DAY – 66 (InstaTest-66): Insta 75 Days Revision Plan-2022: Topic – MODERN INDIA, PREVIOUS YEAR UPSC PAPER 2014, February 2022 CA

Solution: C

A major classification of planning is done on the basis of societal emphasis. The type of planning which gives less emphasis upon the social and institutional dimensions is known as systems planning. In such planning, the planners just search for the best possible results in relation to the established goals giving less importance to issues like caste, creed, religion, region, language, marriage, family, etc. Opposed to it, the normative planning gives due importance to the socio-institutional factors. This is a planning from social-technical point of view, but only suitable for a country which has lesser degree of social diversities (naturally, not fit for the Indian conditions). But in the coming years there was a shift in the very thinking of policymakers. The Economic Survey 2010–11 is probably the first document of the Government of India which advocates the need for a normative approach to planning in India. It is believed that until a programme/scheme run by the governments are not able to connect with the customs, traditions and ethos of the population, their acceptability will not be of the desired level among the target population. Establishing an empathic relationship between the programmes/schemes and target population is now considered an important aspect of planning and policymaking. Such a change in the thinking is based on the experiences of India and other countries of the world.

Solution: C

Farmers have practiced agroforestry since ancient times. Agroforestry focuses on the wide range of trees grown on farms and other rural areas. Agroforestry is a collective name for land-use systems involving trees combined with crops and/or animals on the same unit of land. It combines

• Production of multiple outputs with protection of the resource base;
• Places emphasis on the use of multiple indigenous trees and shrubs;
• Particularly suitable for low-input conditions and fragile environments;
• It involves the interplay of socio-cultural values more than in most other land-use systems; and
• It is structurally and functionally more complex than monoculture. Hence, statement 2 is incorrect.

Benefits of Agroforestry

• Environment Benefits: Combining trees with food crops on cropland farms yield certain important environment benefits, both general ecological benefits and specific on-site benefits. The general ecological benefits include:
  • Reduction of pressure on forest.
  • More efficient recycling of nutrients by deep-rooted trees on the site.
  • Better protection of ecological systems.
  • Reduction of surface run-off, nutrient leaching and soil erosion through impending effect of tree roots and stems of these processes.
  • Improvement of microclimate, such as lowering of soil surface temperature and reduction of evaporation of soil moisture through a combination of mulching and shading.
  • Increment in soil nutrients through addition and decomposition of litter-fall.
  • Improvement of soil structure through the constant addition of organic matter from decomposed litter.
• Economic Benefits: Agroforestry systems on croplands/farmlands bring significant economic benefits to the farmer, the community, the region or the nation. Such benefits may include:
  • Increment in an maintenance of outputs of food, fuelwood, fodder, fertilizer and timber;
  • Reduction in incidence of total crop failure, common to single-cropping or monoculture system; and
  • Increase in levels of farm incomes due to improved and sustained productivity.
• Social Benefits: Besides the economics benefits, social benefits occur from increase in crop and tree product yields and in the sustainability of these products. These benefits include:
  • Improvement in rural living standards from sustained employment and higher incomes;
  • Improvement in nutrition and health due to increased quality and diversity of food outputs; and

Stabilization and improvement of upland communities through elimination of the need to shift sites of farm activities.

Solution: A

On April 12, 1988 an international convention established MIGA as the newest member of the World Bank Group. The agency opened for business as a legally separate and financially independent entity. Membership was open to all IBRD members, and the agency began with capital stock of $1 billion. MIGA’s original 29 members were: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Grenada, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Lesotho, Malawi, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States.

MIGA was created to complement public and private sources of investment insurance against non-commercial risks in developing countries. MIGA’s multilateral character and joint sponsorship by developed and developing countries were seen as significantly enhancing confidence among cross-border investors.

Today, MIGA’s mission is straightforward: To promote foreign direct investment into developing countries to support economic growth, reduce poverty and improve people’s lives.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes facilitates and works toward a settlement in the event of a dispute between a foreign investor and a local country.

Solution: A

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is when a company takes controlling ownership in a business entity in another country. With FDI, foreign companies are directly involved with day-to-day operations in the other country. This means they aren’t just bringing money with them, but also knowledge, skills and technology.

Generally, FDI takes place when an investor establishes foreign business operations or acquires foreign business assets, including establishing ownership or controlling interest in a foreign company.

FDI is a major driver of economic growth and an important source of non-debt finance for the economic development of India.

Where is FDI made?

