QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz,17 May 2018

Solution: d.

The balance of payments (BoP) record the transactions in goods, services and assets between residents of a country with the rest of the world for a specified time period typically a year. There are two main accounts in the BoP – the current account and the capital account.

• The current account records exports and imports in goods and services and transfer payments. The trade balance is obtained by subtracting imports of goods from the exports of goods. When exports exceed imports, there is a trade surplus and when imports exceed exports there is a trade deficit. Trade in services denoted as invisible trade (because they are not seen to cross national borders) includes both factor income (net income from compensation of employees and net investment income, the latter equals, the interest, profits and dividends on our assets abroad minus the income foreigners earn on assets they own in India) and net non-factor income (shipping, banking, insurance, tourism, software services, etc.). Transfer payments are receipts which the residents of a country receive ‘for free’, without having to make any present or future payments in return. They consist of remittances, gifts and grants. They could be official or private. Adding trade in services and net transfers to the trade balance, we get the current account balance.
• The capital account records all international purchases and sales of assets such as money, stocks, bonds, etc. We note that any transaction resulting in a payment to foreigners is entered as a debit and is given a negative sign. Any transaction resulting in a receipt from foreigners is entered as a credit and is given a positive sign.

It is thus clear that a trade deficit does not necessarily imply either current account deficit, capital account deficit or balance of payments deficit.

Improvisation: TH;

Ch-6, Macroeconomics, Class XII NCERT;

Solution: b.

The Chairperson and the members of the Lokpal shall be appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Selection Committee consisting of the Prime Minister, Lok Sabha Speaker, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Chief Justice of India or a Supreme Court judge nominated by him and an eminent jurist to be nominated by the President of India on the basis of recommendations of the first four members of the selection committee.

TH; PRS;

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Solution: d.

1983,  the  Central  government  appointed  a  three-member  Commission  on  Centre–state  relations under the chairmanship of R S Sarkaria, a retired judge of the Supreme Court. The commission was asked  to  examine  and  review  the  working  of  existing  arrangements  between  the  Centre  and  states  in all  spheres  and  recommend  appropriate  changes  and  measures. The Commission made 245 recommendations to improve centre-state relations.

Refer chapter ‘Centre-State Relations’, Indian Polity by M Laxmikanth;

In the news: IE;

Solution: d.

As per the study, around 22% of the overall mortality burden of under-five females in India is due to gender bias.

• This amounts to around 2.4lakh deaths per year of girls under the age of five in India.
• 29 out of 35 States contributed to this mortality; these ‘additional’ deaths were spread across 90% of districts in the country.

The National Family Health Survey in 2017 said that India’s sex ratio at birth has increased to 919 in 2015-16 from 914 in 2004-05. This study, however, focuses on mortality after birth and says that the problem is most pronounced in northern India, where the four largest States in the region, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, accounted for two thirds of the total excess deaths of females under five.

Many deaths of females under five are partly due to unwanted child bearing and subsequent neglect. The sustained fertility decline currently observed in north India is likely to lead to a reduction in postnatal discrimination. Unless son preference diminishes, lower fertility, however, might bring about a rise in gender-biased sex selection.

TH;

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Solution: a.

RIS is a New Delhi–based autonomous policy research institute (under the Ministry of External Affairs) that specialises in issues related to international economic development, trade, investment and technology. RIS is envisioned as a forum for fostering effective policy dialogue and capacity-building among developing countries on global and regional economic issues.

The focus of the work programme of RIS is to promote South-South Cooperation and collaborate with developing countries in multilateral negotiations in various forums. RIS is engaged across inter-governmental processes of several regional economic cooperation initiatives. Through its intensive network of think tanks, RIS seeks to strengthen policy coherence on international economic issues and the development partnership canvas.

Improvisation: PIB1; PIB2;

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