Current Affairs MCQ for UPSC Exams - 30 March 2020

Q1 The Food and Drug Administration of the United States has approved the use of Convalescent plasma collected from patients recovered from COVID-19 to treat seriously ill COVID-19 patients recently. Which of the following statements regarding the same stands true ?

1) The Convalescent plasma treatment had earlier been studied during the outbreaks of 2003 SARS-CoV-1 epidemic, 2009-10 H1N1 influenza virus and 2012 MERS-CoV epidemic.
2) Plasma is the major part of the blood. Apart from RBC, WBC and platelets in the blood, all the other fluid content is referred as Plasma.
3) The main role of plasma is to carry hormones and nutrients only to different parts of the body.
Options :
a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all the above

Q2 Consider the following pairs of canals of the world :

A) Suez canal
B) Canals of Bruges
C) Panama canal
D) Suzhou canal
Which of the above pairs are correctly arranged from west to east ?
Options :
a) BCDA
b) CBAD
c) BACD
d) ADCB

Q3 Consider the following statements with respect to cost inflation index :

1) Cost Inflation Index refers to the numbers issued by the Income Tax Department in each year’s budget depicting the level of inflation for the relevant Financial Year.
2) These indexes are of high importance due to change in the value of assets which were purchased in previous years but sold now.
3) Currently 2012 is taken as the base year for calculating cost inflation index.
Which of the above statements stands true ?
Options :
a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all the above

Q4 As the coronavirus-led nationwide lockdown bears down on the poor, social welfare schemes like Ujjwala gas scheme are proving useful for authorities scrambling to reach relief to the vulnerable sections of society. Which of the following statements regarding the scheme stands true ?

1) The Ujjwala scheme was first started for BPL (below poverty-line) families. It was later extended to APL (above poverty-line) section and some other categories.
2) The scheme covers more than Rs 83 million people, with Odisha having the highest number of almost 15 million.
3) The government has details like Aadhar and bank account number of all these beneficiaries. This would make it easy for the government to disburse other benefits either directly to their bank accounts or supply food and other items through local channels at their addresses.

Options :
a) 1 & 2 only
b) 2 & 3 only
c) 1 & 3 only
d) all the above