Statements 1 and 2 are Incorrect:
The fund will also enable micro-donations. The minimum donation accepted for the PM CARES Fund is ₹10 (14¢ US).

The Prime Minister is the chairman of the trust. Members will include the defence, home and finance ministers.

The fund will be used for combating, containment and relief efforts against the coronavirus outbreak and similar pandemic like situations in the future.

NOTE:
The Prime Minister had said that the PMO had received many requests to help in the war against COVID-19. Accordingly, the fund was set up and will be used for disaster management and research.

Statement 2 is Incorrect:
The move follows the Union Budget announcement that certain specified categories of government bonds would be opened fully for non-resident investors without any restrictions.

Under FAR, eligible investors can invest in specified government securities without being subject to any investment ceilings.

This scheme shall operate along with the two existing routes, viz., the Medium Term Framework (MTF) and the Voluntary Retention Route (VRR).

NOTE:
RBI had announced a separate scheme called VRR to encourage Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) to undertake long-term investments in Indian debt markets. Under this scheme, FPIs have been given greater operational flexibility in terms of instrument choices besides exemptions from certain regulatory requirements.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
It provided a framework for increasing exports of goods and services as well as generation of employment and increasing value addition in the country, in keeping with the “Make in India” vision of Prime Minister.

The focus of the new policy is to support both the manufacturing and services sectors, with a special emphasis on improving the ‘ease of doing business’.

It described the market and product strategy and measures required for trade promotion, infrastructure development and overall enhancement of the trade ecosystem.

NOTE:
Earlier there were 5 different schemes (Focus Product Scheme, Market Linked Focus Product Scheme, Focus Market Scheme, Agri. Infrastructure Incentive Scrip, VKGUY) for rewarding merchandise exports with different kinds of duty scrips with varying conditions attached to their use.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
The U.S., as the largest oil producer today, has stayed away from the OPEC-plus arrangement, hoping that production cuts by OPEC-plus countries will help it increase its market share.

Demand for oil had already weakened owing to the global economic slowdown, and this weakening has become more pronounced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit China’s economy and reduced consumption by the world’s largest importer.

NOTE:
Why the price drop matters to India?
Lower crude oil prices are not necessarily bad news for oil importing countries like India, which is the world’s third-largest importer of crude oil and the fourth largest importer of LNG.

Collateral adverse consequences:
There are, however, collateral adverse consequences like the battering of the stock markets worldwide.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
The Medical Council of India and the NITI Aayog have developed new guidelines released on March 25, 2020 for registered medical practitioners to deliver consultations to patients via telemedicine.

At least one doctor is needed for a population of 1,000, according to WHO guidelines. Telemedicine, thus, holds significance for countries like India that have low doctor-to-patient ratios.

The guidelines aim to empower registered doctors to reach out to patients safely using technologies for the exchange of valid information. Registered medical practitioners, for instance, have to take the patient’s consent.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
A capital buffer is a mandatory capital that financial institutions are required to hold in addition to other minimum capital requirements.

CCyB is the capital to be kept by a bank to meet business cycle related risks. It is aimed to protect the banking sector against losses from changes in economic conditions.

Banks may face difficulties in phases like recession when the loan amount doesn’t return. To meet such situations, banks should have own additional capital. This is an important theme of the Basel III norms.

The framework on CCyB was put in place by the RBI in terms of guidelines issued in 2015 wherein it was advised that the CCyB would be activated as and when the circumstances warranted. The framework envisages the credit-to-GDP gap as the main indicator, which is used in conjunction with other supplementary indicators.

Statement 2 is Incorrect:
The RBI gives temporary loan facilities to the centre and state governments as a banker to the government. This temporary loan facility is called WMA.

It is a mechanism to provide to States to help them tide over temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their receipts and payments.

It was introduced on April 1, 1997, after putting an end to the four-decade-old system of adhoc (temporary) Treasury Bills to finance the Central Government deficit.

NOTE:
This facility can be availed by the government if it needs immediate cash from the RBI.
The WMA is to be vacated after 90 days.
The interest rate for WMA is currently charged at the repo rate.
The limits for WMA are mutually decided by the RBI and the Government of India.

