[Mission 2023] Insta– QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 11 July 2022

Solution: a)

While the Consumer Price Index-based retail inflation — the more widely tracked policy tool — looks at the price at which the consumer buys goods, the WPI tracks prices at the wholesale, or factory gate/mandi levels. Between the wholesale price and the retail price, the difference essentially is the former only tracks basic prices devoid of transportation cost, taxes and the retail margin etc. And that WPI pertains to only goods, not services.

So, the WPI basically captures the average movement of wholesale prices of goods and is primarily used as a GDP deflator (the ratio of the value of goods an economy produces in a particular year at current prices to that of prices that prevailed during the base year).

In recent years, the WPI and CPI have shown a degree of dissonance, given that the WPI has a higher weight of manufactured goods and the CPI has a greater constitution of food items. 

WPI numbers are not the RBI’s main metric for the purpose of setting monetary policy.

Solution: b)

Non-Member States of the United Nations, which are members of one or more specialized agencies, can apply for the status of Permanent Observer. The status of a Permanent Observer is based purely on practice, and there are no provisions for it in the United Nations Charter. 

Permanent Observers have free access to most meetings and relevant documentation.

Many regional and international organizations are also observers in the work and annual sessions of the General Assembly.

Solution: a)

Under international law, as stated in Article 76 of the Law of the Sea Convention, the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) consists of the seabed and subsoil that extends to the outer edge of the continental margin, or to a distance of 200 nautical miles if the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend up to that distance.

The continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) are distinct maritime zones. The extended continental shelf is not an extension of the EEZ. Some of the sovereign rights that a coastal state may exercise in the EEZ, especially rights to the resources of the water column (e.g., pelagic fisheries), do not apply to the ECS.

Solution: b)

To enhance the productivity of cattle, the Rashtriya Gokul Mission was initiated in 2014 with a focus on the genetic upgradation of the bovine population through widespread initiatives on artificial insemination, sex-sorted semen, and in vitro fertilization.

India is the highest livestock owner of the world.

As per the Economic Survey-2021, the contribution of Livestock in total agriculture and allied sector Gross Value Added (at Constant Prices) has increased from 24.32% (2014-15) to 28.63% (2018-19).

Solution: a)

Plant genetic engineering methods were developed over 30 years ago, and since then, genetically modified (GM) crops or transgenic crops have become commercially available and widely adopted in many countries.

In India, Bt cotton was approved by Government of India in March 2002 as the first transgenic crop for commercial cultivation.

Though, it is widely claimed that transgenic crops offers dramatic promise for meeting some of greatest challenges but like all new technologies, it also poses certain risks, because of the fact that transgenic crops can bring together new gene combinations which are not found in nature having possible harmful effects on health, environmental and non-target species.

Transgenic crops are not toxic nor are likely to proliferate in the environment. However, specific crops may be harmful by virtue of novel combinations of traits they possess.