Foreign Direct Investments are commonly made in open economies that have skilled workforce and growth prospect. FDIs not only bring money with them but also skills, technology and knowledge.

FDI in India

FDI is an important monetary source for India’s economic development. Economic liberalisation started in India in the wake of the 1991 crisis and since then, FDI has steadily increased in the country. India, today is a part of top 100-club on Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and globally ranks number 1 in the greenfield FDI ranking.

Routes through which India gets FDI

Automatic route: The non-resident or Indian company does not require prior nod of the RBI or government of India for FDI.

Govt route: The government’s approval is mandatory. The company will have to file an application through Foreign Investment Facilitation Portal, which facilitates single-window clearance. The application is then forwarded to the respective ministry, which will approve/reject the application in consultation with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce. DPIIT will issue the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for processing of applications under the existing FDI policy.

FDI prohibition

There are a few industries where FDI is strictly prohibited under any route. These industries are

• Atomic Energy Generation
• Any Gambling or Betting businesses
• Lotteries (online, private, government, etc)
• Investment in Chit Funds
• Nidhi Company
• Agricultural or Plantation Activities (although there are many exceptions like horticulture, fisheries, tea plantations, Pisciculture, animal husbandry, etc)
• Housing and Real Estate (except townships, commercial projects, etc)
• Trading in TDR’s
• Cigars, Cigarettes, or any related tobacco industry

Solution: D

Definition: Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are those institutional investors which invest in the assets belonging to a different country other than that where these organizations are based.

Description: Foreign institutional investors play a very important role in any economy. These are the big companies such as investment banks, mutual funds etc, who invest considerable amount of money in the Indian markets. With the buying of securities by these big players, markets trend to move upward and vice-versa. They exert strong influence on the total inflows coming into the economy.

Market regulator SEBI has over 1450 foreign institutional investors registered with it. The FIIs are considered as both a trigger and a catalyst for the market performance by encouraging investment from all classes of investors which further leads to growth in financial market trends under a self-organized system.

In 1996-97, several changes have been made to the SEBI (Foreign Institutional Investors) Regulations, 1995 to diversify the foreign institutional investor base and to further facilitate inflow of foreign portfolio investment. The changes have also aimed at facilitating investment in debt securities through the FII route. The changes are as follows:

• the eligible categories of FIIs have been expanded to include university funds, endowments, foundations, charitable trusts and charitable societies which have a track record of 5 years and which are registered with a statutory authority in their country of incorporation or establishment
• each FII or sub-account of an FII has been permitted to invest upto 10% of the equity of any one company, subject to the overall limit of 24% on investments by all FIIs, NRIs and OCBs.
• the 24% limit may be raised to 30% in the case of individual companies who have obtained shareholder approval for the same
• FIIs have been permitted to invest in unlisted securities
• FIIs have been allowed to invest their proprietary funds

FIIs who obtain specific approval from SEBI have been permitted to invest 100% of their portfolios in debt securities. Such investment may be in listed or to be listed corporate debt securities or in dated government securities, and is treated to be part of the overall limit on external commercial borrowing.

Solution: A

International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS):

Established in 1994, the IAIS is a voluntary membership organization of insurance supervisors and regulators from more than 200 jurisdictions, constituting 97% of the world’s insurance premiums. It is the international standard-setting body responsible for developing and assisting in the implementation of principles, standards and other supporting material for the supervision of the insurance sector.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) is a member organization.

Solution: A

Puerto Rico’s massive Arecibo telescope, famous for its stellar contributions to astronomy, was collapsed last year.

Key points:

• Built in 1963, it is the second-largest single-dish radio telescope in the world.
• Being the most powerful radar, scientists employed Arecibo to observe planets, asteroids and the ionosphere, making several discoveries over the decades, including finding prebiotic molecules in distant galaxies, the first exoplanets, and the first millisecond pulsar.

Solution: B

What is LTRO?

The LTRO is a tool under which the central bank provides one-year to three-year money to banks at the prevailing repo rate, accepting government securities with matching or higher tenure as the collateral.

How is it different from LAF and MSF?

While the RBI’s current windows of liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) and marginal standing facility (MSF) offer banks money for their immediate needs ranging from 1-28 days, the LTRO supplies them with liquidity for their 1- to 3-year needs. LTRO operations are intended to prevent short-term interest rates in the market from drifting a long way away from the policy rate, which is the repo rate.

Solution: C

The Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of income inequality or wealth inequality developed by American economist Max Lorenz in 1905. The graph plots percentiles of the population on the horizontal axis according to income or wealth.

