Daily Current Affairs UPSC: News Based MCQs Quiz | 1st October 2025

Answer: (C) Both 1 and 2

Detailed Explanation

• The Philippines is highly earthquake-prone because it is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region of intense seismic and volcanic activity. This position places the archipelago at the boundary of several major tectonic plates—the Philippine Sea Plate, the Eurasian Plate, and the Pacific Plate. The constant movement and collision of these tectonic plates build stress along numerous active faults within the islands, leading to sudden releases of energy in the form of frequent, often powerful, earthquakes.
• The country sits on a complex intersection of tectonic plates. As these massive plates move and interact, they create immense pressure that gets released through earthquakes.
• Active Faults: The archipelago has many active fault lines, including the Philippine Fault Zone and the Manila Trench. Earthquakes occur when stress along these faults is suddenly released.
• Island Arc System: As a result of this intense plate activity, the Philippines is an example of an island arc system where subduction of oceanic crust leads to both earthquakes and volcanic activity.
• Seismic Energy Release: The interaction between these plates leads to the buildup and sudden release of enormous amounts of seismic energy, causing the ground to shake and leading to earthquakes.

Answer: (A) Contractionary monetary policy

Detailed Explanation

• Bank Rate: The RBI can influence money supply by changing the rate at which it gives loans to the commercial banks. This rate is called the Bank Rate in India. By increasing the bank rate, loans taken by commercial banks become more expensive; this reduces the reserves held by the commercial bank and hence decreases money supply. A fall in the bank rate can increase the money supply also called Contractionary monetary policy. Expansionary monetary policy is exactly the opposite of this.
• Contractionary fiscal policy is a government strategy to reduce overall demand in the economy, typically to combat inflation or slow down rapid economic growth.
• Expansionary fiscal policy is a macroeconomic tool used by governments to stimulate economic activity, typically during recessions or periods of slow growth. It involves increasing government spending and/or decreasing taxes to boost aggregate demand.

Answer: (D) None of the above

Detailed Explanation

• Government fixes-the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) of various agricultural crops on the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP), after ascertaining the views of State Governments and Central Ministries/ Departments concerned. While recommending MSPs, CACP considers the cost of production and host of factors such as demand-supply situation, trends in domestic and international prices, inter-crop price parity, terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and the likely impact of MSP on consumers and overall economy along with rational utilization of scarce natural resources like land and water.
• National Commission on Farmers headed by Dr. M. S. Swaminathan submitted its report in 2006. One of the recommendations of Commission was that MSP should be at least 50 percent more than the weighted average cost of production. This recommendation was not incorporated in the National policy for Farmers 2007. However, recently Government has increased the MSP for all Kharif and Rabi crops and other commercial crops for the season 2018-19 with a return of atleast 50 percent over cost of production, which was a historic decision by the Government.

Answer: (B) 2 only

Detailed Explanation

• Ministry of Ayush launched the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Ayush Mission (NAM) on 15. 09. 2014 for implementing through States/UTs. The National Ayush Mission (NAM) was approved for its further continuation till March, 2020 by Cabinet in 2017. As per the Department of Expenditure’s O. M. dated 10th January, 2020, the on-going Schemes were approved for interim extension up to 31. 03. 2021. Union Cabinet also approved operationalization of 12,500 Ayush Health and Wellness Centres (AHWCs) component under AYUSHMAN BHARAT for implementation through National Ayush Mission with a financial outlay of Rs. 3399. 35 Crores for a period of 5 years up to 2023-24.
• Objectives
• 1. To provide Ayush health care services throughout the country by strengthening and improving Ayush health care services.
• 2. To establish a holistic wellness model through Ayush Health and Wellness Centres focusing on preventive and promotive health care based on Ayush principles and practices, to reduce the disease burden and out of pocket expenditure.
• 3. To provide informed choice to the needy public through co-location of Ayush facilities at PHCs, CHCs and DHs resulting in medical pluralism.
• 4. To emphasize the role of Ayush in Public Health as per NHP 2017.
• 5. To enhance and strengthen the infrastructure of Ayush educational institutions.

Answer: (C) 1, 3 and 5

Detailed Explanation

• La Niña means Little Girl in Spanish. La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply “a cold event.” La Niña has the opposite effect of El Niño.
• During La Niña events, trade winds are even stronger than usual, pushing more warm water toward Asia.
• Off the west coast of the Americas, upwelling increases, bringing cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface.
• These cold waters in the Pacific push the jet stream northward.
• This tends to lead to drought in the southern U. S. and heavy rains and flooding in the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
• During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the South and cooler than normal in the North. La Niña can also lead to a more severe hurricane season.
• During La Niña, waters off the Pacific coast are colder and contain more nutrients than usual. This environment supports more marine life and attracts more cold-water species, like squid and salmon, to places like the California coast.