QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz,08 June 2018

Solution: b.

India’s rank has marginally improved in “global peacefulness”, at a time when there is an overall decline of global peace owing to escalation of violence in West Asia and and North Africa, according to the Global Peace Index (GPI), released by Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The IEP is the world’s leading think tank that develops metrics to analyse peace and quantify its economic value.

India’s GPI rank was 137 out of 163 countries in 2017, when the year 2016 was assessed. In 2018, when the year 2017 is assessed, India’s rank moved up to 136. This is in line with the performance of some of the South Asian countries. “South Asia experienced the largest regional improvement in peacefulness,” the report noted. It also noted that peace continues to record a “gradual, sustained fall” across the world.

TH;

Solution: a.

Biodiversity Hotspots in India

• Himalaya: Includes the entire Indian Himalayan region (and that falling in Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar)
• Indo-Burma: Includes entire North-eastern India, except Assam and Andaman group of Islands (and Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and southern China)
• Sundalands: Includes Nicobar group of Islands (and Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines)
• Western Ghats and Sri Lanka: Includes entire Western Ghats (and Sri Lanka)

BSIEnvis;

Improvisation: TH;

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Solution: c.

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Solution: c.

Statement 1: The concept of small finance banks was one of the recommendations in the 2009 Report – A Hundred Small Steps – of the Committee on Financial Sector Reforms headed by Dr. Raghu Ram Rajan. In 2015, RBI decided to grant “in-principle” approval to 10 applicants to set up small finance banks under the Guidelines it issued in 2014.

Statement 2:  The Reserve Bank of India has decided to allow urban co-operative banks (UCB) to convert into small finance banks (SFB), a move aimed at bringing these entities into mainstream banking. UCBs currently face regulation by both the RBI and the respective State governments. By turning into SFBs, they will be regulated only by the RBI.

Statement 3: SFBs are full fledged banks in contrast to payments banks created around the same time. Hence, they are subject to all prudential norms and regulations of RBI as are applicable to existing commercial banks like maintenance of CRR and SLR.

Arthapedia: SFBs;

In the news: TH;

Solution: d.

There are Eight Empowered Action Group States (see image): Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Rajasthan; often, the mention of “EAG States” is followed by a mention of Assam. These nine States, which account for about 48 percent of the total population in the country, are the high focus States in view of their relatively higher fertility and mortality indicators.

In the news (TH): As per the latest Sample Registration System data, MMR (number of maternal deaths per 1,00,000 live births) has dropped from 167 (in 2011-2013, the last SRS period) to 130 (a 28% drop) for the country.