Posted on by InsightsIAS
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Insights Learning (I-Learning) TEST 7 : 03 – 10 September, 2017

 

I-Learning Test 7 : 03 – 10 September 2017

 

  1. Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS)

A Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) is a basic unit and smallest co-operative credit institutions in India. It works on the grassroots level (gram panchayat and village level).

test 7 - fig 1

 

Why in news?

  • Reserve Bank of India has issued an advisory to general public against depositing money in co-operative societies or primary co-operative credit societies (PACS).
  • Such co-operative societies have neither been issued any licence under Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (As Applicable to Cooperative Societies) nor are they authorized for doing banking business.

Other details:

  • These entities are allowed to raise deposits only from their members.
  • The insurance cover from Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation will not be available for deposits placed with these entities.
  • So, members of public have been advised by RBI to exercise caution and carry out due diligence of such entities before dealing with them.

Source: Additional Research: Page 52: 8th NCERT Geography

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/co-operative-societies-pacs-are-not-allowed-to-raise-public-deposits-rbi-cautions/articleshow/59388218.cms

 

 

  1. Horizon 2020

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of research funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract.

  • Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument implementing the Innovation Union, a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness.
  • Participants from European Union member states and countries associated to Horizon 2020 are automatically funded.

Legal entities from any country are eligible to submit project proposals to these calls.

  • Participation from outside the European Union is explicitly encouraged.
  • Associated countries have signed an association agreement for the purposes of this framework programme. To date, 14 countries are associated to Horizon 2020.
  • Horizon 2020 itself is seen as a policy instrument to implement other high-level policy initiatives of the European Union, such as Europe 2020 and Innovation Union. The programme runs from 2014–20 and provides an estimated €80 billion of funding.

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/

 

 

  1. Power Grid in India

 

Idea:

A Power grid helps transfer power from the surplus regions to the deficit ones. In this way, power grid manages the peak deficit problems.

Institutional Setup:

  • Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (POWERGRID) is an Indian state-owned electric utilities company.
  • POWERGRID transmits about 50% of the total power generated in India on its transmission network.
  • A National Power Grid of India connects all major geographical regions of India except North-eastern India.
  • This National Power Grid was completed by linking all the five Regions-North, South, East, West and North East. It is the largest single system in the world both in terms of grid size and a system capacity of around 200000 MW.
  • This ensured complete integration of India into seamless network for delivering electricity.

Source: Additional Research: 8th NCERT Geography

 

 

  1. The Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA)

It was adopted in 1994 and further complemented by The Mauritius Strategy of Implementation (MSI) of 2005 which deals with the problems of climate change financing in small island developing States (SIDS).

  • These documents recognized that although small island developing States (SIDS) are afflicted by economic difficulties and confronted by development imperatives similar to those of developing countries generally, have their own peculiar vulnerabilities and characteristics.
  • Their major problems are their small size, remoteness, narrow resource and export base, and exposure to global environmental challenges and external economic shocks, including to a large range of impacts from climate change and potentially more frequent and intense natural disasters.

SIDS’ unique and particular vulnerabilities are highlighted in “The Future We Want”, adopted at Rio+20.

Source: Additional Research: Page 5: 8th NCERT Geography

 

 

  1. 1951 Refugee Convention and India

 

The Indian government has signed neither the Refugee Convention nor its Protocol, and Indian law does not offer any special language or provisions for refugees.

Present Status

India does not even have a National refugee policy and National Refugee protection law.   

But, India is a member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) executive committee.

  • A possible reason for India not signing the Refugee convention may be that a protection framework will encourage refugee inflow in India putting pressure on resources.
  • South-Asian borders are also very porous and any conflict can result in a mass movement of people.

Protection Framework

However, India does protect refugees. The Indian refugee protection framework is based on executive decisions; judicial pronouncements; and international conventions (1984 Convention against torture which prevents forcible repatriation of refugees).

For e.g. under the RTA, even refugees can claim right to education. They are also entitled to public health facilities; justice systems etc.

Source: Recent episode of Rohingyas exodus