Solution: C

What is helicopter money?
This is an unconventional monetary policy tool aimed at bringing a flagging economy back on track. It involves printing large sums of money and distributing it to the public. American economist Milton Friedman coined this term.

Why it is called so?

It basically denotes a helicopter dropping money from the sky. Friedman used the term to signify “unexpectedly dumping money onto a struggling economy with the intention to shock it out of a deep slump.” Under such a policy, a central bank “directly increase the money supply and, via the government, distribute the new cash to the population with the aim of boosting demand and inflation.”

Is helicopter money the same as quantitative easing?
Quantitative easing also involves the use of printed money by central banks to buy government bonds. But not everyone views the money used in QE as helicopter money. It sure means printing money to monetise government deficits, but the govt has to pay back for the assets that the central bank buys. It’s not the same as bond-buying by central banks “in which bank-owned assets are swapped for new central bank reserves.”

How will Helicopter Money help Indian Economy?

1. Simply put, Helicopter Money means extension of non-repayable money transfer from the central bank to the state and central governments, to infuse liquidity in the system.
2. The policy aims at putting more money into the pockets of people to nudge them to spend more money and in turn pick-up economic activity in the country.

The direct impact of Helicopter Money is rise in disposable incomes of the people, increase in money supply with an intention to boost demand and inflation in the economy.

Solution: D

In economics, personal income refers to an individual’s total earnings from wages, investment enterprises, and other ventures. It is the sum of all the incomes received by all the individuals or household during a given period.

By formula it can be given as:

Personal Income (PI) ≡ NI – Undistributed profits – Net interest payments made by households – Corporate tax + Transfer payments to the households from the government and firms.

If we deduct the Personal Tax Payments (income tax, for example) and Non-tax Payments (such as fines) from PI, we obtain what is known as the Personal Disposable Income.

Personal Disposable Income (PDI ) ≡ PI – Personal tax payments – Non-tax payments.

Solution: A

If we deduct depreciation from GNP the measure of aggregate income that we obtain is called Net National Product (NNP).

Thus NNP ≡ GNP – Depreciation.

It is to be noted that all these variables are evaluated at market prices.

NNP at factor cost = National Income (NI ) = NNP at market prices – (Indirect taxes – Subsidies) =NNP at market prices – Net indirect taxes (Net indirect taxes = Indirect taxes – Subsidies).

Solution: C

Unorganised Sector

The Indian economy is characterised by the existence of a vast majority of informal or unorganised labour employment. As per a survey carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) in 2009–10, the total employment in the country was of 46.5 crore comprising around 2.8 crore in the organised and the remaining 43.7 crore workers in the unorganised sector. Out of these workers in the unorganised sector, there are 24.6 crore workers employed in agricultural sector, about 4.4 crore in construction work and remaining in manufacturing and service.

Categories of unorganised labour force

The Ministry of Labour, Government of India, has categorised the unorganised labour force under four groups depending on occupation, nature of employment, specially distressed categories and service categories.

1. Under Terms of Occupation:
   Small and marginal farmers, landless agricultural labourers, share croppers, fishermen, those engaged in animal husbandry, beedi rolling, labelling and packing, building and construction workers, leather workers, weavers, artisans, salt workers, workers in brick kilns and stone quarries, workers in saw mills, oil mills, etc. come under this category.
2. Under Terms of Nature of Employment:
   Attached agricultural labourers, bonded labourers, migrant workers, contract and casual labourers come under this category.
3. Under Terms of Specially Distressed Category:
   Toddy tappers, scavengers, carriers of head loads, drivers of animal driven vehicles, loaders and unloaders come under this category.
4. Under Terms of Service Category:
   Midwives, domestic workers, fishermen and women, barbers, vegetable and fruit vendors, newspaper vendors, etc., belong to this category.

Welfare measures for the unorganised sector

The Ministry of Labour and Employment in order to ensure the welfare of workers in the unorganised sector which, inter-alia, includes weavers, handloom workers, fishermen and fisherwomen, toddy tappers, leather workers, plantation labourers, beedi workers, has enacted the Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008. The Act provides for a constitution of the National Social Security Board which shall recommend the formulation of social security schemes, viz. life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection and any other benefits as may be determined by the Government for the unorganised workers. Accordingly, the Ministry has constituted a National Social Security Board.

