DAY – 42 ( INSTA REVISION TEST – 42)INSTA REVISION PLAN 3.0, 2021

Solution: D

About the Code on Wages Act:

• The code will amalgamate the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965, and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
• The wage code universalises the provisions of minimum wages and timely payment of wages to all employees, irrespective of the sector and wage ceiling.
• It ensures the “right to sustenance” for every worker and intends to increase the legislative protection of minimum wage from existing about 40% to 100% workforce.
• It also introduces the concept of statutory floor wage which will be computed based on minimum living conditions and extended qualitative living conditions across the country for all workers.
• While fixing the minimum rate of wages, the central government shall divide the concerned geographical area into three categories – metropolitan area, non-metropolitan area and the rural area.
• Wages include salary, allowance, or any other component expressed in monetary terms. This does not include bonus payable to employees or any travelling allowance, among others.
• The minimum wages decided by the central or state governments must be higher than the floor wage.
• Payment of wages: Wages will be paid in (i) coins, (ii) currency notes, (iii) by cheque, (iv) by crediting to the bank account, or (v) through electronic mode. The wage period will be fixed by the employer as either: (i) daily, (ii) weekly, (iii) fortnightly, or (iv) monthly.

Solution: B

DakPay is a new digital payment application launched by the Department of Posts and the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB).

• DakPay is a suite of digital financial and assisted banking services provided through the postal network to cater to the financial needs of various sections of society, particularly those living in rural areas.
• The services include free-of-cost money receipts and transfers at doorsteps, and scanned QR codes, to make payments for a range of utility and banking services.

Solution: A

National Small Savings Fund (NSSF):

• A “National Small Savings Fund” (NSSF) in the Public Account of India has been established with effect from 1.4.1999.
• All small savings collections are credited to this Fund.
• Similarly, all withdrawals under small savings schemes by the depositors are made out of the accumulations in this Fund.
• The balance in the Fund is invested in Central and State Government Securities.
• The investment pattern is as per norms decided from time to time by the Government of India.
• The Fund is administered by the Government of India, Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) under National Small Savings Fund (Custody and Investment) Rules, 2001, framed by the President under Article 283(1) of the Constitution.
• The objective of NSSF is to de-link small savings transactions from the Consolidated Fund of India and ensure their operation in a transparent and self-sustaining manner.
• Since NSSF operates in the public account, its transactions do not impact the fiscal deficit of the Centre directly.
• As an instrument in the public account, the balances under NSSF are direct liabilities and constitute a part of the outstanding liabilities of the Centre.
• The NSSF flows affect the cash position of the Central Government

Solution: C

Disinvestment can be defined as the action of an organisation (or government) selling or liquidating an asset or subsidiary. It is also referred to as ‘divestment’ or ‘divestiture.’

In most contexts, disinvestment typically refers to sale from the government, partly or fully, of a government-owned enterprise.

A company or a government organisation will typically disinvest an asset either as a strategic move for the company, or for raising resources to meet general/specific needs.

Of the various factors responsible for low profits in the PSUs, the following were identified as particularly important:

• Price policy of public sector undertakings
• Under–utilisation of capacity
• Problems related to planning and construction of projects
• Problems of labour, personnel and management
• Lack of autonomy

Hence, the need for the Government to get rid of these units and to concentrate on core activities was identified. The Government also took a view that it should move out of non-core businesses, especially the ones where the private sector had now entered in a significant way. Finally, disinvestment was also seen by the Government to raise funds for meeting general/specific needs.

In this direction, the Government adopted the ‘Disinvestment Policy’. This was identified as an active tool to reduce the burden of financing the PSUs. The following main objectives of disinvestment were outlined:

• To reduce the financial burden on the Government
• To improve public finances
• To introduce, competition and market discipline
• To fund growth
• To encourage wider share of ownership
• To depoliticise non-essential services

Solution: B

Structure of an economy refers to the fundamental features of the economy like the size of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in terms of their contribution to GDP and employment.

Other important elements of structure are trade composition (the items that we export and import), saving GDP ratio (level of savings as a percent of GDP) etc. Structure of the economy thus means the occupational structure, sectoral distribution of income, industrial pattern, composition of exports, saving- GDP ratio etc.

Solution: D

Ease of doing business is an index published by the World Bank. It is an aggregate figure that includes different parameters which define the ease of doing business in a country.
It is computed by aggregating the distance to frontier scores of different economies. The distance to frontier score uses the ‘regulatory best practices’ for doing business as the parameter and benchmark economies according to that parameter.
For each of the indicators that form a part of the statistic ‘Ease of doing business,’ a distance to frontier score is computed and all the scores are aggregated. The aggregated score becomes the Ease of doing business index.

