QUIZ – 2020: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 26 May 2021

Solution: d)

The Code on Social Security, 2020 is a code to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised or unorganised or any other sectors.

The Social Security Code, 2020 brings unorganised sector, gig workers and platform workers under the ambit of social security schemes, including life insurance and disability insurance, health and maternity benefits, provident fund and skill upgradation, etc.

The act amalgamates nine central labour enactments relating to social security such as (i) The Employees Compensation Act, 1923, (ii) The Employees State Insurance Act, 1948, (iii) The Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952, (iv) The Employees Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959, (v) The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, (vi) The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, (vii) The Cine Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981, (viii) The Building and Other Construction Workers Cess Act, 1996, and (ix) The Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008).

Solution: a

The United States has finally relented and declared its support for a temporary waiver of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement for COVID-19 vaccines at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

While the U.S.’s decision is to be welcomed, the devil would be in the details.

While the TRIPS waiver would lift the legal restrictions on manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines, it would not solve the problem of the lack of access to technological ‘know-how’ related to manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines. Waiving IP protection does not impose a legal requirement on pharmaceutical companies to transfer or share technology. While individual countries may adopt coercive legal measures for a forced transfer of technology, it would be too draconian and counterproductive. Therefore, governments would have to be proactive in negotiating and cajoling pharmaceutical companies to transfer technology using various legal and policy tools including financial incentives.

Finally, while a TRIPS waiver would enable countries to escape WTO obligations, it will not change the nature of domestic IP regulations. Therefore, countries should start working towards making suitable changes in their domestic legal framework to operationalise and enforce the TRIPS waiver.

Notwithstanding the usefulness of the TRIPS waiver, it is not a magic pill. It would work well only if countries simultaneously address the non-IP bottlenecks such as technology transfer, production constraints, and other logistical challenges such as inadequacy of supply chains and unavailability of raw materials to manufacture vaccines and medicines.

Source

Solution: d)

Galathea National Park is a National Park located in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It is located on the island of Great Nicobar in the Nicobar Islands.

India’s National Marine Turtle Action Plan that was under preparation then (it was released on February 1, 2021) had listed Galathea Bay as one of the ‘Important Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Areas’ and ‘Important Marine Turtle Habitats’ in the country. It is included in Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)-I, the zone with maximum protection.

Galathea National Park  houses a range of forest types, has one of the best preserved tropical rainforests in the world, is home to 648 species of flora and hosts 330 species of fauna including rare and endemic ones such as the Nicobar wild pig, Nicobar tree shrew, the Great Nicobar crested serpent eagle, Nicobar paradise flycatcher and the Nicobar megapode. It also notes that the park is home to the indigenous Shompen community.

Giant leatherback turtle and the Nicobar megapode, two charismatic species for whom Great Nicobar is very important.

Galathea National Park is part of Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve which is included in the list of Man and Biosphere program of UNESCO

Source

Solution: c)

Iron Dome is a mobile all-weather air defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries. The system is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells.

Solution: b)

The CBI came into being during the World War II, when the colonial government felt the need to probe cases of corruption in the War and Supply Department. A law came in 1941. It became the DSPE Act in 1946.

The Act to set up CBI was not passed by Parliament. It was created by an executive order of the government. In that sense, the CBI is not a statutory body.

The CBI functions under the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions of the central government, and is exempted from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

CBI is India’s officially designated single point of contact for liaison with the Interpol.