In order to ensure welfare of workers in the unorganized sector which, inter alia, include weavers, handloom workers, fishermen and fisherwomen, toddy tappers, leather workers, plantation labour, beedi workers, the ‘Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act, 2008’ has been enacted. As per the provisions of the Act, a National Social Security Board has been constituted for recommending formulation of social security schemes viz. Life and disability cover, health and maternity benefits, old age protection and any other benefit as may be determined by the Government for unorganized workers.

Solution: D

Licensing Policy

The major impact of liberalisation and globalisation of economy, which started in India in July, 1991, was to do away with the Compulsory Licensing. As of now on FOUR industries are reserved for the Public Sector and only SIX industries fall under the compulsory licensing, as detailed below:

LIST OF INDUSTRIES RESERVED FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

1. Arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment, Defence aircraft and warships.
2. Atomic energy.
3. The substances specified in the scheduled to the notification of the Government of India in the Department of Atomic Energy number S.O.212(E), dated the 15th March, 1995.
4. Railway transport.

List of industries for which industrial licensing is compulsory

1. Distillation and brewing of alcoholic drinks.
2. Cigars and Cigarettes of tobacco and manufactured tobacco subsitutes.
3. Electronic Aerospace and Defence equipment: all types.
4. Industrial explosives including detonating fuses, safely fuses, gun powder, nitrocellulose and matches.
5. Hazardous chemicals.
6. Drugs and Pharmaceuticals (according to modified Drug Policy issued in September, 1994).

In case of the small units which employ less than 50 workers with power or less than 100 workers without power are not required to obtain any license under Compulsory Licensing Provisions.

Solution: D

Business Correspondent (BC) – An Introduction

Business correspondents are bank representatives. They help villagers to open bank accounts. Business Correspondents get commission from bank for every new account opening, every transaction made via them, every loan-application processed etc. The Business Correspondent carries a mobile device and helps villagers in banking transactions. (Deposit money, take money out of savings account, loans etc.). The villager gives his thumb impression or electronic signature, and gets the money.

Eligibility to become a Business Correspondent

As per the RBI guidelines, the following entities are eligible for appointment of Business Correspondents (BCS) for banks:

• NGOs/MFls set up under Societies/Trust Acts
• Societies registered under Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Acts or the Cooperative Societies Acts of States
• Section 25 companies that are standalone entities or in which NBFCs, banks, telecom companies and other corporate entities or their holding companies did not have equity holdings in excess of 10 per cent
• Post offices
• Retired bank employees,
• Ex-servicemen
• Retired government employees.
• Individual kirana / medical / fair price shop owners Individual Public Call Office (PCO) operators
• Agents of Small Savings Schemes of Government of India/Insurance Companies Individuals who own petrol pumps
• Retired teachers
• Authorised functionaries of well run Self Help Groups (SHGs) linked to banks Non deposit taking NBFCs (non-banking finance companies) in the nature of loan companies whose micro finance portfolio is not less than 80 per cent of their loan outstanding in the financially excluded districts as identified by the Committee on Financial Inclusion.

RBI has now permitted banks to engage any individual, including those operating Common Service Centres (CSCs) as BC, subject to banks’ comfort level and their carrying out suitable due diligence as also instituting additional safeguards as may be considered appropriate to minimise the agency risks.

Solution: D

Solution:

The Nubra River is a river in the Nubra Valley of Ladakh in India. It is a tributary of the Shyok River (a part of the Indus River system) and originates from the Siachen Glacier, the second-longest non-polar glacier in the world.In earlier Tibetan maps, it was referred as Yarma Tsangpo.

Solution: A

Solution:

• The Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area in the Upper Gangetic plain in Uttar Pradesh, India and covers an area of 400.6 km2 (154.7 sq mi) in the Terai of the Bahraich district. In 1987, it was brought under the purview of the ‘Project Tiger’, and together with the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and the Dudhwa National Park it forms the Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.It was established in 1975.

• The Katarniaghat Forest provides strategic connectivity between tiger habitats of Dudhwa and Kishanpur in India and the Bardia National Park in Nepal. Its fragile Terai ecosystem comprises a mosaic of sal and teak forests, lush grasslands, numerous swamps and wetlands. It is home to a number of endangered species including gharial, tiger, rhino, Gangetic dolphin, swamp deer, hispid hare, Bengal florican, the white-backed and long-billed vultures. In 2012, a rare red coral kukri snake was sighted in the sanctuary.[3] This snake with the scientific name Oligodon kheriensis was first described from the North Kheri Division in 1936.

