[Mission 2022] Insta– QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 18 January 2022

Solution: d)

To finance the compensation requirements, a GST compensation cess was levied on certain items such as tobacco products, automobiles, coal and solid fuels manufactured from lignite, pan masala and aerated waters.

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Solution: b)

Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of sugar in the world. India is the world’s second largest sugar producer after Brazil. In December 2020, the government had approved a subsidy of Rs 3,500 crore to sugar mills for the export of 60 lakh tonnes of sugar.

In the previous marketing year 2019-20 (October-September), the government had provided a lump sum export subsidy of Rs 10,448 per tonne.
Many countries had complained that India’s support measures to sugarcane producers exceeds the de minimis level of 10 per cent of the total value of sugarcane production. According to WTO rules, subsidies cannot exceed 10% of the total value of sugar production. 

Earlier this month, the Centre decided to restructure loans worth over ₹3,000 crore offered to sugar mills by the Sugar Development Fund. 

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Solution: d)

On January 7, a 57-year-old from U.S. became the first person to receive a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig. Surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted the porcine heart into Mr. Bennett suffering from terminal heart failure. Since transplantation of a pig heart into a human, called xenotransplantation, is an experimental procedure.

Xenotransplantation is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. It is contrasted with allotransplantation (from other individual of same species), isotransplantation (grafts transplanted between two genetically identical individuals of the same species) and autotransplantation (from one part of the body to another in the same person).

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Solution: c)

First Narasimham Committee Report:

Presented in 1991.

• It recommended the creation of a four-tier banking structure with three large banks on top.
• It also introduced the concept of rural-focused banks such as local area banks.
• It proposed a phased reduction in banks’ mandatory bond investment and cash reserve limits so that banks lend money for other productive needs of the economy.
• It introduced the concept of capital adequacy ratio and proposed the abolition of the branch licensing policy.
• The concepts of non-performing assets classification and full disclosure of accounts were also recommended by the first committee.
• By proposing to deregulate interest rates, it brought in gre­ater competition among banks.
• The committee introduced the concept of an asset reconstruction fund to take over bad debts.

Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households (commonly known as the Nachiket Mor Committee) introduced the concept of differentiated banks such as small finance banks.

Solution: d)

The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition in Africa between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south.

Having a semi-arid climate, it stretches across the south-central latitudes of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea.