Solution (c)

Explanation:

The 17th Lok Sabha also has the highest number of women MPs. Women’s representation has steadily increased in the Lok Sabha. In the first-ever election, only 5% of the House consisted of women. Now, that has increased to 14%.

Over 600 women have been legislators since 1962. Of the 543 constituencies, about half (48.4%) have never voted a woman MP since 1962. As many as 280 constituencies have voted at least one woman MP.

Article reference: Vice President calls for ending low representation to women in Parliament and legislatures

Solution (a)

Explanation:

National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM)

The National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) will create a shared digital infrastructure for urban India, working across the three pillars of people, process, and platform to provide holistic support to cities and towns. It will institutionalise a citizen-centric and ecosystem-driven approach to urban governance and service delivery in 2022 cities by 2022, and across all cities and towns in India by 2024.

• NUDM is citizen-centric, ecosystem-driven, and principles-based in both design and implementation. 
• NUDM has articulated a set of governing principles, and inherits the technology design principles of the National Urban Innovation Stack (NUIS), whose strategy and approach was released by MoHUA in February, 2019. 
• The principles in turn give rise to standards, specifications, and certifications, across the three pillars of people, process, and platforms.

India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)

• The India Urban Data Exchange has been developed in partnership between the Smart Cities Mission and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. 
• IUDX serves as a seamless interface for data providers and data users, including ULBs, to share, request, and access datasets related to cities, urban governance, and urban service delivery. 
• IUDX is an open-source software platform which facilitates the secure, authenticated, and managed exchange of data amongst various data platforms, 3rd party authenticated and authorised applications, and other sources.

Article reference: National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) & Several Digital Initiatives Launched For Transforming Urban Governance

Solution (b)

Explanation 

Employees’ State Insurance (abbreviated as ESI) is a self-financing social security and health insurance scheme for Indian workers. The fund is managed by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) according to rules and regulations stipulated in the ESI Act 1948. ESIC is a Statutory and an Autonomous Body under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India.

As it is a legal entity, the corporation can raise loans and take measures for discharging such loans with the prior sanction of the central government and it can acquire both movable and immovable property and all incomes from the property shall vest with the corporation. The corporation can set up hospitals either independently or in collaboration with state government or other private entities, but most of the dispensaries and hospitals are run by concerned state governments.

Article link: ESIC takes Major Policy Initiatives for better services to Insured Workers/Insured Women

Solution (a)

Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)

• The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is an international coalition of countries, United Nations (UN) agencies, multilateral development banks, the private sector, and academic institutions that aims to promote disaster-resilient infrastructure.
• Its objective is to promote research and knowledge sharing in the fields of infrastructure risk management, standards, financing, and recovery mechanisms. 
• It was launched by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019.
• CDRI’s initial focus is on developing disaster-resilience in ecological, social, and economic infrastructure.
• It aims to achieve substantial changes in member countries’ policy frameworks and future infrastructure investments, along with a major decrease in the economic losses suffered due to disasters
• The CDRI is the second major coalition launched by India outside of the UN, the first being the International Solar Alliance.
• As of January 2021, the CDRI comprises 19 member countries and four “knowledge and development partners.”

Article link: Climate change a big challenge, disaster resilient infra need of hour: PM Modi 

Solution (c)

Quantum Matter Heterostructures 

For decades, physicists have appreciated the power of sandwiching layers of different substances to create materials with novel properties. Such sandwiches, called heterostructures because they are not edible, are essential components in a wide range of modern technologies. Heterostructure materials are used in various products relying on transistors, from supercomputers to cell phones, and are crucial materials for such devices as electronic sensors and solar cells.

Traditionally, heterostructure materials have been built from layers of standard insulators, semiconductors and metals composed of such elements as silicon, gallium and aluminium.

Usually super-conducting phenomena are observed only at very low temperatures — near absolute zero, so usage of this phenomenon at sub-atomic level is challenging for Quantam Heterostructures.

Researchers expect quantum matter heterostructures to have numerous intriguing applications. Transistors incorporating quantum heterostructures could pack more power into ever smaller devices. Enhanced quantum matter catalysts could be useful for energy storage and conversion, such as splitting water molecules to make hydrogen fuel. Multi-layered structures based on the high-temperature superconducting cuprates are being designed for use in electric power transmission cables.

Making the most of heterostructures will require improvements in precision manufacturing on the atomic scale. In some cases, the slightest defect would ruin a structure’s usefulness.

Article link: Experts discuss role of emergent electromagnetic phenomena in designer thin films heterostructures & hybrids of quantum materials