DAILY

CURRENT AFFAIRS

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Current Affairs MCQs for Practice – 11 Feb 2022

Question-1

India’s first homegrown mRNA vaccine against coronavirus, currently in phase 2/3 trials, is being produced by which pharmaceutical company?

a)    Sun Pharma

b)   Panacea Biotech

c)     Gennova Biopharmaceuticals

d)   Serum Institute of India

Ans- c

Explanation-

The mRNA vaccine being developed by Pune-based Gennova Biopharmaceuticals is currently in phase 2/3 trials to evaluate the safety, tolerability and immunogenicity of the candidate vaccine in healthy subjects.

Question-2

The Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana is a social scheme by the government to achieve what purpose?

a)    Maternity benefits

b)   Pension benefits for Economically Weaker Sections

c)     Rural credit

d)   Creating new jobs

Ans- c

Explanation-

To a question by Samajwadi Party’s Sukhram Singh Yadav, the Minister said the government had launched a number of programmes for employment and income generation for the citizens such as the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana to incentivise employers for creation of new jobs along with social security benefits. 

Question-3

Which of the following countries is not part of the QUAD alliance?

a)    Germany

b)   USA

c)     India

d)   Japan

Ans- a

Explanation-

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will begin a visit to Australia on Thursday and attend a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Quad (India, Australia, United States, Japan), which is expected to discuss cooperation on vaccines, technology and regional security issues including related to China.

Question-4

According to data provided by the Ministry of Education, over 40% of teaching posts in which institution are still vacant?

a)    Indian Institute of Technology

b)   Indian Institute of Management

c)     Indian Maritime University

d)   Azim Premji University

Over 40% of teaching posts in all 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are vacant, according to data provided by the Ministry of Education in the Lok Sabha to a question raised by Congress member Shashi Tharoor.

Question-5

With reference to the recent Monetary Policy decisions, consider the following statements:

1. MSF rate and bank rate will remain unchanged at 4.25%.

2. Reverse repo rate will remain unchanged at 3.35%.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

a)     1 only

b)     2 only

c)      Both 1 & 2

d)     Neither 1 nor 2

Ans- c

Explanation-

The Reserve Bank of India maintained status quo in policy rates as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep the policy repo rate at 4% to keep the stance accommodative.

• While announcing the Bi-monthly policy RBI Governor Shaktikant Das said, MSF rate and bank rate will remain unchanged at 4.25%.
• Reverse repo rate will also remain unchanged at 3.35%.
• MPC has voted 5-1 to continue accommodative monetary policy stance as long as necessary to revive and sustain growth and mitigate impact of #COVID19 on the economy, while ensuring inflation remains within target.
• He projected real GDP growth at 9.2% for 2021-22 and said that it is modestly above level of GDP for 2019-20. Real GDP growth for 2022-23 was projected at 7.8%.

Other announcements

• He announced that Variable Rate Repo operations of varying tenures will henceforth be conducted as and when warranted.
• Variable rate repos and variable rate reverse repos of 14-day tenures will operate as the main liquidity management tool.
• He informed that from March 1, 2022, fixed rate reverse repo and MSF operations will be available only during 5.30 PM to 11.59 PM on all days, instead of from 9.00 AM to 11.59 PM.
• He also announced some additional measures like extension of On-tap Liquidity Facilities for Emergency Health Services and Contact-intensive Sectors, voluntary retention route (VRR) - Enhancement of Limits, Review of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) Guidelines, Permission for Banks to deal in Foreign Currency Settled - Rupee Derivatives Market etc.
• Hence both statements are correct.

Source- The Hindu Newspaper/ The Indian Express/ Down to Earth /PIB