INSIGHTS REVISION TEST for Preliminary Exam 2018: Test – 4

Solution: b)

Current Affairs – June 2017 (https://www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Insights-Daily-Current-Events-June-2017.pdf)

Here, conditional cash transfer is the mainstay of  ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa‘ initiative. Hence, other schemes should have the same design.

The broad objectives of the Kishori Shakti Yojana  are to improve the nutritional, health and development status of adolescent girls, promote awareness of health, hygiene, nutrition and family care, link them to opportunities for learning life skills, going back to school, help them gain a better understanding of their social environment and take initiatives to become productive members of the society.

Other TWO schemes are similar to ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa‘

https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Centre-for-Budget-and-Policy-Studies-India-report.pdf

Solution: b)

Current Affairs – June 2017 (https://www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Insights-Daily-Current-Events-June-2017.pdf)

EPF money becomes unclaimed after a subscriber doesn’t withdraw money after reaching 61 years of age. Accounts also become inoperative if persons settling abroad do not withdraw their money within three years. The government had framed a law last year wherein unclaimed money under EPF, Public Provident Fund and small saving schemes such as post office savings accounts for a period of seven years will be diverted to set up a senior citizens’ welfare fund. The trade unions had strongly protested the move to divert EPF money for setting up a fund for the elderly. Following this, it was decided that the unclaimed EPF money will be diverted for EPF pensioners only.

Solution: d)

Current Affairs – June 2017 (https://www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Insights-Daily-Current-Events-June-2017.pdf)

The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a Statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has recently launched a ‘Visiting Advanced Joint Research (VAJRA) Faculty Scheme’ to connect the Indian academic and research and development (R&D) systems to the best of global science and scientists for a sustained international collaborative research. The scheme offers adjunct / visiting faculty assignments to overseas scientists, faculty members and R&D professionals including Non-resident Indians (NRI) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) to undertake high quality collaborative research in cutting edge areas of science and technology including interdisciplinary areas of priority such as energy, water, health, security, nutrition, materials and manufacturing, etc. with one or more Indian collaborators of public funded academic and research institutions of India.

The VAJRA Faculty should be an active researcher working in an overseas leading academic / research / industrial organization with significant accomplishments in R&D. The initial Faculty assignment is given for a period of one year extendable to subsequent years based on the collaborative outcome and interest. The residency period of VAJRA Faculty in the host institution would be for a minimum of 1 month and a maximum of 3 months every year. VAJRA Faculty is provided US Dollars 15000 in the first month of residence and US Dollars 10000 in each of the subsequent month. Presently, call for applications is made open for prospective researchers.

Solution: d)

Current Affairs – June 2017 (https://www.insightsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Insights-Daily-Current-Events-June-2017.pdf)

In its effort to make legal aid easily accessible to the marginalized communities and citizens living in rural areas, the Government of India has launched the ‘Tele-Law’

Under the scheme, a portal called ‘Tele-Law’ will be launched, which will be available across the Common Service Centre (CSC) network. This will connect the citizens to legal service providers with the help of technology enabled platforms.

A trained PLV will be available in a CSC for ten days in a month under the Scheme. These PLVs will help the applicant connect with a lawyer through the video conferencing facility at the CSC and will keep a track of the progress of the applicants’ cases and grievances and maintain a record.

Statement 2 is wrong as it says ‘judges’

Solution: b)

Widening the scope of its Banking Ombudsman Scheme, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has included complaints relating to mis-selling and mobile banking in its purview. The amended Banking Ombudsman Scheme will come into force from July 1.

 Key facts:  The scheme now includes deficiencies arising out of sale of insurance/mutual fund/other third party investment products by banks.  Under the amended Scheme, a customer would also be able to lodge a complaint against the bank for its nonadherence to RBI instructions with regard to mobile banking/ electronic banking services in India.  The pecuniary jurisdiction of the Banking Ombudsman to pass an Award has been increased from existing Rs 10 lakh to to Rs 20 lakh.  Compensation not exceeding Rs 1 lakh can also be awarded by to the complainant for loss of time, expenses incurred as also, harassment and mental anguish suffered by the complainant.

 What is Banking Ombudsman?

