Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (March 03, 2022) for CSS, PMS

Table of Contents

6. `Pakistan ranked among worst-performing countries in cigarette tax scorecard`

• Poor households in Pakistan spend a larger proportion of their budget on tobacco than rich households, which results in less spending on basic needs. Due to unchanged and low tobacco taxes, Pakistan was ranked among the worst-performing countries in the Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Scorecard that evaluated the strength of tax systems.
• This was pointed out by health activist, Advocate Malik Imran, as he spoke at an event organised by Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc).
• While appreciating Prime Minister Imran Khan`s decision to provide relief to people by lowering prices of petroleum products and electricity, other activists have repeatedly asked the government to increase revenue for itself.

7. In a first, Balochistan starts e-tendering process

• The Balochistan government has started e-tendering to ensure transparency and merit in the bidding and procurement process.
• With this step, Balochistan has become the first province in the country to have introduced e-tendering through legislation passed by the provincial assembly.
• The assembly has approved an amendment to the Balochistan Procurement Authority Rules, 2014, after approval of its draft by the cabinet

8. India agrees to give more data on western river projects

• Amid objections raised by Pakistan to about a dozen hydropower projects on western rivers, India is reported to have agreed to provide additional data and try to address the concerns.
• The three-day meeting between the two commissioners of Permanent Commission on Indus Waters (PCIW) completed discussions on all agenda items on Wednesday and would finalise minutes of the huddle on Thursday. The talks were held in very cordial environment, a participant said.
• Pakistan`s Commissioner for Indus Waters Mehr Ali Shah led the Pakistani side comprising officials of the Water and Power Development Authority, Meteorological Department, Punjab Irrigation, Federal Flood Commission, Nespak and the foreign affairs ministry. The India side was led by its commissioner Pradeep Kumar Saxena.

9. EU cuts Russian banks from Swift system, bans RT, Sputnik

• The European Union on March 2, 2022 cut seven Russian banks from the Swift payment system and banned Kremlin-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik from broadcasting into the bloc.
• The measures, effective immediately, were the latest ratcheting up of the Western-coordinated sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
• `At the speed of light, the European Union has adopted three waves of heavy sanctions against Russia`s financial system, its high-tech industries and its corrupt elite,` European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement

10. Ukraine pushes Afghanistan out of US political discourse

• US President Joe Biden made only two references to Afghanistan in his state of the union address on Tuesday night, that too in reference to the diseases American soldiers caught while stationed there.
• `Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan faced many dangers.
• One was stationed at bases and breathing in toxic smoke from burn pits that incinerated wastes of war -medical and hazard material, jet fuel, and more,` he said.
• `When they came home, many of the world`s fittest and best trained warriors were never the same