1. Direct tax is a type of tax where the incidence and impact of taxation fall on the same entity. In the case of direct tax, the burden can’t be shifted by the taxpayer to someone else. These are largely taxes on income or wealth. Thus, statement 1 is correct.
2. Income tax, corporation tax, property tax, inheritance tax and gift tax are examples of direct tax. 

Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to cross the milestone of 50 lakh beneficiaries in COVID 19 vaccination.

As per COWIN portals data to date, 52 lakh 35 thousand 646 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the state.

Around 7 lakh 21 thousand beneficiaries have taken the second dose of vaccine taking the total number of doses to more than 59.5 lakh.

Maharashtra:

• Chief Minister - Uddhav Thackeray.
• Governor - Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
• Number of Districts - 36.

Global Gender Gap Index is released by World Economic Forum. 

The Global Gender Gap Report benchmarks 144 countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment. In addition, this year’s edition also analyses the dynamics of gender gaps across industry talent pools and occupations.

Gender Parity Index is released by UNESCO

• The ratio of female to male values of a given indicator, Divide the female value of an indicator by the male value of the same indicator. GPI equal to 1 indicates parity between females and males.
• In general, a value less than 1 indicates a disparity in favor of boys and a value greater than 1 indicates a disparity in favor of girls. World’s Women Report is released by United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs.
• It is released by United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs at five-year intervals, starting in 1990. 
• Five reports have been published as part of The World's Women series. The first three and the last issue, World's Women 2010, analyze women's situation compared to men's worldwide in a broad range of fields. The 2005 edition reviews and analyzes the national capacity to collect and report sex-disaggregated data on socioeconomic topics relevant for addressing gender concerns.

Gender Inequality Index is released by United Nations Development Program.

It measures gender inequalities in three important aspects of human development:

• Reproductive health, measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates;
• Empowerment, measured by the proportion of parliamentary seats occupied by females and proportion of adult females and males aged 25 years and older with at least some secondary education; and
• Economic status expressed as labor market participation and measured by labor force participation rate of female and male populations aged 15 years and older.
• The GII is built on the same framework as the IHDI – to better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men. It measures the human development costs of gender inequality. Thus the higher the GII value the more disparities between females and males and the more loss to human development.

Global Vaccine Summit:

• ​​The Summit was hosted by the United Kingdom (UK). So, statement 1 is not correct.
• Almost 50 ​countries including the business leaders, UN agencies, civil society, government ministers, Heads of State, and country leaders participated in the Summit.
• GAVI is an international organization that brings together public and private sectors to create equal access to vaccines for children.

• Statement 1 is correct - AYUSH 64 is a poly herbal formulation developed by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Ayush.

• Statement 2 is correct – It is useful in the treatment of asymptomatic, mild and moderate COVID-19 infection as an adjunct to standard care.

• Statement 3 is incorrect - It is worthwhile to mention that initially the drug was developed for Malaria in the year 1980 and now is repurposed for COVID-19.

National Investigation Agency (NIA) is a Counter-Terrorism Law Enforcement Agency. It has the power to deal with terror-related cases across the states without special permission from the states. It was established under the National Investigation Agency Act 2008. It works under the Ministry of Home Affairs. 

• National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) was constituted under Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 for hearing appeals against the orders of National Company Law Tribunal(s) (NCLT). Therefore, Statement 1 is not correct.
• NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by NCLT(s) under Section 61 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), with effect from 1st December 2016. NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal for hearing appeals against the orders passed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India under Section 202 and Section 211 of IBC.
• NCLAT is also the Appellate Tribunal to hear and dispose of appeals against any direction issued or decision made or order passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) – as per the amendment brought to Section 410 of the Companies Act, 2013 by Section 172 of the Finance Act, 2017, with effect from 26th May 2017. Therefore, statement 2 is correct.
• Sec 411 of the companies act 2013, provides that the chairperson shall be appointed after consultation with the Chief Justice of India. Therefore, statement 3 is not correct.

• The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific- ESCAP) is a regional development arm of the United Nations for the Asia-Pacific region.
• This is why ESCAP is the most comprehensive of the five regional commissions of the United Nations, as well as the largest organization in the Asia-Pacific region with over 600 employees.
• It was founded in 1947.
• It is headquartered in the city of Bangkok, Thailand. Thus, statement 1 is correct.
• ESCAP works in relation to important aspects such as developing result-oriented projects, providing technical support and capacity building for member states.
• All South Asian nations are members of UNESCAP- India, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Thus, statement 2 is not correct.

A key pillar of Ayushman Bharat Yojana is to build comprehensive primary healthcare infrastructure through 150,000 Health and Wellness Centres till 2022. These centres provide services related to reproductive and child health, communicable and non-communicable diseases. They will also incrementally expand the basket of services to include mental health, Opthalmology, oral health, geriatric care, trauma care and health promotion and wellness activities like yoga. Drug and diagnostics are provided free of cost at these centres. 

Algeria is a country in north western Africa, it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea in north, Morocco in west, Mauritania and Mali in south west, Niger in south east, Libya and Tunisia in east and it has a small border stretch to Western Sahara in west. Algeria shares maritime borders with Italy and Spain.