In recent years, Doing Business introduced improvements to all of its indicator sets. In Doing Business 2015, Resolving Insolvency introduced new measures of quality, while Getting Credit and Protecting Minority Investors broadened their existing measures. In Doing Business 2016, Dealing with Construction Permits, Getting Electricity, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts also introduced new measures of quality, and Trading across Borders introduced a new case scenario to increase the economic relevance. In Doing Business 2017, Paying Taxes introduced new measures of postfiling processes and Starting a Business, Registering Property and Enforcing Contracts added gender components.

Each methodology expansion was recalculated for one year to provide comparable indicator values and scores for the previous year

Solution: C

In a jobless growth economy, unemployment remains stubbornly high even as the economy grows. This tends to happen when a relatively large number of people have lost their jobs, and the ensuing recovery is insufficient to absorb the unemployed, under-employed, and those first entering the work force.

All of the above given measures help in arresting jobless growth. As small scale industries are labour intensive, promoting MSMEs help in arresting jobless growth.

Vocational Training help to give market relevant skills, thus increase the employability of unemployed population.

A sunrise industry is one that is new or relatively new, is growing fast and is expected to become important in the future. Thus policy support to such industries attract a lot of employment.

Solution: A

• Dividend distribution tax is the tax imposed by the Indian Government on Indian companies according to the dividend paid to a company’s investors.
• Dividend distribution tax is also applicable on mutual funds
• DDT is payable separately, over and above the income tax liability of a Company

Solution: B

• The external debt of India is the total debt the country owes to foreign creditors. The debtors can be the Union government, state governments, corporations or citizens of India.
• The debt includes money owed to private commercial banks, foreign governments, or international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
• Long-term borrowings (more than a year to maturity) dominate India’s external debt
• India’s external debt is held in multiple currencies, the largest of which is the United States dollar. The rest of the debt is held in Indian rupees, special drawing rights, Japanese yen, Euros and other currencies

Solution: A

Aggregate demand is the total demand for final goods and services in an economy at a given time.

Increasing the investments and lowering interest rate on consumer loans increases the disposable income and thus creates demand. However, increasing the tax rate on personal income leads to decrease in disposable income. Thus, reduces the aggregate demand.

Solution: D

• Primary Deficit:

We must note that the borrowing requirement of the government includes interest obligations on accumulated debt. To obtain an estimate of borrowing on account of current expenditures exceeding revenues, we need to calculate what has been called the primary deficit. It is simply the fiscal deficit minus the interest payments

• Gross primary deficit = Gross fiscal deficit – net interest liabilities
• Net interest liabilities consist of interest payments minus interest receipts by the government on net domestic lending.

Solution: D

National Pension System (NPS) is a pension cum investment scheme launched by Government of India to provide old age security to Citizens of India. It brings an attractive long term saving avenue to effectively plan your retirement through safe and regulated market-based return. The Scheme is regulated by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).National Pension System Trust (NPST) established by PFRDA is the registered owner of all assets under NPS.

NPS can be broadly classified into two categories and it is further customised for different sectors as mentioned below:

1. Government Sector:
   1. Central Government:
      The Central Government had introduced the National Pension System (NPS) with effect from January 1, 2004 (except for armed forces). All the employees of Central Autonomous Bodies who have joined on or after the above mentioned date are also mandatorily covered under Government sector of NPS.Central Government/CABs employee contributes towards pension from monthly salary along with matching contribution from the employer.
   2. State Government:
      Subsequent to Central Government, various State Governments adopted this architecture and implemented NPS with effect from different dates. A State Autonomous Body (SAB) can also adopt NPS if the concerned State Government/UT have adopted the NPS architecture and initiated implementation of the same. State Government/SABs employees also contribute towards pension from monthly salary along with matching contribution from the employer.
2. Private Sector (Non-Government Sector):
   1. Corporates:
      NPS Corporate Sector Model is the customized version of NPS to suit various organizations and their employees to adopt NPS as an organized entity within purview of their employer-employee relationship.

All Citizens of India:
Any individual not being covered by any of the above sectors has been allowed to join NPS architecture under the All Citizens of India sector from May 01, 2009.

Solution: C

The Drugs Prices Control Order, 1995 is an order issued by the Government of India under Sec. 3 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955 to regulate the prices of drugs. The Order inter alia provides the list of price controlled drugs, procedures for fixation of prices of drugs, method of implementation of prices fixed by Govt., penalties for contravention of provisions etc.  For the purpose of implementing provisions of DPCO, powers of Govt. have been vested in NPPA.

