INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 24 March 2020) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• About Indian Penal Code:
  • The draft of the Indian Penal Code was prepared by the First Law Commission, chaired by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1834 and was submitted to Governor-General of India Council in 1835.
  • Based on a simplified codification of the law of England at the time, elements were also derived from the Napoleonic Code and from Edward Livingston’s Louisiana Civil Code of 1825.
  • The first final draft of the Indian Penal Code was submitted to the Governor-General of India in Council in 1837, but the draft was again revised. The drafting was completed in 1850 and the Code was presented to the Legislative Council in 1856, but it did not take its place on the statute book of British India until a generation later, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
  • The draft then underwent a very careful revision at the hands of Barnes Peacock, who later became the first Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, and the future puisne judges of the Calcutta High Court, who were members of the Legislative Council, and was passed into law on 6 October 1860.
  • The Code came into operation on 1 January 1862. Macaulay did not survive to see the penal code he wrote come into force, having died near the end of 1859. The code came into force in Jammu and Kashmir on 31 October 2019, by virtue of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, and replaced the state’s Ranbir Penal Code.
• About Code of Criminal Procedure:
  • CrPC is the main legislation on procedure for administration of substantive criminal law in India.
  • It was enacted in 1973 and came into force on 1 April 1974.
  • It provides the machinery for the investigation of crime, apprehension of suspected criminals, collection of evidence, determination of guilt or innocence of the accused person and the determination of punishment of the guilty.
  • It also deals with public nuisance, prevention of offences and maintenance of wife, child and parents.
  • The Criminal Procedure Code is applicable in the whole of India. The Parliament’s power to legislate in respect of Jammu & Kashmir was curtailed by Article 370 of the Constitution of India. But now the Parliament has revoked Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Thus CrPC is applicable to whole India

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/what-is-section-188-ipc/

Ans: (d)

Explanation: Key Features of PM-JAY:

• PM-JAY is the world’s largest health insurance/ assurance scheme fully financed by the government.
• It provides a cover of Rs. 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization across public and private empanelled hospitals in India.
• Over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable entitled families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) are eligible for these benefits.
• PM-JAY provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service, that is, the hospital.
• PM-JAY envisions to help mitigate catastrophic expenditure on medical treatment which pushes nearly 6 crore Indians into poverty each year.
• It covers up to 3 days of pre-hospitalization and 15 days post-hospitalization expenses such as diagnostics and medicines.
• There is no restriction on the family size, age or gender.
• All pre–existing conditions are covered from day one.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country i.e. a beneficiary can visit any empanelled public or private hospital in India to avail cashless treatment.
• Services include approximately 1,393 procedures covering all the costs related to treatment, including but not limited to drugs, supplies, diagnostic services, physician’s fees, room charges, surgeon charges, OT and ICU charges etc.
• Public hospitals are reimbursed for the healthcare services at par with the private hospitals

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/ayushman-bharat-2/

Ans: (a)

Explanation: Financing of The Scheme:

• PM-JAY is completely funded by the Government and costs are shared between Central and State Governments. The Government of India decides a national ceiling amount per family that is used to determine the maximum limit of the central share of the contribution. The actual premium discovered through open tendering process or the maximum ceiling of the estimated premium decided by Government of India for the implementation of PM-JAY, whichever is less, would be shared between Central Government and States/UTs in the ratio as per the extant directives issued by Ministry of Finance, from time to time.
• In addition, administrative cost for implementing the scheme at the State level is also provided under the scheme and shared between Centre and State in the same sharing pattern.

States have been provided the flexibility in terms of the following parameters:

