60 Days Plan: UPSC IAS Prelims 2019- Economics and Current Affairs (Day 45)

DMFs were instituted under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Amendment Act 2015 as non-profit trusts to work for the interest and benefit of persons and areas affected by mining-related operations.

The objective of District Mineral Foundation is to work for the interest of the benefit of the persons and areas affected mining related operations in such manner as may be prescribed by the State Government.

Jurisdiction: Its manner of operation comes under the jurisdiction of the relevant State Government.

Significance and benefits of a regulatory sandbox:

• The “regulatory sandbox” will help fintech companies launch innovative products at a lower cost and in less time.
• The sandbox will enable fintech companies to conduct live or virtual testing of their new products and services.
• These companies will also be able to test the viability of the product without a wider and expensive rollout.
• It will help companies to experiment with fintech solutions, where the consequences of failure can be contained and reasons for failure analysed.

NABL is a constituent board of Quality Council of India (QCI) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

D-SIBs can be both public and private sector banks.

SBI, ICICI and HDFC are Systemically Important Banks classified by RBI currently.

None of the given statements is correct.

Full Capital account convertibility can have the following advantages:

• Indians will have a wide range of choice for investment and borrowing
• FDI and FIIs flows into India will increase
• Hence liquidity increases in the market
• Creates competition for domestic players
• Macroeconomic discipline

Disadvantages:

• Adoption of fuller capital account convertibility can be destabilising as shown by the global financial crisis.
• Domestic retailers might be hurt creating unemployment

Rupee is still not a hard currency (currency that is not likely to depreciate suddenly or to fluctuate greatly in value), hence is subject to volatility

Future of Work Initiative

It was launched by ILO in 2015 in order to understand and to respond effectively to the new challenges posed by the changes that the world of work is undergoing.

Insider Trading – TK Vishwanathan Committee

Corporate Governance – Uday Kotak Committee

Selling of ONGC Oil and Gas fields to private and foreign companies – Rajiv Kumar committee

E- way bill:

It is a document required to be carried by a person in charge of the conveyance carrying any consignment of goods of value exceeding Rs. 50,000 from one state to another. Hence Statement 1 is wrong.

It will eliminate the need for separate transit pass in each state for movement of goods, thus, enabling hassle-free movement.

Validity of the e-way bill or consolidated e-way bill depends upon the distance the goods have to be transported.

E-Drishti:

This software includes an interface which provides summary information on punctuality of trains for the previous day.

There is also an interface which provides information on current train running on the Indian Railway network.

There are interfaces providing details of freight earning, freight loading and passenger earnings for the previous day & month and cumulative for the year, in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year.

Indian Ports Association (IPA), under the guidance of Ministry of Shipping launched the Port Community System ‘PCS1x to Increase Ease of Doing Business.

PCS 1x’ is a cloud based new generation technology, with user-friendly interface.  This system seamlessly integrates 8 new stakeholders besides the 19 existing stakeholders from the maritime trade on a single platform.

Ministry of Commerce and Industry has launched FIEO GlobalLinker, a digital platform for MSME exporters to digitise their businesses and join global community of growing businesses. It has been developed by Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).

PartNIR aims at deepening BRICS cooperation in digitalisation, industrialisation, innovation, inclusiveness and investment, to maximise the opportunities and address the challenges arising from the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The Mahalanobis Growth Model had to components;

(i) more emphasis on industrialization and

(ii) emphasis on heavy goods industries which was believed to help us attain self-sustained/ self-reliant growth and also leading to a consequent trickledown effect.

Indicative Planning (8th Five Year Plan) was not a part of Mahalanobis Growth Model.

Statement 1 is wrong: Capitalist economy creates income inequalities not equalities

Statement 1 is wrong: Since foreign good in the market will be reduced in the market, the choice for domestic consumers will be limited.

Statement 4 is wrong: Since import of goods will be restricted, the forex will be saved.

Statements 1 and 3 are wrong.

India Post Payments Bank has been incorporated as a public sector company under the department of posts, with 100% government equity and is governed by the Reserve Bank of India.

It will not offer any ATM debit card. Instead, it will provide its customers a QR Code-based biometric card.

It will focus on providing banking and financial services to people in rural areas, by linking all the 1.55 lakh post office branches with India Post Payments Bank services by the end of 2018. Hence Statement 2 is correct.

All the statements about REITs are correct.

All the above are reasons for less developed corporate bond market in India.

Arvind Mayaram committee is related to FDI liberalisation. Constituted in 2013, it recommended increasing the FDI limits in 12 sectors.

Capital account convertibility – Tarapore committee

Inflation Targeting – Urijit Patel committee

Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) review – N K Singh committee

It is brought out by the US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC).

Global Drug Facility was launched by the Stop TB Partnership in 2001 with the aim of using donor funding to consolidate demand from different countries and negotiate lower prices for quality-assured tuberculosis drugs.

The Global Drug Facility (GDF) is a key mechanism of the Stop TB Partnership that offers nations a full range of high quality drugs, diagnostic tools, and other supplies at reasonable prices in order to expand the availability of DOTS (Direct Observed Therapy [Short Course]) therapy.

Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS)

News: The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the conservation of migratory species of wild animals (CMS), an environmental treaty under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme, is going to be hosted by India during 15th to 22nd February, 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

About

• India has been a Party to the CMS since 1983.  The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making organ of this convention.
• Great Indian Bustard (GIB) will be its mascot for the 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the UN Convention on the conservation of migratory species (CMS)
• Also referred to as the Bonn Convention, it provides a global platform for the conservation and sustainable use of migratory animals and their habitats and brings together the States through which migratory animals pass, the Range States, and lays the legal foundation for internationally coordinated conservation measures throughout a migratory range.
• The convention complements and co-operates with a number of other international organizations, NGOs and partners in the media as well as in the corporate sector.
• Under this convention, migratory species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I and Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals, conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Migratory species that need or would significantly benefit from international co-operation are listed in Appendix II of the Convention.
• India has also signed non-legally binding MOU with CMS on the conservation and management of Siberian Cranes (1998), Marine Turtles (2007), Dugongs (2008) and Raptors (2016).

DO YOU KNOW?

• The Indian sub-continent is also part of the major bird flyway network, i.e, the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) that covers areas between the Arctic and Indian Oceans, and covers at least 279 populations of 182 migratory water bird species, including 29 globally threatened species.
• India has also launched the National Action Plan for conservation of migratory species under the Central Asian Flyway.

It is an active stratovolcano located on the border between Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces, Indonesia. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia and has erupted regularly since 1548.

Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) provides for

• installation of grid-connected solar power plants each of Capacity up to 2 MW in the rural areas;
• installation of standalone off-grid solar water pumps to fulfil irrigation needs of farmers not connected to grid; and
• solarisation of existing grid-connected agriculture pumps to make farmers independent of grid supply and also enable them to sell surplus solar power generated to DISCOM and get extra income.

A Buddhist Tantra of twenty chapters, thought to have originated in the eighth century. The name is based on the male deity Hevajra, a personified symbol for the Buddhist concept of a supreme being in the state of nonduality.

The Hevajra Tantra teaches the Union of Skillful Means and Profound Cognition; and states that such union is helpful in achieving the powers known as siddhis.

Source:

https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-temple-was-not-a-vedic-institution-manu-v-devadevan/article26149218.ece

Arikamedu, located in today’s Puducherry, a union territory of India, is known as the port of Podouke in historical documents.

With mentions in the Periplus Maris Erytheaae and Tamil poems of the Sangam period, Arikamedu is believed to be an active trading port of the region with the Roman Empire as early as second century BC.

Many believe that Arikamedu was a Chola port dedicated to bead making and it was the only port city in the region to have ties with Romans. In addition, textiles, terracotta artefacts, plants, spices and jewellery were also shipped from the Indian port to Roman ports and other eastern destinations. Initially discovered in the 1930’s, the excavations in the port city were started in the 1940’s. The discovery of several antiquities of Roman origin helped archaeologists to draw the history of the ancient port Arikamedu. The latest excavation was carried out between 1989 and 1992.

Significant findings at Arikamedu include numerous Indo-Pacific beads, which facilitated fixing the period of its origin. Red and black ceramics—known as megalithic stones or Pandukal in Tamil meaning “old stones” and used to mark graves—have existed at the site even prior to and during Roman occupation of the site, and also in later periods.

According to Wheeler the finds from the northern and southern part of the mound belong to the period from the later part of the 1st century BCE to the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Identified structures include:

• A brick and lime mortar plaster structure of oblong shape 45 metres (148 ft) in length, with a divide wall, used as a storehouse in the southern part.
• Two walled enclosures with ponds and drainage systems in the northern part of the mound that could indicate of dyeing operations that used vats to dye muslin for export
• Pottery, both local and Mediterranean, such as amphorae and Arrentine ware that belonged to the Terra Sigillata (stamped pottery) of the 1st century BCE, which went out of use by 50 CE
• Pink amphorae jars used to store wine or oil with two handles and a yellow slip, found in all layers of excavations

Source:

https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/finding-an-amphora-in-arikamedu/article26148454.ece

LME:LEARN is a joint project of the GEF, UNDP, UNESCO-IOC and partners that aims to improve global ecosystem-based governance of LMEs and their coasts.

Funded by the Global Environmental Facility, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and managed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

LME: LEARN is jointly implemented with IW:LEARN, the umbrella project for LEARN projects, with a common PCU.

The ‘Large Marine Ecosystem Strategic Approach Toolkit’ presents the GEF’s revised strategic approach to designing an LME project by incorporating a five-module ecosystem approach on productivity, fish and fisheries, pollution and ecosystem health, socioeconomics and governance.

Source:

https://sdg.iisd.org/news/gef-lmelearn-releases-toolkits-to-support-coastal-marine-management/

The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) released an updated version of its ocean database. The database’s new infrastructure and technology enable new data to be immediately processed, integrated into the database and made publicly available.

OBIS is a global, open-access data and information clearinghouse on marine biodiversity for science, conservation and sustainable development. OBIS aims to be a comprehensive gateway to global ocean biodiversity and biogeographic data and information necessary to tackle coastal and ocean concerns.

Source:

https://sdg.iisd.org/news/ocean-database-features-updated-marine-status-and-trends/

The ECOSOC Forum on Financing for Development follow-up (FfD Forum) is an intergovernmental process with universal participation mandated to review the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (Addis Agenda) and other financing for development outcomes and the means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Source:

https://sdg.iisd.org/news/ecosoc-president-outlines-structure-of-work-for-2019/