Solution: D

Solution:

• Formaldehyde is a known carcinogen (it has been linked to nasal squamous cell cancer) and a skin irritant that can cause allergy-like reactions including watery, burning eyes and throats, stuffy noses, and skin rashes. Allergic skin rashes can occur as a result of contact with products that contain formaldehyde, which can also cause respiratory symptoms, headache, fatigue, and nausea.
• It is commonly used as an embalming fluid, but is also used to preserve a number of household products that contain a higher concentration of urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins. It can be found in pressed wood medium density fiberboard (MDF) furniture (used for drawer fronts, cabinets, and furniture tops), permanent press clothing and draperies, as a component of glues and adhesives, and in cleaning and beauty products, including some brands of baby wipes.

Solution: B

Solution:

• INS Vela (S24) is the fourth submarine of the first batch of six Kalvari-class submarines for the Indian Navy.
• It is a diesel-electric attack submarine based on the Scorpène class, designed by French naval defence and energy group DCNS and manufactured by Mazagon Dock Limited, an Indian shipyard in Mumbai.

The first cutting of steel for the submarine began on 14 July 2009,and the ship was launched on 6 May 2019.

Solution: D

Solution:

• The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) is the main international convention covering prevention of pollution of the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes.

• The MARPOL Convention was adopted on 2 November 1973 at IMO. The Protocol of 1978 was adopted in response to a spate of tanker accidents in 1976-1977. As the 1973 MARPOL Convention had not yet entered into force, the 1978 MARPOL Protocol absorbed the parent Convention. The combined instrument entered into force on 2 October 1983. In 1997, a Protocol was adopted to amend the Convention and a new Annex VI was added which entered into force on 19 May 2005. MARPOL has been updated by amendments through the years.

Answer D

Gross Environment Product (GEP) is an assessment system to measure the ecological status of a region and is one of the components of green GDP.  

It is considered as the product and service value that the ecosystem provides for human welfare, economic and socially sustainable development including provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services.

Uttarakhand is the first state

Answer D

About the ‘Large Area Certification’ scheme:

• Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare under its flagship scheme of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna (PKVY) has launched this unique quick certification programme to harness these potential areas.
• Under LAC, each village in the area is considered as one cluster/group.
• All farmers with their farmland and livestock need to adhere to the standard requirements and on being verified get certified en-mass without the need to go under conversion period.
• Certification is renewed on annual basis through annual verification by a process of peer appraisals as per the process of PGS-India.

Answer D

The ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) has launched ‘Nagar Van’ (city forest) scheme.

About Nagar Van scheme:

The scheme emphasizes on urban forestry.

Under the scheme, around 200 urban forests are to be developed all over the country in the next five years.

The scheme will also provide an opportunity to the states to manage urban ecosystems.

Answer C

The CZA is the body of the government responsible for oversight of zoos constituted under the section 38A of Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972.

The main objective of the authority is to complement the national effort in the conservation of wildlife.

Answer C

Global Methane Initiative (GMI) brings together state and non-state actors in a collaborative public-private partnership.

Global Methane Initiative (GMI) is a voluntary Government and an informal international partnership having members from 45 countries including the United States and Canada.

India is a partner country.

Answer D

Statement A is true but is only a part of the message. The passage also conveys that a struggle is being undertaken to ensure that the positive effects of net is enhanced. Hence D

Answer C

The cost for covering ‘x’ km by car = Rs.10x

The cost for covering ‘200-x’ km by train = Rs.2 (200 – x) = Rs.(400-2x)

The total cost = Rs.10x + Rs.(400-2x)

= Rs.(400+8x)

Answer B

Assign the values 1 to 9 from left for each letter of THEREFORE respectively.

The values are shuffled in the order 135798642 i.e. odd numbers in increasing order and even numbers in the decreasing order.

Similarly for HELICOPTER, the order would be 13579(10)8642.

Hence, the code becomes HLCPERTOIE

Answer  A

During the sunrise, the shadow of the pole will point towards West.

If the shadow is on the right of Surya, then west is towards his right. Hence, he faces south.

When he turns 270˚ anticlockwise (or 90˚ clockwise), he faces West direction which is pointing towards his house door.

Thus, his house door should face east.

Answer A

Time taken by A to run 1 km = 2 min 20 sec = 140 sec.

Time taken by B to run 1 km = 3 min = 180 sec.

Time taken is inversely proportional to the speed for the constant distance and the speed is

directly proportional to the distance covered in same time.

Thus, the distance covered by B while A finishes the race of 4.5km, = 4.5 × (140/180) = 3.5km