Current Affairs Quiz 22 July 2022

Answer: D
About India Innovation Index
• NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog with the Institute for Competitiveness releases India Innovation Index.
• The index has been developed on the lines of the Global Innovation Index (GII), to ameliorate the innovation ecosystem of Indian states and Union Territories (UTs) and to design policies to drive innovation across regions.
• The index goes beyond traditional approaches by considering the best parameters in measuring innovation such as patents per million of population, publication in scientific journals, percentage of GDP spending on research.
• It also adds parameters that are specific to the Indian economy (eg. Demographic dividend), to give it a more holistic coverage.

Indicators Used:
• The indicators that the survey uses includes the level and quality of education and parameters such as:
○ Number of PhD students and knowledge-intensive employment.
○ Enrolment in engineering and technology and number of highly skilled professionals.
○ Investment in R&D and number of patents and trademark applications filed.
○ Internet subscribers.
○ FDI inflows, business environment and safety and legal environment.

Highlights of India Innovation Index 2022:
• Manipur secured the lead in the Northeast and Hill States category
• Chandigarh was the top performer in the Union Territories and City States category.
• Karnataka was followed by Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
• Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar and Gujarat were at the bottom of the index.

Report recommended measures:
• Pointing out that India’s average innovation score is insufficient, given the country’s ambitious targets to be named among the top 25 nations in the Global Innovation Index, the report by the government think tank has recommended measures, such as
• Increasing Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D (GDERD),
• Promoting private sector participation in R&D and
• Closing the gap between industry demand and what the country produces through its education systems.

Answer: D

About the GOAL Programme:
• GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) was launched as a pilot project in May 2020 and it was completed by December 2021.
• It aimed at digital empowerment of tribal youth and women through the concept of mentor and mentee.
• The programme is fully funded by Meta (Facebook India).
• Trainings were provided for three pillars:
○ Communication & Life Skills
○ Enabling Digital Presence
○ Leadership & Entrepreneurship

About GOAL 2.0
• Goal 2 program will be open to all people from tribal communities.
• In Phase-I, the digital mentorship was provided online by attaching one mentor to 2 mentees.
• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs in coordination with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will be providing 6 digital classes in each of the 175 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) selected under the program.
• The project is being implemented by The Education and Research Network, which is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY).

Objective:
• The program aims to upskill and digitally enable tribal youth via Facebook live sessions and Meta Business Coach, a digital learning tool.
• There will be special focus on more than 10 lakh members of 50000 Vandhan Self Help Groups.
• They will be digitally trained with regard to market demand, packaging, branding and marketing of their products.
• The GOAL 2 will enable maximum participation and percolation of benefits of the training within the tribal youth with provision of Chatbot, need based on line sessions from Industry experts in different fields as per requirements from the mentees.

Answer: D

Appropriation Act authorizes (or legalizes) the payments from the Consolidated Fund of India i.e, the government cannot withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund of India till the enactment of the Appropriation Act. The contingency fund of India fund is placed at the disposal of the president, and he can make advances out of it to meet unforeseen expenditure pending its authorisation by the Parliament. The fund is held by the finance secretary on behalf of the president. Like the public account of India, it is also operated by executive action.

Answer: D

The President can pardon a death sentence while the governor cannot. Even if a state law prescribes the death sentence, the power to grant pardon lies with the President and not the governor. However, the governor can suspend, remit, or commute a death sentence. In otherwords, both the governor and the President have concurrent power in respect of suspension, remission, and commutation of a death sentence.

Answer: B

Deputy Chairman is not subordinate to the Chairman. He is directly responsible to the Rajya Sabha. The Deputy Chairman resigns by writing to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and not the President of India.