Major Functions of NPPA

• The NPPA is mandated to fix/revise the prices of controlled bulk drugs and formulations and to enforce prices and availability of the medicines in the country.
• It also monitors the prices of decontrolled drugs in order to keep them at reasonable levels.
• The regulator implements and enforces the provisions of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order.
•  It is also entrusted with the task of recovering amounts overcharged by manufacturers for the controlled drugs from the consumers

Solution: D

WTO’s Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) is a protection measure allowed for developing countries to take contingency restrictions against agricultural imports that are causing injuries to domestic farmers. The contingency measure is imposition of tariff if the import surge causes welfare loss to the domestic poor farmers. The design and use of the SSM is an area of conflict under the WTO.

What are safeguards?

In WTO’s terms, safeguards are contingency or emergency restrictions on imports taken temporarily to deal with special circumstances such as a surge in imports. Contingency restriction means imposition of an import tax if the imports are causing injuries to domestic agricultural sector. The original GATT itself allows such restrictions to protect domestic economy.

Doha Development Agenda and the origin of the SSM

At the Doha Ministerial Conference, the developing countries were given a concession to adopt a Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) besides the existing safeguards (like the Special Agricultural Safeguard or the SSG). This SSM constituted an important part of the promises offered to the developing world at Doha (known as Doha Development Agenda) and the Doha MC became known as a development round.

As mentioned, the Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) allowed developing countries to raise import duties on agricultural products in response to import surges.

Difference between SSM and other safeguards under Agreement on Agriculture

The SSG was available to all countries- both developing and developed whereas the SSM is allowable only to the developing countries. It is to be mentioned that the SSG was available as it was inducted under the GATT agreement; whereas the SSM was the invention of the Doha Ministerial Conference.

Solution: A

The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda(DDA) is the trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which commenced in November 2001 under then director-general Mike Moore. Its objective was to lower trade barriers around the world, and thus facilitate increased global trade.

Solution: D

Capital account of BOP records all those transactions, between the residents of a country and the rest of the world, which cause a change in the assets or liabilities of the residents of the country or its government. It is related to claims and liabilities of financial nature.

Capital Account is used to:

(i) Finance deficit in current account; or

(ii) Absorb surplus of current account.

Capital account is concerned with financial transfers. So, it does not have direct effect on income, output and employment of the country.

Components of Capital Account:

The main components of capital account are:

1. Borrowings and landings to and from abroad:It includes:
2. All transactions relating to borrowings from abroad by private sector, government, etc. Receipts of such loans and repayment of loans by foreigners are recorded on the positive (credit) side.
3. All transactions of lending to abroad by private sector and government. Lending abroad and repayment of loans to abroad is recorded as negative or debit item.
4. Investments to and from abroad: It includes:
5. Investments by rest of the world in shares of Indian companies, real estate in India, etc. Such investments from abroad are recorded on the positive (credit) side as they bring in foreign exchange.
6. Investments by Indian residents in shares of foreign companies, real estate abroad, etc. Such investments to abroad be recorded on the negative (debit) side as they lead to outflow of foreign exchange.
7. Change in Foreign Exchange Reserves:

The foreign exchange reserves are the financial assets of the government held in the central bank. A change in reserves serves as the financing item in India’s BOP. So, any withdrawal from the reserves is recorded on the positive (credit) side and any addition to these reserves is recorded on the negative (debit) side. It must be noted that ‘change in reserves’ is recorded in the BOP account and not ‘reserves’

Solution: C

Banks Board Bureau is an autonomous body of the Government of India tasked to improve the governance of Public Sector Banks, recommend selection of chiefs of government owned banks and financial institutions and to help banks in developing strategies and capital raising plans.

The BBB was the part of Indradhanush Plan of government.

Solution: D

The Stand up India scheme aims at promoting entrepreneurship among women and scheduled castes and tribes. The scheme is anchored by Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Stand-Up India Scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a greenfield enterprise. This enterprise may be in manufacturing, services or the trading sector. In case of non-individual enterprises at least 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.

Eligibility

• SC/ST and/or woman entrepreneurs, above 18 years of age.
• Loans under the scheme is available for only green field project. Green field signifies, in this context, the first time venture of the beneficiary in the manufacturing or services or trading sector.
• In case of non-individual enterprises, 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by either SC/ST and/or Women Entrepreneur.
• Borrower should not be in default to any bank/financial institution.