Statement 1 is Incorrect: The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has set up price monitoring and resource unit (PMRU) in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. With this J&K has become the 12th State/UT where the PMRU has been set up. PMRUs have already been set up by the drug price regulator NPPA in 11 states such as Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Nagaland, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Mizoram. The State Health Secretary would be the Chairman of the society and the Drugs Controller would be its member secretary. PMRU offers technical help to the State Drug Controllers and the NPPA to: Monitor notified prices of medicines Detect violation of the provisions of the DPCO Look at price compliance Collect test samples of medicines, and Collect and compile market-based data of scheduled as well as non-scheduled formulations.

Both Statements are Correct:
The Government of India has launched a mobile app ArogyaSetu developed in a public-private partnership to bring the people of India together in a resolute fight against COVID-19.

The App enables people to assess themselves the risk of their catching the Corona Virus infection.

It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence.

Once installed in a smartphone through an easy and user-friendly process, the app detects other devices with AarogyaSetu installed that come in the proximity of that phone.

The app can then calculate the risk of infection based on sophisticated parameters if any of these contacts has tested positive.

The personal data collected by the App is encrypted using state-of-the-art technology and stays secure on the phone till it is needed for facilitating medical intervention.

All Statements are Correct:
A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. A geo-fence could be dynamically generated—as in a radius around a point location, or a geo-fence can be a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighbourhood boundaries).

The government has tested an application that triggers e-mails and SMS alerts to an authorised government agency if a person has jumped quarantine or escaped from isolation, based on the person’s mobile phone’s cell tower location.

The use of a geofence is called geofencing, and one example of usage involves a location-aware device of a location-based service (LBS) user entering or exiting a geo-fence.

This “geo-fencing” is accurate by up to 300 m.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission is a partnership between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).

GRACE-FO is a successor to the original GRACE mission, which orbited Earth from 2002-2017.

It carries on the extremely successful work of its predecessor while testing a new technology designed to dramatically improve the already remarkable precision of its measurement system.

Why need such data on groundwater and soil moisture?
Groundwater and soil moisture — which depicts wetness in soil — are crucial for irrigation and crop growth.

The need to constantly monitor groundwater and soil moisture is important since both act as useful indicators for predicting drought conditions.

One of the goals of the new global maps is to make the same consistent product available in all parts of the world, especially in countries that do not have any groundwater-monitoring infrastructure.

The data would help in managing the selection of appropriate agricultural crops and predicting yields.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine is a vaccine primarily used against tuberculosis (TB). In countries where TB or leprosy is common, one dose is recommended in healthy babies as close to the time of birth as possible. In areas where tuberculosis is not common, only children at high risk are typically immunized, while suspected cases of tuberculosis are individually tested for and treated.

How can TB vaccine help fight COVID-19?
The BCG vaccine contains a live but weakened strain of tuberculosis bacteria that provokes the body to develop antibodies to attack TB bacteria.

This is called an adaptive immune response, because the body develops a defense against a specific disease-causing microorganism, or pathogen, after encountering it.

Most vaccines create an adaptive immune response to a single pathogen.

Unlike other vaccines, the BCG vaccine may also boost the innate immune system, first-line defenses that keep a variety of pathogens from entering the body or from establishing an infection.

Both statements are correct.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has received a request for merger of a company following green channel combination route.

In a bid to facilitate mergers and acquisitions (combination) in the country, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has taken inspiration from the customs department and established a ‘green channel’.

Every Combination above a certain threshold, seeking to be sanctioned has to necessarily pass the CCI scanner in order to be approved.

The CCI characterizes the ‘green channel’ as an automatic system of approval for Combinations wherein the Combination is deemed to be approved upon filing the notice in the format prescribed.

The ‘green channel automatic approval upon notification route’ is a right step by CCI towards the propogation of ease of doing business in India.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
The Tropical Butterfly Conservatory Tiruchirappalli (TBCT) has been developed in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirappalli to create awareness among the public about the importance of the butterfly and its ecology.

It was inaugurated during November 2015 at Tiruchirappalli with the objective of propagating the importance of butterflies and conserving the biodiversity of the district through environmental education.

Conservation Measures:
Eggs of non-scheduled butterfly species are collected and bred in captivity in the in-house incubation laboratory by keeping them in ventilated plastic containers with the leaves of host plants as feed.

