QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 01 September 2017

Solution: b.
Hybrid Annuity based PPP model has been adopted for the first time in the country in sewage management sector. Such a model has earlier been adopted successfully in highway sector only.
About Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) and Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT):
• Under the EPC model, NHAI pays private players to lay roads. The private player has no role in the road’s ownership, toll collection or maintenance (it is taken care of by the government).
• Under the BOT model though, private players have an active role — they build, operate and maintain the road for a specified number of years — say 10-15 years — before transferring the asset back to the government. the private player arranged all the finances for the project, while collecting toll revenue or annuity fee from the Government, as agreed (BOT-Annuity).
About HAM
• HAM is a good trade-off, spreading the risk between developers and the Government. It combines EPC (40%) and BOT-Annuity (60%).
• Here, the government pitches in to finance 40 per cent of the project cost (EPC component) — a sort of viability-gap funding. This helps cut the overall debt and improves project returns.
• The annuity payment structure means that the developers aren’t taking ‘traffic risk’.
• From the Government’s perspective, it gets an opportunity to flag off road projects by investing a portion of the project cost. While it does take the traffic risk, it also earns better social returns by way of access and convenience to daily commuters.
See image for advantages of HAM over previous models for road development (EPC, BOT).

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/slate/what-is-ham-in-india/article9773587.ece;
Improvisation: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170368

Solution: c.
Most of the cattle indigenous to the tropics belong to the zebu species. The external trait which most clearly separates zebu from European type cattle is the hump over the shoulders or the posterior part of the neck. The term humped cattle is frequently used as a synonym to zebu cattle. The potential for milk production is poorly developed in most zebu cattle.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170352;
http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/t0095e/T0095E04.htm;
Ch-17, ‘The Masai’, Sudan Climate, GC Leong;

Solution: d.
In the famous Mandal case (Indra Sawhney v. Union of India 1992), the scope and extent of Article 16(4), which provides for reservation of jobs in favour of backward classes, has been examined thoroughly by the Supreme Court. Though the Court has rejected the additional reservation of 10% for poorer sections of higher castes, it upheld the constitutional validity of 27% reservation for the OBCs with certain conditions, viz,
• The advanced sections among the OBCs (the creamy layer) should be excluded from the list of beneficiaries of reservation.
• No reservation in promotions; reservation should be confined to initial appointments only. Any existing reservation in promotions can continue for five years only (i.e., upto 1997).
• The total reserved quota should not exceed 50% except in some extraordinary situations. This rule should be applied every year.
• The ‘carry forward rule’ in case of unfilled (backlog) vacancies is valid. But it should not violate 50% rule.
• A permanent statutory body should be established to examine complaints of over-inclusion and under-inclusion in the list of OBCs.

Improvisation: http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170348;

Solution: b.
There are basically two categories of domestic support — support with no, or minimal, distortive effect on trade on the one hand (often referred to as “Green Box” measures) and trade-distorting support on the other hand (often referred to as “Amber Box” measures). For example, government provided agricultural research or training is considered to be of the former type, while government buying-in at a guaranteed price (“market price support”) falls into the latter category.

Improvisation: http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170392;
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/agric_e/ag_intro03_domestic_e.htm;
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Solution: b.
Recently India and China jointly submitted a proposal to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) calling for the elimination – by developed countries – of the most trade-distorting form of farm subsidies, known in WTO parlance as Aggregate Measurement of Support (AMS) or ‘Amber Box’ support as a prerequisite for consideration of other reforms in domestic support negotiations.
• Developed countries, including the US, the EU and Canada, have been consistently providing trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers at levels much higher than the ceiling applicable to developing countries. Developed countries have more than 90% of global AMS entitlements amounting to nearly US$ 160 bn. Most of the developing countries, including India and China, do not have AMS entitlements.
• Developed Members have access to huge amount of AMS beyond their de minimis (these are the minimal amounts of domestic support that are allowed even though they distort trade — up to 5% of the value of production for developed countries, 10% for developing). In contrast most developing Members have access only to de minimis resulting in a major asymmetry in the rules on agricultural trade.
• Elimination of AMS, India and China believe, should be the starting point of reforms rather than seeking reduction of subsidies by developing countries.

http://www.pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=170392;
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/agric_e/ag_intro03_domestic_e.htm;
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Solution: a.
A mains-oriented question.
• For decades governments of the left and right have tried to reform France’s strict labour rules, but have always diluted them in the face of street protests.
• President Emmanuel Macron’s government has begun its drive to overhaul France’s rigid labour laws, vowing to “free up the energy of the workforce”.
• France has an unemployment rate of 9.5%, double that of the other big European economies and Mr Macron has vowed to cut it to 7% by 2022. France’s labour code is some 3,000 pages long and is seen by many as a straitjacket for business.
• Among the biggest reforms, individual firms are to be offered more flexibility in negotiating wages and conditions.
• Over half of French workers are employed by small or medium-sized businesses. The government wants to facilitate deals at local level by encouraging companies with fewer than 50 employees to set up workers’ committees that can bypass unions. The reforms have been praised by small business groups while some large trade unions have criticised it.
• Two points set these reforms apart from previous botched efforts to change the labour code. Even the most hostile union leaders concede that the government’s method has been impeccable. There were proper negotiations, and there was give and take.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/french-labour-reform-caps-dismissal-awards-gives-firms-flexibility/article19594187.ece;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41094790;
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