UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 4th March 2021

Solution (a)

Explanation:

Central Warehousing Corporation is a statutory body which was established under ‘The Warehousing Corporations Act, 1962 under administrative control of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. (So, Statement (a) is incorrect)

Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) has given status of  a Schedule ‘A’-Mini Ratna, Category – 1 Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE).(Hence, Statement (b) is correct)

Features 

• As a premier Warehousing Agency, CWC is operating 415 warehouses as on 31.12.2019 with a total storage capacity of 101.44 lakh MT including 25 Container Freight Stations (CFSs)/ Inland Clearance Depots (ICDs), 3 Air Cargo Complexes (ACCs), 2 Inland Check Posts (ICPs) at Petrapole and Attari and 3 Temperature Controlled Warehouses. (Hence , Statement (d) is correct)

• Warehousing activities of CWC includes food grain warehouses, industrial warehousing, custom bonded warehouses, container freight stations, inland clearance depots and air cargo complexes.
• Apart from storage and handling, CWC also provides services in the area of clearing & forwarding, handling & transportation, disinfestation, fumigation etc.
• CWC also offers consultancy services/ training to different agencies for construction of warehousing infrastructure. (Hence, Statement  (c) is correct)

 Its aim is to provide reliable, cost-effective, value-added, integrated warehousing and logistics solution in a socially responsible and environment friendly manner. It is a public warehouse operator established by the Government of India in 1957 to provide logistics support to the agricultural sector. It operates 422 warehouses across India with a storage capacity of 10 million tonnes.

Solution (c)

Explanation:

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs. (So, statement 1 is incorrect)

BIRAC is an industry-academia interface and implements its mandate through a wide range of impact initiatives, be it providing access to risk capital through targeted funding, technology transfer, IP management and handholding schemes that help bring innovation excellence to the biotech firms and make them globally competitive. (So, Statement 2 is correct)

Global Bio India is being organised by Department of Biotechnology and BIRAC. Global Bio India 2021 is going to deliberate on the opportunities and key challenges in the areas of bio-manufacturing, capacity-building, regulation & policies creating global supply chains for achieving a growth-oriented road-map for the biotechnology sector in the country.(So, Statement 3 is correct)

Key Strategies of BIRAC

• Foster innovation and entrepreneurship
• Promote affordable innovation in key social sectors
• Empowerment of start-ups & small and medium enterprises
• Contribute through partners for capability enhancement and diffusion of innovation
• Enable commercialization of discovery
• Ensure global competitiveness of Indian enterprises

Article reference: Global Bio-India 2021: Innovation focus, Policy Initiatives, Startup showcased

Solution (a)

Explanation

Statement 1: National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was registered as a society on 12th August 2011 under the Societies Registration Act 1860.It acted as implementation arm of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) which was constituted under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA),1986. NGRBA has since been dissolved with effect from the 7th October 2016, consequent to constitution of National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (referred as National Ganga Council)

Statement 2: The Act envisages five tier structure at national, state and district level to take measures for prevention, control and abatement of environmental pollution in river Ganga and to ensure continuous adequate flow of water so as to rejuvenate the river Ganga as below;

• National Ganga Council under chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India.

• Empowered Task Force (ETF) on river Ganga under chairmanship of Hon’ble Union Minister of Jal Shakti (Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).

• National Mission for Clean Ganga(NMCG).

• State Ganga Committees and

• District Ganga Committees in every specified district abutting river Ganga and its tributaries in the states. 

(Hence, Statement 2 is incorrect)

 Main pillars of the Namami Gange Programme are:-

1. Sewerage Treatment Infrastructure
2. River-Front Development
3. River-Surface Cleaning
4. Bio-Diversity
5. Afforestation
6. Public Awareness
7. Industrial Effluent Monitoring
8. Ganga Gram

Article link: Namami Gange team observes significant progress in almost all projects in Delhi

Solution (b)

Statement 1: India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Article 9 of UNCRPD casts an obligation on all the signatory governments to take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. (So, Statement 1 is incorrect)

Statement 2: Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan) is a nation-wide Campaign launched by Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment to provide universal accessibility to persons with disabilities.(So, Statement 2 is correct)

Statement 3: Components of Accessible India Campaign:

• Built Environment Accessibility – The Accessible India Campaign aims to provide an accessible physical environment to everyone.
• Transportation System Accessibility – The Accessible India Campaign focuses on providing persons with disabilities an equal right to travel and use public and private transportation infrastructure with dignity and independence.
• Information and Communication Eco-System Accessibility  : This can range from actions such as being able to read price tags, to physically enter a hall, to participate in an event, to read a pamphlet with healthcare information, to understand a train timetable, or to view webpages.

So, there is no provision of direct monetary contribution to disabled person. (Hence, Statement 3 is incorrect)

Article link: Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot virtually launches “Sugamya Bharat App” and Handbook “Access – the Photo Digest”

Solution (a)

Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary:

Location

• • It is a wildlife sanctuary and estuary situated in Andhra Pradesh.
  • It is 18 km from the port city of Kakinada, nestling on the deltaic branches of Gouthami and Godavari Rivers at Kakinada Bay.

• The sanctuary is a part of the Godavari estuary.

Flora: 

• It has extensive mangrove and dry deciduous tropical forest. It is the second largest stretch of mangrove forests in India.

Fauna

• It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture.
• The sanctuary possesses a wide variety of birds, because of the feed available in the backwaters of the mangrove forest.
• During low tide, some of the areas are exposed (elevated mud flats) having small fishes, shrimps and mollusks. These attract avifauna for feeding.
• Some critically endangered species like the white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture are present in the sanctuary.
• The sanctuary has an 18-km long sand pit where olive ridley sea turtles’ nest from January to March every year

 Article link: On World Wildlife Day, a list of some biodiversity hotspots of Andhra Pradesh