mode Ramjet (DMRJ): It is a jet engine where a ramjet transforms into a scramjet over Mach 4-8 range and it can efficiently operate both in subsonic and supersonic combustor modes.

·      Lathi is a wooden weapon to fight and is an ancient weapon used in martial arts in India.

·      Lathi or stick are used in martial arts in the state of Punjab and Bengal.

·      Lathi is also popular for its utility in sports specially in the Indian villages.

·      A practitioner is known as lathial.

Kalaripayattu – Kerala

·      Kalaripayattu is a martial art based on the ancient knowledge of the human body.

·      It originated in Kerala during 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD. It is now practiced in Kerala and in some parts of Tamil Nadu.

·      The place where this martial art is practiced is called a ‘Kalari’. It is a Malayalam word that signifies a kind of gymnasium. Kalari literally means ‘threshing floor’ or ‘battlefield’. The word Kalari first appears in the Tamil Sangam literature to describe both a battlefield and combat arena.

·      It is considered to be one of the oldest fighting systems in existence.

·      It is also considered as the father of modern Kung – Fu.

Mallakhamb- Madhya Pradesh

·      Mallakhamb is a traditional sport, originating from the Indian subcontinent, in which a gymnast performs aerial yoga or gymnastic postures and wrestling grips with a vertical stationary or hanging wooden pole, cane, or rope.

·      The name Mallakhamb derives from the terms malla, meaning wrestler, and khamb, which means a pole. Literally meaning “wrestling pole”, the term refers to a traditional training implement used by wrestlers.

·      Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have been the hotspots of this sport.

Sqay – Kashmir:

·      Sqay is a martial art that belongs to Kashmir.

·      It is a kind of sword-fighting.

·      A curved single-edged sword and a shield are used by armed sqay.

·      Armed sqay can use one sword in each hand.

·      Kicks, punches, locks, and chops are examples of unarmed tactics.

·      Various approaches are used by Sqay. Techniques and lessons in both freehand and sword for single and double swords.

·      The ranking model uses machine learning algorithms to arrive at the probability of an MSME becoming a non- performing asset in the next 12 months.

·      It is based on its financial, income and trade data.

·      The ranking is done on a scale of 1 to 10 with FIT Rank 1 for the least risky MSME and FIT Rank 10 for the most at-risk MSME.

·      Each FIT rank corresponds to a Probability of Default (PD) and lower the FIT Rank, lower is the PD associated with the MSME.

·      Under the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and CIBIL, in in collaboration with Online PSB Loans Limited (OPL) launched the FIT rank.

·      It was launched by leveraging the power of Goods and Services Tax (GST), Bank Statements, and Income Tax returns (ITR) information to provide a ranking model for MSME lending.

·      The ranking uses information from multiple sources to provide a unified FIT data for an MSME, enabling improved risk differentiation and sharpened credit underwriting for MSME loans.

·      Sarco, short for sarcophagus. It doubles as a coffin and is made of biodegradable materials.

·      It was first unveiled in 2019 and was invented by Philip Nitschke, the founder of Exit International, who is often referred to as ‘Dr. Death.’

·      Voluntary assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland since 1940.

·      However, assisting suicide is a crime done for ‘selfish’ reasons under Article 115 of the Swiss Criminal Code.

·      Portable suicide pod Sarco is a 3D-printed pod futuristic capsule that can be used for assisted euthanasia without medical supervision.

·      The capsule fills its chamber with nitrogen. It reduces the oxygen levels rapidly so that the patient becomes unconscious in the first few minutes and dies within ten minutes.

·      A patient can kill himself in this capsule by pressing a button.