[Mission 2023] QUED ( Questions from Editorials ) 25 November 2022

Solution: b)

What does the expression “sealed cover jurisprudence” mean?

It is the practice followed by the Supreme Court (and sometimes lower courts as well) of seeking and accepting information from government agencies in sealed envelopes that can only be perused by the judges.

In broadly two circumstances: when information is connected to an ongoing investigation, and when it involves personal or confidential information. The logic is that disclosure of information linked to an ongoing investigation could impede the investigation, and the disclosure of personal or confidential information could violate an individual’s privacy or result in breach of trust.

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Solution: c)

India is among the few countries removed from the United States’ Currency Monitoring List, released by the Department of Treasury. In its biannual report to Congress, the US’ Treasury Department announced that it had also removed Italy, Mexico, Vietnam and Thailand from the list.

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Solution: c)

Measles or as it is called ‘khasra’, is a highly contagious viral disease which affects mostly children. It is one of the leading causes of death and disability among young children. There is no specific treatment for measles but there is a vaccine to stay protected from the disease, which is both safe as well as cost effective.

Measles spreads by coughing and sneezing, close personal contact or direct contact with infected nasal or throat secretions. So, isolation of these infected children is essential.

Death due to measles are caused by the complications associated with the disease like blindness, encephalitis, severe diarrhoea and pneumonia. “The condition of an infected child turns severe in cases of poor nourishment, Vitamin A deficiency and if the child is immunocompromised.

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Solution: d)

Digital Banking Units (DBUs), in layman’s terms, are specialised branches for delivering digital banking products and services. DBUs will be paperless, and they will also act as digital financial literacy centres. They are specialised fixed-point business units/hubs housing minimum digital infrastructure for delivering digital banking products and services.

To begin with, 75 DBUs in 75 districts were recently launched.

Both liability side products and services and asset products and services have to be provided at a DBU. On the liability side, the products and services include (i) Account opening: Saving bank account under various schemes, current account, fixed deposit, and recurring deposit account; (ii) Digital kit for customers: Mobile banking, internet banking, debit card, credit card, and mass transit system cards; (iii) Digital kit for merchants: UPI QR code, BHIM Aadhaar, POS, etc.

On the asset products and services side, banks should offer (i) Making applications for and onboarding customers for identified retail, MSME, or schematic loans. This may also include end-to-end digital processing of such loans, from online application to disbursal; (ii) Identified Government sponsored schemes covered under the National Portal.

Who can set up DBUs in India?

All domestic scheduled commercial banks other than regional rural banks, payments banks, and local area banks can set up DBUs. In the first round of 75 DBUs, as many as 11 public sector banks, 12 private sector banks, and one small finance bank participated in the programme.

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Solution: c)

The base year of the national accounts is chosen to enable inter-year comparisons. It gives an idea about changes in purchasing power and allows calculation of inflation-adjusted growth estimates.

The base year prices are termed as at constant prices. This reduces all the data to a comparable benchmark, base year price. The base year is a representative year which must not experience any abnormal incidents such as droughts, floods, earthquakes etc.