Banking ombudsman is a quasi judicial authority, created to resolve customer complaints against banks relating to certain services provided by them.  The Ombudsman is a senior official, who has been appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to address grievances and complaints from customers, pertaining deficiencies in banking services.  It covers all kinds of banks including public sector banks, Private banks, Rural banks as well as co-operative banks.

Ans: C

The Economic survey mentions son meta preference based on the gender of the last child. Indian families keep on having children till the desired number of children are born. Also, the survey mentions that once the girls are born, they are taken care of in terms of their participation in social indicators such as health and education.

Solution: c)

What Will Orion Do?
Orion will carry astronauts into deep space and then return them home to Earth. Orion will be able to travel to an asteroid or even Mars.

NASA is developing a huge rocket called the Space Launch System, or SLS. This rocket is a heavy-lift launch vehicle. Orion will launch on top of this rocket. The heavy-lift launch vehicle will carry Orion beyond low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station orbits, and far past the moon.

Orion has three main parts. The upper section is the launch abort system, or LAS; the crew module is the middle part; and the service module is the lower portion of the spacecraft. Astronauts will sit in the middle section, the crew module. This will be their living quarters. If an emergency occurs during launch or the climb to orbit, the LAS would activate in milliseconds. It would propel the crew module away from the rocket to safety. The LAS looks like a tower on top of the crew module. Beneath the crew module is the service module. It holds the power and propulsion systems. Solar array panels on the service module will absorb sunlight to create electricity. This power will allow the spacecraft to remain in orbit for months at a time.

Ans: D

The survey stresses on the need to inculcate science and tech from school level itself. Also it makes procedures and patent approach much simpler to promote ease of doing science in India. It also calls for a mission mode approach towards areas of disruptive technologies.

Ans: C

Urbansiation is a feature of development. As countries develop the share of agriculture gradually falls in contribution to GDP. China and India show relative differences in urbanization due to GDP gap and their contribution gaps in areas such as agriculture, manufacturing and service sector.

Ans: C

All of them prove hindrances to the sector as they make it uncompetitive for India to compete with other countries in textiles and apparel sector. These aspects make products from China and other countries cheaper in world markets. Also, their mass scale prevents India to capture a relatively larger share of the market.

Ans: B

International bank for reconstruction and development is the name of World Bank. India started the process of LPG under new economic policy in 1991. Also, India did not follow all conditions strictly and went for partial opening up of the Indian Economy such as partial capital account convertibility and other factors such as peak rate of tariffs for imports.

Ans: A

HDI is an index prepared by UNDP. It adjusts per capita income based on purchasing power parity and also defines development as choice and access to better health, education and income opportunities. Skill development is not a factor in measuring HDI.

Learning

The report was first launched in 1990 by the Pakistani Economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. Its goal was to place people at the centre of the development process in terms of economic debate, policy and advocacy. Scale is 0 to 1.

2016 HDI –‘ Human Development for Everyone’

India — score — 0.624

131th place in 188 countries

placed in medium human development category.

The Report includes 4 other indices

Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI)

1. It adjusts the Human Development Index (HDI) for inequality in distribution of each dimension across the population.
2. no inequality –à HDI = IHDI
3. in case of inequalities à-the value of IHDI < HDI
4. Thus we can say IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for this inequality), while the HDI can be viewed as an index of “potential” human development (or the maximum level of HDI) that could be achieved if there was no inequality.

Gender development index

1. It shows the loss in human development due to inequality between female and male achievements in these dimensions.
2. ranges —- 0( indicating equality between men & women) to 1(indicating that women fare as poorly in comparison to their male counterparts as possible in all measured dimensions)

(The other 2 indices are Gender inequality index and multi dimentional poverty indexwhich will be covered in next tests)

Ans: D

Fertiliser DBT was recently introduced to address anomalies of allocation between rich and poor farmers and also to curb regional off take in surplus regions. Further neem coating was made compulsory to check for diversion and also make it more durable and sustainable to use in farms.

