February 15 2025 Current Affairs MCQs

Explanation

• India’s female LFPR is 37%, hindered by unpaid care work and lack of formal part-time jobs, as per the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

Statement 1 is incorrect and statement 2 is correct

• Current Status of Female Labour Force Participation:
  • Low LFPR: India’s female LFPR (37%) lags behind the global average (47%) & the OECD average (67%).
  • Economic impact: 60% of working-age women remain outside the workforce, limiting India’s economic growth.
  • Gender disparity in unpaid work: Women spend twice as much time on unpaid care work as men (Time Use in India Report 2019), restricting their participation in paid employment.

Statement 3 is correct

• Over 80% of India’s workforce is in the informal sector, complicating part-time job formalisation.

Answer: (b) Only two; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Option (a) is correct

• The Price-to-Income Ratio (PTI) is a measure used to assess the affordability of housing by comparing the median home price to the median annual income of residents.
• A higher PTI ratio indicates that homes are becoming more expensive relative to incomes, which can lead to affordability issues for potential homeowners.

Answer: (a) A measure comparing the median home price to the median annual income of residents to assess housing affordability; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

Row 1 is correctly matched

• Potomac River is a river in the east central United States, rising in North and South branches in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia.
• Source: Green Spring, West Virginia, USA.
• Mouth: Chesapeake Bay (Atlantic Ocean), Virginia, USA.
• Important Cities: Washington, D.C.
• Recently, an American Airlines plane collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., crashing into the Potomac River.

Row 2 is correctly matched

• Zambezi River is a river draining large portions of south-central Africa.
• Together with its tributaries, it forms the fourth largest river basin of the continent.
• The river flows eastward for about 2,200 miles (3,540 kilometres) from its source on the Central African Plateau to empty into the Indian Ocean.
• The Zambezi River faces an ecological crisis due to drought, endangering livelihoods, agriculture, and water supply in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Row 3 is correctly matched

• Herbert River is a river in northeastern Queensland, Australia.
• Source: Great Dividing Range, Australia.
• It flows for 150 miles (240 km) southeast.
• Mouth: Coral Sea, Pacific Ocean
• In February 2025, severe flooding in North Queensland (Australia) caused the Herbert River to reach record levels leading to evacuations, infrastructure damage, and fatalities.

Answer: (c) All three; Difficulty Level: Hard

Explanation

Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I.

• 36% of India’s forest cover is fire-prone, with 4% highly prone and 6% very highly prone.
• Fire Frequency: 54.40% of forests experience occasional fires, 7.49% have moderate fire incidents, and 2.40% face high occurrences.
• Susceptible Forest Types: Dry deciduous forests are most vulnerable, whereas evergreen and montane temperate forests are less affected. Since close to 30% of India’s forest area is of dry deciduous type, fire vulnerability of India’s forest cover increases.
• Regional Variations: Uttarakhand, Odisha & Chhattisgarh reported the highest fire incidents in 2023-24.
• Response Efficiency: In Nov. 2023, 67% of major forest fires in India were controlled within 24 hours.

Answer: (a) Both Statement-I and Statement-II are correct and Statement-II is the correct explanation for Statement-I; Difficulty Level: Medium

Explanation

All options are correct

• Mekong River is the longest river in Southeast Asia, the 7th longest in Asia, and the 12th longest in the world.
• Rising in southeastern Qinghai province, China, it flows through the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Yunnan province, after which it forms part of the international border between Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, as well as between Laos and Thailand.
• The river flows through the countries China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before draining into the South China Sea south of Ho Chi Minh City.

Answer: (c) All three; Difficulty Level: Easy

Explanation

Statement 1 is correct but statement 2 is incorrect

• The global mobility of medical students is on the rise, but it raises questions about quality control and regulation in foreign medical education.
• There is increase in international movement of medical students from high, mid and low-income countries.
• Over 200,000 students may be studying abroad, often in institutions with questionable quality. Eg: Ukraine had 24,000 before the war, predominantly from India.
• India faces a significant shortage of doctors, with only one in 22 medical aspirants gaining admission to medical colleges.
• Around 2.3 million students compete annually for limited seats in 700+ medical colleges.
• Over 20,000 Indian students go abroad annually, with countries like Russia, Ukraine (pre-war), China, and the Philippines being popular destinations.
• Limited government seats and high private college tuition fees push students to explore foreign options.
• Unregulated systems and quality are concerns with foreign medical education.

Answer: (a) 1 only; Difficulty Level: Easy