INSIGHTS CURRENT AFFAIRS (1 January 2020) REVISION THROUGH MCQS

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• Founded in 1935, the Indian History Congress (IHC) is the largest association of professional historians in South Asia.
• The BISM organised an All India Congress in 1935 to celebrate its silver jubilee in Pune. As an outcome, the Indian History Congress (IHC) was thus born with about 50 delegates.
• The Bharata Itihasa Samshodhaka Mandala (BISM) was founded by Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade in 1910 in Pune with the support of K C Mehendale.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/indian-history-congress/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• The Battle of Koregaon was fought on 1 January 1818 between the mahar Warrior and the Peshwa faction of the Maratha (not Mogul) Confederacy, at Koregaon Bhima.
• A 28,000-strong force led by Peshwa Baji Rao II whilst on their way to attack the company-held Pune, were unexpectedly met by an 800-strong Company force.
• The battle was part of the Third Anglo Maratha war, a series of battles that culminated in the defeat of the Maratha Empire and subsequent rule of the British East India Company in nearly all of Western, Central and Southern India.
• There is a “victory pillar” in Koregaon commemorating the battle that was on its way to reinforce the British troops in Pune.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/bhima-koregaon-anniversary-2/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• MOHUA announces results of Swachh Survekshan League (quarter 1 and quarter 2)
• Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (SS League 2020) was introduced with the objective of sustaining the onground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance when it comes to cleanliness.
• SS League 2020 is being conducted in 3 quarters, i.e. April- June, July – September and October- December 2019 and has 2000 marks for each quarter evaluated on the basis of monthly updation of SBM-U online MIS by cities along with citizen’s validation on the 12 service level progress indicators through outbound calls.
• Ranks have been assigned in two categories, namely, cities with population of one lakh and above (with two sub-categories, i.e. 1-10 lakh and 10 lakhs and above) and cities with population of less than 1 lakh (under the < 1 lakh population category, the rankings are given zone and population wise).
• The performance of cities in SS League 2020 is crucial to their ranking in Swachh Survekshan 2020 due to the 25% weightage of the quarterly assessments to be included in the annual survey scheduled to commence from 4 January till 31 January 2020.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/swacch-survekshan-league/

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi is an initiative by the government of India in which all small and marginal farmers will get up to ₹6,000 per year as minimum income support.
• ₹6,000 per year will be paid to each eligible farmer in three instalments and will be deposited directly to their bank accounts
• It falls under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/pm-kisan-scheme-5/

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana in Madhya Pradesh was sought to provide relief to farmers by providing the differential between MSPs and market prices.
• The Rythu Bandhu scheme of the Telangana provides ₹4,000 per acre for every season to all the farmers of the state. Similar initiatives have also be framed in Jharkhand and Odisha.
• Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income augmentation (KALIA) of Odisha is more complicated in design and implementation. It commits to give Rs 5,000 per SMF, twice a year that is Rs 10,000 a year.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/pm-kisan-scheme-5/

Ans: (a)

Explanation:

• It is estimated that India would need to spend $4.5 trillion on infrastructure by 2030 to sustain its growth rate. The endeavour of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), is to make this happen in an efficient manner.
• Funding: The central government and state governments would have an equal share of 39% each in the NIP. The private sector, on the other hand, would have 22% share which the government expects to increase to 30% by 2025.
• National Infrastructure Pipeline will ensure that infrastructure projects are adequately prepared and launched.
• Each Ministry/ Department would be responsible for the monitoring of projects so as to ensure their timely and within-cost implementation.
• It will help in stepping-up annual infrastructure investment to achieve the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $5 trillion by 2024-25.

Refer: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/national-infrastructure-pipeline-2/

Ans: (c)

Explanation: “Merchant Discount Rate”

• It is a fee charged from a merchant by a bank for accepting payments from customers through credit and debit cards in their establishments.
• MDR compensates the card issuing bank, the lender which puts the PoS terminal and payment gateways such as Mastercard or Visa for their services.
• MDR charges are usually shared in pre-agreed proportion between the bank and a merchant and is expressed in percentage of transaction amount
• From January onwards, all companies with a turnover of Rs 50 crore or more need to provide the facility of payment through RuPay Debit card and UPI QR code to their customers, under which no MDR fee will be charged from customers as well as merchants

Refer: Facts for Prelims: https://www.insightsonindia.com/2020/01/01/insights-daily-current-affairs-pib-summary-01-january-2020/

Ans: (c)

Explanation:

• The procedure of renaming of the state can be initiated by either the Parliament or the State Legislator and the procedure is as follows:
• The renaming of a state requires Parliamentary approval under Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution.
• A bill for renaming a state may be introduced in the Parliament on the recommendation of the President.
• Before the introduction of the bill, the President shall send the bill to the respective state assembly for expressing their views within a stipulated time. The views of the state assembly are not binding, neither on the President nor on the Parliament.
• On the expiry of the period, the bill will be sent to the Parliament for deliberation. The bill in order to take the force of a law must be passed by a simple majority.
• The bill is sent for approval to the President. After the approval of the said bill, the bill becomes a law and the name of the state stands modified.

Ans: (d)

Explanation:

• President may, with the consent of the state government, entrust to that government any of the executive functions of the Centre. Conversely, the governor of a state may, with the consent of the Central government, entrust to that government any of the executive functions of the state.

Constitution also makes a provision for the entrustment of the executive functions of the Centre to a state without the consent of that state. But, in this case, the delegation is by the Parliament and not by the president. Notably, the same thing cannot be done by the state legislature.

Ans: (b)

Explanation:

• In respect of matters on which both the Parliament and the state legislatures have power of legislation (i.e., the subjects enumerated in the Concurrent List), the executive power rests with the states except when a Constitutional provision or a parliamentary law specifically confers it on the Centre.