After attaining the transformation of larva (caterpillar) and pupa (transition), the adult butterfly finally comes out with gorgeous colours and at this stage they are released into the natural habitat.

Non-scheduled butterfly species are bred and released by the park authorities into their natural surroundings.

Statement 1 is Incorrect:
An Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J transport aircraft delivered 6.2 tonne of essential medicines and hospital consumables to Maldives under Operation Sanjeevani.

At the request of the govt. of Maldives, the IAF aircraft activated Operation Sanjeevani and lifted these medicines from airports in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Madurai before flying to the Maldives.

Among other things, these medicines include influenza vaccines, anti-viral drugs such as lopinavir and ritonavir — which have been used to treat patients with COVID-19 in other countries.

The flights are being operated on commercial basis following demands from pharmaceutical companies and their intermediaries and will carry cargo on inbound as well as outbound flights.

The cargo operations will help the airline earn some revenue at a time there is a ban on passenger flights and the entire fleet is grounded.

Statements 1 and 2 are Incorrect:
Slowdown simply means that the pace of the GDP growth has decreased. During slowdown, the GDP growth is still positive but the rate of growth has decreased.

Recession refers to a phase of the downturn in the economic cycle when there is a fall in the country’s GDP for two quarters. It is a period of decline in total output, income, employment and trade, usually lasting six months to a year.

Depression is a prolonged period of economic recession marked by a significant decline in income and employment. It is a negative GDP growth of 10% of more, for more than 3 years.

NOTE:
With the novel coronavirus pandemic severely affecting the global economy, some experts have begun comparing the current crisis with the Great Depression — the devastating economic decline of the 1930s that went on to shape countless world events.

Both Statements are Correct:
Those who feel sick drive up to a test centre where nurses wearing protective gear collect a nose or throat sample from the car itself.

Results are mailed or messaged in a day.

This method of mass testing has allowed reduced contact between patients and healthcare workers, thereby lessening the chances of transmission.

South Korea has led the world in the number of tests per million to check for coronavirus infection through this method.

NOTE:
We have seen so far is that many are uncomfortable with the home collection process.

Some people are worried that lab personnel visiting home in full protective gear would scare the neighbours.

There are also instances when spouses of some healthcare personnel have separated for a while.

Both Statements are Incorrect:
When the full moon appears at perigee (closest point from the earth) it is slightly brighter and larger than a regular full moon — and that is what we call a “supermoon.”

They are called Supermoons because they are 7 per cent bigger and 15 per cent brighter, compared to an average full Moon.

The moon will not be originally pink in colour. It got its name from the pink wildflowers – Wild Ground Phlox – that bloom in the spring and are native to North America.

It is also called Paschal moon because, in the Christian calendar, this is used to calculate the date for Easter – the first Sunday after the Paschal Moon is Easter Sunday.

Statement 2 is Incorrect:
A tweet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi resulted in the first-ever virtual summit of SAARC leaders on March 15.

Considering that SAARC has been dormant for several years due to regional tensions, it is worth stressing that the fight against COVID-19 has been taken up in right earnest through a series of tangible measures.

India’s proposal to launch a COVID-19 Emergency Fund was given positive reception.

Within days, all the countries, except Pakistan, contributed to it voluntarily, bringing the total contributions to $18.8 million. Although it is a modest amount, the spirit of readily expressed solidarity behind it matters.

All Statements are Correct:
Bhilwara in Rajasthan was one of the early hotspots of the COVID-19 outbreak. The government responded with extraordinarily aggressive measures — and the ‘Bhilwara model’. The success of the model is attributed to the fact that Bhilwara, which was the first district in Rajasthan to report most number of covid cases has now reported only one positive case since March 30.

The Bhilwara COVID-19 containment “model” refers to the steps taken by the administration in Rajasthan’s Bhilwara district to contain the disease, after it emerged as a hotspot for coronavirus positive cases.

Bhilwara district was among the most-affected places in India during the first phase of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The measures taken by the state govt. included imposing a curfew in the district which also barred essential services, extensive screening and house-to-house surveys to check for possible cases.

It went for detailed contact tracing of each positive case so as to create a dossier on everybody they met ever since they got infected.