UPSC Quiz – 2020 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz [Day 84]

Solution (c)

SC writs are under Article 32 which in itself is a fundamental right thus SC cannot refuse to exercise its writ jurisdiction. Whereas article 226 is discretionary thus HC can refuse to exercise its writ jurisdiction.

The Supreme Court can issue writs only for the enforcement of fundamental rights whereas a High Court can issue writs for enforcement of fundamental rights along with “for any other purpose” 

Habeus Corpus

• Habeas corpus is a Latin term which literally means “You may have the body”
• This writ can be issued against any person, Private or official
• An order calling upon the person who has unlawfully detained another person to produce the later before the court to ascertain, whether the detention is legal or not

Mandamus

• The Latin word ‘mandamus’ means ‘we command’.
• The writ of ‘mandamus’ is an order of the High Court or the Supreme Court commanding a person or a body to do its duty.
• Mandamus writ is used to command authority against both judicial & administrative, but entrusted only with public duty
• A writ of mandamus can be granted only in cases where a statuary duty imposed on an officer concerned results in failure on the part of officer or public authority to discharge the statuary obligation

Prohibition

• The Writ of prohibition means to forbid or to stop and it is popularly known as ‘Stay Order’.
• Writ of Prohibition is used against judicial & Quasi-Judicial authorities to command inactivity to certain judgment
• Sole purpose of this writ is to prevent inferior courts from usurping a jurisdiction with which they are not legally vested it Can be issued in excess or absence of jurisdiction
• Issued by superior court to inferior court or tribunal to prevent it from exceeding its jurisdiction & compel it to be within its limits of jurisdiction

Certiorari

• Literally, Certiorari means to be certified.
• It is issued by the higher court to the lower court either to transfer the case pending with the latter to itself or to squash the order already passed by an inferior court, tribunal or quasi judicial authority.

 Quo Warranto

• The word Quo-Warranto literally means “by what warrants?” or “what is your authority”?
• It is a writ issued with a view to restrain a person from holding a public office to which he is not entitled.
• The writ requires the concerned person to explain to the Court by what authority he holds the office.
• If a person has usurped a public office, the Court may direct him not to carry out any activities in the office or may announce the office to be vacant.
• Thus High Court may issue a writ of quo-warranto if a person holds an office beyond his retirement age.

Solution (c)

ADB is a regional development bank established on 19th December 1966.

• The ADB was modeled closely on the World Bank, and has a similar weighted voting system.
• ADB now has 68 members, 49 from within Asia.
• As of 31 December 2019, ADB’s five largest shareholders are Japan and the United States (each with 15.6% of total shares), the People’s Republic of China (6.4%), India (6.3%), and Australia (5.8%).
• It aims to promote social and economic development in Asia.
• ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.
• ADB is headquartered in Manila, Philippines.
• ADB is an official United Nations Observer.
• ADB announced that it had appointed Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa as its vice-president (V­P) for private sector operations and public private partnerships.

Solution (b)

Helicopter money:

• It is an unconventional monetary policy tool, which involves printing large sums of money and distributing it to the public, to stimulate the economy during a recession (decline in general economic activity) or when interest rates fall to zero.
• Under such a policy, a central bank “directly increases the money supply and, via the government, distribute the new cash to the population with the aim of boosting demand and inflation”
• The term was coined by American economist Milton Friedman. It basically denotes a helicopter dropping money from the sky.

Solution (c)

Smart Cities Mission

• It is an initiative under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, to drive economic growth and improve the quality of life of people by enabling local development and harnessing technology as a means to create smart outcomes for citizens.
• It was launched in the year 2015 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
• Objective is to promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions.

Strategy:

• Pan-city initiative in which at least one Smart Solution is applied city-wide.
• Develop areas step-by-step with the help of these three models:
• Retrofitting.
• Redevelopment.
• Greenfield.

Solution (b)

Index of Industrial Production

• It is an indicator that measures the changes in the volume of production of industrial products during a given period.
• It is compiled and published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
• NSO is the central statistical agency of the government, set up by an Act of the Parliament, Statistical Services Act (Chapter 386) 1980.
• IIP is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under:
• Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing, and Electricity.
• Use-based sectors, namely Basic Goods, Capital Goods, and Intermediate Goods.
• Core Sector Industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in IIP.
• The eight core Industries in decreasing order of their weightage: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilisers.
• Base Year for IIP is 2011-2012.