UPSC PRELIMINARY MOCK TEST 49

Statement 1 is incorrect. UGC was formally established in 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standards of university education in India.

Statement 2 is correct. It allocates and disburses, out of the Fund of the Commission, grants to Universities. It has been vested with two responsibilities: that of providing funds and that of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education.

According to the WHO, a pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a pandemic as "an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people."

Thus, the 'pandemic' status has to do more with the spread of the disease, than its severity. So 'pandemos' is a concept where there's a belief that the whole world's population will likely be exposed to this infection and potentially a proportion of them fall sick.

Declaring the disease a pandemic won't mean the WHO gets more funds or more powers to fight it. However, the declaration is a formal announcement that the WHO assesses the impact of COVID 19 to have reached a new level.

Source

• In the new series of WPI, prices used for compilation do not include indirect taxes in order to remove impact of fiscal policy. This is in consonance with international practices and will make the new WPI conceptually closer to 'Producer Price Index'.
• According to Investopedia, "the Producer Price index is a family of indexes that measures the average change in selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services over time. PPIs measure price change from the perspective of the seller and differs from other indexes, such as the Consumer Price Index, that measure price change from the purchaser's perspective."
• According to the definition provided in this document (Q21 & 22, Pg17)of the Office of Economic Adviser, "PPI measures the average change in the price of goods and services either as they leave the place of production, called output PPI or as they enter the production process, called input PPI."

Source and Improvisaiton: PIB: Revision of base year of All-India WPI ; "

Indian Navy launched Operation "SamudraSetu" (Sea Bridge) as part of national efforts to repatriate stranded Indian citizens from overseas due to the COVID-19 pandemic.