Ans: C

About APEDA

1. Established by the Government of India IN 1986 under the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority Act,1985 (Hence it is statutory body)
2. The Authority replaced the Processed Food Export Promotion Council (PFEPC).
3. A Chairman, appointed by the Central Governme
4. Functions

• Development of industries relating to the scheduled products for export by way of providing financial assistance or otherwise for undertaking surveys and feasibility studies, participation in enquiry capital through joint ventures and other reliefs and subsidy schemes;
• Registration of persons as exporters of the scheduled products on payment of such fees as may be prescribed;
• Fixing of standards and specifications for the scheduled products for the purpose of exports;
• Carrying out inspection of meat and meat products in slaughter houses, processing plants, storage premises, conveyances or other places where such products are kept or handled for the purpose of ensuring the quality of such products;

Ans: C

National Payments Corporation of India

1. It is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India
2. initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007
3. The Company is focused on bringing innovations in the retail payment systems through the use of technology for achieving greater efficiency in operations and widening the reach of payment systems
4. Products developed — Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), National Financial Switch (NFS), Cheque Truncation System (CTS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), RuPay Credit Card, National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) and National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC)

Ans: C

InvIT facilitates capital into the infrastructure sector by pooling small sums of money from investors, helping infrastructure developers monetise their infrastructure assets and complete projects that sometimes get stalled midway due to lack of funding.

InvITs are a first-of-their-kind really long-term instruments. At present, Government Securities or G-secs are the only other instruments with such a long life

SEBI introduced infrastructure investment trust (InvIT) regulations for infrastructure projects

The minimum bid size is 10,000 units and in multiples of 5,000 units thereafter. At the price band Rs 100-102, it comes out at Rs 10 lakh at lower price limit. Hence these are not for small and retail investors

who can invest? —  Any infrastructure finance company registered with the RBI as an NBFC, scheduled commercial banks, international multilateral financial institutions, familys trust that are not institutional investors, high net worth individuals, mutual funds and FPIs, among others, can invest in the IPO. Institutional investors (qualified institutional buyers) will be allotted not more than 75 per cent of the issue size, while other bidders have a quota limit of 25 per cent

Ans: C

Product patent was introduced in India in 2005. Patents are under DIPP (Ministry of commerce). Further patents and GIs are both covered under TRIPS in WTO.

CIPAM

A professional body under the aegis of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) which ensures focused action on issues related to IPRs and addresses the 7 identified objectives of the policy. CIPAM assists in simplifying and streamlining of IP processes, apart from undertaking steps for furthering IPR awareness, commercialization and enforcement.

Process patent vs product patents

process patent —  patent is granted for a particular manufacturing process, and not for the product itself. Any other person can produce the same product through some other PROCESS, modifying the various parameters.

• Hence there will be more than one producer for the same product because of the possibility of different process for the manufacturing of the product.
• Weakness is that it gives less protection for the inventor. There is high tendency for competitors to reengineer the original invention by discovering a new process with less strain and investment. Benefit of process patent regime is that it reduces the element of monopoly.

product patent —  it is an exclusive right given to the original inventor of a product. This means that no other manufacturer can provide the same product through the same or any other process.

• The implication is that there will not be a competitor for the producer as it is the product which is patented.
• Product patent system gives higher level of protection to the inventor as there will not be any other patent holder. TRIPs follow the product patent regime.

India’s 1970 Patent Act allowed only process patent before it was amended in 2005 to comply with WTO’s TRIPs provisions under which there is only product patents

GI Tag

• Indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a member, or a region or a locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographic origin.
• In India, GI tag is governed by Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection Act), 1999. This Act is administered by Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, who is also Registrar of Geographical Indications.
• GIs have been defined under Article 22(1) of the WTOAgreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPS)
• Recently (nov 2017) Banglar Rasogolla of West Bengal and Mamallapuram stone sculptures of Tamil Nadu has been given GI tag

Ans: D

Shipping lanes are not always marked by navigational aids and thus sometimes shipping lanes are marked as dangerous waters such as those frequented by icebergs.

Ans: D

The Fletcher School at Tufts University in partnership with Mastercard, unveiled the Digital Evolution Index 2017. The Index is a comprehensive research that tracks the progress countries have made in developing their digital economies and integrating connectivity into the lives of billions.

Ans: A

Social enterprise effects impact by marrying the social mission of a non-profit or government program with the market-driven approach of a business. They apply commercial strategies to help the poor though affordability, accessibility and availability of products and services at the grass root level.

https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/what-is-it-all-about))

Ans: C

India has started biofuels blending programme and aims to reduce imports of oil by at least 1 lakh crore through processing of biomass.

