QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 06 September 2017

Solution: c.
A mains-oriented question.
There are some guiding principles that form the bedrock of the higher civil services in the country. These essential well-springs must not be allowed to dry up.
• The first is ‘empathy’. Mahatma Gandhi’s advice to anyone who was in doubt if an action was good or not was to put oneself in the situation of the poorest of the poor in the country and see how a particular policy and programme will impact him or her. If the emphasis is on service to the country, the essential quality we may have to imbibe is to better understand whom we are serving- their needs, aspirations and their living conditions.
• The second principle is ‘efficiency’. As administrators occupying the highest positions of power and authority, you will have an onerous responsibility to translate policies into programmes, to implement schemes on ground. You will be providing that most important link between legislation and implementation.
• The third principle is impartiality. The civil service was created to provide an impartial inclusive management culture in the country’s governance. This was absolutely necessary in the multi-lingual, multi-religious, pluralistic society that India is. Being impartial and having a broad vision of national integration and inclusive development, the founding fathers thought of the higher civil services as the steel frame of the country.
• The fourth principle is incorruptibility. As a member of the civil services, one must not only be empathetic and efficient but must have an impeccable integrity. 70 years ago, Sardar Patel said: “Unhappily India today cannot boast of an incorruptible service, but I hope that you who are now starting, as it were, a new generation of Civil Servants, will not be misled by black sheep in the fold, but would render your service without fear or favour and without, any expectation of extraneous rewards. If you serve in the true spirit of service I am sure you will have your best reward.”
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170524;
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Solution: b.
• Improvisation (PM’s speech: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170533): “..The “Solar Mamas” of Africa, trained in India, are lighting up thousands of homes across the African continent…”
• (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=146949): These “solar mamas” come from across Africa (and now from other regions too – Latin America, West Asia) and are trained at the Barefoot College in Rajasthan’s Tilonia village. In recent years, the Barefoot college has opened up branches in other countries (ex: Tanzania). The Barefoot College is an actual centre for learning, and can also be regarded as a movement supporting women empowerment with its impact felt across the world.
• About the Barefoot College (https://www.barefootcollege.org/about/): “For more than 40 years, The Barefoot College has designed new ways to nurture and support a journey to empowerment, one village at a time, one woman at a time. We demystify and decentralise technology and put new tools in the hands of the rural poor with a singular objective of spreading self-sufficiency and sustainability. With a geographic focus on the Least Developed Countries, we train women worldwide as solar engineers, innovators and educators, who then return to their villages to bring light and learning to their community…. The chain of colleges support various entrepreneurial skills such as bee-keeping and tailoring among others…. As the world shifts its attention to global poverty alleviation and combating climate change, the success of The Barefoot College’s holistic approach built on empowering women from around the globe offers a clear plan for large-scale impact.”
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Solution: c.
The decision regarding setting up the ITEC programme in 1964 was predicated on the underlying belief that “it was necessary to establish relations of mutual concern and inter-dependence based not only on commonly held ideals and aspirations, but also on solid economic foundations. Technical and economic cooperation was considered to be one of the essential functions of an integrated and imaginative foreign policy.”
• The ITEC Programme is essentially bilateral in nature. However, in recent years, ITEC resources have also been used for cooperation programmes conceived in regional and inter-regional context such as Commonwealth Secretariat, Group of 77 and G-15, among others. In more recent years, its activities have also been associated with regional and multilateral organizations and cooperation groupings like Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC), Afro-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) and Caribbean Community (CARICOM), among others.
• For over half a century, ITEC has offered training and skill development to 161 partner countries from Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Caribbean and Pacific Island states.

Improvisation: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170533;
For more information about ITEC, SCAAP and TCS of Colombo Plan (“The ITEC programme, along with SCAAP and TCS of Colombo Plan, is a visible symbol of India’s role and contribution to South-South cooperation”), refer: https://www.itecgoi.in/about.php;
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Solution: a.
One of the concerns expressed is that there is a lack of REALTIME measurement of nutrition determinants, which reduces our capacity for targeted action among the most vulnerable mothers and children. The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau was set up in 1972, to monitor the nutritional status of our population.
• With a benefit to cost ratio of 16:1 for 40 low and middle-income countries, there is a well recognized rationale, globally, for investing in Nutrition. The recently published NFHS-4 results reflect some progress, with a decline in the overall levels of under nutrition in both women and children. However, the pace of decline is far below what numerous countries with similar growth trajectories to India have achieved.
• From 2016 – http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=134608: Poor nutrition is less common than reported in NFHS-3. Fewer children under five years of age are now found to be stunted, showing intake of improved nutrition. In nine States/Union Territories, less than one-third of children are found too short for their age. While this reveals a distinct improvement since the previous survey, it is found that in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya more than 40% of children are stunted. Wasting is still very high by international standards in all of the States/Union Territories. Anaemia has also declined, but still remains widespread. More than half of women are anaemic in eleven States/Union Territories. Over-nutrition continues to be a health issue for adults. At least 3 in 10 women are overweight or obese in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170549;
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Solution: d.
According to the UN World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision, India will continue to grow until 2061 or so and only start to decline when its population has gone well past 1678.7 million people, when it will be the most populous country the world has ever seen.
• The key strategic focus of Mission Parivar Vikas, a central family planning initiative, is on improving access to contraceptives through delivering assured services, ensuring commodity security and accelerating access to high quality family planning services.
• The mission is being implemented in 146 high focus districts with the highest total fertility rates in the country (3 and above). These districts are in the seven high focus, high Total Fertility Rates (TFR) states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Assam, which constitute 44% of the country’s population.
• The main objective of the Mission Parivar Vikas family planning initiative is to bring down the Total Fertility Rate to 2.1 by the year 2025.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170537;
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