UPSC Quiz – 2021 : IASbaba’s Daily Current Affairs Quiz 26th August 2021

Solution (d)

National monetization pipeline (NMP) is developed by NITI Aayog based on the mandate for Asset Monetisation under Union Budget 2021-22, which had identified monetisation of operating public infrastructure assets as a key means for sustainable infrastructure financing.

The objective of NMP is to unlock value in brownfield projects by engaging the private sector, transferring to them revenue rights and not ownership in the projects; and using the funds so generated for infrastructure creation across the country.

For now, the government has only included the assets of infrastructure line ministries and CPSEs working in the infrastructure sectors.

Monetisation through disinvestment and monetisation of non-core assets have not been included in the NMP.

In a monetisation transaction, the government is basically transferring revenue rights to private parties for a specified transaction period in return for upfront money, revenue share basis and commitment of investments in the assets. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs), for instance, are the key structures being used to monetise assets in the roads and power sectors.

Article Link: What is the government’s plan with the National Monetisation Pipeline?

Solution (a)

Cooperative Banks are the financial institutions that are owned and run by their customers and operates on the principle of one person one vote. 

The bank is governed by both banking and cooperative legislation, as they are registered under the Cooperative Society Act, 1965 and regulated by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) & Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 

They operate in both rural as well as urban areas and provide credit to borrowers and businesses.

Cooperative Banks offer a range of services like accepting deposits and granting loans to the members and even non-members. 

The members are the owners and customers of the bank at the same time. The bank offers services like deposit accounts such as savings and current account, safe keeping of valuables (locker facility), loan and mortgage facility to the customers.

Primary purpose of cooperative bank is to accept deposits from members and public, and grant loans to farmers and small businessmen.

Article Link: RBI panel for four-tier structure

Solution (c)

Yuktdhara is a culmination of joint efforts of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Ministry of Rural development made towards realising a G2G (Government-to-Government) service for rural planning in support of decentralised decision making.

It is a a new geospatial planning portal which will help in facilitating the creation of new MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) assets with the use of remote sensing and GIS (Geographic Information System) based information.

It will serve as a repository of assets (geotags) created under the various National Rural Development Programmes, such as MGNREGA, Per Drop More Crop Programmes, Integrated Watershed Management Programme, and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, along with the field photographs.

It will integrate a wide variety of thematic layers, multi-temporal high-resolution earth observation data with the analysis tool.

Planners will be able to analyse previous assets under various schemes and facilitate the identification of new works using online tools. Prepared plans will be then evaluated by appropriate authorities under State Departments.

Article Link: New portal under Bhuvan “Yuktdhara” will facilitate planning of new MGNREGA assets

Solution (d)

The Panjshir Valley is located in north-central Afghanistan near the Hindu Kush mountain range. It is divided by the Panjshir River. 

The valley is home to more than 100,000 people, including Afghanistan’s largest concentration of ethnic Tajiks.

The valley is also known for its emeralds, which were used in the past to finance the resistance movements against those in power.

Article Link: How Panjshir Valley is still standing tall among Afghan ruins fighting Taliban

Solution (a)

Chakmas and Hajongs were originally residents of Chittagong Hill Tracts in the erstwhile East Pakistan. They left their homeland when it was submerged by the Kaptai dam project in the 1960s.

The Chakmas, who are Buddhists, and the Hajongs, who are Hindus, also allegedly faced religious persecution and entered India through the then Lushai Hills district of Assam (now Mizoram). The Centre moved the majority of them to the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), which is now Arunachal Pradesh.

As per the 2011 census, there are 47,471 Chakmas and Hajongs in Arunachal Pradesh.

Article Link: Bid to deport 60,000 Chakmas from Arunachal slammed