Bio fuels

According to UN, the term biofuel means “any liquid fuel made from plant material that can be used as a substitute to petroleum-derived fuel”. International Energy Agency further adds gaseous fuels from biomass based sources to biofuels (IEA, Bioenergy, 2016).

The main distinction between biofuels is the feedstock used and associated conversion method.

1) First generation: These are the  biofuels produced from conventional, well established processes. These are generally made from sugars, grains, or seeds, i.e. utilize only a specific (often edible) portion of the above-ground biomass produced by a plant.

Pros: Mature technology, familiar feedstock, scalable production capabilities, cost competitive to fossil fuels

Cons: Food vs fuel debate, feedstock price volatility, Low land use efficiency, geographical limitations, modest net reduction in fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions with current processing methods.

2) Second generation: these are made from lignocellulosic biomass. This includes either non-edible residues of food crop production (e.g. corn stalks or rice husks) or non-edible whole plant biomass (e.g. grasses or trees grown specifically for energy) These can be further classified based on conversion technology as biochemical and thermochemical.

Pros: Surplus feedstock supply, less controversial, less dependence on geographical location, suitable for developing agrarian countries with large population.

Cons: High capital cost, technological breakthroughs needed, development of high biomass feedstocks to improve land use efficiency.

3) Third generation: Biofuels made using non-arable land, based on integrated technologies that produce a feedstock as well as a fuel (or fuel precursor, such as pure vegetable oil), and require the destruction of biomass. These are similar to the 2^nd generation fuels but use lot less resources in generating feedstock. Algae is the most promising feedstock candidate in this category which cannot be matched by any other feedstock in terms of quantity or diversity

Pros: Only inputs to get feedstock is CO2 and water. Less controversial, versatile array of products possible.

Cons: High capital costs, early research stage

4) Fourth Generation: these are made using non-arable land. These do not require destruction of biomass to be converted to fuel. This technology aims at directly converting available solar energy to fuel using inexhaustible, cheap and widely available resources.

Pros: Only inputs to get feedstock is CO2 and water. Less controversial, versatile array of products possible, least negative environmental impact

Cons: High capital costs, early research stage, long processing time. Slow yields

Ans: C

Headwinds mentioned by the economic survey are the backlash against globalization which reduces exporting opportunities, the difficulties of transferring resources from low productivity to higher productivity sectors (structural transformation), the challenge of upgrading human capital to the demands of a technology-intensive workplace, and coping with climate change-induced agricultural stress.

Ans: D

The Parliament has passed the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Bill which will increase the ceiling of tax-free gratuity amount to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh. Further, this will allow the government to increase the gratuity ceiling from time to time without amending the law.

Gratuity

Gratuity is given by the employer to an employee for the services rendered by him. It is usually paid at the time of retirement but it can be paid before provided certain conditions are met. A person is eligible to receive gratuity only if he has completed at least five years of service with an organisation. However, it can be paid before the completion of five years at the death of an employee or if he has become disabled due to accident or disease.

(Please refer the following link for the details

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/invest/how-to-calculate-gratuity/articleshow/61913387.cms

http://www.prsindia.org/billtrack/the-payment-of-gratuity-amendment-bill-2017-5002/ )

Ans: B

Niti aayog has abandoned the policy concerning electric mobility. The government is of the view that market will be enough to guide the adoption of electric vehicles in India and there is no such needs to provide incentive.

FAME India Scheme

1. The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) India was launched in 2015 under the National Electric Mobility Mission (NEMM) aims at promoting eco-friendly vehicles in the country.
2. It is being administered by the Heavy Industries Ministry.
3. objective —  provide fiscal and monetary incentives for adoption and market creation of both hybrid and electric technologies vehicles in the country.
4. ts mandate is to support hybrid or electric vehicles market development and its manufacturing eco-system in country in order to achieve self-sustenance in stipulated period.

Ans: d

India recently overtook China in terms of GDP growth rates. The slowdown in investments and savings is not perpetual but considerable in the last few years.
(https://www.livemint.com/Politics/9fx4v1xGMkvCk05WLP78GO/IMF-sees-India-GDP-growth-at-74-in-2018-Chinas-at-68.html

World economic outlook India – 7.4% and china 6.8%)