Solution: C

Households, in general, avail healthcare services from public as well as private health care facilities, depending on their accessibility and affordability to these facilities. In Public Health Institutions, Government incurs expenditure for providing healthcare infrastructure as well as payment of salaries for medical staff, while in private sector hospitals, the service providers charge directly from households for their services. Although the services provided by Public Health Institutions, particularly Primary Health Centres / Government hospitals are accessible to the public, mostly free of cost, in practice, there are various instances, where households have to pay ‘out of pocket expenditure’. The expenses that the patient or the family pays directly to the health care provider, without a third-party (insurer, or State) is known as ‘Out of Pocket Expenditure’ (OOP). These expenses could be medical as well as non-medical expenditure. Out of Pocket Medical expenditure could be payments towards doctor’s fees, medicine, diagnostics, operations, charges for blood, ambulance services etc, while non-medical expenditure include money spent towards travelling expenses, lodging charges of escort, attendant charges, etc.

Solution: D

NSSO is one of the national organization which is responsible for conduct of large scale sample surveys in diverse fields on all-India basis.It comes under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

NSSO conducts the surveys (once in 5 years) on

o Consumer Expenditure,

o Employment – Unemployment,

o Social Consumption (Health, Education etc.),

o Manufacturing Enterprises,

o Service Sector Enterprises

It conducts survey of Land and Livestock Holding and Debt and Investment (once in 10 years).

Solution: B

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI):

Food safety regulator FSSAI has mandated food business operators to mention FSSAI licence or registration number on cash receipts or purchase invoice with effect from October 1.

About FSSAI:

1. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is an autonomous statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 (FSS Act).
2. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the administrative Ministry of FSSAI.
3. To pursue any food related business, the owner needs to get a certificate and license with the permission of FSSAI.
4. The Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) are appointed by Government of India.
5. The Chairperson is in the rank of Secretary to Government of India.
6. FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.

Solution: D

Gulf Of Aden:

Maiden Indian Navy – European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Exercise was held in Gulf Of Aden.

• Gulf of Aden, also known as the Gulf of Berbera, is a deepwater gulf between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, Socotra (Yemen), and Somalia to the south.
• In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, and it connects with the Arabian Sea to the east. To the west, it narrows into the Gulf of Tadjoura in Djibouti.

Solution: A

Black Sea:

• Black Sea is an inland sea located between far-southeastern Europe and the far-western edges of the continent of Asia and the country of Turkey.
• Bordering Countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, and Turkey.
• It connects to the Mediterranean Sea first through the Bosporus Strait, then through the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles Strait, then south through the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Crete.
• The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch.

Solution: A

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), or the Nuclear Weapon Ban Treaty, is the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons, with the goal of leading towards their total elimination. It was passed on 7 July 2017.

For those nations that are party to it, the treaty prohibits the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons, as well as assistance and encouragement to the prohibited activities.

Solution: C

Pygmy hogs:

Context:

• Eight pygmy hogs released in Manas National Park, Assam.
• They were released by the Pygmy Hog Conservation Programme (PHCP).
• By 2025, the PHCP plans to release a target of 60 pygmy hogs in Manas- their home where their last original population still survives, albeit in declined numbers.

What is PHCP?

In 1995, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Jersey, UK partnered with Forest Department, Government of Assam, IUCN, Wild Pig Specialist Group and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India and formed PHCP which is being implemented with the PHCP’s key partner Aaranyak and EcoSystems India.

About Pygmy hogs:

1. They are the world’s rarest and smallest wild pigs.
2. The pygmy hog is native to dense alluvial grasslands in the southern foothills of the Himalayas.
3. Endemic to India, they are restricted to very few locations around Manas National Park in north-western Assam.
4. With just around 250 animals in the wild, the pygmy hog is one of the world’s most threatened mammals.
5. Currently listed as ‘Critically Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
6. The pygmy hog is designated as a Schedule I species in India under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Direction for the following 5 (five) items: Consider the given information and answer five items that follow:

An uncertain number of persons sit in a linear row. All of them face north. Four persons sit between P and Q. R sits fourth to the right of Q. M sits third to the right of P. O sits fifth to the right of G. O sits the immediate left of S who sits third from one of the extreme ends of the row. Q sits sixth to the right of T who is not an immediate neighbor of P. As many persons sit between R and G as many between G and M. T sits second to the left of J who sits third from the extreme end. S sits fourth to the right of M.

Solution: C

G sits sixth to the right of Q.

Solution: B

If N sits immediate right of M then two persons sits between N and S.

Solution: A

P sits seventh to the left of S.

Solution: C

No one sit between O and S.

Solution: B

One person sits between T and J