QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 30 March 2018

Solution: a.

DAY-NRLM is one of the flagship programmes of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India to alleviate rural poverty. The programme aims to organise the rural poor women into their own institutions like Self Help Groups and their federations, Producers’ Collectives etc. and also ensure their financial inclusion and livelihoods support.

• DDU-GKY is a placement-linked Skill Development scheme which seeks to build the skills of the poor rural youth and place them in relatively higher wage employment sectors of the economy.
• MKSP aims to aim promote agriculture-based livelihoods of rural women by strengthening community institutions of poor women farmers to promote sustainable agriculture. MKSP focuses on agriculture, non-timber forest produce and livestock interventions.
• SVEP aims to support entrepreneurs in rural areas to set up local enterprises.

Other initiatives/schemes under DAY-NRLM include:

• Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana – it aims to provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services to connect remote rural village.
• DAY-NRLM also provides support for establishing Rural Self Employment Training Institutes in each district of the country in collaboration with the Banks and the State Governments to provide training to the rural youth from the poor households to take-up economic activities.
• In order to empower the rural women artisans and to bring them above the poverty line, through access to better market and marketing systems, the Ministry has been supporting the organisation of exhibitions under the brand name of SARAS where Self Help Groups from different states participate and sell their products.

http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1526353;

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Solution: d.

Statements 1 and 3 are correct.

About 94% of students of higher education study in 369 State universities. But the Central government’s slant toward premier institutions has continued ever since the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12), where in spite of a nine-fold increase in Budget allocation State institutions have been left to fend for themselves with funding mainly directed towards starting more IITs, IIMs and Central universities. Today about 150 Centrally-funded institutions (less than 6% of students study in them) — corner almost the entire funding by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

It was to address these critical concerns that the MHRD launched RUSA.

• RUSA is an overarching scheme, operated in a mission mode for funding the state universities and colleges in order to achieve the aims of equity, access and excellence. It seeks to improve the overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards.
• The scheme is largely based on the conditional release of funds linked to reforms in the key areas of governance, learning-teaching outcomes, reaching out to the unreached and infrastructure support.
• The funding to States is based on critical appraisal of State Higher Education Plans. These plans are required to address each State’s strategy to address issues of equity, access and excellence in higher education.
• All funding under the RUSA are norms-based and future grants are outcome dependent.

To read more about RUSA 2.0, click HERE;

Source/Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-game-changer-for-higher-education/article23366942.ece;

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Solution: a.

This theory states that as the demand for a resource that is in limited supply increases, it will kick in a process that results in the exploitation of other alternative resources to meet human needs. For instance, as the demand for oil increases even as its available supply decreases, this will cause the price of oil to shoot up and push businesses to look for alternative sources of energy. The theory implies that humans need not worry about running out of resources as prices will always provide an incentive to tap into alternative resources and develop technology for efficient use of these resources.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/what-is-backstop-resources-theory-in-economics/article23366603.ece

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Solution: a.

• SAMADHAN (Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System): A common platform for all complaints, grievances, concerns and suggestions lodged by any member of the public, including our various stakeholders like political parties, candidates, civil society groups etc. A citizen has the multi-modal facility to lodge any election-related complaint via bouquet of channels/sources like website, email, letter, fax, SMS, call center ( Call center number is 1950) etc. A mobile app shall also be made available for the people, so that they can submit complaints with photographs/videos on the common platform.
• SUVIDHA (Single Window Permission System): A single window system for giving election-related permission/clearness within 24 hours has been created. In this system, candidates and political parties can apply for permissions for meetings, rallies, vehicles, temporary election office, loudspeakers etc at a single location, where back-end convergence of various authorities/departments has been done. This system is put in place at every RO level in each sub-division.
• SUGAM (Vehicle Manaement System): It is an IT based Vehicle Management System with the facility of issuance of requisition letters for vehicles, capturing of vehicle details with address, mobile number and bank details of owner and drive, transfer of vehicles from one district to another district etc.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=178019;

Solution: a.

Vanishing Companies are those companies which raised funds from public through initial public offers (IPOs) and subsequently failed, inter-alia, to comply with the listing/ filing requirements of Registrar of Companies (ROC) and the Stock Exchanges for a period of two years and were not found at their registered office address at the time of inspection done by authorities / Stock Exchange.

Thus, a company would be deemed to be a vanishing company, if it is found to have:

• Failed to file returns with Registrar of Companies (ROC) or with Stock Exchange (if it continues to be a listed company) for a period of two years;
• It is not maintaining its registered office at the address notified with the Registrar of Companies/ Stock Exchange; and
• None of its Directors are traceable.

All the three conditions mentioned above would have to be satisfied before a company is declared as a vanishing company.

The criteria for “vanishing companies” are identified by the Coordination and Monitoring Committee – a joint mechanism between the securities market regulator, SEBI, the central bank, RBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) – set up by Government of India in 1999 (active still). Otherwise, there is no formal definition of vanishing companies in the Companies Act, 2013.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=177391;

http://arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Vanishing_Companies;

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