• Mode of implementation – States can choose the implementation model and can implement the scheme through Trust, Insurance company or Mixed model.
• Usage of beneficiary data – PM-JAY uses SECC data for targeting the beneficiaries, however, States have been provided flexibility to decide on the dataset for this purpose, if they are covering more beneficiaries than SECC defined numbers. However, State will need to ensure that all beneficiaries eligible as per SECC data are also covered.
• Co-branding – States can co-brand their existing health insurance/assurance schemes with PM-JAY as per co-branding guidelines of the scheme.
• Expansion of cover to more people – States can cover more number of families than those defined as per SECC data. For these additional families, full cost will need to be borne by the States.
• Increasing benefit cover to higher value – If the State want they can even expand the benefit cover beyond `5 lakh per family per year. However, in this case cost of additional cover will need to be completely borne by the State.
• Payment to public hospitals – States have also been provided flexibility to deduct a certain percentage of claims amount that is paid to public hospitals.
• Reservation of packages for public hospitals – To ensure that such services that can be provided well by Government health facilities are not misused by private providers, NHA has defined a set of conditions that are reserved for only public health care facilities. States can revise list of such conditions that are reserved for public hospitals.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/ayushman-bharat-2/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs. Tuberculosis is curable and preventable.
• TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.
• Initiatives in India:
  • TB treatment is free in India.
  • India aims to eliminate TB by 2025. UN aims to eliminate TB by 2030.
  • Mass BCG vaccination to prevent TB.
  • In 1993, the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) was launched, offering free diagnosis and treatment for patients, rescuing them from otherwise sure death.
  • Rs 12,000 cr fund to fight TB over the next 3 years.
  • TB Harega Desh Jeetega campaign.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/world-tuberculosis-day-2020/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: Financial bills:

• Financial bills are those bills that deal with fiscal matters, that is, revenue or expenditure. However, the Constitution uses the term ‘financial bill’ in a technical sense. Financial bills are of three kinds:
  • Money bills—Article 110
  • Financial bills (I)—Article 117 (1)
  • Financial bills (II)—Article 117 (3)
• This classification implies that money bills are simply a species of financial bills. Hence, all money bills are financial bills but all financial bills are not money bills. Only those financial bills are money bills which contain exclusively those matters which are mentioned in Article 110 of the Constitution. These are also certified by the Speaker of Lok Sabha as money bills. The financial bills (I) and (II), on the other hand, have been dealt with in Article 117 of the Constitution.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/what-is-finance-bill/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• The first supercomputer assembled indigenously, called Param Shivay, was installed in IIT (BHU) and was inaugurated by the Prime Minister.
• Similar systems Param Shakti and Param Brahma were installed at IIT-Kharagpur and IISER, Pune.
• They are equipped with applications from domains like Weather and Climate, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Bioinformatics, and Material science.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/in-new-pib-national-supercomputing-mission-nsm/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Yakshagana is a traditional theatre form of Karnataka.
• It is a temple art form that depicts mythological stories and Puranas.
• It is performed with massive headgears, elaborate facial make-up and vibrant costumes and ornaments.
• Usually recited in Kannada, it is also performed in Malayalam as well as Tulu (the dialect of south Karnataka).
• It is performed with percussion instruments like chenda, maddalam, jagatta or chengila (cymbals) and chakratala or elathalam (small cymbals).
• Its stories are drawn from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata and other epics from both Hindu and Jain and other ancient Indic traditions.

Refer: Facts for Prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/03/24/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-24-march-2020/

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• The National Green Tribunal has been established on 18.10.2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
• It is a specialized body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues
• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a penalty of ₹25 lakh each on the States of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal for not taking adequate steps to curb pollution in the river Ganga.

Refer: http://www.greentribunal.gov.in/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• For the first time, the entire genome of Asiatic lion has been sequenced by scientists from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad.
• The objective is to understand the species at DNA level and study if there are any specific problems with regard to adaptability to environment or behaviour vis-à-vis other big cats.
• About Asiatic Lion:
  • IUCN Red List Status: Endangered
  • Listed in Schedule I of Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, in Appendix I of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
  • At present the only home of Asiatic lion is Gir National Parkand Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat.
  • The population of the endangered Asiatic lion is very low —only 523 animals are present in the Gir forests.

Refer: https://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/priority_species/threatened_species/asiatic_lion/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Cyclones are sustained by very strong low-pressure areas at their core. Winds in surrounding areas are forced to rush towards these low-pressure areas. Though cyclones are common in the June, very few of them originate in the Arabian Sea. Most of them are found in the Bay of Bengal.

In the last 120 years for which records are available, just about 14% of all cyclonic storms, and 23% of severe cyclones, around India have occurred in the Arabian Sea. Arabian Sea cyclones are also relatively weak compared to those emerging in the Bay of Bengal.